Carter Pembridge: [00:00:00] Episode of our webinar. I’ve got a very special guest here. Nick. Nick, how you doing man?  

Nick Pfeil: I’m good brother. How are you today?  

Carter Pembridge: I’m good, I’m good. I get to be with the esteemed Rough Cut Garage, um, owner and and operator man, and I’ve been looking forward to this. I remember when we first got you going, I think, I think in our like intro call together. 

I was like. Nick, I think I’m gonna get you on our, our podcasting that we do, man. Yeah, I think we’re gonna do it because some people 

Nick Pfeil: I do remember 

Carter Pembridge: just have energy. Yeah, dude. Like you just have energy, man. Like, uh, I, I think it’s like one of the more like underrated things people don’t think about when they want to start up any kind of business. 

And it really stands out, I think in the, uh, mechanic world is like, most guys I talk to, I wouldn’t say most, but a lot of guys I talk to. They have, like, you know, they’re very serious and you know, they, they know their tools and they want to fix cars, but they, they wanna do it for themself. Um, and, [00:01:00] uh, not, I would say not too many people are like, laid back about it, super outgoing about it. 

Like, of course you have different personalities, but I feel like your personality is really well suited to attract people. Does that make sense?  

Nick Pfeil: Yeah, it does. Yeah. Most of my customers are, they turn into like friends, you know, they,  

exactly. So I’m saying  

some, some don’t even, they don’t even reach out to talk cars. 

I get, I get, uh, Facebook messages that are just reels from a lot of my customers. You know, it’s, you know, I, I have that, like you said, personality where I, I’ll talk to just about anybody and, uh, you know, just chat. I have customers that’ll hang out for like an hour after I fix their car. Talking and  

Carter Pembridge: yeah,  

Nick Pfeil: it’s like, you know, I do have another car I gotta get to, but I don’t, you know, I just, I have, I have a very talkative. 

Uh, personality. My wife gets frustrated sometimes at like the grocery stores where I’ll end up talking to somebody I don’t even know. [00:02:00] Yeah,  

Carter Pembridge: dude, dude, that’s so funny, man. My stepdad was exactly that way. I, I gotta say like, like I could, you almost need to put in like a, like a little lounge for your customers, man. 

Just. You know what, you know. Hey, bill, I, I love talking to you. I gotta be working on this while I talk to you though. You just sit down, you know, have a beer, you watch tv, I’ll talk to you, but I gotta get going.  

Nick Pfeil: That’s, that’s pretty much where I am right now. This, this room actually was just, it. The, the kids call it the cave. 

Um,  

Carter Pembridge: oh, yeah.  

Nick Pfeil: You know, but then it, it kind of transformed into exactly what we’re talking about, like, yeah. I, I love talking to you, bud, but if you wanna go have a seat in the cave, like I’ll get your car button up and we can chat after.  

Carter Pembridge: That’s too funny. Too funny. Well, that’s really what I wanted to jump into because you know, we got you going. 

You know, you were talking about how you know, hey, it’s just taken me too long to like do all this, this backend stuff. Like I just wanna fix cars and not worry about the rest of it. Right? Yep. That’s more or less a conversation that we had. So actually, like I do with all the guests that we have on, I’d like to kind of [00:03:00] know a. 

Where you got into fixing cars? Like was it always something you enjoyed doing? Was it something you picked up later and when did you decide, hey, I want to actually make this like a, a business and do it for, for work, you know what I mean?  

Nick Pfeil: Yeah. So like I, I started working on cars back in high school. I did the, uh, the automotive, uh, class through the tech center and then mm-hmm um, from there went down to like, um, universal Technical Institute in the Boston area. 

Did cars for. God. Let’s see. After school went to BMW became a BMW certified mechanic. Um, jumped from there ’cause I didn’t like management. And then, uh, went to Subaru. Did that for two years. Uh, again, not big on big corporate working. Um, went to an independent garage, uh, which was awesome. I loved working in the independent world. 

Did, did some work with him for about five years. Got [00:04:00] into a union as a union mechanic. Um, oh  

Carter Pembridge: yeah.  

Nick Pfeil: And then just the passion left, you know? Mm-hmm. Fixing stuff. It, it just kind of drained you. Where I used to go home work, work on cars with friends and stuff like that. You kind of get, you lose that. So I, I jumped ship on doing mechanic work. 

Uh, went into line work for a while, um, and then left that. Because that was, uh, talk about being taxing on a family. You’re never home. Right. And then, uh, started this, but this was kind of a thing before, um, I did the line work. I, I had like a tire machine toolbox here, did it randomly. And then it kind of turned into, like customers started rolling in where like mouth of word started happening and then it got a little bit bigger and then it got a little bit bigger and then I blew a wall out of my garage and had a second bay going. 

Carter Pembridge: Nice.  

Nick Pfeil: And then it turned into, like, I ended up with an LLC and I was doing more and more work. Um, and [00:05:00] then it, what it turned into is I couldn’t handle the scheduling. Ordering parts was a pain. Keeping track of the parts that I ordered. Um, it was just, everything was handwritten. It was a mess. It just was. 

And I like, and then it even, uh, like customer vehicles where they’d call you up and be like, Hey, you remember when you did this? It was like, well, let me, I don’t remember. I have, I have nothing on that. It was so, it was so much chaos,  

Carter Pembridge: right.  

Nick Pfeil: That something had to change. And that’s. Why I’m here with you, bud. 

It was,  

Carter Pembridge: yeah,  

Nick Pfeil: it was, it was absolute madness.  

Carter Pembridge: I remember those conversations, right. It was like, uh, you know, when you’re seeing the, the software, it, it, we see this quite a bit when we talked to guys who were in your exact same situation, you know, Hey, I’ve been doing this for the longest time. You know, basically even Alaska, we had on, we were talking to him about it. 

He was using those Walmart, you know, paper slips that you use. Um, yep. And just. Like you said, guy calls you, Hey, do you remember [00:06:00] doing this? No, I don’t remember doing this. Hey, what are our numbers at the end of the week? Okay, I gotta go down and sit down and add all the math with a calculator. Um, you know, hey, are we charging the right amount of money for this? 

Uh, yeah, I think so. You know, like, it, it is just, we, we find those inconsistencies for sure. But what I wanna focus on is, is you’re, you’re a guy who actually did kind of jump and make that. Make that step with us. He trusted Shop Boss. And usually I don’t like to make these conversations about how amazing Shop Boss is, like them to kind of be organic. 

But I do want to take advantage of it because you sent me a bunch of texts after you started, uh, with shops, which made me feel good inside anytime I get texts like that. Um, just how much, like better did you find and, and don’t blow smoke? Like I, I want everyone to know like I’m, this wasn’t really preplanned, like this is all legit like. 

How much better was, uh, life in general after, um, jumping onto Shop Boss?  

Nick Pfeil: Man? Uh, in all [00:07:00] honesty, it, it took the headache out of a lot of things. It was, I actually still brag about it. Like when my like friends or family come over, I’m like, check this out. I was like, this is awesome. Oh yeah, everything’s right here. 

I can show you exactly what I, you know, my profit per hour is on every job or just as a whole. Um, I can show you like all of my parts that I’ve ordered and if I need to use that part again, it’s right there. I just type it in. It just organized my entire system, like it was awesome. It, I, I can’t even 

Carter Pembridge: That’s awesome. 

Nick Pfeil: Really explain it. It’s, I mean, as far as like being able to log back in and see what I did on a customer’s vehicle. Yeah. And, um, then the big thing was, um, parts, parts is huge. Um, when I go to order parts, um, and I go into PartsTech, it just moves the car over for me. There’s not another tab going. It transfers the whole thing over. 

I can order it, it does the markup for me. I don’t have to do math and look at like, you know, how much should I charge for this part? How much should I charge for that part? [00:08:00] Not that I like up. You know, marking up parts and stuff on customers, but it, it leveled the playing field where the, I didn’t have to break out my phone. 

I didn’t have to break out a piece of paper. I didn’t have to look at this. I didn’t have to look at that. Everything was simplified.  

Carter Pembridge: And if I, well, tell me about that. 

Tell me about, because I, so my background is, I, I used to work, uh, Chrysler Corporate. Like you, like you were talking and you know how the corporate world goes, right? 

Mm-hmm. 

Basically all I did was. I wanted pol, my job was to keep police departments with, uh, Dodge and not go to Ford. Okay? So all I did was basically warranty this, warranty that this is outta warranty, can you help us out? That kind of thing. But the point is, is like just all the. You’re, everyone’s answering to somebody in that world. 

Um, but I never actually was on the ground with, uh, you know, writing up tickets and kind of, I was talking to those guys, but I wasn’t them. Mm-hmm. So when you’re talking about that headache that you had with parts specifically, like what are, what are some issues like specifically like, gimme some examples of what [00:09:00] that’s like if you don’t have something set in place. 

I mean, you did it, your, you said a second ago, like phone calculator. Like how long did that all take you? That whole process.  

Nick Pfeil: It really depended on the part, you know, ’cause you’re,  

yeah,  

you’re not only just trying to figure out what the part costs you, but like kind of what the customer could get the part for. 

And then you had to compare different vendors and be like, well where can I get it for cheaper? And you know, and then worry about the markup itself and being consistent and, okay. I mean, you don’t wanna just go and add. 20, 30, 40, 50% and then be like, well that marks it up X amount.  

Carter Pembridge: Right?  

Nick Pfeil: And then it changed, and then, you know, the next time you go to do it, you gotta remember what you marked that part up at. 

It was just,  

Carter Pembridge: ah, okay.  

Nick Pfeil: It was so, it was, it was so tax it took forever, um, to where like, I couldn’t do more than, you know, two customers in a night because I do this on like after a full-time job and  

Carter Pembridge: right. [00:10:00]  

Nick Pfeil: It has made it a, a breeze as far as getting customers their quotes on their parts quickly, effectively. 

Like, it just, I, they could send me and be like, Hey, I’m looking for an oil change and, you know, X, Y, Z. So I can go in with their, with their information, type it all in, it, pulls it to the ro  

Carter Pembridge: mm-hmm.  

Nick Pfeil: And then just gives me a quote total and it takes me. Five minutes.  

Carter Pembridge: Save a ton of time, man. Yeah, you actually said it a second ago, like you said it, you used to only be able to get two cars in a night. 

Like, what are you at now?  

Nick Pfeil: Um, so I’ve had as many as five to six cars in a night. And that’s,  

Carter Pembridge: dude, you’re pushing cars out, dude. You ain’t messing around  

Nick Pfeil: constant. It’s, it’s been the last four to five months and that actually kind of lines up with this system is, it has gone insane as, as far as customers coming in because. 

I can send them a quote right straight to their phone and they can, they can look at it, approve it, and I’m, I’m back at the [00:11:00] shop and I’m working, I’m not worried about it. ’cause it actually sends me a text on my phone that says the customers approved this.  

Carter Pembridge: Mm-hmm.  

Nick Pfeil: And I can, I can get right back to work. I don’t have to, you know, sit down, call them. 

I don’t have to do any of, all of the leg work,  

Carter Pembridge: all that stuff.  

Nick Pfeil: It’s like, yeah. It’s like I have two more people working for me right now, just, and I’m doing it myself.  

Carter Pembridge: So it’s a good way of putting it actually, you know, it’s a really good way of putting it. Um. So what, what is your average, average ticket? 

Do you know what your average ticket is, Nick?  

Nick Pfeil: Um, I mean, I could look it up on, 

Carter Pembridge: you can find out  

on Shop Boss  

Nick Pfeil: exactly what you said. Yeah, I can, I actually, I can average ticket, um, kind of depends so far, like the season, the season’s just now changing, but I’d say my average ticket is anywhere between, like, I wanna low it at about a hundred. 

Um, and that’s like oil change and a tire rotation, but then it’ll go up to, you know, suspension and brakes. It’ll be 12 to $1,500 just for that one ticket. So I’d, I’d average it somewhere in the middle of like $700 a ticket.  

Carter Pembridge: 700. That’s a good, that’s a healthy average ro man. [00:12:00]  

Nick Pfeil: It, it’s  

Carter Pembridge: right on.  

Nick Pfeil: Say, well, we’re in, we’re in Northern Vermont, so cars need a lot of work up here. 

The roads are worse than the cars.  

Carter Pembridge: Vermont, is that the white Christmas state? It is, isn’t it?  

Nick Pfeil: White Christmas? Well, it was this year.  

Carter Pembridge: Not always the movie, the White Christmas, you ever seen White Christmas? The movie where they go to Vermont and it’s all, it’s, dude, come on man. We gotta get, you gotta get you going on your Christmas movie. 

Nick Pfeil: You have time to watch movies.  

Carter Pembridge: Yeah, well, I mean, if you, well, you need to get the next Shop Boss package and maybe you will have more time to watch me.  

Nick Pfeil: Yeah, right. And two,  

two  

to three more mechanics working for me.  

Carter Pembridge: Yeah, exactly, exactly. You said? Yeah. You said you have a, you have some kids, man, they can get working. 

Yeah.  

Nick Pfeil: Well, I got one, one of my daughters is very interested in the automotive world. The other one’s not so much.  

Carter Pembridge: There you go. Yeah. You can imagine it’d be, yeah. Well, fair enough. Yep. So, so the reason I brought that up was, so you’re saying, uh, you know. You might see in a day on average. I don’t, uh, [00:13:00] you know, you’ve seen six or seven cars a day. 

What’s your average, like how many cars on average would you say? Let’s push it, let’s do maybe days a bit tougher, but like in a week roughly, would you say? Give or take?  

Nick Pfeil: Well, let’s see. So, we’ll, we’ll think back to last week. Um, throughout the week, not including the weekend, uh, I probably saw 10 cars come through the shop, and then the weekend you can add another eight to 10 cars. 

You know, I’ll do that. That’s  

Carter Pembridge: when you’re getting, getting going? Yeah,  

Nick Pfeil: that’s, that’s when I can do a full day. And that’s, that’s when I move some cars around is, is on Saturday work. Um, and that’s seems to work out good for my customers because most people have the day off and they don’t have to, you know, schedule around it and. 

Carter Pembridge: Yeah,  

Nick Pfeil: my weekend are usually pretty busy.  

Carter Pembridge: A hundred percent. So, so would you say, would you say Shop Boss has more or less gotten you, like, double the amount of cars a week you can handle, would you say?  

Nick Pfeil: Yeah, with time savings, it’s, yes, because I can schedule it, right, like I can, I can actually plan and I can have parts, [00:14:00] parts and quotes sent out. 

Um, and then the customer to be there on a certain day or a night, um, that was something I, I couldn’t. Really do on my own. I didn’t have a way to organize any of that. You know, it, it’s, yeah, it’s improved my ability to take on workloads and. You know, I can actually look up Labor Times  

Carter Pembridge: mm-hmm.  

Nick Pfeil: And know how long that job’s gonna take me, versus like, before I had to go in and use, I think I was using, uh, O’Reilly’s website and Yeah. 

Carter Pembridge: Yeah. They have that Yeah. With the  

Nick Pfeil: Yeah.  

Carter Pembridge: Upgraded version or something. Yeah.  

Nick Pfeil: Yeah. So you could go in, you could find the Labor Times, um, while you’re ordering the parts and  

Carter Pembridge: yeah.  

Nick Pfeil: I mean, it, it was useful. Um, yep. But it was also at the same time, if you backed out, you were done. There was no really getting back to it. 

It was, but it was helpful, you know, first firing up and being able to find labor times. But there wasn’t any schematics. There wasn’t any locations. Like there wasn’t, if it was there, it was hard to find. [00:15:00]  

Carter Pembridge: No, no. For sure. So, so just on average men, your average ticket is 700. You know, you’re going anywhere from 10 cars a week or so. 

Now you’re up to, to roughly, you know. 18, 20 cars a week. I mean, that’s, that’s a pretty sizable increase in, in revenue there. So that’s good to hear, man. That’s good to hear. So Shop Boss completely taken you from pen and paper. It’s completely made you efficient. You’re not losing track of receipts. You’re able to charge the right amount, you’re able to save time ordering parts like it, it’s, it’s definitely helped out in profit per hour. 

Like you, like you mentioned, too, profit per hour. For those who don’t know what that is. Is you basically input your overhead into Shop Boss and a lot of people what they go by when I talk to ’em. ’cause I really like to gauge when I talk to people like how they’re gauging profit. Most people, and it’s not their fault, it’s how most people are trained and, and. 

Really, they don’t have much business training. Uh, but most people will say, the only reason that I, I’m not saying Id like, I’m Jeff Bezos. No, but I know what our system does and that’s why I asked the question. Um, but [00:16:00] they say, yeah, it’s what, you know, what I made minus what it costs me. And that’s what they gauge gp. 

So they take their GP and they’re like, yeah, we’re good. Well actually. There’s so much more to your business. There’s, you know, your, your tools you’re using, there’s what your paying guys, there’s insurance, there’s rent, there’s utilities, there’s uh, for my mobile mechanics, right, how much we’re spending on, on gas that they don’t consider. 

Um, like there’s so many different things. So what it’ll do is it’ll tell you if, when you write up a ticket, you have your GP number, but you also have your profit per hour. So is this truly making me. Uh, my money so I can hit my profit target at the end of the month for those who don’t know what that is. So, um, really key. 

So, so Nick, one of the reasons why I wanted to bring you on here, I know we, we did briefly touch on it, but really wanna dive into, um, just customer service, man. Like, I know you’ve talked about like, you know, your, your ability to talk to people, but. Really, I think you said it yourself, like [00:17:00] people, you know, people you’ve, you’ve talked to in the area, they might be hurting. 

Um, I’m having conversations with a lot of techs and one thing I can tell for sure is people who are more friendly, more open, um, will have a laugh with you. They seem to always be doing better than those who maybe aren’t. So I guess a good question to ask is. How do you, I, I think I know naturally you’re a pretty positive guy, but how do you kind of compartmentalize the business side? 

Know things to be frustrating? Being a tech, you know, you’re working on something. You, you break something, you some, anything can happen in a shop, right?  

Nick Pfeil: Yeah.  

Carter Pembridge: Yeah. How do you, how do you keep positive? How do you put yourself in a frame of mind right? To, to give those customers that, that, that attention they need so they keep coming back and maybe bring somebody else. 

Nick Pfeil: Um, boy, uh, so I mean, my attitude is usually just pretty positive, even out in the shop. I think [00:18:00] for me, I, I actually enjoy working on cars and then you have that,  

Carter Pembridge: that helps 

Nick Pfeil: feeling of accomplishment, right? Like, you know, you’re helping somebody. Um, I have quite a few customers that are, you know, struggling with their vehicles. 

They don’t have a ton of money. Um. And that, that feel good of being able to do it and actually help somebody. I think that it makes me feel good, right? Like not, I’m not always making a ton of money off of, off of my customers. Um, but I think, I think my positive outlook on this is that I’m building something for myself, um, and for my, my family. 

And, and this is kind of my happy place in here. And I go to a full-time job every day, and I’m still the same guy when I’m there, you know? But mm-hmm. I don’t, I don’t see a point in, you know. Being upset about much of anything I,  

mm-hmm.  

You know, I don’t, I don’t know how well I’m answering your question, but  

Carter Pembridge: No, no, no. 

You’re so, you’re,  

Nick Pfeil: you know,  

Carter Pembridge: absolutely, you’re half, half full kind of guy and you, and you [00:19:00] keep that energy all the way throughout completely. And a guy like you, you know, you’re working, what time do you get up? What time do you go to bed? You know, you gotta be getting up real crazy hours and going. You must not sleep at all, man. 

Honestly,  

Nick Pfeil: no. I, I live off of, uh, energy drinks. I think. Um,  

Carter Pembridge: I was, that was my next question is how many Red Bulls are you on today? That was my next question. Yeah, exactly.  

Nick Pfeil: No, Red Bull’s not my flavor. Uh, liquid death mix, a really nice energy drink. I like those. 

Carter Pembridge: What is that? That sounds brutal, man.  

Nick Pfeil: Oh, no, absolutely. 

It even says a better for you energy drink and I seriously doubt it. But no, it’s. Uh, yeah, my  

Carter Pembridge: Liquid Death Better for you actually.  

Nick Pfeil: Yeah. Yeah, it’s, yeah, it contradicts itself a little bit I think. I don’t really know. But that, uh, as far as when I wake up, it’s usually 6:00 AM Um, get to work for seven, come back home. 

I’m done at four. I get in here, uh, customers will be waiting for me around four 30. They’ll be dropping off a car, hanging around. And then it’s just pretty much until [00:20:00] I’m done. Um, tire season’s gonna be insane. Uh, I’ve got, I don’t know, I still haven’t even added some of them to my schedule yet. Uh, the next two weeks are gonna be all tires, which just offers an, an awesome opportunity to look over customer’s cars. 

’cause you’re really not doing ’em service if you don’t look at their car. That’s kind of the mm-hmm. You know, that I have, not trying to sell people things, but I would like to, you know, inform them. Um, but then I probably wouldn’t be done most of the next week until. 10 30, 11 o’clock at night I think is when I would probably finish the last car and then they’d pick them up in the morning and, uh, just rinse and repeat. 

Carter Pembridge: Got it. Okay. So wife never sees you Understood. Fair  

Nick Pfeil: enough. 

No, they, yeah, they come out and visit, you know, the shop only, you know, 20 feet from the house, so that works out pretty good.  

Carter Pembridge: Yeah, no, exactly. Exactly. And, uh, so, so actually earlier you were talking before we started this, and you’re, and I, and I like. 

How it fits into this. But you’re talking about the, the calendar, right? Scheduling your [00:21:00] customers, right?  

Nick Pfeil: Mm-hmm.  

Carter Pembridge: Um, how’s that been from, from where you were kind of before? What did that used to look like versus how are you able to handle that now and how has that made your life better?  

Nick Pfeil: Oh, so scheduling before, we’ll start with that was done with a, my Google calendar and trying to balance that with personal life because, well, I have three daughters. 

They all do sports. Plays and everything else that they do after school. Scheduling around that was, you know, kind of a pain. Um, and then knowing what the job, like, how long the job would actually take. Mm-hmm. So you have your build hours and then trying to figure out how many cars can I cram in, in one night? 

Um, wouldn’t really know because you’re, you’re penciling everything in on a piece of paper. Right. Then transferring it to your phone and then asking the wife. What have we got going on Thursday? ’cause I might have three, four cars that night. And, you know, trying to balance all of that. Um, so what this actually did is now when I’m writing up a customer quote, send that off to them and then [00:22:00] ask them what day works for you. 

I can then write from the repair order, go send the calendar, and then look at my schedule and be like, okay, well I have this available. I already have a car scheduled. Um, that scheduled, like build hours is. Two and a half hours. So now I can look at that schedule and go, okay, so we can add you at six and I’ll be, I should be done around, you know, nine or 10 o’clock. 

So it kind of has like little building blocks where I can, I can see exactly what my night’s gonna look like and how much time I need it. And that’s actually a feature I just started figuring out how to use, like I just do a lot of playing around with the system and that that has changed and again, shortened things up where I’m going from. 

Pen and paper, then to my phone and then actually getting the work in the door. It now it’s like I said, everything is on this one little tablet and I love it. It’s,  

Carter Pembridge: yeah,  

Nick Pfeil: it has made life easier.  

Carter Pembridge: No, I love to hear that, man. Um, and, and that’s one of the biggest things we like to [00:23:00] tell people. Shop Boss is shop in a box. 

Um, every time I hear somebody say that, I, I, I, I will admit I cringe a little bit, but actually that is what it is. It’s supposed to be. I’m like, oh. It’s like one of those marketing things where you’re like, you know what? Actually, when you think about it, it’s, it is pretty, it’s pretty good, man. It’s a little shop in a box, uh, but. 

Yeah, so, so you’re able to have pretty much everything in one spot, a lot of things. And you mentioned it a second ago, like you just kind of recently figured out how to learn that. Mm-hmm. Uh, one thing I will say, anyone listening to this reach out to me, man. Like, uh, hey, there might be stuff that you might not even, might not even know about that’s in there now. 

Like, are you using the, the follow up feature for like review requests and.  

Nick Pfeil: No, but I do know about it. I do know about that. That was part of the training that  

Carter Pembridge: those  

Google reviews. Yeah.  

Nick Pfeil: Yeah. So that’s, that’s actually, you know, when you bring that up, the amount of training that I got with the system and the, the support of being able to be like, well, just gimme a call if you have any questions. 

It’s a lot of times I’ll play around with it and then I learned something. It’s like, well, I don’t need to call anymore. ’cause. That’s how  

a lot of guys learn. [00:24:00]  

Carter Pembridge: Yeah. In  

this sector’s. A lot of guys learn that. Yeah,  

Nick Pfeil: exactly. It’s just, I’ve, I’ve been so busy with the shop that, you know, you go through and you find a new little tool. 

It’s like, well that just made life so much easier. And like the, like the inspections. Geez, the inspections that you can do with this thing and the checklists and customer, you’re using  

Carter Pembridge: that inspection then.  

Nick Pfeil: Okay. How’s that helped out? That has been, um, actually. Has been helping my tickets. Um, because you go through and you see, I like that it basically reminds you to check these things that you may have like just breezed over. 

But that, that list will go through Intel, you pretty much everything to check even if the car doesn’t have it, you just kind of go buy that. It doesn’t tell the customer that you didn’t look at it, it just doesn’t pop up on the ticket because a car doesn’t have it, you know? So, and then you go through and you give ’em a checklist and then I can make quotes right from that thing. 

Send that off to my customer and they approved decline, and they’re like, oh, I didn’t even, I, I had no idea that was wrong with my car. It’s like, well, I didn’t [00:25:00] either, but like I had a list to follow and it’s now there’s no guessing. And it’s, you know, everything’s just kind of streamlined with that thing that, that was, I offer that a lot now, especially just for like simple, uh, oil changes. 

The car comes in for an oil change. Like do you want just the basic inspection done on your vehicle only takes me about 25, 30 minutes to go through it. And you, so you’ve just upsold a, an inspection. But at the same time, man, I get like your check in, brakes, ball, joints, fluids, um, I mean everything you’re going through lights. 

And it really streamline that part because there’s that, you miss, you know, as a mechanic you’re busy and you just wanna get that car in and out. And being paid for your time is huge.  

Carter Pembridge: Absolutely. And, and we actually have a, um. For, for shops coming from other softwares over to to Shop Boss, you know, that inspection tool, that’s one of our biggest value props that a lot of shops don’t actually take advantage of. 

Um, we actually have a guarantee. It’s a, it’s a growth guarantee. [00:26:00] It’s on our, on our website. It might be called Garage Guarantee. It. They’ve changed the, the framing of that a few times, but it’s the same thing, um, where it’s not, you have. Uh, 90 days give us 90 days, we will guarantee an increase of your average ticket by 20%, provided you use that on, on half your tickets. 

Right? So it’s a great way of, of upselling work. And, and, and this is something that I talked to a lot of people about is, and you actually said it a little bit too, I don’t know if you heard it, but some people, they feel like they know their customers. They know that their customers are. Maybe they’re, they’re hurt a little bit. 

So it’s kind of in this weird situation where it’s like you’re trying to make money helping them.  

Nick Pfeil: Mm-hmm.  

Carter Pembridge: But they’re in a bad spot. How do I get over this mental hurdle of me telling them it’s gonna be an extra something for this that they actually really do need? Mm-hmm. But I know they might be in a tough spot, like that’s. 

[00:27:00] That’s like one of the more, I would imagine uncomfortable conversations that you can have where it’s like, you know, their car ain’t gonna make it another 50 miles if they don’t get this  

Nick Pfeil: right.  

Carter Pembridge: But they’re also really kind of, they’re trying to squeeze you for every dime. So a do, I mean, how do you manage, do you, like, how do you handle those conversations? 

Man, that’d be a good, good thing to learn from you.  

Nick Pfeil: So those types of conversations, if I find, you know, a list of things wrong with their car, I, I, I try to look at it from their standpoint of like, I don’t have a ton of money to sink into this car is, well, let’s prioritize some things here. You know, like I know that money site, you know, like, you need, you need brakes really bad. 

You know, your, your, your rear ones are completely smoke. They’re grinding. We can’t get away with justpads on this thing, you know? And then it’s also, you know, they got a leaking strut or they’ve got a, a bushing that’s bad or anything like that. It’s like, let’s, let’s take care of the, the biggest safety issues right now. 

Yeah. Let’s, let’s tackle those [00:28:00] brakes, because if you can’t stop, like that’s, that’s a problem, right? So  

Carter Pembridge: yeah,  

Nick Pfeil: those bushings, those bushings aren’t gonna go anywhere. Let’s, let’s, you know. Next week, let’s look at it next week. Like, we’ll schedule you in to get that done. Like they already have the cost of everything and they can kind of budget for it. 

That’s, that’s how I do this a lot with a lot of customers is let’s make a priority list, right? Like, we have the list already. Let’s just, let’s just axe one. Put that one in, in, you know, in the back burners for now. We’ll, we’ll do this one, but then these other two, we’re gonna, we’re gonna chip away at these things. 

And I have actually a customer coming tonight. Um. After, uh, this is that exact situation where we had, we had knocked out a couple things and one of those things I said we had to get to is now becoming an issue, and now we’re, we’re kind of, we’re attacking that tonight. So that’s,  

Carter Pembridge: I like that,  

that’s very customer  

centric. 

Nick Pfeil: Exactly.  

Yeah. I  

Carter Pembridge: like  

Nick Pfeil: that, that financial burden is, I, I, I can appreciate that and that’s why I work with my customers so much on [00:29:00] that. Um, and being able to backtrack into what they need, what they, what they had done. That’s, that’s been helpful because we can also look back at their history and say, yeah, we already did this. 

We know that’s good. Um, we can pull this one back in and we can do that and we’ll schedule it right now. And the, the prices and everything is already there. That’s, that’s how, that’s how it’s helped them too, is that they can actually, they receive everything and they, they know what they’re looking for. 

And I also can see it from my side. It’s, it’s actually been, my customers love. They, they love that approach and that I’m not there, just as you know, know,  

can trust money outta their pocket. 

Yeah, exactly. You, yeah, exactly. They trust you.  

Yep,  

Carter Pembridge: yep,  

Nick Pfeil: yep.  

Carter Pembridge: And that, that, that is definitely that. I mean, that’s, I mean, even myself, like. 

Now, now I’ve got a, a newer car with, uh, like some service packages and warranty on it. So I just kind of take it to the dealership. But before I would always be like really [00:30:00] hesitant to, it’s like, for example, I had, um, I had a tire go out, um, on me on the highway or going to some vacation. We were stranded man. 

And, uh, me being a, a soft hands doughy boy. Um, absolutely, dude, I freaking threaded the shit out of those lug nuts. Boy, I, dude, I was, I was like, yeah, bro, trust me man. That was not a proud moment with the wife, dude. She was like, seriously? I’m like, I’m trying, girl, lemme try this. Anyway, had to get it towed. 

Had a bunch of issues on it, man. Um, so it wasn’t just that. Um, and then. I’m like, man, I don’t know. Like these guys, I feel like they’re, I feel like they’re just taking advantage of me here, man. ’cause it’s like an hour away from where I live. It’s in the middle of nowhere. Um, they know I don’t have a car. 

Like, they, like, they know that I’m hurting. They know I’ll pay, gimme my car back. Exactly. And it’s like, it’s like just fine, [00:31:00] just fine. I’ll take whatever it is. It is. But, but I felt so bad about that. I’m like, I know they did. So I know they got me. But, uh, yeah. Is what it is. Well, I was gonna ask you about, um, do you guys, do you offer financing to your customers at all? 

Nick Pfeil: So I can, uh, with the, uh, 360 payments, uh, there’s, uh, I actually gotta call them back, um, which I would love to have. I just haven’t had time to call them back. But it’s no problem. It’s an option that I’ve been, I, I need to get on top of, uh, where, and you. You can send it to ’em and they just apply for a, like a credit line and, which would help, I mean, so many of my customers where, you know, if that bill was $1,200, it’s almost like, you know, that care credit you get for your pet, like, you know, you can’t afford it right now, but if I can make installments on it, um, yeah, yeah. 

I, I do, I have, I actually have a voicemail from, uh, one of the 360 pair. No  

Carter Pembridge: worries. I’ll, I’ll give him a, I’ll have him give you a shout and set that up. ’cause that would definitely help out in those situations. [00:32:00] Mm-hmm. As just like a. Like, Hey, by the way, we could, we could do it this way. Or we have a plan B, you know? 

Mm-hmm. If you wanna go that route, you know? And, and that’s, that’s definitely helpful. But no, I, I think honestly, the way you handle it, man, just I can tell personality wise, genuine, you come, come at your customers with that approach. Um, they obviously trust you. They obviously like you. Um, and, and they’ll work with you, man. 

They’ll work with you. Yeah. And you got to try out some of those other stuff too, that we were talking about. So. We’ll get there, we’ll get to that point where we will jump into like the CRM management and being able to send out service specials and stuff like that. Because if you have a, I mean, a lot of guys, they would kill to have like a, a customer base that loves them because then you can market to them, which is great. 

Right? Yep. Which is great. So we’ll get you there.  

Nick Pfeil: Yeah.  

Carter Pembridge: But, um, yeah, man, no, absolutely. And before we wrap up, uh, any, anything else you wanna touch on? Anything you wanted to hit on? Anything that we didn’t, we didn’t talk about you’d [00:33:00] like to discuss or anything like that?  

Nick Pfeil: No. I mean, if, say, if we’re, if we’re praising Shop Boss, we’re gonna need more time, but, um, I mean literally, and that’s like I’m, I’m not being paid for this. 

Um, it has changed the entire dynamic of, of my shop, um, literally lifted a ton of stress and. Again, I brag to it. Like I bring, I bring this, this tablet into my wife and I show her stuff. I’m like, look at this. Like, you know, this, this isn’t a, a feature that I had before the tablet like this.  

Carter Pembridge: And she’s like, she’s like, Nick, I do not care. 

I  

Nick Pfeil: don’t care.  

Carter Pembridge: I don’t care.  

Nick Pfeil: Yeah. She, yeah. She’ll sit there and just nod her head and be like, wow, it’s really cool, babe. Like, I have no idea what you’re talking about. It’s like, no, this is really cool. Like you should, I wish you understood. Like, and my, my 13-year-old actually knows how to run. The, uh, the system where she can write up a repair order, she can order parts for me. 

Carter Pembridge: No way.  

Nick Pfeil: Awesome. Yeah, I, I’ve got her in training. She’s gonna be my service writer.  

Carter Pembridge: There you go, man. There you go. You’re [00:34:00] set up, man. You got a whole, you got a whole shop in there. Just, you’re gotta tap into the potential. Absolutely.  

Nick Pfeil: That’s right. I’ve got free labor sitting right inside that house.  

Carter Pembridge: I was gonna say, I was gonna say, um, it reminds me, it’s like, uh, you go and showing your, your wife, uh, the tablet and everything, it’s. 

It’s like, it always reminds me of like, when I’m doing something and she’s got like a, like one of those, um, one of those TV shows on like, uh, Love Is Blind or the, you know what I’m talking about? Like those reality TV shows. Yeah, yeah. I’m sitting there like doing my own thing, like you watching That’s so stupid. 

And I’m like,  

Nick Pfeil: wait a minute. I do this to her all the time  

Carter Pembridge: and I’m watching her. I’m like, wait. She said that, oh my. Oh, oh yeah. I’m not interested at all.  

Nick Pfeil: Yeah, you get,  

Carter Pembridge: you get, that’s how he responded. I’m like, yeah, exactly. Then all of a sudden I’m in there. That’s how it’s gonna be with Shop Boss. Okay. 

Little by little. Oh, that’s how easy it is to write up an ro.  

Nick Pfeil: Yeah. That’s how you inspection. I’m gonna win. I swear I’m gonna win over with it. [00:35:00]  

Carter Pembridge: Just, just put some, put some girl stuff in the, in the lounge like we were talking about earlier in this. Yeah. Dude, you have, you have three daughters and a wife, man, that, that should be pink in there. 

Okay.  

Nick Pfeil: Yeah. I’m surprised they haven’t been in here to decorate. You know, it’s, it’s just me. I got a motor, I got my, my motorcycles in here right now. ’cause it’s, well, it’s cold in Vermont. We can’t ride bikes right now.  

Carter Pembridge: Yeah, well, I mean, dude, like it, I mean, is it like a minimalist man? Like when, like a man cave where it’s all minimalist? 

Or do you have, is it, you got a lot of stuff in there?  

Nick Pfeil: No, it, originally it was, it was just a couple TVs. We watch football out here and then, uh, now it’s got two couches of reclining chair, a mini fridge with water’s in it for the customers. It’s, it’s turned into a  

Carter Pembridge: little proper little lounge then, dude. 

Right on. Yeah, it’s, you’re getting dealership experience over there. Okay.  

Nick Pfeil: It’s got free wifi, you know, it’s, you know, we bumped it up a little bit over here.  

Carter Pembridge: Dude, that is awesome, Nick. That is awesome. Well, hey, man, definitely appreciate hanging out. Uh, anything [00:36:00] you need anytime, you know, you can hit me up and, and I’ll, I’ll help you out and, uh, appreciate everybody else. 

So if you’d be willing to, to jump into a demo with myself, um, by all means toggle that, that yes button down there. Uh, and until next time, we’ve got. Our very first, I believe the next guest will be our very first, uh, female shop owner that we’re gonna be having on the show. Which will be a lot of fun. Be a lot of fun. 

And I think it’ll be around Mother’s Day, actually, which will be awesome coming up. We gotta take care of mama. We gotta take care of mama. Absolutely. So appreciate y’all. Until next time. Thank you Nick.