[00:00:00] Gabe Fletcher: Welcome back to the talking paint podcast. The only podcast in the auto detailing and auto film space. That's bringing you real actionable business advice from a real life shop owner. Our job is to give you systems, concepts, and marketing advice that isn't low level. Garbage. Thanks for tuning in for another episode here.

[00:00:22] Gabe Fletcher: I appreciate it. My name is Gabe Fletcher. I am the founder of Detailing Growth and Total Detailing here in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, operating as Ceramic Pro Pottstown. Today I'm going to give you the single most important piece of advice you're going to get in your entire business journey. So stick around.

[00:00:40] Gabe Fletcher: You don't want to miss this. The talk and paint podcast is brought to you by detailing growth. That's detailing growth. com. Detailing growth is the industry's only us based full stack agency that provides you with full custom web design, ongoing SEO, local SEO via Google business [00:01:00] profile, ad management for Google and Meta.

[00:01:02] Gabe Fletcher: And an entire business suite of automations with our grit suite CRM. Detailing growth also helps businesses with consulting and business coaching and systems implementation. Head over to detailinggrowth. com and sign up for a free strategy session. Thanks again for listening today on the TalkingPaint podcast.

[00:01:24] Gabe Fletcher: Today, I wanted to talk about trust and honesty and integrity and It being one of the most important things that you could embrace in your business and also making sure that your team embraces as a part of your business and that they understand it. And the title of today's episode, believe it or not, is honesty scales and fake fails because at a core level.

[00:01:54] Gabe Fletcher: Honesty is simple and simple scales, right? That's one of the most commonly [00:02:00] known things in business. When you want to start stacking revenue and you need to start stacking complexity, you need to have simple systems to make sure that it continues to work. Trust is one of the most important things in your business.

[00:02:14] Gabe Fletcher: And you could even call it currency. At a base level, trust is the currency that your business is built on. It's built incrementally through consistent actions with you and your customer base and your clients. And at the end of the day, that creates deep rooted bonds with your customer base, which builds people who are happy to give referrals.

[00:02:38] Gabe Fletcher: So what that translates to is focus on what you promise and deliver on what you promise every single time. And whether it's, you say you're going to wrap this edge, or you say you're going to do this, or you're going to do that thing, or yes, you're going to take care of this area on the car, whatever that is, make sure you follow through and do it, especially if [00:03:00] it's something that a client has said to you specifically.

[00:03:03] Gabe Fletcher: Because consistency in delivery builds customer trust, right? Because, uh, if the customer trusts you. That means that they will be more than flexible when it comes to service recommendations, which means better upsells, cross sells, higher ticket counts, and in addition, more referrals. That's where the real money is.

[00:03:25] Gabe Fletcher: Trust also creates a ripple effect. And it ripples into everything in your business, people on whether they can trust your pickup times on whether they can trust that your work is going to hold up on whether they can trust to give you referrals. Because if you can't follow through on the things that you say you're going to, then you're not going to get referrals because nobody likes to put their name on a referral for somebody when they can't deliver.

[00:03:54] Gabe Fletcher: So that means we need to make sure that we implement systems and guides inside of our businesses [00:04:00] that encourage integrity and encourage confidence building. And that also means holding the line of integrity in the business as well, doing the right thing, even when that may be extremely difficult. And sometimes the delivery of the right thing, even if it's one that A customer shouldn't be super happy about, or you have really high anxiety over sometimes all it needs to have is just a very nonchalant casual approach and typically everything will be fine as long as you are transparent and you do not hide things from customers because at the end of the day.

[00:04:39] Gabe Fletcher: If you set the standard for ethics in your business, that translates downline into the team that works in your shop and in your business as well. Because if you're not ethical and upfront with the customers, and they know that, that means that they're not going to be upfront and honest with you. And that's why they don't tell you about [00:05:00] mistakes.

[00:05:00] Gabe Fletcher: And they let things go out the door that shouldn't, and they don't try and fix things the right way the first time. And I know that I tell my team on a normal, pretty regular basis that I would rather you tell me now so we can fix it and come to the table with a solution than have to fix it every time.

[00:05:22] Gabe Fletcher: After the fact and make me look really bad and break the trust that we have and integrity that we have with everybody. And this is the other thing is during economic downturn, hiding struggles during tough times can often be at your detriment. Now I'll be the first person to tell you late 23 and all of 24 has been a struggle.

[00:05:45] Gabe Fletcher: It's been a struggle in the agency. It's been a struggle in the shop. We've had more teammates turnover. We've had teammates who are leaving. We've had churn in the agency. We've had businesses go [00:06:00] upside down, even though we were going all in for them in their advertising and marketing and like giving them one on one advice every single day on how to navigate.

[00:06:09] Gabe Fletcher: And there's been times where I've jumped on to our CRM and helped people save a sale where I've had to say, no, no, don't, don't say that. I'm. I'm going to jump in and help you and try and close this. I've had to do that for multiple people here in 2024. It has been very difficult. And I will tell you what, if I were to lie about that, trust would be broken.

[00:06:29] Gabe Fletcher: And all of my customers that have come in in 21 and 22 all know that our shop is not for sale. Having the best time right now, nobody is, and anybody who says they, they are having an easy road right now is flat out lying to you because let me tell you that the entire industry is down and that's okay because we all knew it was coming.

[00:06:55] Gabe Fletcher: We, it wasn't like it was random and like, wasn't a part of the plan, but we translate that [00:07:00] downline into our customers and into our language we use with them. At the end of the day, when we're open and honest with our customers, especially my returning clients, if I just, you know, they ask how we're doing and I'm just like, listen, it's been, it's been rougher than it normally has been and you know, we're doing everything we can to, you know, make sure that the guys stay paid and everybody keeps working.

[00:07:26] Gabe Fletcher: But at the end of the day, if you can send us any referrals, it would be a massive, massive help. And I would look at it as a personal favor, which I do. I always look at referrals that way. And when I do those things, they produce more referrals because people love to help when they know it is a favor and it is something you need.

[00:07:47] Gabe Fletcher: They will come to the plate for you. If you've put trust and confidence in your business, they will absolutely come to the plate. To the plate for you and produce referrals or be willing to [00:08:00] leave a review or do something to pitch in and help. So it's worth being honest. But that doesn't necessarily mean you need to just like blurt out there that Oh, everything's horrible and it sounds like crap and everything is bad.

[00:08:15] Gabe Fletcher: Bad and this, that, and the other, like, no, just like keep it, keep it above 100, be professional, that's it.

[00:08:26] Gabe Fletcher: Real quick. I also wanted to let you know about our detail shift newsletter. Our detail shift newsletter is completely free. You can sign up for it at detail shift dot email detail shift is a extremely clear and actionable. Email newsletter that I personally write and send out several times a month that contains lessons.

[00:08:49] Gabe Fletcher: I've learned and Dials it back in easy ways for everybody to digest. It'll be some of the most accurate and Dialed in content that you'll [00:09:00] ever get in your inbox so you can sign up for that over at detail shift dot email now

[00:09:11] Gabe Fletcher: This is super important, the next piece I want to translate into and that's handling problems and disputes with clients and having super clear transparent communication when you're having a problem with a client is extremely important, whether that means just properly taking the time to articulate a complete thought or inviting the client to come in and say, Hey, I'm more than happy to talk to you about this, whatever it may be, just come on by, we'll take a look at it.

[00:09:41] Gabe Fletcher: We got you covered. Sometimes that's all people want to hear. They just want to hear that they, somebody's got their back. Even if it's something they're not happy about. I had a client message me the other day, sends me a picture of his bumper. And to be fair, it's on like a Ford. I don't, I don't know. It was like some type of sedan.

[00:09:59] Gabe Fletcher: I [00:10:00] can't, I can't remember. It was like, um, nothing super high end. It was just a regular commuter car, but he, he put PPF on it because that's what he wanted. And the front bumper on this car is not easy. It is a, uh, it's multi pointed, multiple tack points, big stretches, and, uh, overall, it's extremely difficult.

[00:10:23] Gabe Fletcher: Justin did the install first, and I love Justin to death. Justin, you're my homie, but Danik's a better installer than you. And, um, Uh, he had a couple of spots where, uh, the just, we didn't spend enough time heating the film and getting it down. And to be fair, it was like in those intricate areas and ultimately the film peeled away and the client sends me a message.

[00:10:45] Gabe Fletcher: He's like, Hey, we've tried to fix this 2 or 3 times. You know, we had him come back. We do a little trimming. We lay it back down and ultimately it was left open too long and it got dirt underneath of it. And, uh, We had to redo the bumper, the client ended up messaging me [00:11:00] and he was, he had an upset tone and he was like, Hey, I've tried to address this three different times, this, that, and the other.

[00:11:05] Gabe Fletcher: And I don't like how this looks. The other side looks better than this. Why did this happen? And you know what? He says something to the effect of, I let my buddy look at it. Who's also had this kind of work and he agrees that something's not right. And all I did was just say. Hey, Mr. Customer. First off, thanks for letting me know.

[00:11:26] Gabe Fletcher: And, uh, second off, totally understand where you're at. Why don't we have you come by tomorrow? And we'll take an official look and we'll come up with a plan of action. It looks like we're going to have to replace that piece of film for you. And don't worry, that's on us. We'll take care of that. And this was, of course, it's like within the first three months of us applying the film.

[00:11:45] Gabe Fletcher: And, uh, ultimately we redid it and much better around the second time, uh, minor, minor discrepancies. And at the end of the day, the client was okay because I took the time. To jump in [00:12:00] and say, Hey, I got your back. And sometimes that's all clients want to hear is they just want to hear somebody who's got them covered.

[00:12:07] Gabe Fletcher: And that's how you should be approaching it too. And you should try and avoid going back and forth over text, please, at all costs, avoid doing that. Have these people come to the shop, have them come in. Don't do it over text. Don't go back and forth. Just say, totally understand. Why don't you come by on this date?

[00:12:27] Gabe Fletcher: And we'll come up with a plan. That's it. That's all you have to do to keep unhappy customers from becoming enraged. Because nothing makes something worse like that than back and forth over text. And that all of that comes full circle into stand behind your work. Do the right thing. Learn from it. And make sure that your team knows.

[00:12:49] Gabe Fletcher: Your installers know it's not okay to ship bad work and it's not okay to ship out products that are going to lift. Even if, if a film isn't going to be the best at something, or, you [00:13:00] know, it's not going to do something, then it is better to trim it short. And seal it than it is to try and wrap it and have it peel.

[00:13:13] Gabe Fletcher: Real quick. I also wanted to let you know about our detail shift newsletter. Our detail shift newsletter is completely free. You can sign up for it at detail shift dot email. Detail shift is a extremely clear and actionable. Email newsletter that I personally write and send out several times a month that contains lessons I've learned and dials it back in easy ways for everybody to digest.

[00:13:42] Gabe Fletcher: It'll be some of the most accurate and dialed in content that you'll ever get in your inbox. So you can sign up for that over at detailshift. email now.

[00:13:58] Gabe Fletcher: Another way that you can [00:14:00] build trust. In the business is through pricing and pricing interaction. You can build a transparent pricing model. You can follow a, you know, SUVs or this midsize or this trucks or this cars or this, you can follow that easy structure that way to create a system of standardization.

[00:14:22] Gabe Fletcher: And as a buyer, clear communication when it comes to what I'm going to spend, typically moves trust in the positive direction. And what that translates into is, number one, faster closes, and you're going to get people that are going to be more willing to select. The better package because they can clearly see it articulated for their specific vehicle type.

[00:14:47] Gabe Fletcher: In addition to spending time and energy on pricing, you should also make sure that expectations are set very, very transparently because it's much easier. To tell them what they [00:15:00] can expect and to also make sure that your team knows what the customer is expecting and to make sure that they carry it out and execute it.

[00:15:08] Gabe Fletcher: Say this is the standard. If you can't meet the standard, then we have a problem because at the end of the day, we want to build honesty and transparency in our teams, not just in our communication, but in our teams as well. Integrity in your team is also, I think, the most important thing that you can select.

[00:15:27] Gabe Fletcher: And you build trust and integrity inside of the business and honesty by creating systems of accountability that work in several directions. So that means having group discussions about who's responsible for what and what should happen when something goes wrong related to a specific task. So that means that if you've got a shop installer, you have a PPF installer, and then you have a coding installer, and then you have a shop foreman, Anytime you issue roles [00:16:00] and command and directives, you should be doing it together because you create a system of accountability.

[00:16:08] Gabe Fletcher: Now, let me tell you how the system of accountability with honesty and integrity works. If you have two people in the same room and you say, okay, you're going to be responsible for 1, 2, 3, 4, and you're going to be responsible for 5, 6, 7, 8. When the person won. Skips steps 4, and the other person notices.

[00:16:30] Gabe Fletcher: They don't even have to have a conversation. Typically, it's just knowing that other people know what the process is, and Also having situations where when somebody notices something isn't wrong and they kind of they look at it and notice it and then they look at the person and that person like they look at each other and it creates an awkward tension moment that happens a lot and it happens subconsciously so that's something to consider and remember.

[00:16:58] Gabe Fletcher: In how you [00:17:00] communicate with your team, because you need to give everybody the directive. So everybody understands the steps. So that way there's a system of cross accountability, because if you know that this person over here isn't doing what they're supposed to be doing and. Ultimately, it's going to fall back on you.

[00:17:18] Gabe Fletcher: You want that. If I'm that second person in that system and I see person one messing up and I know it's going to, I know that them skipping steps is going to come back on me, I'm saying something a hundred percent, because I don't want to be responsible for somebody else's mess up. So I'm going to go over there and I'm going to say, yo, you know, you're not supposed to do it this way.

[00:17:40] Gabe Fletcher: That's not how it's supposed to be done. Do it right. Because I really don't want to have to eat shit for it. And tell me if you're not in that situation in a professional setting that you hear that and you go, all right, you're right, let me go back and handle this. I got it in a professional setting.

[00:17:57] Gabe Fletcher: That's how that goes. And that's how you create integrity and [00:18:00] honesty among your installers. You can't just have one conversation with them and then nobody else hold them accountable to that process because. Ultimately, no one's there to know what the process actually is. So hold those directives and processes in public.

[00:18:21] Gabe Fletcher: Real quick. I also wanted to let you know about our detail shift newsletter. Our detail shift newsletter is completely free. You can sign up for it at detail shift dot email. Detail Shift is a extremely clear and actionable email newsletter that I personally write and send out several times a month that contains lessons I've learned and dials it back in easy ways for everybody to digest.

[00:18:50] Gabe Fletcher: It'll be some of the most exciting. Accurate and dialed in content that you'll ever get in your inbox. So you can sign up for that over at [00:19:00] detailshift. email now.

[00:19:07] Gabe Fletcher: Ultimately, if we embrace honesty and we embrace integrity in all of the parts of the business, what we do is we build a culture of accountability. We build a culture of clients knowing that when these guys say they're going to do something, they do it and it produces a culture of confidence and public confidence and client confidence is how you produce referrals and referrals are free leads and free opportunity that you get that you don't have to work anywhere near as hard.

[00:19:40] Gabe Fletcher: To get them to close referrals close at like a 75 percent rate in our sector based on data. We've seen 75 percent of the time a referral closes for service versus where an organic lead that comes off your website is typically between 40 and 60 percent maybe closer to [00:20:00] 40 and 50. A Google lead is anywhere from 15 to 35 percent and social media leads, Facebook leads and things like that have a less than 10%.

[00:20:11] Gabe Fletcher: By average, so that's something to think about in why this is so important and think about how many cars and people you see in a year and think about how that compounds over time, because if somebody is coming to you based on a referral that they've been given in confidence by somebody and then this person now has confidence that you're going to do the right thing.

[00:20:34] Gabe Fletcher: That compounds when you deliver for them, and then they make another referral. And they say, I was referred to these guys by my buddy, and let me tell you, these guys are killing it. They will absolutely take care of you. You want to go see them. And those efforts compound, and they compound, and they compound, and they compound.

[00:20:50] Gabe Fletcher: And that adds up to lots and lots of extra business. Now let me tell you what dishonesty does. Dishonesty creates cognitive dissonance. And that [00:21:00] will typically lead to huge amounts of stress. Just as a whole, avoid the temptation to do the cheap thing and to do the, the shortcut. Because it's going to compromise on values.

[00:21:11] Gabe Fletcher: Your team sees that you're compromising and you're skipping and then they start doing that and ultimately at the end of the day the customer is the one that pays for that and it is way harder mentally to support the mental load and bandwidth required to keep even your story straight when you've been dishonest and when you've had to make up components of a story to like satisfy a customer.

[00:21:34] Gabe Fletcher: The amount of time and energy that you spend on that mentally is 10x that of just doing it by the book. So don't forget that the next time that you need to, you want to bend the truth about something or you are going to lie to a customer. Just know that all of that stacks up in the mental load and mental bandwidth.

[00:21:54] Gabe Fletcher: Category, and that weighs twice as much as the positive category. So [00:22:00] lean into honesty instead of leaning out of it. And honesty also provides mental clarity. Because it aligns actions with values. You can immediately tie that to what somebody's values are. And in the business, that is one of the most powerful tools that you'll have.

[00:22:18] Gabe Fletcher: Especially when it comes to staff. Is my crew being honest? And if they're not, why are they not being honest? I want to know why and how that's happening. Because if you know that you come in as an installer and You're cutting corners all day. You're not going to want to give a hundred percent. You're always looking for that reason to shave that 2 percent or 5%, like, where can I shave extra and not do as much?

[00:22:42] Gabe Fletcher: You don't want to embrace that kind of environment. You don't want that for these people. Because I know that it's much easier to run a business when there is honesty and integrity. Built into the system as a functionality point, like if you're not honest and you don't have [00:23:00] integrity, then the business begins to fall apart, and that's a major problem.

[00:23:04] Gabe Fletcher: Hopefully, some of this was helpful for you. This was a take on some content that I got from YouTube. People were talking about simplicity and scaling, and I had to find a way to Create a relatable piece to our sector that solved the problem for how can I scale a business that is so complex and I need, we needed to find a way to apply a method of simplification just as a concept that made it a little easier to understand.

[00:23:38] Gabe Fletcher: So that's how this episode was born, and hopefully you found this useful. Please, if you enjoy this content, I want to hear from you, and I really want to hear about what it is that you want us to talk about next, what problems you're having. We need the feedback from you. So that way we can continue to produce content that's helpful for this sector and for the [00:24:00] industry and for you.

[00:24:01] Gabe Fletcher: So please get in the link. There is a feedback form. In the link of the description of this video on YouTube and in the show notes on your favorite podcast platform, get to that feedback link. Let us know what you think about this episode and what you'd like us to talk about next. If you have a shop that's doing 400, a year, if you have a shop that's doing seven figures a year.

[00:24:26] Gabe Fletcher: Let's jump on the podcast here and let's figure out what we can help with. Because everybody's got struggles in some part of their business. And that's the whole point of talk and paint is we want to figure out where we can fill the gap and help our sector. And if that means telling somebody else's story and pulling somebody else's story or thing or, or shop apart to fix a problem on a podcast, then let's do that.

[00:24:53] Gabe Fletcher: I am down for that. So hit the form in the description. I want to hear from you like, and subscribe on [00:25:00] YouTube, jump on our socials and make sure that you jump on our detail shift mailing list. That's detailshift. email. You can jump on that list. It's completely free. You're going to get some of the most clear and concise, actionable insights in your email every day.

[00:25:18] Gabe Fletcher: The Talk Paint podcast is brought to you by Detailing Growth. That's detailinggrowth. com. Detailing Growth is the industry's only U. S. based podcast. Full stack agency that provides you with full custom web design, ongoing SEO, local SEO via Google business profile, ad management for Google and meta, and an entire business suite of automations with our grit suite CRM detailing growth also helps businesses with consulting and business coaching and systems implementation to help your business begin to automate so that you can take more off your plate, spend more time on the business.

[00:25:56] Gabe Fletcher: Then in the business detailing growth also [00:26:00] offers full social media management and video editing. So if you shoot the content, we can edit it for you. We'll get it on YouTube and get it on your website. So that means you can work with one agency for. Every single heavy lift thing in your business. Now that's value that you can't find anywhere else in our sector.

[00:26:20] Gabe Fletcher: So if you're looking to partner with one operation, with a team that has experience in the industry, because I've built a seven figure shop here in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. We do seven figures a year in PPF coatings and tint, and you're getting direct, actionable, real deal marketing strategies that we've used to grow and scale in my shop and I've used to help other shops grow from absolutely nothing all the way to doing seven figures.

[00:26:48] Gabe Fletcher: And we've got the case studies to prove it. So if you're looking for an agency to choose here in 2024 and beyond to grow with and really be a partner for you and to be integrated in your [00:27:00] business and who's invested in seeing it win, head over to detailinggrowth. com and sign up for a free strategy session.

[00:27:07] Gabe Fletcher: We'll jump on a call and we'll go over where you're currently at in the business. We'll see where you want to go. And we'll figure out what it's going to take to get you there. Grab your free strategy session at detailinggrowth. com.