The 30 Second MPI: Why TikTok Is Schooling Your Service Drive

How long are customers watching MPI videos? 0:00

Steve Shaw: Here we go again. Welcome, Dave Rogers. What's on your mind tonight, Dave? How you doing? I threw that out there, man. I did it again. What's on your mind?

Dave Rogers: I'm doing fantastic, thanks for asking. I appreciate it. What's on my mind? Videos. You talked last week, or the week before, about TikTok videos, making them more TikTok length. I did a little digging, and I want to give a couple of things for the baseline.

The manufacturers, or the video companies, are grading us on how many videos you send per repair order, customer pay and warranty. You get graded on this. You get graded on how many are sent as a percentage of the ones that are made, how many are watched as a percentage of the ones sent, and the absolute value of videos watched and sent against the total. But one of the things I can look at is videos watched,

and nobody says how long they spent watching. They'll show you the video was watched maybe twice, but it never says it was watched to its complete length. And you and I have talked about how long we make these videos. Two minutes. Are people really even watching? I've had some

discussions with some service managers in the last week or so about it. They get feedback from customers, and they're asking: did they watch the video, did they watch the whole video? And it got me thinking that maybe once again we're listening to the manufacturer or these outside vendors with their theories. They say, "This is the delta. You sell an extra half hour, an extra hour, every time a customer watches a video."

Well, we don't know if they're watching the whole video, and we don't know if that's why they buy. So I started thinking about a better way to modify the process. I keep spinning it in my head. To get it down to TikTok video length, 30 seconds, 45 seconds, maybe the answer is: just do a video when the car does need something. I know that defies the world,

and it defies what I used to think. I used to say, "If you wait until 30,000 miles to send a video, it looks like you're just trying to sell me something." But on the other side, like you and I have talked about, and you've mentioned it more than once, when Ford came out with the multi-point and the colors, green, yellow, red, I've heard it for forty years: sell the green, sell the green, sell the green. Why is it a technician's job to sell the green?

That's where I started thinking maybe we got this wrong. I'm going to challenge the status quo and all the experts out there. Maybe that's not the answer. Maybe that's not the way to do it.

Only video the red items 2:58

Steve Shaw: Well, that's a great comment and a great discussion. I'd love to hear what people think. But I'm in 100% agreement. As I listen to you, I'm thinking, okay, if we only send it out when there's a failed item, a red item, then you're right. But the auto manufacturers have a standard. We've got to have an 80%, 90%, 100% penetration or video rate.

So I like that idea. I'm 100% for the technicians just talking about the failed items on the car. I'm 100% behind that. And I think it leads to a couple of different things. We've been writing up cars the exact same way for millennia.

There is a role for the advisor, no question. We have the kiosk. That's an option, but customers aren't ready for it yet. I think it failed pretty miserably in most stores that tried it, for many different reasons, probably because we killed it, and maybe we didn't even give it a good shot. But for whatever reason, the kiosk failed.

I know it's a possibility. Where I'm going is that I think we've got to look at the advisor role in a different way, and the write-up process could be slightly different too. If I'm just going to have my technician do the red items, the failed items, whatever anybody's calling them, okay, I can dig that. But we still have to get that penetration rate.

So how would we get to the 100% penetration?

Let the advisor send the green 4:47

Dave Rogers: So I was thinking about it, and it actually clicked yesterday. Nissan and Infiniti just changed their survey. Manufacturers overstepping their bounds again. It's only seven questions now. Would you recommend? Would you return? But one question on there is, "Were you shown a video or images of your vehicle inspection?"

So I'm talking to the Nissan service manager, and I said, why couldn't an advisor take the app, the phone,

put the multi-point on their desk or on a table, put the RO next to it, and say, "Mr. Shaw, just so you know, the technician finished the multi-point inspection on your vehicle"? Let's say the car has 5,000 miles on it, or maybe he's doing a warranty repair that's no charge to the customer. "I just want to go over the multi-point inspection with you on video." Send a video of a piece of paper: "Your filters are green, your brakes are green, your tires are green, 8/32nds,"

millimeters on the brakes, whatever, maybe something's yellow that you'll watch next time. Why couldn't the advisor do that, or a cashier for that matter? But I think the advisor is the person who should go over it with the customer. Here's your repair order, so you know it's you, and I send you the video of the inspection sheet. What is it going to take, 25, 30 seconds to go over the green? That's all. And the other thing is,

when the customer comes in, maybe there's a bill for something, and the advisor can go over it in person at the end when the customer pays.

Give him that little mint after dinner. Tell him about all the good things on his car. "Hey, you're doing a great job. Your tires are great, even wear. Next time you come in, maybe we look at an alignment. But other than that, you're doing a great job driving your vehicle, Steve. You're not over-abusing it. The car's in great shape." You could do that without wasting the technician's time on a video of a completely green car. It just doesn't make any sense.

Steve Shaw: Now, that just clicked in my brain. The technician only sends out a video when something's red. The technician talks about the items that failed inspection. Perfect. And at the end is where the power is. I'm not going to worry about sending a video

up front. That would be part of the write-up process: "This is how our process works. If there are items that require attention, this is what's going to happen. If not, I'll meet you at the cashier." Then the advisor films his review of everything, goes to the cashier, the customer comes over,

and he goes, "Okay, here you go. We're going to review everything, and I'm also going to send this to you in a video so you have it to take home and share with your wife or your spouse or your partner. Thank you very much. Here's the video. Talk to you later." Now you've accomplished everything. Even if there were red items the technician talked about, at the end the advisor goes over everything,

including whatever was declined, and the advisor is responsible for sending out a video 100% of the time. I could get behind that too.

Dave Rogers: It could be like a FaceTime video. It could be my face: "Hey, Steve, it's Dave, your service advisor. We met this morning. I just went over it." Put a little personality in it. Then spin the camera around and show your multi-point. If they're going to grade us on videos, it doesn't say what the video has to be of.

The goal of the multi-point is to create a need 8:42

Steve Shaw: Exactly. I have my own way of doing it, and I've gotten to the point where I only want the technicians talking about the red items, because you're right, people aren't listening. If what you're saying is true, and you're out there pioneering things, researching and talking to your people, and the customer is saying, "Yeah, I didn't really watch it,"

then we're just wasting a bunch of time. I look at that and say that's the role of the advisor: to educate the customer about their car and give the customer the highlights. I've been saying this for years and years. The goal of the multi-point inspection is one thing, and it has nothing to do with selling. The

goal of the multi-point is to create a need so the customer buys. The fallacy for twenty-nine years, however many years, is that everybody says, "Use the multi-point to sell shit." No, no. The goal of the multi-point is that the customer sees the need and in turn buys from us. So why am I wasting my time talking about good, good, good?

It's a waste of time, once everybody understands the goal is to create the need.

The technicians can use the video as a tool to create the need. That's why we did pictures. And if you really want to go back, the dumbest thing ever, which every auto manufacturer did, was show and sell. The reason I show you your multi-point is to create a need so that you buy. Everybody's got it in their head that they have to show them the...

And I get it, it sold a lot of filters. I had a guy one time who would get a clean air filter and a dirty air filter and walk into the waiting room. He'd literally sniff the clean air filter, and then stick the dirty air filter in the customer's face and go, "Smell that." Did it work? Of course it did. But is that the best way to sell air filters?

The goal is to create a need by showing somebody. We show them the pictures. Our technicians can create a need by showing the items in the red, or, as we call them, failed items. And I think that gets us into a whole different conversation. Like I said, we need to redefine the entire write-up process.

Why "sell the green" no longer works 11:22

Dave Rogers: For those listening who don't know the "sell the green" theory: you have a green, yellow, red multi-point inspection. The theory since 1997, like you said, is the feel-good story the manufacturers gave us, and we bought it hook, line and sinker. We're going to go to the customer when they have 5,000 miles on their car and tell them

all the green on their car. We're going to make them feel good. And listen, I bought in too. It makes sense. You don't want to wait until 30,000 miles to do the multi-point, because then it looks like "gotcha." But that doesn't mean you have to spend all day on it. It was hard to get mechanics to do multi-points back then.

Now, thirty years later, they're doing it, for the most part. A 100% MPI is the goal, multi-point action 100% of the time. Selling the green is the feel-good story. But people don't have time for this stuff. If I send a two-minute video at 5,000 miles, another at 10, another at 15, and the guy watches two minutes of everything being green,

by the third or fourth time, what makes you think he'll stick around until somebody gets to the end and tells him something's red? He's not going to do it. But if your technician sends just the red... and I think the technician should send it directly to the customer.

Box the advisor in and make sure he discusses it with them. I'd walk up: "Here's your multi-point, and the video's been sent. Steve's got it. You'd better get on the phone." Put a little urgency in the advisor. I get the concept of selling the green, but we've got to evolve. Thirty years later, I go to the doctor for my checkup, and they give me a script for my blood test.

Then you come back, because you have to pay the extra $40 deductible every visit. And when you get there, they don't go line by line through all the green stuff: "Oh, your cholesterol is great." They focus on the stuff that's out of line. They want to talk about your LDL being high, or your HDL being low, or your triglycerides being high. They don't sit there and go, "Well, Dave, your vitamin B looks fantastic today."

They only have ten minutes with you, and that's not what they do. So why are we doing that with a multi-point inspection? "Let me go over the thirty-five items with you line by line, Steve, and tell you how wonderful your car is." No.

The Mercedes store that sold at write-up 14:11

Steve Shaw: There's a Mercedes dealership out there, and I won't say where, but these guys are rock stars. Going back five, seven years ago, they had $1,000 ROs and great CSI, and they did not have a multi-point inspection process. They didn't do multi-points for years. And the service manager paid more

for anything sold by the advisor, let's say 5.5% on the drive, and if it came off a technician inspection, he paid less, because he felt the advisor had a job to do. That's why we got into calling this a health check. I stole this idea and put it into play in a lot of stores. At write-up, the service advisor went through the history

religiously and looked at everything based on time and mileage. It's Mercedes, so you're sitting down with the customer at your desk, going line by line, reviewing the history and the time and mileage requirements. "You're at 15K, everything's going to be great today." Or, "You're at 20K." And you know what, on Mercedes,

these guys would say, "Hey, we normally see brakes start to fail at 35,000 miles." So they're selling brakes. They pre-sold brakes up front, because that's when the average brakes start going bad. These guys were so good about going through the car at write-up. And then if there was an oil leak or that one condition-based item... it was rock star stuff.

The dealer would always say to me, "I feel like we're overdoing it, but my customers love us. We've got great CSI and $1,000 ROs." That was five, seven years ago, and it was absolutely amazing. It was very hard to roll out in a high-volume store, like a Toyota, but there were some in our world who would do that and review it up front: time and mileage on the drive, go through it with the customer, and let them know the status of their car based on the history.

Let the technicians do their job. And then, to your point, if there's an item in the red that needs attention, send it to the customer immediately, so the customer is aware and can make a decision within 15 or 30 minutes of being in our store. What a cool process that could turn out to be.

Dave Rogers: I never heard that. I like that. That's great that somebody came up with that idea.

Steve Shaw: Oh my God, it was amazing. It was a Mercedes dealer in the Midwest, and this guy was a rock star. I still love him to death.

Time and mileage belongs to the advisor 16:54

Dave Rogers: When you boil it down, whatever the process is, like you said, time and mileage... I had a shop at one location with some good guys, but there were two brothers in the shop who weren't terrible mechanics, they were terrible human beings. I shouldn't say terrible mechanics. The younger brother was a good mechanic. But they were terrible human beings. It was a union shop, and they were hiding behind the union.

These guys would consistently write "time and mileage" on every multi-point and mark everything yellow. They didn't want to add to their forty-hour guarantee. They were the epitome of why you don't like unions, these two guys. And I'm sitting there one day going, wait a second,

technicians writing "time and mileage"? I went back there and said, "I never heard of such a thing." And they said, "Yeah, by time or miles." I said, "No, no. It's your job to test the car and look at the fluid. It's your job to tell me the air filter is either clean or dirty. It's the advisor's job to go by time and mileage, because that's a guess." If I sell you something based on time and mileage, I haven't looked at it yet.

I'm just saying you need an air filter by time or mileage, 15,000 miles. I can sell you that. But as a technician, you should be telling me that it's dirty, or that the fluid needs to be replaced. That was my only point. I used to get into this battle all the time: "How dare you tell the customer it's time and mileage? It either needs it or it doesn't when it comes to the technician. What do I need you for?"

Steve Shaw: I think there are requirements based on time and mileage written in the owner's manual. No question in my mind. The auto manufacturer has time and mileage requirements, and that's a no-brainer. A guy recently said to me, "I don't sell air filters in the drive." I said, "Why?" He said, "Well, what if they need brakes?" I said, well, if it's required by Honda,

it's in the owner's manual. It says replace it at X. If the B123456 light is on, it says these are the requirements. It's not your opinion, bro. If it needs extra in the shop, then it needs extra in the shop. But I think you're onto something. It's probably a little bit of process development, working through some of the details. Imagine if you did what we talked about at the beginning: your technician sends out the video if and when it's needed.

And then at the end, the customer comes back to pay the bill, and the advisor does exactly what you said and films it. That's a cool takeaway. Like you talked about having a flash drive or whatever, you walk away with a gift: "Hey, I went ahead and sent you all the information about your car.

In fact, I scheduled your next appointment for you." So you've got a great write-up, you've got the technician inspection, and then you have the delivery process, which is when all the good stuff should be done: at the end. "Okay, great. I'll see you six months or a year from now, and I'm going to set your next appointment." And that should be on the video. Put it all there,

and it goes to the customer. I can really see how that would come together, and people could get behind that type of process.

A strong finish, and who sets the standard 20:30

Dave Rogers: I think I'm just going to start working on that. I liken it to going out to dinner. You have a really great meal and a really great waiter. This happens all the time. You have dessert, you're all done with dessert, and then

you don't see your waiter. Twenty minutes go by, and you want your check. All of a sudden your waiter is nowhere to be found. You can have the greatest meal, the greatest service, the greatest dessert, and now you're waiting twenty, twenty-five minutes to get out of there. Then he finally comes around: "How's everything?" "Just can I have my check?" Then he comes back ten minutes later with the check. A lot of times you walk out of there not feeling great. Ten, fifteen minutes before, you were feeling fantastic. But now you've waited twenty or thirty minutes to pay your bill.

It seems like an eternity. It could be ten minutes, who knows. But you're ready to go. It's that last bit that makes or breaks the difference. So the video and the next appointment are a great addition to that. I love it.

Steve Shaw: I think we're so compelled because the manufacturer says, "I need 80%." Okay, fine, I'll get you your 80%. I'll make sure the video is done. But forgive me, all you auto manufacturers out there, and come tell me if you are one:

I have yet to find one that's an expert on selling, an expert on customer behavior. They have great standards, and I think the manufacturers do well getting us dealers into the 1980s. They help bring us along. But they don't teach human behavior. So why are they telling us

it's got to be 80%? If there's nothing wrong with the car, does it need a video, to your point? Sending the video today, in 2026: yes, tell me the red items. Tell me exactly what it needs so I can make a decision. And I heard this in what you said: if I got a video from you, I'd think, "Shit, I'd better look at this, because there's probably something important." And one of the things I didn't talk about

is that I have a dealer, and this was on our last videos, who is very much into having the technicians talk about brakes, batteries, tires, air filter and cabin filter in every single video. And I'm like, look, your name is on the sign, so I'm going to teach that program for you. But you're putting five things in there, making your technician go through all of it, and the customer goes, "Man, whatever." It's because of a process that was outdated

many, many years ago, and they're still stuck. So as we develop our video multi-point inspection class for the second half of the year and 2027, we have to stay up with the times. If the customer says this is the way they want it, I'm giving it to them their way, because they're the ones paying us.

Dave Rogers: When it comes to the manufacturer, and when I worked for the big public too, there's some thirty-five-year-old snot-nosed kid who graduated college, maybe his father or mother works for the company, and they get the job and come up with these things. Then all of a sudden it gets legs and traction. This happens with the manufacturers all the time. They're not doing their due diligence or their research. They just get into a little think tank in the

corporate office and decide we need 80% videos. I dealt with this at the public. They used to drive these things, and we called it Mickeying the metric. You were just trying to get somebody off your back so you could go back to doing your job, which was selling something. That's what our jobs were. It wasn't going through a process for nonsense, flipping a little lever so it looked like we were doing what they wanted. It never added a dollar to our

bank account. Now, I understand the theory: we're going to do videos on 80% of the cars. But I think it's a flawed theory when it starts with "we're going to start doing this on day one."

I see all the pundits out there, all the experts: 100%, 100%, 100%. I agree 100% on multi-points every single time. But I'm starting to shift my thinking. Why am I wasting my technicians' time? We can talk about whether the tech should be doing the video or not. That's why I think the advisor can do the green. You had mentioned once before about hiring a videographer, or taking somebody hourly who isn't doing anything between ten and two anyway.

But if you want to be effective, video just the red items. If it all boiled down, depending on the mileage of the cars coming into your shop, that's probably going to be around your ASR rate, 50%, 52%. That's probably the right number. Fifty-some percent of the cars would get a video. And if you had a bunch of young cars, every car coming into the drive low mileage,

a new dealer point, or you're at retention, maybe it's only 30%. Maybe the percentage of videos is a better gauge of how good your retention is, because you're only doing the red stuff.

Steve Shaw: Exactly. It's like having somebody do something that's not their expertise. Can we train them? Certainly. But it's not their expertise.

If I were a technician right now, I'd be the guy raising all kinds of hell, saying, "Okay, I'm going to clock in for every video." And I bet in the state of California they're paying them to do it, and that's fine. I would pay a technician to do a multi-point inspection so I could demand a good one. But that technician gets paid every six minutes.

We forget that, and the manufacturer doesn't care. It's free. The dealer can handle it. I think the technician should get paid, one, two, three tenths, whatever you think is right. If you're going to require a video every time, then add three tenths on every ticket. I'll charge that to warranty.

Paying techs, a videographer and the GM tip 26:58

Dave Rogers: There's that guy in California who's on all the podcasts and all the shows, all highline stores in California. You listen to him talk, and the only thing he focuses on is hours, hours, hours. He admits he pays the techs for multi-points and pays them for videos. Well, you bring up a good point. He probably does that because it's the law in California, not because he's so generous. But he's always talking about hours.

If I was ever on a podcast or a roundtable with him, I'd want to know what percentage of his hours are actually sold to somebody, as opposed to eaten. I can pay a tech an hour. That doesn't mean I sold it. I can policy it. Selling an hour means nothing unless you get a dollar for it, or a certain dollar for it.

Hence effective labor rate. Hence your hours per RO. I laugh at these things. But you're right. We could pay three tenths for a multi-point and a video, and you've got techs finally doing them, which is what they should be doing. Most technicians who've been doing this for more than a minute understand that's their contribution, and it's how they upsell some work and make more money.

But they do look at it as punishment if you've got them taking a video of a car with 5,000 miles or 3,000 miles. A car came in for a check engine light with 100 miles on it. Why am I taking a video and doing a multi-point when that customer really just wants his goddamn check engine light fixed so he can get the hell out of here? Should you look at the tires and make sure there's not a nail in one, and make sure the car is safe? Okay, fine. Check it out real quick. But it doesn't have to be a long, drawn-out process.

Steve Shaw: I think it's worth going down that path and exploring it. We can't just have blinders on. Like you said, some twenty-five-year-old kid... how many DPSMs, or whatever they're called today, have you trained in your life who came right out of college, went to work for an auto manufacturer, and you trained them about the automotive industry? And now the people we trained have decided this is how it should be done. No, listen.

This is how car dealers work, because this is how we do it at the dealership. There should be more asking the dealers what they think, versus directing them. We talk about process improvement. Why isn't there more asking dealers how they think it should be done when a standard rolls out? I know a lot of people are on those councils, but sometimes you just get into a pissing match

where somebody's forcing something down your throat that doesn't make us any money. And every one of us gets paid because a technician flags an hour.

Dave Rogers: Exactly. That's exactly right.

Steve Shaw: I like the idea you mentioned, though, of the videographer. Man, if I had a store... I was talking about that the other day while I was training. I would find that person, whether it's a cashier or an admin or a CRM person or whoever, somebody who has some brains.

We use the software for our podcasts. It's literally the easiest thing you can do. As soon as we're done, the video is ready to be uploaded. It's already preloaded with the intro and the outro. Once it's done, you hit magic, and it's ready to go.

If you wanted a voiceover or something else, it's all ready if you want the exact same thing every time. Why couldn't you have somebody whose job that is, man or woman, walking around and standing in front of the technician, or the advisor for that matter, and say, "Let's do this. Let's do something really nice for the customer." It's a takeaway.

What kind of value would it be to have your dealership logo on it? Oh my gosh. What if you had a special today? What if you put a car in there? This is some real good shit right here, bro. What if you had a commercial, so everything that went out in March or April had that split second, "We want your car," that goes out to the customer? And that's the video they take home. How cool would that be?

Dave Rogers: That would be very cool. There you go. Write it down. Let's go copyright that baby.

Steve Shaw: I think we just nailed it, bro. We just nailed it right there.

Like one consulting company I won't name that puts TM behind everything. TM, trademark. I'm trademarking. Well, why don't we wrap it up? Give us a tip of the day.

Dave Rogers: Here we go. Tip of the day: general managers out there, when you listen to this, think about it. We're all drinking the Kool-Aid in one way, shape or form. Make the process yours. Talk to some of your customers. Talk to your technicians. Find a process that works for you. I'm not saying it has to be this process, with the 30-second video, but I think there's something to it. And it should be customized, based on your culture and the way your

dealership runs. You can have fun with it. Like Steve said, you could have a videographer filming the advisor going over a green multi-point. Have a little fun with it. I wouldn't go crazy with the advertising yet, but

listen, it's going to happen. We've done it before. We put intros on videos with TruVideo and some other things, with an exit video too. It was clunky to send. You'd have to send three videos and hope they went in the right order. That was part of the problem. We called it the donut: we circled our video with an intro and an outro. But listen, you've got to make it your own. There are a lot of creative guys out there. If anybody comes up with something, if you have some ideas or some theories,

and you want to get on the podcast and talk about it, please hit us up. We'd love to hear it. We're always learning. As you can tell, this is a work in process.

Steve Shaw: The whole business is a work in process. And like we said last time, we're all stealing from each other, so there's no trademarking nothing. All right, man, it was good to catch up. I've got to run, and I look forward to seeing you next week.

Dave Rogers: All right, bro, I'll talk to you.