When customers say "Go F**K Yourself" | Dealing with tough customers in your detailing business
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The episode of Talkin' Paint Podcast, I share a raw account of firing a customer who crossed the line from frustrated to abusive. I break down exactly what went wrong when dealing with difficult clients, including an elderly gentleman who told me to go f*** myself in his own shop. I reveal critical shop management tips and systems that could have prevented this situation, plus gives away I'm giving away my free terms of service template that reduced customer conflicts by 95%.
0:00 - Firing a customer story intro
0:18 - Detailing Growth sponsor message
0:58 - Episode introduction
1:21 - Customer told me to f*** myself
1:34 - Breaking down what happened
2:39 - GM Will's role explained
3:31 - Customer interactions cognitive load
4:12 - Setting expectations framework
6:36 - Compliment, reality check, commitment
7:52 - Expectations breakdown failure
8:31 - Terms of Service system
10:01 - Chip One AI free tool
11:38 - What went wrong analysis
12:30 - Red flag warning signs
13:17 - Reinstalled entire PPF job
14:26 - Industry standards explanation
15:16 - Customer picks up vehicle
16:02 - Raised voice three times
16:52 - Final confrontation details
17:54 - Team respect non-negotiable
18:38 - Warning other shop owners
19:38 - Three touch expectation system
20:19 - Escalation framework levels
20:58 - Team protection policy
21:20 - Financial cost analysis
22:04 - Culture starts with boundaries
23:13 - Detailing Growth services
23:37 - Detailers OS coaching
Takeaways:
- In managing a larger scale business, one must be prepared to handle difficult customer interactions, which can sometimes lead to uncomfortable situations.
- Setting proper expectations with clients is crucial in order to maintain a positive relationship and avoid misunderstandings regarding service quality.
- Implementing a structured Terms of Service agreement significantly mitigates customer conflicts and clarifies the scope of work and limitations before service begins.
- It is imperative to protect team members from verbal abuse, ensuring a respectful workplace environment, as this directly influences overall morale and productivity.
- Continuous improvement in customer interaction practices is necessary, particularly in managing difficult clients and setting realistic expectations for service outcomes.
- Firing a problematic customer can be financially beneficial in the long term by preserving team morale and maintaining service standards, despite the immediate loss of revenue.
Links referenced in this episode:
Transcript
This is just one of those things that comes with running of a larger scale shop.
Speaker A:I had to fire a customer at a level that I never thought that I would ever have to.
Speaker A:He raised his voice to me.
Speaker A:He raised his voice to my team.
Speaker A:Had an elderly gentleman literally tell me to go fuck myself in my own shop.
Speaker A:The Talking Pain podcast is brought to you by Detailing Growth.
Speaker A:That's Detailing growth dot com.
Speaker A:Detailing Growth is the industry's only us based full stack agency that provides you with full custom web design, ongoing SEO, low local SEO via Google Business profile, ad management for Google and Meta, and an entire business suite of automations with our Grit suite CRM.
Speaker A:Detailing Growth also helps businesses with consulting and business coaching and systems implementation.
Speaker A:Head over to detailinggrowth.com and sign up for a free strategy session.
Speaker A:Hey everybody, it's Gabe from Detailing Growth and Detailer os.
Speaker A:Thank you again for tuning in to another episode of Talking Paint.
Speaker A:So today it's just me and I wanted to talk about something that happened to me last week.
Speaker A:I had to fire a customer in maybe one of the worst ways.
Speaker A:Looking back on it, there was definitely ways that I could have done better.
Speaker A:But today I want to take some time and walk you through and show you how it happened, what we should have done and why this broke down the way that it did.
Speaker A:This is just one of those things that comes with the running of a larger scale shop.
Speaker A:And I'm also going to give you the most important resource that you're going to have in your whole business that's going to prevent this from ever happening to you and that's going to be completely free.
Speaker A:All you have to do is listen.
Speaker A:I had to fire a customer at a level that I never thought that I would ever have to.
Speaker A:I had an elderly gentleman literally tell me to go myself in my own shop.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker A:He told me to go myself.
Speaker A:So I'm going to break down exactly what happened and the lessons that I learned so that you can avoid them in your own business.
Speaker A:And I'm going to give you the systems that can help you in your business no matter where you are in your current growth track.
Speaker A:So I have about five guys that work in my shop at any given time between the different services that we offer.
Speaker A:One of them is my GM named Will who is right around 50.
Speaker A:He's a no BS kind of Asian American guy, just your normal everyday guys guy.
Speaker A:But he's definitely, he does a great job of delivering experience for our clients at our shop and he runs the day to day Will is exceptional.
Speaker A:He's, he's detailed, he's organized, and he thinks in time blocks.
Speaker A:He's everything you could ask for in a gm, Literally everything.
Speaker A:Sometimes Will gets overwhelmed, just like every GM does, because everybody is human.
Speaker A:No GM is perfect.
Speaker A:And I want to talk about this for a minute because as shop owners, we put a lot of pressure on our GMs and sometimes we don't realize it.
Speaker A:If you're doing 20k a month, you can handle most customer interactions yourself.
Speaker A:When you're pushing that 75 to 100k mark, your GM becomes the face of the business for about 80% of your customers.
Speaker A:And that's a really massive responsibility.
Speaker A:Will handles anywhere from 15 to 20 customer interactions a day.
Speaker A:Between phone calls, text, email, and in person, each one requires him to assess that person, set expectations, handle objections, and maintain our reputation at the same time.
Speaker A:That's a huge cognitive load for somebody, meaning that takes a lot of brain power.
Speaker A:And throughout the day, by the time Will gets to customer 15, even some of the best GMs can, you know, start to falter and get a little bit of a blurred line.
Speaker A:This particular situation where I had this client get upset was because we didn't take the time to set expectations correctly.
Speaker A:Now our standard approach involves laying out potential negatives first because basic trust psychology shows that addressing concerns up front makes it easier to build a better client relationship.
Speaker A:And we learned this through years of trial and error.
Speaker A:And I'll explain how we structure these conversations.
Speaker A:So when a customer walks through your door for a PPF or ceramic coating or other high end service, they're usually coming in with unrealistic expectations because nobody has set them yet.
Speaker A: ng, and they think that their: Speaker A:So your job or your GM's job is to recalibrate those expectations without losing the sale.
Speaker A:Now, we use a framework to kind of approach this in, in a holistic manner.
Speaker A:And we always make sure that in the back of our mind we're checking these off.
Speaker A:So the first is compliment on the vehicle because that lets them know that we're in tune with what the vehicle's current condition is.
Speaker A:So if it's not brand new, we'll immediately say something like, it's in great shape for its age.
Speaker A:Insert but statement.
Speaker A:And then, you know, we'll make sure we level them with reality.
Speaker A:If they're asking about PPF and you know, we'll, we'll immediately lay out like, look, we, we strive for a perfect installation, but truthfully, it doesn't matter whether you have us or any other shop, regardless of what anybody claims, there will always be some type of dust or dirt or imperfection in the install.
Speaker A:And you know, then insert, you know, paint protection, not paint perfection within reason.
Speaker A:That's not an excuse to ship shitty work.
Speaker A:Do, please don't do that.
Speaker A:We just need to set a realistic expectation with them that this is not a clean room lab environment.
Speaker A:And the only way that you're going to get that is with a positive pressure paint booth system.
Speaker A:And I only know of one shop that's ever had that, and most of the time they don't even have it closed.
Speaker A:To do this work, we state our commitment, which is we're going to do everything we can to minimize those imperfections and things that may not be perfect, but I just want you to understand what's realistic.
Speaker A:So, like, these are just like broad strokes.
Speaker A:Like, these are just the things that we make sure that we cover.
Speaker A:And we always make sure that again, we circle back on that statement.
Speaker A:If you're looking for absolute perfection, no shop is going to be able to deliver that for you unless you're willing to jump into like concourse detail type stuff.
Speaker A:But if you want the best protection with minimal imperfections, we can absolutely deliver for you.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So I've, I've kind of balanced the, the scale with that.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So, and as long as I know that I've checked those boxes, you know, compliment reality check, commitment, close on expectations, then I know that I'm typically not going to have a problem with this client.
Speaker A:We didn't execute this properly.
Speaker A:It just didn't happen.
Speaker A:And it absolutely set the stage for what happened.
Speaker A:And when you skip doing this, you essentially write your, you write a check your shop can't cash.
Speaker A:And yes, I know that that was a really horrible play on like cliche statements, but it's honestly the truth.
Speaker A: Back in: Speaker A:I was one of the first people to talk about this on a wide scale before others.
Speaker A:And believe it or not, somebody copied this idea and started offering it as a service.
Speaker A:But, you know, that's another story.
Speaker A:I want to walk you through that entire system and how that reduced our customer conflicts by like 95%.
Speaker A:So we have this document and it's our Terms of service.
Speaker A:And if you're looking at the video, you can now see it on screen.
Speaker A:It's scrolling, it's massive, right?
Speaker A:So nobody ever reads all this text.
Speaker A:And I'm going to show you how we make it effective.
Speaker A:The Terms of service covers scope of work limitations, environmental factors, industry standards, payment terms, cancellation policies, dispute resolution procedures, photo and video rights, liability, weather related type things and everything in between, from manufacture all the way down to workmanship.
Speaker A:And we send this digital agreement to every single client before they walk through our door.
Speaker A:And we keep it casual and we just make it a part of our process.
Speaker A:We say, yep, you take care of your deposit, you sign your terms of service, then you're all set and we just make it, we just broad stroke over it and we just make it a part of the process.
Speaker A:Because everybody's got paperwork to sign as a part of a deal.
Speaker A:Nobody has really had anything negative to say about it.
Speaker A:I think I've had in five years, maybe two people refuse to sign it.
Speaker A:One person was just like, I don't want to sign any of this.
Speaker A:It's just, you know, terms of service, this, that and the other.
Speaker A:And I was just like, hey sir, that's totally fine, totally understand it were not for you, that's okay.
Speaker A:And I wasn't upset about it.
Speaker A:The other person had an issue with some of the wording and ultimately I needed to clarify it and do a better job in writing.
Speaker A:So I did that.
Speaker A:And since then we've had no problems.
Speaker A:The biggest problem now is of course making sure that the client executes and signs it.
Speaker A:And then we check that they have.
Speaker A:So we use your Able and your Able comes with a 24 hour appointment reminder text and I'll put it down in the notes as well.
Speaker A:What we use, it uses their standard tagging and you can just copy paste it if you want.
Speaker A:But basically it's you know, reminder.
Speaker A:You have an appointment at so and so shop at this time on this date and then it says complete terms of service prior to arrival required, no terms, no job start.
Speaker A:Like that's pretty clear cut and dry.
Speaker A:We do everything we can to enforce this because if somebody shows up without signing, the typical go to is we check and we say, hey look, we can't touch the vehicle until this is complete.
Speaker A:They either take two minutes on their phone or they do it as soon as they get home.
Speaker A:Because most of the time the car's not ready to move into the wash bay anyway.
Speaker A:And if you want access to this, you can get this on chip One that's C H I P O N E AI this is a completely free service as a part of the free base tier level.
Speaker A:You can implement this in your business and we have it templatized.
Speaker A:It's completely free.
Speaker A:It costs you nothing and all you need to do is just configure your profile for your business and then just send the link to your customer and like make it a part of your process.
Speaker A:And all of that is on Chip One AI and it's completely free.
Speaker A:It's the first time that I've offered this to the entire industry.
Speaker A:It is the same terms of service agreement that our shop uses and we have it templatized.
Speaker A:All you need to do is duplicate it and you get to have it for free.
Speaker A:There's no charge for it.
Speaker A:The free tier will never go away.
Speaker A:It has, I think it has like 20 submissions a month or so.
Speaker A:You can just copy our entire form.
Speaker A:There's other paid tiers as a part of Chip One that have, you know, voice coach and the content studio that'll help you write copy and so on and so on.
Speaker A:So that's completely free and you can take advantage of that.
Speaker A:Now the link will be in the show notes and in the video description.
Speaker A:So this is what went wrong with this particular client.
Speaker A:This gentleman was somebody who just didn't want to accept the truth no matter how much proof you provided.
Speaker A:And that's because we didn't set the stage for him.
Speaker A:He wasn't happy with the PPF that we installed on his vehicle.
Speaker A:He took it to other shops and you know what happened next is the shop other shop owners look for reasons to dog you.
Speaker A:Granted, I'm pretty friendly with most of the shop owners around here and they didn't have much.
Speaker A:Too bad to say, but this person, from what I was told from the place that he took it to, they all told him he had a pretty solid job but he just wasn't willing to accept it.
Speaker A:So the owner told me he had expectations that would have really required a pharmaceutical clean room and not a detail shop, which we don't have.
Speaker A:And the owner told me several times he's retired and has nothing better to do with his time other than to just wipe this vehicle down in his garage.
Speaker A:And that was honestly a huge red flag and I just ignored it and it was just.
Speaker A:I regret that of course, and I should have taken action on it.
Speaker A:So when someone tells you their full time job is obsessing over their vehicle, you're probably going to enter a world of Pain.
Speaker A:And I ignored that warning sign, and that was my first mistake.
Speaker A:We reinstalled almost the entire thing, and it was like $2,600 worth of film.
Speaker A:And we started from scratch.
Speaker A:New film, new prep, extra time, the whole thing.
Speaker A:And I took the time to explain to this person that paint protection film will never be perfect, regardless of the shop.
Speaker A:And the hood was primarily the biggest issue.
Speaker A:It was a massive hood.
Speaker A:It's huge.
Speaker A:I think we had one work mark in the film the second time around, so it was a big improvement.
Speaker A:But, you know, it was a really dark colored hood.
Speaker A:It had valleys, and there was a big stretch involved, and it was just.
Speaker A:It just didn't go well.
Speaker A:The first go around, we had some dust spots, particularly like three particles in the hood section and then another two in a front fender.
Speaker A:Like I said before, we had the stretch marks or work marks, and I should have asked our installer to address those better.
Speaker A:And honestly, he might not have been able to improve them much more.
Speaker A:And the imperfections weren't severe.
Speaker A:It was nothing that would have prevented the job from shipping out of the shop.
Speaker A:For context, industry standards kind of two to three minor imperfections per panel, depending on who you talk to.
Speaker A:And we were well within that range.
Speaker A:But explaining industry standards to an upset customer is like explaining physics to somebody who has decided that gravity just doesn't fucking exist.
Speaker A:So, you know, all my efforts were out the window.
Speaker A:The problem comes up and magnifies when you need to explain why something happened to someone who clearly thinks you should be performing better or that it should be different.
Speaker A:And at that point, you already lost the conversation.
Speaker A:I was on defense.
Speaker A:Instead of being proactive.
Speaker A:My GM Will would have been the person to do all of this.
Speaker A:But it was just one of those times where it was really, really busy and we didn't execute and we paid the price, and I failed as a business owner here.
Speaker A:We spoke to this elderly customer on three separate occasions.
Speaker A:And what I couldn't tolerate was how he spoke to us.
Speaker A:This is kind of how it went.
Speaker A:Day one, customer picks up the vehicle, everything's normal.
Speaker A:We gave him the same aftercare instructions we gave to everybody.
Speaker A:He comes back an hour later, almost spitting to the point of picking everything out, and he threatens to stop payment on this check.
Speaker A:And I didn't know that he was paying by check.
Speaker A:And truthfully, I should have stood on that too.
Speaker A:That was red flag number one, because when somebody leads with financial threats before they can understand a situation, you're dealing with a problem customer every single time raised his voice three times, and the second time we redid it, and he was still not happy when he came and picked it up.
Speaker A:Ultimately, I cashed the check, and I gave him a warning.
Speaker A:I said, this does not cover buyer's remorse.
Speaker A:We are going to cash this check, and if you put a stop payment on this, we will immediately seek restitution on the job and the work that we've done.
Speaker A:And that's ultimately what this person had, is he had buyer's remorse.
Speaker A:He raised his voice to me, he raised his voice to my team.
Speaker A:And ultimately, the last time I met with him, he said, why don't you come and look at the car and show me on the car?
Speaker A:If you call this professional work.
Speaker A:Before I didn't even go to the car before I immediately shut him down.
Speaker A:I said, sir, I don't need to look at the car at this point.
Speaker A:I'd rather just take the film off and give you your money back.
Speaker A:And that's when he started raising his voice, and we get to exchanging words, and then, you know, that's when he told me to, quote, suck his balls, end quote.
Speaker A:And that's when I motherfuckered him and told him to get out of here before I trespassed him.
Speaker A:Because at the end of the day, I won't let anybody talk to me or my team like that, no matter if we're wrong or not.
Speaker A:Because I'll be wrong, and I will be a shit business, and I will be all those horrible things.
Speaker A:But the second you step away from being professional and being cordial, that's when all bets are off, in my opinion, because I will bend over backwards for people to make sure that we take care of them.
Speaker A:And this guy just wasn't willing to hear that.
Speaker A:And at the end of the day, he was just not a good fit for paint protection, film.
Speaker A:And he ultimately got what he deserved.
Speaker A:You know, it was even after the second installation, he said to me, already in an agitated state, the first words out of his mouth were, you people just don't get it, do you?
Speaker A:I just regret thinking about it.
Speaker A:I regret the whole thing.
Speaker A:But I understand the customer was frustrated, and I could have always done better and probably could have handled the situation better.
Speaker A:But I don't allow anybody to speak to me that way or my team, because your teammates and your installers, they're not punching bags.
Speaker A:Those are professionals who deserve respect.
Speaker A:He was an elderly gentleman, probably about mid-60s.
Speaker A:One of the people who thinks that the world is probably trying to always take advantage of him.
Speaker A:I Get that.
Speaker A:Because if you've ever seen the movie Shawshank Redemption, when the older gentleman, the character Brooks gets out, I think he said the world went and got itself in a big hurry.
Speaker A:Meaning the world grows without you and can leave you behind.
Speaker A:And for elderly citizens, I can understand what that's like.
Speaker A:And that's the kind of the vibe that I got from him and his demeanor.
Speaker A:Or he could have just been a grouchy, grumpy asshole.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:It doesn't matter.
Speaker A:But I'm just not willing to sacrifice my team's well being on a $3,000 job or a $10,000 job or any amount of money.
Speaker A:So what I did next is I sent a text message to all the local detailing business owners that I'm friends with, warning them about the client, including to the shop that was probably likely next where he was going to have this film removed.
Speaker A:Ultimately, everybody responded, you know, thanks for the heads up.
Speaker A:And you know, I get similar messages from them during the year when this happens.
Speaker A:And it's always a big help because I never, ever, ever talk down about anybody else's business ever.
Speaker A:Because I want to keep those communication pipelines open.
Speaker A:Even if we trade customers right, it's never, ever at a detriment to that shop's reputation or their quality of work.
Speaker A:The lesson learned here is build better checks and balances to make sure that you execute every time.
Speaker A:We didn't perform that well enough on this job and I constantly reinforce my team that I'll eat the cost of jobs to ensure that we deliver an exceptional experience.
Speaker A:We missed the mark on this and we should have done better.
Speaker A:So this is kind of how we handle it.
Speaker A:Moving ahead.
Speaker A:There's a three touch expectation system that we're now going to manage.
Speaker A:In addition to the framework that I mentioned earlier, the three touch system is during the initial consult, we mentioned imperfections, digital terms of service.
Speaker A:We have all all of the additional expectation management.
Speaker A:And then during drop off, we do a walk around setting specific expectations.
Speaker A:And with every single job that comes in, we document three sets of photos.
Speaker A:We do as it lies, meaning wherever the customer dropped it off, we take pictures all around the vehicle of exactly where they left it pre wash.
Speaker A:When we move it into the wash bay, we take pictures all the way around and then we take post wash pictures because sometimes you don't see everything until you get a car clean.
Speaker A:The other thing is I put together an escalation framework to make sure this has a defined path to go.
Speaker A:Moving ahead first is going to Be the foreman or the CSR customer service rep handards minor concerns on client arrival or communication.
Speaker A:Next step is GM steps in for quality disputes.
Speaker A:Next step would be me being the owner handles the situation only if the customer becomes abusive or can't be qualmed otherwise.
Speaker A:And then level four is just termination of service and refund procedures.
Speaker A:The other thing that we're putting in place is the team protection policy.
Speaker A:No employee has to tolerate verbal abuse.
Speaker A:Any threatening behavior results in immediate service termination.
Speaker A:All interactions and volatile situations must be witnessed by another team member.
Speaker A:And we support our team's decision to walk away from abusive situations.
Speaker A:So in addition to that, let's talk about the most important part of this and that is the financial responsibility of firing custom.
Speaker A:Because the Customer represented about $2,700 worth of revenue, materials and labor.
Speaker A: It's about: Speaker A:By firing him, I lost 2 grand.
Speaker A:Except I didn't because I spent time on complaints, callbacks, installer stress leading to reduced productivity, potential negative reviews and reputation management, team morale impacting other jobs, and my personal time and mental energy.
Speaker A:So when you factor in all the hidden costs of a problem customer, that mar probably gets closer to about $5,000 every time.
Speaker A:So hopefully this was helpful for you and you found this useful and you can take this, put it into play inside your business or inside your shop.
Speaker A:So just remember that running a successful detailing business isn't always about just perfect installs and happy customers, right?
Speaker A:Sometimes that means protecting our team, maintaining standards, and having courage to tell people no.
Speaker A:Every time you accept abuse from a customer, you're telling your team that their well being doesn't matter.
Speaker A:And every time you redo work for somebody who's unreasonable, you set a precedent that perfection is possible even when it's not.
Speaker A:And every time you discount a service for a difficult person, you're devaluing the expertise that you bring to the market.
Speaker A:Your shop's culture starts with how you handle the worst situations, not the best ones.
Speaker A:When your team sees you stand up for them, they'll go through walls for your business.
Speaker A:When they see you enforce standards, they'll maintain those standards even when you're not around.
Speaker A:So remember that firing a customer should be rare.
Speaker A:But when someone crosses that line from frustrated to abusive, you make the right move when you put your long term business assets first and you don't put up with that.
Speaker A:So as for the guy that told me to go myself, he taught me where we had gaps in our system and where we could do better and how we could do better because and sometimes making tough decisions that cost us money in the short term.
Speaker A:Build a stronger business for the future.
Speaker A:If you're interested in working with Detailing Growth to grow your business in a more sustainable and systemized approach, working with some of the industry's top talent as a growth agency, please Visit us at workwith.detailinggrowth.com if you're interested in one on one training and systems implementation and business growth, I encourage you to look into detailers os.
Speaker A:Reach out to me personally, find me on Facebook, send us a message on our website, check the link in the description and set up a call to chat with me and we'll see how we can work together to be really, really intentional about growing your business.
Speaker A:Thanks for listening.
