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Anyone use Otis from Openbay?


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Hi Joe,

I've been using Otis from Openbay from the very beginning when it was first launched. Long story short I can't see going to market without it. Excellent product, excellent service and support and maybe most importantly they are continuously evolving their product.   

Feel free to call me if you would like to discuss further.

Bob Lane 617-293-5221

VP Operations/GM

Direct Tire & Auto Service

 

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we use it at our 3 shops.  it helps facilitate simple appointment requests, captures emails for future marketing and contact purposes, and gives basic menu price quotes that would otherwise tie up my guys on the phone.  it also works 24/7.  great reporting and metrics, so you can always ensure you are getting value out of the program.  we also link our tires through otis, so customers can shop from home.  i think it brings a certain legitimacy to our business and takes care of some basic customer inquiries for us.  it's certainly worth a demo to see if it's right for your team.  chat bots are never perfect translators, but it's a trade off we were willing to make after seeing the benefits.  

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we tried for a while but found it lacked the ability to truly decipher the mortoris question when very specific - you could set up you price matrix and then a price can be given without ever discussing value - we had many price inquiries and had a hard time converting them 

if you searched for a specific service, OTIS could not answer correctly (walnut blast for example) - Open bay business model is still price driven, OTIS can give the customer a price on a job and just keep on hopping from site to site until they find the bottom. 

I found it difficult to manage customer communication, as well 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I really don't see the need for a AI to handle my conversations.   Customers service is about building a relationship with the client.  I'm telling you no customer wants to talk to a machine.   They want human interaction.  Persoanally want to feel the customers voice and understand their needs.  But you be you.....BTW DVI are also a waste.....customers want a verbal explanation.  Yes we do share pictures.  We have been texting with Riptide for 6 years.  But texting has its own limitations.  Customers still your to explain verbally the cost and reason for the repair....all these other systems are for to masking weak selling technique.  In fairness they may work for a tire store or something like that.... but not a full service auto repair facility.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/11/2021 at 9:52 PM, PJBanta said:

I really don't see the need for a AI to handle my conversations.   Customers service is about building a relationship with the client.  I'm telling you no customer wants to talk to a machine.   They want human interaction.  Persoanally want to feel the customers voice and understand their needs.  But you be you.....BTW DVI are also a waste.....customers want a verbal explanation.  Yes we do share pictures.  We have been texting with Riptide for 6 years.  But texting has its own limitations.  Customers still your to explain verbally the cost and reason for the repair....all these other systems are for to masking weak selling technique.  In fairness they may work for a tire store or something like that.... but not a full service auto repair facility.

 

PJ,

Interesting analysis. I'm out of the business now, but I was just talking with the new owner of my old business. We were taking about some of these things, from Social Media to Digital Inspections, to texting. My experience, if you have a shop with a personal connection to the customer, it is almost always what comes out of your mouth, or your trusted employees mouth that matters the most. When we tried the DI's, sales did not change at all. Just took up more of my tech's and service managers time. I loved having the reports, but in the end it is about return on investment. For us it was a time investment as we had free access to several systems. Most of our customers liked seeing the employees pictures on the reports, more than the pictures of their car's broken parts. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big tech person. I created the first cloud based shop management program, and did a lot of ECM flashing. So I know the value of technology. 

I think AI is a bit of a joke, and hate when companies use it to try to communicate with me, so I would have never used it to care for my customers.

The reason the dealers are all going to the video inspections, and all these other selling tools, is because they still don't get why customers don't trust them, and they think these tools will help them overcome that.

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  • Have you checked out Joe's Latest Blog?

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      I recently spoke with a friend of mine who owns a large general repair shop in the Midwest. His father founded the business in 1975. He was telling me that although he’s busy, he’s also very frustrated. When I probed him more about his frustrations, he said that it’s hard to find qualified technicians. My friend employs four technicians and is looking to hire two more. I then asked him, “How long does a technician last working for you.” He looked puzzled and replied, “I never really thought about that, but I can tell that except for one tech, most technicians don’t last working for me longer than a few years.”
      Judging from personal experience as a shop owner and from what I know about the auto repair industry, I can tell you that other than a few exceptions, the turnover rate for technicians in our industry is too high. This makes me think, do we have a technician shortage or a retention problem? Have we done the best we can over the decades to provide great pay plans, benefits packages, great work environments, and the right culture to ensure that the techs we have stay with us?
      Finding and hiring qualified automotive technicians is not a new phenomenon. This problem has been around for as long as I can remember. While we do need to attract people to our industry and provide the necessary training and mentorship, we also need to focus on retention. Having a revolving door and needing to hire techs every few years or so costs your company money. Big money! And that revolving door may be a sign of an even bigger issue: poor leadership, and poor employee management skills.
      Here’s one more thing to consider, for the most part, technicians don’t leave one job to start a new career, they leave one shop as a technician to become a technician at another shop. The reasons why they leave can be debated, but there is one fact that we cannot deny, people don’t quit the company they work for, they usually leave because of the boss or manager they work for.
      Put yourselves in the shoes of your employees. Do you have a workplace that communicates, “We appreciate you and want you to stay!”
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