You might wonder if explaining a repair to a customer is worth the effort. You might even think they have no idea what you’re talking about. After all, they aren’t technicians. Let me share something I recently learned.
My brother’s buddy, Jaxsonm was driving his old 1959 Metropolitan when it started making a horrible noise from the engine 150 miles from home. He pulled into a gas station and called me to try to decipher the noise. He described it as a rattling sound. He, of course, moved his cell phone around inside the engine compartment to help me diagnose it, but to no avail. His passenger thought it might be the clutch. I described where the clutch arm might be coming out of the housing and then to grab it. It felt OK to him. He shifted his thinking to a possible internal engine issue, so he towed it home.
He located a used engine and asked me and my brother to help him take it apart. The equipment yard where he took had an engine hoist. At the yard, I had him start the car so I could listen to the noise. It was not a uniform tapping or knocking, so I figured it wasn’t inside the engine. I moved my head and ears around the engine compartment to help locate the source of the rattling. I guessed it was the generator, so we took off the fan belt to listen again. It was beautifully quiet. When I spun the generator by hand, it wasn’t very loud, so we put the belt back on. This time I grabbed a screwdriver with a plastic handle, touched it to the generator, and felt the vibration through my hand. I put the screwdriver against my ear also. I then explained how I determined it was the generator to let him feel it through his hand and at his ear.
I guessed the noise within one minute and confirmed it within two. Those three minutes saved him the time and trouble of taking the engine out and tearing it apart, yet nobody applauded or cheered. Was that just a guy thing to not appreciate another guy’s success? Or was it that I was a mechanic, and I should be able to do that easily?
Luckily, the story gets better.
The next day, Jaxson was talking to Sandy, a mutual friend of ours, about the good news regarding his car. He got excited when explaining how the problem was the generator and how he got to hold the screwdriver in his hand to feel the vibration there and next to his ear. He also learned about the pros and cons of a rebuilt generator versus a new one. Next, he was shown why he needed a new fan belt. The explanation went further with a look into the radiator where the coolant level was below the core tubes.
The point of all this was to show that while the initial explanation was uneventful when he talked about it the next day, the explanation from the day earlier was at a whole new level—meaning, the explanation meant something to him.
While we can’t always be this hands-on when explaining repairs or maintenance, it can have a deeper effect than we think. Just remember to keep the explanations simple: don’t be overly complicated. And of course, be aware of industry jargon, which is so easy for us to fall into because we talk that way all day long. There is a public speaking maxim that says: Explain things to your audience like they are eighth graders.
One more thing: Don’t be condescending. You’re educating your customer to help them make an informed decision or simply understand the repair, not show off your vast knowledge. If there’s a husband and wife, talk to both, not just the husband.
Now that I think about it, many of my great reviews stem from the customers mentioning my clear and understandable descriptions of their repair or maintenance. They said it was refreshingly different from the previous shops they’d visited. What better way to take care of your customers and get great reviews?
