The SOLE purpose of the phone is to set appointments. Period. It's not to diagnose over the phone. It's not to give prices over the phone. It's to set appointments. Remember that. Every sales school I've ever been to has preached that.

If people want prices, there's no shortage of shops they can call, or even online services like AutoMD, and etc. I simply tell them that our prices are competitive and the reasons our customers come to us are because of our accurate diagnosis, honesty, and fair prices.

I go on to tell them to look at our BBB and online reviews like Google and Yelp. We have an A+ rating with the BBB and all of our techs are ASE certified Masters.

I give them all the reasons why our customers come to us and finish up with "And the reason I don't give telephone price quotes is that we give only written estimates. Telephone price quotes are never accurate and I don't want to mislead anybody, especially you. Price quotes on things I can't see get me into trouble and I don't like trouble, do you?

When you take your vehicle to a shop that quotes you a price over the phone, if you leave for that same exact price, to the penny, stop by here and I want to buy you lunch to know who has a crystal ball in this town."

Larry Bloodworth
Technical Information Specialist/Technician
Tanner Transmissions
Draper, Utah, USA