The Power of Communication

**🎙️ Podcast Show Notes:

If you’ve ever had a job go sideways, a customer get frustrated, or a tech shut down… chances are it wasn’t the repair. It was the communication… or lack of!

In this week’s episode, we break down one of the biggest hidden profit killers in a collision shop… and honestly, in your personal life too: communication gaps. When you don’t clearly explain what’s happening, people don’t just sit back and wait… they start filling in the blanks. And whether it’s a customer, a technician, or your spouse, those blanks usually turn into worst-case stories.

Inside your shop, that shows up as missed handoffs, confusion between departments, and a team that slowly checks out. At home, it can look like tension, misunderstandings, or feeling like you’re not being heard. Same root problem, different setting.

On the customer side, silence feels like neglect. If you don’t explain delays or next steps, they assume the worst. The same thing happens in relationships… when communication drops, trust starts to fade, even if nothing is actually wrong.

The fix isn’t complicated, but it does take intention. Strong leaders and strong partners use clear, consistent communication across three channels: verbal (what you say), visual (what people see), and nonverbal (how you show up). When you match the message to the person, everything runs smoother… at work and at home.

We also introduce a simple framework you can use immediately: LUV… Listen, Understand, Validate. It’s a powerful way to reduce tension, build trust, and keep conversations productive in every part of your life.

Powerful Key Takeaways:

• Communication gaps create problems at work and at home faster than you think
• Clear, consistent messaging builds trust with your team, customers, and family
• The LUV method (Listen, Understand, Validate) helps turn tough conversations into better outcomes

At the end of the day, great communication isn’t about being nice. It’s about building trust, reducing stress, and creating better results… in your shop and in your relationships.

If this helped, follow or subscribe, share it with a friend in the industry, and leave a quick rating and review so more shop owners and teams can find it. 

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Transcript

Why Communication Matters

Rick 0:00

There's a great quote from author John Gordon. Where there is a gap in communications, negativity will always fill the void. Since the early days of man, scratching out drawings on the walls of caves during the Neanderthal era, our need to communicate with others has been as critical to our survival as food, water, and shelter. That crude drawing on a rock wall of a saber toothed tiger near a clump of trees outside the cave was as much a lifesaver to other cavemen back then as a yellow and black electrical hazard sign near a two hundred twenty electrical panel, or a red danger sign near a cliff, or even a skull and crossbones icon on the bottle of chemicals in today's world. Effective and honest communication is not only the lifeblood to a well-run, successful business and less stressful work environment, but it also makes a massive difference in the quality of personal relationships, family life, and allows us to interact in this great big crazy world of ours. Oh yeah, it can also mean the difference between life and death. If you're a returning listener and haven't done so already, please take a minute and click the follow or subscribe button and then rate and review the show. When you rate and review the show, the algorithms for Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, and all the other platforms will see that it's valuable and show it to more people that have never seen it before, and hopefully it can help them too. I would really, really, really appreciate your help sharing this word with your friends and family as well. And if you're a brand new listener, welcome. I hope you find something of value here that helps you in your personal or professional life as well. Please make sure to click the subscribe or follow button so you never miss another episode. If you've been listening to the show for a while, or been on the receiving end of my daily quote of the day emails, or maybe just catch my posts on Facebook or LinkedIn. You know I'm all about the quotes, right? If you'd like to start receiving my quote of the day emails, there's a link in the show notes to sign up. It's free and you can unsubscribe at any time. I want to talk to you this week about a problem we need to address, not only in our industry and our business, but in our everyday lives as well. A problem that has costs, costs we don't always see, cost to our business, cost to our success, cost to our relationships, cost to our happiness and emotional well being. The great news is these are costs that can be eliminated or drastically reduced by something as simple as really understanding and utilizing the power of communication. But first, I want to illustrate what I'm talking about with a few common scenarios. A shop owner sitting at his desk, working on his computer with his door open. A tech walks into his office and says, Hey boss, got a minute? And without even hearing what the tech wanted, the owner quickly replies, Is Mrs. Smith's Lexus ready to go to paint yet? I need Jimmy to get that car painted ASAP. It's scheduled to go at two PM today. Is it in paint yet? The tech stammers, uh no, I'm still working on it, but the owner cuts him off short, look, I don't have time for your bullshit this morning. I don't want to see you again until that Lexus is in the paint department. Got it? The tech walks away, shaking his head, wondering what the hell he did wrong or what he said that lit that boss's fuse like that. I'm sure none of you guys ever had this happen, right? You're driving somewhere with your better half, and she starts talking to you about something important to her that she's looking for your input on. And about thirty seconds into her talking, she notices you flipping through a couple radio stations and asks, Are you even listening to me? And you reply with a uh yeah. And she says, Okay, what was I talking about then? And you reply with something lame and totally unrelated you're now officially busted, which then turns into an ugly argument. The rest of the day your better half gives you the cold shoulder and the silent treatment and tops it off with the old I'm tired and going to bed early. Why don't you just sleep on the couch tonight? And as you try to settle into the couch to sleep, you just can't help stop wondering what the hell did I say that got her so mad? I didn't do anything. Your shop gets a nice little front end hit on a late model Ford Fusion, and your estimator writes the initial estimate but must wait for the adjuster, due to you guys not being on the DRP program, but assures the customer it should normally take less than ten days for a job this size, and a customer leaves their car there, planning on getting it back in ten days. Well on day number eight, customer calls a shop, gets a CSR this time, who lets them know the adjuster was just out yesterday, and they should be able to order the parts and start repairing their fusion tomorrow. That would be day number nine. Customer, just a little annoyed at this point, says, How much longer before I get it back? And the CSR replies, Well, if we get all the parts without any back orders, eh should take a couple days for the body shop, a couple days for paint department and reassembly and detail. Oh, you're probably looking at least another week minimum. Needless to say, customer was not happy, but the good news was they were able to pick up their car on the last day of that following week, on Friday. The last car to get delivered that day, 5 30 PM. Now although your shop did a great job on the repair, and the paint job was mint, the customer left a scathing review on Google and Yelp, and noted on their CSR card sent out by your shop after the repair that they would never be back and would not recommend anyone to your shop. Quite simply, all these scenarios had one major thing in common poor communication or lack of communication. And it wasn't just one sided on any of these examples either. There's a great quote from author John Gordon. Where there is a gap in communications, negativity will always fill the void. Since the early days of man, scratching out drawings on the walls of caves during the Neanderthal era, our need to communicate with others has been as critical to our survival as food, water, and shelter. That crude drawing on a rock wall of a saber toothed tiger near a clump of trees outside the cave was as much a lifesaver to other cavemen back then as a yellow and black electrical hazard sign near a two hundred twenty electrical panel, or a red danger sign near a cliff, or even a skull and crossbones icon on the bottle of chemicals in today's world. Effective and honest communication is not only the lifeblood to a well-run, successful business and less stressful work environment, but it also makes a massive difference in the quality of personal relationships, family life, and allows us to interact in this great big crazy world of ours. Oh yeah, it can also mean the difference between life and death, you know, just saying. If you're running a collision shop, whether second generation, third generation, or original owner, grinding every day, putting out fires, chasing KPIs, working in rather than on the business, and wondering why progress still feels slower than it should, let's take a little pause right here. As a longtime industry supplier, performance coach, and host of this podcast, I've worked inside this industry for over four decades, and I've learned a few things the hard way. Tools and tactics absolutely matter, but mindset drives everything. How you think shapes how you lead, how you hire, how you grow, and how you show up when things get messy. That's where one-on-one coaching makes a difference. You get focused conversations, real accountability, and guidance tailored to you in your shop, not generic cookie cutter advice. The collision repair business has changed dramatically in the last few years. The technology, the tools, the equipment needed to repair today's new vehicles, customer expectations that vary by generation, OEM certifications and repair procedures, ADAS calibrations, electric vehicles, and the ever-growing national technician shortage, it's a lot, isn't it? It can be absolutely overwhelming and very challenging on where to focus first, right? If only I had someone who could help me find clarity in all the chaos. If only there was someone that could help guide me through the changes I need to make so I could create a successful business, increase my net revenue. If only I had a coach that could help me without getting in my way, or trying to run my business for me, or costing me a fortune. This is where I can help. The goal is simple. Help you make consistent improvements, build sustainable culture, gain better profitability, and shave years off the learning curve. If you're open to adjusting how you think and how you lead, book a free 15-minute discovery call with me right now. No sales pitch, no blue sky promises, just an honest conversation to see if it's a fit. You have absolutely nothing to lose but everything to gain. Secure a spot now. So our main problem is, as business owners, we don't effectively communicate with those that we employ, those that are critical parts of our business, our families, or our customers. As a human race, we fail miserably in full, honest, timely communication with almost everybody in our lives. But I don't believe it's because we don't want to, although in some cases it probably is, but rather we just don't really know how to. When we were young, our first learnings of communication came from our parents. Some of it was verbal, some nonverbal, and what we learned really depended on the ability of our parents to effectively communicate to us. Some were good at it, many were not, and most of their skills or lack of was based on how their parents were with them. For those that would be considered boomers or early Gen Xers, as we worked our way through school, written communications were very good from school administrators, teachers, and our classroom settings, but it was basically a single channel of learning and a single form of communications. Textbooks, blackboards, projector slides, exams, study guides, and tests were all forms of written communications, which made it simple to produce, distribute, and scale from an educator standpoint, having consistency of what was taught was easy. But as we now know, not everybody learns the same way. Some of us do just fine with written versions of everything, but others can only learn through auditory or nonverbal methods. Well, thank God for the introduction of the industrial arts programs in public schools back in the sixties and seventies. So when I was in middle school and high school, that's where they had the auto shop, the wood shop, metal and welding shop classes, just to name a few. And if it weren't for those opportunities, we wouldn't have half the talented tradespeak in today, fixing our vehicles, building our homes and businesses, erecting skyscrapers, or dozens of other essential traits. Those that struggled learning in school through traditional methods may have had bad scores on tests and exams, but they excelled and showed their brilliance in the trades classes, watching the instructors as they worked with their hands, and learned quickly through the nonverbal methods of communication in education. Eventually, as time went on and Gen Y and Gen Z students went through school systems, more variety in learning methods through auditory testing, hands-on examinations, identifying communication and learning strengths by each individual student has led to better, more efficient educational experiences. But the one thing I feel our education system still fails to do that could benefit so many young kids, while they have their little minds captive for six or seven hours a day, five days a week, is to properly teach them about communication, the different forms, styles, and reasoning behind using all the different ways to communicate with others around them. How a look, an eyebrow raise, can say more than a full sentence, or how sometimes saying nothing can say everything. That even though we see magicians, gypsies, psychics seem to do it, nobody can actually read your mind or know exactly what you're thinking without you verbalizing it. So unless you effectively communicate what exactly is on your mind, how you feel about something, or what you're expecting from others you're dealing with, nobody, and I mean nobody, will be able to figure it out for you. Most people aren't taught what happens when they don't communicate effectively, the costs, the pains, the confusion that are the direct results of poor communication. There's basically three forms of communications. And although we use all three on a daily basis, I think it's helpful to know exactly what those are and how to use each form effectively. So the three main forms of communication is verbal, nonverbal, and visual. Verbal would be like spoken words, voicemails, what you hear on a podcast, radio, video. It's all things taken in through the ears. Visual is written. What you see in books, instructions, production boards, uh signage, uh different colors and shapes on signs. These are all things taken in through the eyes. And then there's nonverbal. That's body language. It's movement, physical barriers, touch. Nonverbal communication is used with body movements or gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice, eye contact, a posture, and it's all things that are taken in physically, through the hands or the body. But coincidentally, people learn in the same fashions through seeing, through hearing, and through doing. Along with the different forms of communication, there's also three categories of whom communications are directed to, or as I'll call them, intended receivers. The intended receivers of communications within your business would be number one, yourself. That's the internal dialogue you tell yourself, thoughts, dreams, fears, limiting beliefs. Second one is customers, internal and external. Those are the ones that your business serves. And three is your stakeholders. And that's could be a lot of people. That's your employees, that's your employers, investors, family, partners, vendors, suppliers, service or utility providers. Those are the ones that all interact directly with your company. As I mentioned earlier, we don't communicate effectively, especially in the business world. Where providing some form of customer service is how we generate our revenue. The costs, the pains, the confusion that are the direct results of poor communication can be quite devastating. Here are a few stats on what those costs can look like. And this might help shed some light on why you might be experiencing some or all of these. Ninety-seven percent of employees believe communication impacts their task efficiency on a daily basis. According to research, twenty-eight percent of employees point to poor communication as the reason for missed deadlines. More than eighty percent of Americans believe employee communication is crucial for developing trust with employers. A study by the Economist Intelligence Unit further illustrates how poor workplace communication can hurt the success of a workplace. Many times it results in failure to complete projects 44% of the time, low employee morale, 31% of the time, missed performance goals, 25% of the time, lost sales, 18% of the time. Communication expert Deborah Hamilton names the price of communication for small business center article top 10 email blunders that cost companies money. According to her, missed communication can cost a company of 100 employees or less up to$420,000 a year. While there are some large companies that lost up to$62 million a year because of poor communications, globally the cost of poor communication is now a whopping 37 billion. Now while these are alarming statistics for businesses to comprehend, the cost and impact to personal relationships, friendships, families, and marriages cannot be measured in dollars and cents. Sometimes the real cost is losing connection to someone you may care deeply about. In my 30 plus year sales career of growing and maintaining multimillion dollar territories, servicing hundreds of men and women in our industry, as well as a few other sales and service positions I held before then, I quickly learned how important communications can be. My success truly depended on how quickly I could learn, apply, and sharpen my skills in both listening effectively and using all available forms of communication to be crystal clear on my messages. Managing large sales and technical teams and their daily activities, dealing with not only multiple vendors and their management layers, but all the corporate inner office departments within a large distribution network can be daunting to say the least. Mastering the art of communication has been key to successfully navigating those potentially turbulent waters. I learned over time how to read others, understand how they best communicated, what worked and what didn't, and when I adjusted my methods to each individual, I really started seeing better results, less misunderstandings, and more positive outcomes. You see, effective communication is not a talent we're born with. It's a skill, and it's a skill that can be learned, improved, and mastered by anyone. But it doesn't just happen by accident. You have to put in the work first. There are three easy things to remember to start experiencing more beneficial communications for everybody involved through love. That's L U V, not L O V. This is a great hack I learned from someone else, and I just want to share it with you. Okay, so the first letter of love, L U V is L. L is for listening. So whether it's your customer, employee, spouse, kid, or friend, everybody, and I mean everybody, wants to be heard without interruption or correction. They just want you to listen to what they are trying to say. So listening without interrupting them, without trying to fix them or the situation they're explaining, just allow them the time to talk, get their thoughts out completely, and then wait a few seconds before you respond to them. Sometimes we don't listen while others are talking to us. It may look like it, but sometimes we're already thinking of a response that we can throw out the second they stop. That just shows you're not listening, right? But using a pause after they finish speaking lets them know that they were heard. You didn't check out before they completed their thought. Listen, we were given one mouth and two ears for a reason, right? Next letter is you. You is for understand. Using both verbal and nonverbal cues like head nods, mhms, raised eyebrows, oh yes. Really? Things like that can help the other person know that you're not only listening, but you're understanding what they're saying. Reflecting back to them parts of the conversation you are hearing also cements in that feeling for them. This works in any type of conversation, whether it's personal or business, it has the same effect. And this will lead right into the final letter. V. V is for a validate. Validating what someone is saying to you completes that process of your part of the communication. Saying things like, Yes, I can see where you're coming from, or yeah, I get what you mean there. Or I can understand why you would think that. Doing this without contradicting them, challenging what they just said, or immediately trying to fix them or the situation is key. Just something as simple as briefly summarizing what they communicated to you and getting their agreement that that was indeed what they meant can make a massive difference on what happens going forward. Communications is a big subject. We all know that. There is so much more to unpack than this, and I can't cover all of it in one podcast. So I'm sure I'll be digging into this more in future episodes. But for today, I just want to provide a little bit of understanding and a few quick tips on how you can start working on your half of those one-on-one conversations. And hopefully with a little LUV and practice, you can begin having improved communications in both your personal and professional life. Well, that's all I had for you today. Thanks again for tuning in. I really appreciate your support and hope you have a great week. I can always be reached at www.ricksilover.com, or you can find all my social media links, podcast episodes, blog posts, and much more.