A customer calls about a 2019 Chevy Silverado. Before he’s finished his sentence, the voice on the other end asks two questions: “Does it have the Bose system? Crew cab or double cab?” In 30 seconds, the right parts are on the quote and the customer feels like he’s in good hands.
That voice doesn’t belong to a chatbot. It belongs to someone with 40 years in the industry, working from home, 20 hours a week.
With everyone running toward AI, maybe the smartest hire a retailer or manufacturer can make is a person with decades of experience who just wants to keep working, on their own terms.
Our industry has plenty of gray hair, and some of those people are aging out. Retired manufacturer’s reps. Former store managers. Veteran counter guys. And installers whose bodies just can’t do the work anymore, but who still love it and still carry all that knowledge in their heads. A lot of these people aren’t ready to stop working. They just want to slow down. They’re not looking for 10-hour days or $80,000 to $100,000 a year. They want something small: help with the taxes, cover their medical premiums, a little pocket money. Some might be happy at $20,000 a year.
What they bring is hard to train. They know how to answer the phone. They know when they’re in over their head and when to hand a call off. They’ve been told off, put in awkward spots, and talked customers down more times than they can count. They stay calm under pressure because they’ve seen it all.
Better yet, there’s almost no learning curve. You don’t need to spend weeks training them on new software or internal systems. Their tools are the phone and the spoken word, and they’ve been sharpening those for decades.
And they know the product. A rep who never worked for your brand still knows an amplifier needs an amp kit, maybe an interface, maybe that special part nobody thinks of until installation day. Now imagine two part-timers with 60 years of experience between them. Window tint, PPF, dash cams, alarms, remote starters, radar, speakers. The possibilities are pretty limitless.
That knowledge matters, because cars aren’t houses. Houses don’t move, and you can run down a checklist. Vehicles come in endless trims, options and factory systems. A generic virtual assistant doesn’t know the lingo or what questions to ask. A veteran does.
For retailers:
Front line on the phones. Working remotely, they filter incoming calls, handle the basics, and pass qualified leads or tricky questions to your team. They become your knowledgeable middle person.
Weekends and after hours. Shops struggle to staff Saturdays and Sundays with young people. A remote veteran can be your swing shift from home, and a small store can expand its hours without keeping the doors open.
Add-on sales on online orders. Say you get eight online orders a day. That’s not enough to justify a full-time person, but it’s plenty for a dedicated part-timer at home who has the time to call every customer: “I noticed you bought this amplifier. What are you doing for wiring? What kind of vehicle is it going in?” That one call can turn a single item into a complete system, and they’ll likely maximize the sale better than a busy counter person squeezing it in between walk-ins.
For manufacturers:
Tech support. Picture two retired installers, each working four hours a day, fielding tech calls with 30-plus years of hands-on experience apiece. It may be the most affordable expert support line a brand could build, and for an installer who still wants to stay in the game, it could be the perfect fit.
The pay structure keeps the risk small. A modest hourly rate to be on call, plus commission on the add-ons they sell. If they don’t sell, you haven’t lost much. If they do, they pay for themselves.
But the most valuable thing they bring may be the simplest: they know how to talk to customers.
Not sure where to find them? Start with people you already know: former staff, retired reps you’ve worked with over the years. And maybe you didn’t know, but CEoutlook offers a Help Wanted section. We’ve already had a few inquiries about exactly this type of role, so we’re putting together a section just for it.
Our industry spends a lot of time complaining about the hand it’s been dealt. Maybe it’s time to start playing the cards we’ve got. Knowledge isn’t our problem. When it comes to experience and customer service, we have a deep bench. It’s time we started putting that bench to work.
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