Wrenching on the Road: Creating a Great Mobile Repair Experience

If your truck broke down by the side of the road
Who you gonna call? MOBILE REPAIR
If your alternator’s shot, or your tire’s blown
Who you gonna call? MOBILE REPAIR

There are few things more stressful to a truck driver than the abrupt breakdown of a vehicle. You can probably empathize: one minute a driver is cruising along, singing “Don’t Stop Believin’,” and the next the truck is sputtering, coughing, demanding respite. They pull over. What’s wrong with it? How is this going to impact their  schedule? Oh, crud, if this goes on too long they’re looking at lost time, lost pay, and a cascade of inconveniences that often end up hitting the customer at the end of the chain.

It is, as they say, stressful.

Fortunately for stranded drivers, we live in the time of the mobile technician. When the distress signal arrives, these heroic mechanics pile into their trucks and set off to rescue the driver and vehicle. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these—

(Editor’s Note: Suz, that’s a saying associated with the United States Postal Service, not diesel repair.) 

Oh. Okay. Anyway, the mobile repair tech is a pretty awesome addition to the heavy-duty field. We’ve written about them quite a lot (heck, we even have an ebook about starting your own mobile repair business!), but today, we’re going to take a look at something that tends to get lost in the warm glow of rescue: creating a good experience for the people you’re rescuing. 

Hey, don’t get us wrong. Sometimes showing up does it. They’re glad to see you. You change the tire and money is exchanged. Bam! They’re on the road, you’re heading to your next call. Easy-peasy. But how do you make it good?

We spoke to several mobile repair professionals running operations of various sizes. We do mean various, too; everyone from a one-man band to shops with multiple locations that happened to have a mobile branch. We’d like to thank these awesome folks for their time:

• Jordan Steen of Six Gun Diesel Performance and Repair in Sutherland, Iowa.
• Ashley Sowell of Integrity Fleet Services in Conroe, Texas.
• Jimmy Wall of Donahue Truck Centers in Santa Maria, California. 
• Josh Miller of Kleyn Mobile Repair in Jenison, Michigan. 

While everyone’s process was a little different, each provided information that we think shops of any size will find useful.

The Scheduling and Repair Process

Generally, the process looks like this:

• Call comes in; whoever is taking the call gets as many details as possible. 
• The customer is told when a tech will be dispatched and about how long it should take to get to them (traffic jams and wandering Bermuda Triangles notwithstanding). 
• The technician arrives on the scene and diagnoses the problem(s). They communicate clearly to the customer exactly what’s up, how they will make the repair, and how much it will cost. 
• Once the repair is authorized, the technician gets to work. If there are changes in the situation — say the repair is taking longer, or they find they need a different part — they keep the customer updated. 
• When the repair is complete, the customer settles up and is on their way!

Like we said, these steps are general. Sometimes a tech takes full or partial payment upfront, for example. If an emergency callout is taken through FleetNet America, then it’s FleetNet handling the payment (psssst FleetNet integrates with Fullbay, just sayin’). And the person taking the initial call and dispatching the tech may vary; sometimes it’s the service advisor or dedicated office or account manager, while sometimes it’s the tech themselves.  

Now, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of how shops can make the experience a good one for their customers. 

Handling Scheduling and Estimates

Donahue Truck Centers has a dedicated employee who handles all mobile repair scheduling, whether it’s preventive maintenance or emergency work. “She’ll create the [Service Order]. She’ll find the technician that we’re gonna send. She’ll figure out when we can go,” Jimmy says, and “she’ll get the details of where the truck’s at and information.”

Jimmy credits a great deal of mobile repair success to this role and employee. And to be clear, Donahue is a larger operation with six locations, and they handle both mobile maintenance and emergency callouts. An employee who only deals with mobile scheduling makes sense for them; it may not be the best call for a smaller operation. 

Kleyn Mobile makes contact with the customer and lets them know what next steps are. “[We tell them] ‘It’s gonna be [this much] to drive out to you, and then it’s gonna be this much to do diagnostics … and then we’re gonna give you a quote,’” Josh says. 

In general, diag work waits until a tech is on the scene. This makes sense; as Ashley points out, all kinds of stuff can happen on the road. “[A driver] could call you and say, ‘It’s just the air line,’ but then tell you they hit something and the undercarriage is completely missing,” she says. “You never know what you’re gonna really walk into. So we set that up front when we take in the information … but we let them know that until we actually put our hands and eyes on it, we can’t give a hundred percent confirmation of how much it will cost for us to take a look at it.” 

Time is Money (For Everyone Involved)

The good news about mobile repair: You take your truck and drive out to the stranded unit.

The bad news about mobile repair: You take your truck and drive out to the stranded unit.

On the one hand, you are meeting them where they are. On the other hand, there may be quite a lot of, well, stuff in between you and that vehicle, including congested highways, clown-filled backroads, fire ants, potholes deep enough to fall into, and the aurora borealis. The point is, you might get a call at 10, and say “OK, I’ll be there by noon,” except you run into a flock of emus and have to go around, and suddenly it’s two o’clock, and…

“We’re gonna come out there as quickly as possible,” says Jimmy, but sometimes things just happen. An emergency callout might be an hour away. They have to load up the truck before they send it out. “I’m working on a model right now of giving customers a window of time,” he adds. 

Give your customers a window that gives you time to get the truck ready and also accounts for things like possible traffic issues and refueling stops. Give yourself some time — hey, if all goes according to plan and you get there in a half-hour instead of an hour, then that’s good news for everyone. 

And if you do get stuck in a jam of some sort, let the customer know ASAP. As we’ll discuss later, communication is everything. 

Professionalism in the Wild

Roadside work brings entirely different levels of stressors to the game. Again, these guys are stuck on the side of the highway, often thinking about their paycheck, their PTO (if they have it), and what kind of consequences they might end up facing if they don’t get moving soon. And yes, sometimes they’re just naked.

Mobile techs have to deal with all of the issues of an in-shop tech…but they often have to do it in far less hospitable environments. Think 25-degree weather and a 40-mile-per-hour wind, and maybe a frazzled driver circling the unit. You can train a tech to deal with repairs, but how do you manage the human element?

“We try to go through scenarios with [techs],” says Josh. “Usually, you can’t prepare for them all, but … each person [knows] they’re here to represent the company, so they must act in a professional manner. But they also got to know how to handle a bad situation. Gotta be ready for some of that fun stuff.”

A few suggestions you and your techs can follow to keep customer relations cool and calm:

• Acknowledge their frustration. Hey, it sucks when your truck is pulled over and you’re behind schedule. Phrases like “I get why this is frustrating” and “Yeah, man, this is stressful” can go a long way. But remember, it’s not your fault their vehicle is stranded.
• Stick to facts. Focus on what has been diagnosed, what’s left to check, and what the realistic next steps are. This is not the time for spitballing or jokes. 
• Keep your voice calm and level. Occasionally, emotions get the better of people. Remaining calm and relaxed can help a frazzled person soothe their nerves a bit.
• Explain what happens next. You know what keeps people calm? A plan. Let them know what you’re working on, and about how long it will take. If they’re stuck on the road with you, knowing what stage of the repair they’re at will put their minds more at ease. Transparency is everything in the repair process, and describing what you’re working on can cut down on the shock associated with a large bill at the end. 
• Bring them a snack. A lot of shops provide some sort of grub in the waiting room. Why not bring it on the road? Emergency callouts in particular will appreciate it, as they were not expecting to be stuck in their busted vehicle, possibly without anything to eat. Obviously we’re not talking about bringing over filet mignon or a lobster roll; think things that are small, easily transported, and won’t go bad if you leave them in the truck for a while. Think granola bars, beef jerky, bottled water. Maybe coffee in a thermos (er, you’ll need to replenish that on the daily, though). 

Of course, you can do all that and still wind up with a customer who is not willing to play ball. At some point, you may need to decide if you want to pursue the repair or cut your losses. That’s something that will (again) depend on your particular situation; some mobile techs can refer difficult customers back to the office, but if you’re a one-man band, it’s a decision you’ll have to make for yourself. 

Communication is Everything (As Usual)

Something all four of our interviewees (and countless Fullbay customers before them) emphasized is the need to keep the customer in the loop. People want to know what’s going on with their machinery. If it’s an emergency callout, they really want to know what’s up, because this isn’t planned downtime. 

Communication will get you everywhere in this field. Is that component going to cost a little more? Tell them. Is the repair taking longer than you hoped? Tell them. “They just need to know,” Ashley explains. “If you go back and tell them one thing and then, a couple hours later … it’s $3,000 [instead of] the $600 [quoted]…yeah. They’re gonna have problems.” 

Don’t leave customers in the dark. Don’t spring things on them. Keep them in the loop at all times. 

The Fine Art of Settling Up

And now we move on to the sticky part of any service: payment.

In general, taking payment on the road should be pretty much the same as taking payment in the shop. You want to give your customer lots of options and let them settle up with minimal friction. In most cases, the driver is likely eager to be on their way, so a quick method of payment is often deeply appreciated. 

Generally, the more payment options you can provide, the better. Think things like:

• Credit or debit card.
• Fleet cards/fleet checks.
• Regular checks.
• BNPL options like Affirm and Klarna.
• Digital wallets like Google Pay and Apple Pay.

“We have Fullbay Payments, so we’re able to do the payment right there [with] the credit card,” says Josh. “So that’s really nice to have that.”

When you take payment during a repair is equally important, and while we hate to say “It depends”…well…it depends. Working with locals that you’ve built relationships with is, by its nature, going to look quite different from repairing a truck you’ll never see again. 

Some options include:

• An upfront partial payment ranging between 10%-50% of the overall estimated cost of the work.
• Paying for diagnostic work upfront, then repairs. 
• Full payment upfront before work begins.
• Payment in full after the work is completed and the vehicle is ready to go.

Look familiar? It should; they’re all options brick-and-mortar shops have, too. Mobile repair does have a tendency to ask for some portion of payment before work begins; this is understandable, as often these folks are just passing through and you have no idea when you’re going to see them again. 

This can become particularly expensive when you’ve got parts on the line. Jordan has long-standing relationships with many of his local mobile customers, and if a repair is going to take a long time, he prefers to get at least partial payment going beforehand. “That’s a long time to sit on cash and have to front that,” he says. 

On Creating a Great Mobile Repair Experience

Let’s be blunt: a “great mobile repair experience” is going to be largely subjective. If you’re on an emergency call-out, the person you’re rescuing is already having a lousy day. You are trying to improve their day and get them back on the road. It’s cliche, but to borrow from GI Joe, showing up is half the battle. 

(Editor’s Note: The phrase is actually “Knowing is half the battle,” but I’ll allow it.) 

The point is, your customers may not be having a “great” day, even when they get back out on the road. But you can show up and give them a hand and make that day better. If you arrive when you say you will, communicate clearly about what’s going on, and take payment quickly after making the repair, you are going to be way ahead of the competition.