You search your customer database. Nothing. You check your repair orders. No match. You read the review again and your stomach turns — because the language is almost identical to another 1-star review that showed up just 7 days ago. This isn't an unhappy customer. This is an attack. That's exactly what happened to @Eddie Lawrence. Eddie's a member of this community and the owner of MTR in Colorado Springs — a shop he's been building for close to 30 years. Someone was smearing MTR's name with customers, vendors, and even his own team through a variety of methods including fake Google reviews. Eddie didn't just sit there and take it. He reached out to me and we fought back, got the reviews removed, and Eddie documented the entire process step by step so you'd know exactly what to do if this happens to you. I'm going to walk you through his playbook in a minute. But first — here's the thing most shop owners don't realize: Negative reviews aren’t just a sales problem. They’re a recruiting filter. If a tech sees you don’t respond, they don’t assume “busy.” They assume “drama.” And they move on. When a tech is thinking about applying to your shop — or when they've already applied and they're doing their homework on you — one of the first things they do is check your Google reviews. And when they see unresponded-to negative reviews? They ghost. I've seen it happen over and over again across hundreds of shops. A great candidate goes silent and the shop owner can't figure out why. Then I look at their Google profile and there are 3 negative reviews with zero responses sitting right there on page one. Silence is never neutral. It's always interpreted negatively. So here's the playbook. Whether you're dealing with an unhappy customer or an outright fraud, here's exactly how to handle negative reviews — ranked from best-case to worst-case scenario. THE REVIEW RESPONSE HIERARCHY 🥇 Best outcome: Get them to take the review down.

Most shop owners interview technicians the same way every other employer does. Sit down. Ask questions. Shake hands. Hope for the best. Then three weeks later they're wondering why the guy who "nailed the interview" can't balance a tire without fumbling around like he's never seen a wheel weight. You've heard me call it "all hat, no cattle." (hat tip to my Texas friends!) They talk a great game. They've practiced their answers. They might even sound like they wrote the ASE study guide. But talking about fixing cars and actually fixing cars are two very different things. That's why the best shops I know don't just interview. They invite candidates to work. And the ones who do it well make it feel like the easiest, most natural thing in the world. No pressure. No weird tests. Just one simple line: 👉"If you ever want to see what a day feels like here, we'll pay you for your time." That one sentence does three things at once. It shows respect. It removes risk. And it tells the technician everything they need to know about who you are as a shop owner. The shops that run even a one-day working interview? They hire faster. They hire better. And they almost completely eliminate the "bad hire" that looked great on paper. The ones who do a three-day working interview? Phenomenal results. Almost zero regrets. You get to see if they show up on time. Come back from lunch on time. Whether they actually know their way around a bay — or just know their way around an interview. Stop hoping your gut feeling is right. Let the work speak for itself. By-the-way... This works for techs on your bench too. Have you been keeping in touch with a tech for a year or two with no forward momentum? Shoot them a quick text with that simple sentence and see what happens. Here it is again so you don't forget: 👉"If you ever want to see what a day feels like here, we'll pay you for your time."

The two images below are ready for your shop's Facebook page. Pick the one that feels right. Just one. HERE'S THE DESCRIPTION TEXT TO GO ALONG WITH THE IMAGE "We don't work weekends. That's time for family and the things you love. We want our employee's lives to work inside and outside of the shop." Here's your move: → Post it on your FB business page → Boost it for $20 — 10-mile radius → Come back here and tell us what happened This is passive recruiting. Stop telling technicians your culture is great. Show them. Every employed tech within 10 miles scrolling on Sunday will see it. Let that sink in. 👇

Zappos does something most shop owners would call insane. During onboarding, they offer new employees up to $4,000 to walk away. No hard feelings. Just take the cash and leave. Their thinking? If someone takes the money, they were never committed anyway. Better to find out in week two than month six when they've poisoned your shop culture and you've wasted thousands on training. Here's what got me thinking... Most of you already have 90-day probationary periods. You're already doing the "trial" part. But what if you added a financial incentive for the uncommitted to self-select out? And there's another angle here that's unique to our industry: The toolbox. Some shops pay to move a tech's box in. What if you also committed to paying to move it out—no questions asked—if either party decides it's not a fit during that first 90 days? Think about it: A tech's toolbox can cost $500-$1,500 to move. That's real money. But what's the cost of a bad hire who sticks around because leaving feels too expensive? I genuinely don't know if this would work in our world. That's why I'm asking. Three questions for the group: 1. Would offering a "quit bonus" during probation attract better candidates (who see it as confidence) or worse ones (who see it as an easy payday)? 2. If you guaranteed to pay a tech's toolbox in AND out during the first 90 days, would that make you more attractive to committed A-players... or just make it easier for flakes to bounce? 3. What's the REAL cost of a wrong hire who stays too long versus one who leaves too soon? 👇Drop your take below. I want the honest answers, not the polite ones.

A thriving shop isn't held together by perks, posters, or promises. It's built by how your people experience the work—every single day. And when that experience is magnetic? You don't just keep people. You attract more of the right ones. Here are 3 ways to make your culture something people can feel: 1. Translate values into visible behavior. Mission statements don't create loyalty. Actions do. If "Never Settle" is on your wall but not in your workflows, it's just decoration. 👉 Try This: Pick ONE core value. Ask yourself: "What does this actually look like at 2pm on a Tuesday?" Then make that behavior the standard. 2. Make recognition part of the rhythm. When people feel seen, they stay. And appreciation is contagious—once it starts, it spreads. 👉 Try This: Start every Daily Huddle with 90 seconds of peer shoutouts. Rotate who leads it. Watch what happens when recognition becomes expected, not exceptional. 3. Keep the feedback loop open—always. Great environments evolve with input. If you're not asking regularly, you're missing the early signals of disengagement. 👉 Try This: Add a quick monthly pulse check (3 questions max). Include one prompt: "What's one thing that would improve your day-to-day?" Then actually act on what you hear. 🔧 Resource: I built a custom GPT that generates a shop's Mission, Vision & Values statement in minutes. Makes this stuff drop-dead simple to implement. [Link in comments] What's ONE thing you're doing right now to make your culture felt—not just stated? Drop it below. 👇