About a year ago, the service director at Austin Subaru in Texas gave Josh Arnold, a senior master technician there, a copy of “Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect.” Written by restaurateur Will Guidara, it focuses on elevating a dining experience.
“The biggest thing I took away was, whenever you do something, do it to the next level,” Arnold tells WardsAuto.
For him, that means sending not just a basic Multi-Point Inspection (MPI) video to a service customer prior to service but also sending additional, personalized videos as the repair progresses. Customers love it.
“Everyone says they are blown away,” Arnold says. “One (customer) said it is cutting edge. I have had my name mentioned in reviews. They remember my name, not just ‘the tech’ because I introduce myself as Josh.”
Arnold produces the videos using myKaarma software. The platform allows multiple videos per repair order, he says.
The initial video can be up to five minutes. Subsequent videos are shorter. They are delivered via text or email, depending on the customer’s preference.
None of the other service technicians at Austin Subaru are currently sending multiple videos, Arnold says. “It is me piloting it.”
He isn’t paid extra for doing it, but sees sending multiple videos as both a gift to customers and a way to develop a relationship with them.
That can be tough at Austin Subaru, which has two service department locations with 60 bays between them.
Arnold, who previously worked at a smaller Toyota dealership in Oregon, says he felt “pretty sad” over how tough it was to develop a relationship with customers in the larger dealership.
The videos changed that. Customers now ask for Arnold to work on their vehicle, he says.
“It does cost some time and efficiency,” Arnold says of the videos, “but the results have been worth it.”
Videos Boost CSI Scores
Good communication is a surefire way to boost a service department’s Customer Service Index (CSI) score. Videos are especially effective, though not yet commonplace.
On the most recent J.D. Power CSI survey, among customers who received an MPI, 23% received a picture or video as supporting evidence of the results.
When a picture or video is included, customers are nearly three times as likely to agree to have the recommended work done, the study found. And on a scale of one to 10, Effectiveness of Communication is 9.08 when MPI picture or video evidence is included compared to 8.47 without.
The 2025 U.S. Customer Service Index Study is based on 55,210 verified registered owners and lessees of one- to three-year-old vehicles. The study was conducted from July through December 2024.
Keeping Customers Even More in the Loop
His managers have always been supportive of his video experiment, Arnold says. The service advisors were less enthusiastic. Initially they worried that his videos were “leaning into their jobs a little bit,” he says.
Now they are they are “100%” behind it. “They know it leads to amazing results and don’t want to go without it,” Arnold says.
Arnold has recently started experimenting with mid-repair videos for service work such as an engine rebuild that can take several weeks, “so the customer doesn’t feel left out,” he says.
Even more innovations are likely in the future. At his previous job at the Toyota dealership, Arnold internalized the Japanese concept of Kaizen, or continuous improvement.
“I will never stray from that,” he says.
