Welcome to episode 20 of the Miracle Ford Podcast. Host, John Haggard, sits down with Clay McCool, a member of the Extreme Service Team at Miracle Ford located in Gallatin, TN. Clay talks over how the team he is a part of assists their customers in finding the best deals and prices on their purchases. They also talk about the following topics:

• Clay’s Background
• A Very Interesting Skill That Clay Has…
• Miracle VIP Advantage Program
• Ways the Extreme Service Team Can Help You
• Truck Month at Miracle Ford
• How to Contact Clay

Transcript

John Haggard 0:02
Welcome to the Miracle Ford podcast where you will be able to learn about the best ways to purchase or lease, maintain and accessorize your vehicle and how to sell your vehicle for the highest resale value possible when you’re ready to. Also, facts about various vehicles to help you make the right choice. And in the high technology area, the really cool features about the new Ford lineup at Miracle. I’m your host, John Haggard and throughout each month right here, as you probably already know, if you’ve been listening to the podcast, we do have different team members join us from Miracle to bring you tips that you can use. And by the way, we do post a transcript of each podcast so that you can easily refer to it for information that you would like to have at your fingertips. On today’s podcast, we’re talking to Clay McCool, he’s a member of the Extreme Service Team at Miracle Forward in Gallatin. Hey, Clay, welcome to the podcast.

Clay McCool 0:55
Hey, John. Thanks for having me.

John Haggard 0:56
Glad to have you. Hey, before we get started, folks always want to know who are the people behind the scenes? Tell us a little bit about you like what you were doing before you came to Miracle Ford?

Clay McCool 1:07
Well, before I came here, I was actually a manager at a country club. And before that, I actually did the sales over at a martial arts school here in Gallatin, the Gallatin Martial Arts.

John Haggard 1:20
Wow. So nobody better fool with you, right? Are you black belt?

Clay McCool 1:25
Actually, yeah, multiple different areas there. Yeah.

John Haggard 1:28
Wow, you are a black belt. That is that’s pretty serious. So how in the world do you go from managing a country club to its not jitsu stuff I guess is it? What do you call it?

Clay McCool 1:40
Actually, I do taekwondo, jujitsu, hapkido, gumbo, quite a bit actually.

John Haggard 1:48
And so how did you wind up in the automotive business of all things? That’s quite a background.

Clay McCool 1:53
Well, John, I really kind of wanted to change the change of atmosphere even if you will. And my dad he’s been working here Miracle and well just kind of took it up and I loved it ever since.

John Haggard 2:03
Sort of like father like son?

Clay McCool 2:05
Yeah, absolutely!

John Haggard 2:07
Now, what does your dad do at Miracle Ford?

Clay McCool 2:10
He is the painter.

John Haggard 2:12
Wow. Okay, so he’s back in the body shop.

Clay McCool 2:15
Mm hmm.

John Haggard 2:15
Are you from Gallatin?

Clay McCool 2:17
I am, actually. Yeah.

John Haggard 2:18
All right. So tell us where you went to school and what you majored in and kind of where you went from there.

Clay McCool 2:24
Well, I went to Gallatin High, got my diploma. And actually, from there, I just kind of went straight to work. First thing I did was moved to California and started working on the signs. So, I guess I got homesick came on back.

John Haggard 2:37
Yeah, and so you said you were working on signs in California. Tell us about that.

Clay McCool 2:43
I’d be the electrician. So, what they would do is they would blow the glass for the lights, the neon lights, they give me the cabinet. I’d take all that and put it in the cabinet put it with the transformer, and light thing up.

John Haggard 2:55
All right, all right. You have quite a background, man. I gotta tell you. So let me ask you this, what is one thing that people don’t know about you, Clay, that they would be very surprised to know about you if they found out?

Clay McCool 3:08
That would probably be the fact that I have a Martial Arts background, so I don’t really even tell anybody that.

John Haggard 3:14
Yeah. They probably run from you right?

Clay McCool 3:19
Yeah, better try and pick a fight.

John Haggard 3:22
Yeah, yeah, that’s pretty exciting. So tell me this role, Extreme Service Team, at Miracle Ford. What does that mean exactly and what do you do?

Clay McCool 3:34
Well, basically what I do, is when you come in for let’s say service, and you have a possibility of saving some money or so, I can go in and talk to you maybe give you an upgrade on your car, upgrade on a service contract. Pretty much to save you some money and you know, just try to help you out.

John Haggard 3:51
So you find some situations that come in where someone is going to you know, maybe be spending a lot of money to get some repair work done, older car, whatever it is. And you approach them and you say, “Hey, have you ever considered this and you might look at that, save that money and put that toward a new vehicle?”

Clay McCool 4:10
Absolutely. Or even if they have some serious work that needs to be done, I can always come up there and offer to maybe buy their car.

John Haggard 4:17
Okay, so tell me about that. When you say “buy the car,” you mean just buy it outright?

Clay McCool 4:22
Buy it from them, give them a quote on it. And sometimes a lot of people actually would like to take that up compared to you know, having to actually have it work done. It actually works. I mean, me personally, that’s how I got my first car when I bought my first car. I just got tired of dealing with the one that was always breaking down. So once you know, get it fixed up, somebody offered it to me, and I was like, yeah, actually, that’d be a great idea. I’ve been tired of fixing this thing up. Let me get a new car.

John Haggard 4:49
Since you’ve been at Miracle Ford, any unique story or something that you have heard since you have been there? Just something that was maybe unexpected or something you were able to do that helped someone in some way or just a wild story?

Clay McCool 5:04
The most wild story I can really think of is one of our customers just bought a brand new car. And he didn’t even get into the car he had to drive off. He was just got everything finished, all his paperwork, signed everything. And one of our guys, he works here, he accidentally backed up into the thing! Everything was taken care of, we fixed him out, he laughed at the whole matter and it was just a funny situation. I just couldn’t believe the man just bought a car, and then bam, he got hit.

John Haggard 5:44
I understand from the notes, Clay, here that you have a VIP program. Can you tell me a little bit about what that is?

Clay McCool 5:51
Yeah, absolutely. The VIP is actually a phenomenal program. It makes me want to buy a car to be honest with you. What it is is certain things, you can get 5% off of service, you have lifetime powertrain warranty, which is a $16,000 plus dollar amount value right there. So, that’s a phenomenal thing. And then also, you get Concierge Service, and there’s just all kinds of benefits that you can really reap from this.

John Haggard 6:18
Alright, so the key is if you get your car serviced, or your vehicle serviced, regular maintenance intervals, like it’s called for, this power train warranty, for did I get this right, as long as you own your vehicle? I mean, it could be seven years, 10 years, 12 years or more. Is that right?

Clay McCool 6:37
Yes, sir. Absolutely. Lifetime warranty.

John Haggard 6:40
Wow. That is that’s a pretty neat thing right there.

Clay McCool 6:43
It’s a phenomenal thing, yeah.

John Haggard 6:46
Is there anything I did not ask you, Clay, that you would want people to know either about the extreme team or, VIP program or just anything at all that we didn’t talk about that you say, “You know, this is something people need to know.”

Clay McCool 7:02
You know, the one thing that’s really important to me, I believe that a lot of people kind of overlook is when you come in and you get service done, you talk to a salesman, we’re not just trying to sell you a car, you know, but here to help you out too. We can really give you a great upgrade on your car and even cut your monthly payment and getting an upgrade. That’s I mean, to me, that’s awesome. That’s phenomenal. And a lot of people just don’t think they can do that.

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