Key Takeaways

• One routine purchase made me rethink where small businesses shine — and where they don’t.
• I didn’t expect to side with the bigger player, but the experience left little room for nostalgia.

I own a small business. I write about small businesses. My clients are small businesses. And yet, I would never go to a small business to have my car serviced. Small businesses are great — but not for everything.

I’m not saying this without experience. I’ve owned Hondas all my life. I’ve taken my cars to local repair shops countless times. And the experience has been, well, inconsistent at best. I’ve certainly saved money on repairs. But I’ve paid for it elsewhere.

Take, for example, a recent experience I had at a Honda dealership in Philadelphia. I made my maintenance appointment with an AI receptionist, which understood me flawlessly. I received a text confirmation. I then received a call from a human verifying the details. Professional. Courteous. Efficient.

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