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Speed of Service VS Quality

Joe Marconi
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TheTrustedMechanic

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It's as if people today are conditioned to get everything they want now.

 

I think you hit it right on the head. The narcissism of today's society is really appalling to me. It used to be I'm here, I'm ######, deal with it. Now it's I'm here, drop everything and wait on ME, to Hades with everyone else, those who got here before me, those who scheduled appointments, everyone but me. I'm here, I'm the only one who matters because I'm ME. No I am not ###### or ####ophobic, and I'm also not of the drop everything because I'm here crowd. I simply used the play-on words to illustrate my point that I believe Joe is right on the money with what is wrong with society in regards to how we can serve them.

 

And those are the customers you'd do very well do be without, if it were not that more and more of today's "constantly connected" society are getting that way. I'm a little different being a one man shop with two hoists and a flat bay, but I do almost everything by appointment. Even though today I am sitting here looking at an empty schedule and I would gladly take a walk-in. I think that a successful shop, if there were enough employees to even out the work would do like the brake and alignment shop I sublet my alignments to. They have six or seven techs and always have two slots each day dedicated to "Walk-ins/work-ins." I don't know if that is one hour each or two hours or how long but they built into their schedule two opportunities each day to accommodate customers who "it just started making noise." Or my doctor's office does the same thing. If you call first thing in the morning they have 3-5 appointments available for same day care. Either place can used unscheduled time as a buffer if the run over and those slots aren't filled, but it also isn't a large percentage of their available productivity so they don't hurt too much if they don't schedule those slots and they aren't filled by walk-ins. But the alignment shop has 6 or seven techs and my doctor's office has 7 or 8 doctors on staff, and late hours (til 8:00) too, talk about patient CARE! So if you have only one or two techs, one or two hours a day could be a substantial chunk of your productivity but if you have 6 or 8 techs, then it becomes a much smaller percentage and probably very manageable.

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FROGFINDER

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I keep a drive on lift open and monitor drop in business myself as often as i can. It's all about referrals! Even if you can't help offer them a cold drink and a idea on solving his/her problem. We shut down at 1:00 Saturday's. Today I let the men go for the weekend. I was just about to turn the key in the shop door lock when a frantic lady drove up with a low tire She was not happy with my answers to "our we open" and "Can you change my tire on this rental car that i am returning" No I said but I will do something. I opened the shop door, gave the lady a Rose,our business card, I aired up the tire and followed her to the down the street to Discount Tire . She gave me a hug and kiss on the cheek. Priceless!

 

 

 

The Frogfinder

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  • Have you checked out Joe's Latest Blog?

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      Want to End Your Technician Shortage? Focus on Retention!
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      I recently spoke with a friend of mine who owns a large general repair shop in the Midwest. His father founded the business in 1975. He was telling me that although he’s busy, he’s also very frustrated. When I probed him more about his frustrations, he said that it’s hard to find qualified technicians. My friend employs four technicians and is looking to hire two more. I then asked him, “How long does a technician last working for you.” He looked puzzled and replied, “I never really thought about that, but I can tell that except for one tech, most technicians don’t last working for me longer than a few years.”
      Judging from personal experience as a shop owner and from what I know about the auto repair industry, I can tell you that other than a few exceptions, the turnover rate for technicians in our industry is too high. This makes me think, do we have a technician shortage or a retention problem? Have we done the best we can over the decades to provide great pay plans, benefits packages, great work environments, and the right culture to ensure that the techs we have stay with us?
      Finding and hiring qualified automotive technicians is not a new phenomenon. This problem has been around for as long as I can remember. While we do need to attract people to our industry and provide the necessary training and mentorship, we also need to focus on retention. Having a revolving door and needing to hire techs every few years or so costs your company money. Big money! And that revolving door may be a sign of an even bigger issue: poor leadership, and poor employee management skills.
      Here’s one more thing to consider, for the most part, technicians don’t leave one job to start a new career, they leave one shop as a technician to become a technician at another shop. The reasons why they leave can be debated, but there is one fact that we cannot deny, people don’t quit the company they work for, they usually leave because of the boss or manager they work for.
      Put yourselves in the shoes of your employees. Do you have a workplace that communicates, “We appreciate you and want you to stay!”

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