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Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2018


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Ladies and gentlemen,

Another year comes to a close, I hope 2017 has been generous to you as it has been to my team and I. We started the year with a simple premise of making 5 calls to customers everyday, and that snowballed into a sales breaking record for us.

These are very simple things we learned and helped us prosper:

1. Learn to communicate with your team, set the expectations and hold them accountable.

2. Always, always, always be respectful, courteous, attentive, and mindful of your customers, you don't know what they have been through, yes, some have deep financial issues but the majority are looking for honest, knowledgeable, and professional people, earn their trust and give them great value, they will reward you with their continued business.

3. Treat your employees well, charge what they are worth and reward them accordingly, if you skimp on fair wages they will know and look for greener pastures. Many joined us while their competing shops closed, we have pick of the litter.

4. Be honest, do the right thing and get rid of toxic, unreliable, and unethical people. If you have a bad apple in your team, deal with it quickly, else they will poison your team and create systemic problems that will be even harder to deal with later.

5. Always use the best tools you can afford, if you have to redo work for lack proper tools and equipment it will cost you 3x as much, and the customer aggravation and inconvenience will be reflected on your bottom line.

Well, that's it for me. I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy And Prosperous New Year 2018!

All is possible by the Grace of God, and according to His will!

-Harry   

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12 hours ago, HarrytheCarGeek said:

We started the year with a simple premise of making 5 calls to customers everyday, and that snowballed into a sales breaking record for us.

Great post Harry! I've been telling shop owners this for years - just get out from behind the wrenches and talk to your customers. It always results in more business and (better yet) you learn about the little things that may need to improved in your business. There's isn't a marketing course that can teach you what your customers can. 

After all, "Better" doesn't have a finish line - we can all get better... all the time. 

Thanks for sharing your comments - you're right on the money!

Hope this helps!

Matthew Lee
"The Car Count Fixer"

Get "The Official Guide to Auto Service Marketing"

2018 State of The Auto Repair Industry Report! Get in NOW!

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  • Have you checked out Joe's Latest Blog?

         5 comments
      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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