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[Podcast] RR 485: Warren Parr – Learning and Innovating with the PicoScope Club


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Complete Car Care officially opened it’s doors on September 28, 1985. The beginnings of CCC began from Warren’s hobby, racing cars. In 1983, he was involved in a racing accident that required surgery and nearly two years of therapy and rehabilitation. Although not visible, the racing accident left him with a permanent, partial disability. Because of the restrictions from his disability, He was no longer qualified for a Class 1 commercial driver’s license. He had no job prospects. In order to survive, He began repairing vehicles in his garage. His business grew and soon a Fresno City Zoning Officer arrived at his home. Within 6 weeks, He officially opened Complete Car Care’s doors. CCC are now in its 31st year of business, all at the present location. In 2000, the  company entered the California Smog Repair Program as a designated Gold Shield Station and in 2010 and it became a NAPA AutoCare Center.

The work ethic, methods, and skills developed from a highly competitive sport like auto racing is the foundation of Warren Parr‘s business for the highly competitive and challenging industry of Automotive Repair. He was fortunate enough to turn his hobby into his business and the disability never became an issue. At Complete Car Care, people don’t work on vehicles because they have to, they do it because they enjoy it and they love the challenge. Warren’s previous episodes HERE.

Key Talking Points:

  • Pico Club started with 5 shop owners
  • Warren became an advisor at Jr. College automotive program
  • Discovered that the college instructor did not know how to use the scope
  • A great story on the value you can bring to our education system
  • Involved with 6 high schools to help mentor with their Pico Club
  • A monthly club of shop owners and technicians that share Pico Scope case studies
  • They are inviting students and teachers into the clubs to learn along with them
  • All hands-on side by side except the newbies
  • Improve productivity to improve shop to increase profits to pay more to keep talent
  • The Pico club has allowed them to be more accurate and faster
  • Creative new ways to use the Pico Scope
    • Blood pressure cuff around a radiator hose
    • Pressure transducer in place of the radiator cap
    • Crating a piezo sensor (knock sensor) to find rattles in the engine 
  • The only limit is your imagination
  • As the waveforms get collected they are sharing them in their private network
  • It started for Warren at a career fair from a group of independents. They started to share waveforms among each other
  • 160 hours of training per tech per year
  • Email Warren:  [email protected]
  • Text: 559-907-7661

Resources:

  • Thanks to Warren Parr for his contribution to the aftermarket’s premier podcast.
  • Vin Waterhouse’s episode on Intensive Labor Rates HERE.
  • Link to the ‘BOOKS‘ page highlighting all books discussed in the podcast library HERE. Leaders are readers.
  • Leave me an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one of them.
  • Love what we do, buy a cup of coffee HERE.

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NAPA AutoCare’s recent partnership with CarVantage gives your AutoCare Center an easy way to take advantage of telematics, increasing customer retention and boosting customer spend. You provide customers with a CarVantage sensor that plugs into their vehicle and connects NAPA-AutoCare-Logo-Vert-A.gifvia Bluetooth to their smartphone. Then you set up automated marketing campaigns that target customers based on their vehicle’s next maintenance interval, for example, or whenever a check engine light is detected. That gives customers peace of mind and the best experience in the market. They also love CarVantage because it’s free to them. A special offer only for NAPA AutoCare Centers lets you give CarVantage a try at a very affordable price. And it includes free sensors. Other plans and enhancements are also available.

Learn more about CarVantage and the hundreds of other benefits NAPA offers. Talk with your servicing NAPA store or visit www.NAPAAutoCare.com.

Click to go to the Podcast on Remarkable Results Radio

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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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