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Certfied Auto Repair


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Certified Auto Repair Centers - Guest

 

I have mentioned this before but I wanted to expanded upon it a little. We participate in the Certfied Auto Repair program that was offered to us through O'Reilly Auto Parts. To participate in this program is $50 per month or it is free if you buy more than $2,500 of parts per month. Through it you can offer your customers a nationwide warranty on your repairs. If you belong and work is done at your shop and there is a problem with the repair Certified will pay up to the cost of the original repair. How it works is you have the customer call Certified and they will direct the customer to the nearest participating shop. If there are none in the area they will let the customer pick a shop.

 

Recently, we had this experience. A lady from Maryland with a Subaru broke a front axle on the interstate. We think she was spinning on the ice and hit a dry patch. It was towed into our shop on a Saturday morning. Miracle of miracles in our smaller market we found a new axle on a Saturday and got her fixed and on here way. About two weeks later I got a call from the woman that she was back in Maryland and having the "same problem". Isn't it amazing that the car comes in on a tow truck and won't move and she is driving it but now has the [b]"same problem". [/b] What she had was noise. Before the days of our participation in this program I would have told her to find a shop and have it checked and then have the shop call us. If there was a problem with the part I would then see if I could get the vendor to ship them a part or whatever I had to do and pay the shop to replace the defective part. This was a hassle and could get expensive. I would send the customer to a Car-x if there was one in the area (none in Maryland) and then I would reimburse the shop for the work they did. The Car-x shops all treat each other very fair.

 

Because I participate in Certified Auto Repair all I had to do was give the lady the Certified Auto Repair phone number., tell her to call the number, ask them where to take the vehicle, and that they would cover things up to the cost of the original repair if the problem was with the work we had done. That was it and was the only thing I had to do. A few weeks later I got a letter from Certified telling me that they had taken care of the warranty and how much they had paid out. That was all that I had to do. Evidently we had gotten a new (not reman) defective axle. Certified is a way for a small shop to inexpensively offer a nation wide warranty.

 

I'll check into it in my area... You know, I've heard of these deals before... but it always seems to go for a while and then they seem to fade away... why's that??

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I am also a Certified Auto Repair center. It was pretty easy to get involved in. I am glad to see that the program actually does what they say :) I purchase most of my parts from our local Oreilly's store. Its the only one around here that I like the quality of the parts.

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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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