Joe Marconi

We held our Car Care Event yesterday, April 14th and it was a hit. It was the first time we did in in grand fashion. We promoted it through the local newspapers and TV, mailed and emailed about 10,000 flyers to the community; we grill hot dogs, made fresh popcorn all day long, and had the local radio station doing a live remote. We did a few dozen car care inspections, mostly new people. The local Cub Scouts came by, which was really nice. The kids had a blast looking around an eating hot dogs and popcorn. We also set up display tables with worn belts, hoses, dirty cabin filters and air filters. CARQUEST and BG Products also set up tables to show their products, which I am very grateful for. All in all it was a great day. If you are looking for a way to promote your shop in your community, you should consider an event like this.

Great insight Gonzo, this is a topic that is frequently discussed at my shop. When I train service advisors and also when I coach my business clients, I tell them to be more like a detective. Ask questions that make them tell you clues to the problem, don’t have them interpret what they “think” is wrong because “trust” me; they will lead you down the wrong path. Always enjoy your articles, I was busy yesterday all day at my Car Care Event at the shop, first thing I did this morning was turn on my computer to read your article…always a pleasure

We have a mulitpoint inspection checklist we perform with every LOF service, we will use this (without the LOF, of course). I need to think about how I contact these customers. I wil probably tie it around a service reminder, knowing that thier oil service was done already. I am not concerned about the give-away either. I have learned in the past, that every good deed comes back to us and the rewards of the good deeds outweigh any short term monitary loss.

The daughter of a long time customer came to our shop the other after the dealer, during their free Oil Change service, informed her that she would need brakes on all four wheels. (This dealer gives free oil changes with the purchase of a new car) She called her father from the dealership and the father emphatically told her to get the car out of the dealer and bring it straight to Joe. She brought with her the invoice that clearly stated: “Brakes needed front and rear, pads at 3mm”. After a road test and a four wheel brake inspection, we found that she only needed rear brakes. The front measured at 5-6mm. In addition, the car was due for its annual NY State inspection, the wiper blades were torn, and the tires needed rotating. She authorized the rear brakes, the wiper blades, the Sate Inspection and I included rotating and balanced the tires at no charge. She was happy and upset (at the dealer) at the same time. I did not discredit the dealer, but did bring up the fact that sometime free is not a good value. This situation got me thinking. This car had 42,000 miles on it and has been going back to the dealer since new for the free oil changes. So, in that time, the dealer was unable or could not establish a relationship strong enough for this customer to trust them. When the customer needed repair work that would actually cost them money, my relationship won out. I think this is a lesson for all of us, don’t give up on what makes us so strong as independent shop owners: The relationships we have with our customers. I plan on working hard finding out what customers have purchased new cars recently with free service and market to these people that free is not to be confused with value. I also plan on inviting these customers for my FREE safety check, after all these are still my customers and I want to make sure their cars are safe and maintained. Let’s brainstorm on this and see if we can share ideas. The customer may still go to the dealer for that free service, but their hearts are still with us. WE need to capitalize on this.

I have never seen that before. My uncle was an engineer for Gruman Aircraft. He worked on air craft parts. He told me years back that a part should always be engineered so it could not be put on backwards or upiside down. We all know that is not so in our feild. How many times have your seen DIYer put on brake pads backwards with the friction side up against the brake rotor?

Happy Easter, Happy Passover!

After hearing a number horror stories about a few shops in the surrounding counties, I reluctantly agreed to voluntary audit by the Department of Labor to identify any OSHA violations. OSHA walked into these other shops unannounced and the fines were pretty hefty, ranging from $5,000 to over 50,000. The Dept. of Labor spent about 5 hours at my shop this past Thursday, walking through my two facilities, looking at my MSDS sheet, Emergency Action plan and any other programs and policy I had in place. The rep made a few recommendations and identified violations that I need to take care of. Most of my violations were small, but still would have added up to a few thousand dollars. I will get a written report from the Dept. of Labor, the report and the voluntary audit is confidential. In fact, if OSHA walks into my shop now, I can tell them to please leave, because of this voluntary audit, unless someone has made a formal complaint against me or my company. I did find out a few things I would like to share with you: Housekeeping is the biggest issue. The more sloppy and dirty the shop is the more OSHA will dig to find violations. If everything is neat and clean and your book work is in order, the inspection will go better. Another thing to consider, the number one reason for an OSHA visit is when an employee (either former or present) files a complaint against a company for unsafe conditions. Overall, the experience was good, I learned a lot and now know what I need to do to protect myself, and hopefully I will never have to go through an actual OSHA inspection. I don’t know what programs are available in every state, but it might be worth checking out. If any shop had an OSHA inspection, please share your experience.

Great article, a little different, but I like it. I enjoy real life situations; it brings a little more reality to our lives and the parallel to our industry is right on target. I make comparisons to doctors all the time when I speak with customers. We are pros like anyone else. Glad you wrote this story, very uplifting! Hope Gizmo is feeling better…

How many times during the day does a customer stop by or call, and asks to only speak with you, the shop owner? Do you know why? It’s because in general, the experience the customer has when dealing with the owner of business is much different than when dealing with an employee. The owner goes out of his or her way to make the customer feel special and important. The owner has a vested stake in the customer relationship, and an attitude of appreciation is expressed toward the customer. The customer picks up on this and thus the tendency is to seek out the owner. You, the shop owner, have a culture of ownership. Think about your favorite restaurant, Deli or other business where the owner goes out of his way to say hello to you, and spends a few minutes engaging in small talk. What kind of impression does that make with you? It makes you feel great. You can’t put a price on that type of customer service. Now, just imagine how powerful your business would be if your employees also adopted that same culture of ownership? Most employees have no feelings of ownership, and many feel disconnected from the company’s success or failure. They may value their job and are loyal to you, but don’t always feel that their contribution to the company is recognized and makes a difference in the overall outcome of the company. If employees think that their efforts are not valued or respected, they will not develop the right culture and consequently, not care as much. So, the question you are probably asking is, “How does one create the right culture”? First you need to understand the term, “buy-in”. Buy-in means that the people in a company do things not because they are told to, but because they want to. You don’t want people to simply obey you; you want people who can think on their own and contribute to your company. You want to create an atmosphere where everyone has mutual respect for one another and are committed to the common good of the company. Employees adopt the right culture when they are shown appreciation for the work they do. People who are just compliant to the rules of the company aren’t totally engaged and committed to the overall success of the company. When people are engaged and feel that the work they do does make a difference, they are committed to the success of the company. Give people the power to make decisions, don’t handcuff them with complicated polices and procedures that have them constantly reporting to you. Let them use their talents and empower them to make decisions. Will they make mistakes? Absolutely, especially in the beginning, but in time you will build a powerful team of thinkers and decision makers. Get people more involved with the daily operations. Ask questions and ask for help. Request their feedback on critical issues. You may be surprised by just how in tune your employees are to the inner workings of your company. By discussing issues, both good and bad, you will make everyone feel important and part of the big picture. Above all, people want to feel that they matter to the company. Money is important, but self-esteem is something that will bond an employee to your company. When an employee feels they can act on their own, take risks, and make decisions on their own, they will begin to adopt a culture of ownership. They will feel good about themselves with the confidence that you are behind them 100%. Customer service, productivity, and quality will all improve. One thing to remember, everything starts with you, the owner. Take a long hard look in the mirror and look at the way you treat people. The way you treat your employees will be reflected in the way they treat customers. If you walk around with a doom and gloom attitude, your employees will also. If you speak in a harsh tone or are disrespectful to employees, one can only imagine what they are saying to your customers. You set the tone in your shop, so carry yourself in a way that people will emulate you in a positive way. This will insure that customers are treated with the world class service they deserve. Building the right culture will improve the customer service experience. The customer will receive that warm reception from not only you, the owner, but from anyone they come in contact with. That culture will build strong relationships and loyal customers. The result: increased sales, more profits and positive growth. View full article

ASO Golf Outing....that's sounds impressive....I will put this on my "to do list"....but can't make any promises right now....

Here's a scenario one shop owner told me: What if you discover a head gasket and frame rot on a customer's car and make all the notes about the car, and the person goes to the dealer to trade the car in, and the dealer picks up YOUR repair order with the notes on the head gasket? You have done nothing wrong.....but.......You know the rest of this story....

I was speaking to another fellow shop owner about the new Mitchell SE Management Program and how it automatically sends our customer information, repairs, mileage, etc directly to CARFAX. I am curious to see how shop owners feel about this and is everyone aware of this. In addition, if other shops use different management systems, are think linked directly to CARFAX too? We had a very sticking situation when a customer was trading his car in and the mileage came up wrong on the CARFAX, we entered the wrong mileage by mistake. We got it corrected thru CARFAX, but the customer was not happy because it delayed making his deal. We had to prove to CARFAX that we did not kick back the mileage. Any feedback would be appreciated.

You are right, the difference is you are taking care of your regular customers who frequent your shop on a regular basis. I am not suggesting that we start catering to people off the street who do not value what we do and give away services. If someone comes to me with a particular battery/charging/starting problem, we will charge a diag fee to test and analyze the car. But during a routine service for regular customers, we need to think about their battery and other service items. For example, during an oil change service, we also check fluids, lights, tire pressure, etc. We do that becuase it's the right thing to do for the customer. I don't like giving anything away and charge accordingly, but we do take care of regualr customers by building value in our services. And, by doing all the right things, we will increase sales and profits and that will pay for the expense of tools, equipment and payroll. I hope I cleared things up?

You bring up very good points. I want to add one thing. We don't have quotas in my shop, but we do adhere to a process that I know is in the best interest of the consumer. For expample: Battery Sales. We don't put a number on how many batteries we sell, BUT we do insist that every car we service three years or older get a free battery test. We tell the customer it's time for your free test, and if it fails the customer has the option to purchase a new one from us or decline. This process is not intrusive but does serve as a benifit to the customer. There is no hard sell, and no sales tactic, just a process of informing the customer. We end up selling a good amount of batteries, the honest way.

From my experience, if a dealer tech has a lot of years with one car line (15 years of better), they can't make the transitiion to an independent that deals with multiple car lines. The only dealer techs that have worked out for me were the younger techs. I now have 3 former dealer techs, but when they came to me there were all in their mid 20's. They are all working out fine. The dealer techs that were hired in the past that had 15 years or more did not work out. In fact they lasted about a month.

That's too bad. I hate to hear these things. We have enough tough times running our business. Plus, dealing with a fire is horrible.

Welcome Rob, glad you found us. You will not be dissapointed, there's a lot of great information on this site. Looking forward to your particpation. Welcome aboard!

That's pretty funny, I have to use that joke....

I received a nice compliment the other day. A fairly new customer said to me, “I like coming here because when I walk through the door, you guys know be by name, you remember me”. He went on to tell me that at the new car dealer, he would have to give his name every time, verify his address and phone number. It was just too impersonal. I guess this is another area where we dominate when it comes to customer service.

I just hired a tech from a local Toyota dealership. He said he was tired of the flat rate pay program. There were weeks when he booked over 60 hours and other weeks where he barely broke 10. But, the interesting thing he told me was that the dealer has been reducing flat rate times below published times in order to compete and to raise revenue. For example, a wheel alignment may have paid 1 hour, but the dealer, to compete with the market, has reduced the price and adjusted the alignment to .6 tech time. Other reductions are tire rotations, tire mount, major services, oil changes, Timing belts, other repairs and tire balance. In addition, Toyota has severely cut back on selling fluid services and any other preventive maintenance services that are not in the owner’s manual. All these reasons combined are making it difficult for an honest tech to make a decent wage in a dealership. Could this be an opportunity for the independents to acquire technicians?

36%, Wow! That is an outstanding number, you must be doing a lot of things right. We are 6% ahead of last year, which is what I projected. March was flatter than I expected, but Jan and Feb were above average. Overall pleased. Consumer are still concerned and are looking more for value, and gas prices are impacting their pockets, but luckily were are in a business that people need our services. Curious, Do you track both gross sales and net profit?

I am not quite sure what the reasons for all the strange happenings, maybe the moon, maybe the sun spots, maybe something else we are not aware of. But one things is for sure, there are times when the world seems to be off kilter and when that happens, strange people are drawn to repair shops like moths to a bright light.

No, I have found that those customers that go by the oil maint light are coming in with way over 10,000 miles on the oil. And when that happens, the tires are worn from lack of rotation, lack of tire pressure (some even ignore the TPMS light) the wipers are ripped and digging into the windsheild, etc. No one checks their own car like they should. Extended interval can lead to other neglected key maintenance areas. Under ideal conditions, the oil "may" be ok, but when you tell somone don't worry about the oil change untill the monitor tells you to, can be asking for trouble. I had a customer with a new Honda, she was told by the salesman not to change the oil untill the monitor light came on. She called us becuase she was concerned that the oil life still show about 40% and she had over 12,000 miles on the car with the original oil in the engine! I think the factory is doing and injustice to the consumer by promoting exteded oil services and by removing so much maintenance services from the owner's manual. I guess the car makers feel that if the car is well-maintained it will last too long and that would hurt new car sales????

There are a lot of part suppliers out, and I have been around the block for more years than I care to admit. For me, it’s about service and relationships. We all get frustrated from time to time about part quality, deliveries, pricing, etc. In the end I want to know that I have someone I can talk to, one on one, to help with key issues. In my area, no other parts company qualifies under this criteria than CARQUEST. They do deliver (sorry for the pun). I would like to know what other shop owners value from their suppliers.