Joe Marconi

What a powerful story, I will never look at a Kia the same way anymore. Gonzo, your best work! You are amazing!

Honor Our Soldiers This Memorial Day Let us reflect upon and honor our brave soldiers who fought for this country and those that gave their life to preserve our freedom for this great nation. Let us also not forget our brave soldiers that fight each and everyday around the globe. USA, Still the Greatest Country in the World!

I need to tell everyone; I know I am one of the few shops around this country that services TPMS, but I have no problems selling the kits with each tire sale that has TPMS sensors. And we sell a lot of tires. My service people explain the system to the customer and warns them that due to the fragile design of the sensor, sometimes the sensor core is siezed or the sensor can be damaged during the mounting process. I don't agree with shops that stab the tire with a knife to let the air out because the core is seized or they don't want to touch the sensor. That's me, our process works. We SELLl tons of kits and SELL (NOT GIVE AWAY) lots of sensor.

Yes! Right on target....great job!

Gonzo, you can bet your paycheck that he got someone to solder that wire. Trust me, he did. I guess what disturbs me the most is his lack of respect for what we do. Who do these people think we are: A group of dummies that could not make it any other profession and had to settle for the simple life in Car Repair??? Let’s turn this around a bit with this scenario: I hurt my shoulder playing racquet ball. I go on the internet and research my injury and pain. I determine that I have a torn rotator cuff. I do more online research and find a relatively new procedure for repairing the tear in my shoulder. I download the paper work, bring it my doctor and say, “Here it is Doc, I did all the research, here’s my problem and here’s the solution. So Doc, let’s schedule that surgery based on these procedure.” Does this ever happen? I hope not! We see this too every day, and I am like you Gonzo; I’m the Car Doctor, I do the diagnosis, I recommend the repair. YOU the customer can say YES or NO. The End! (Boy Gonzo, you got my blood pressure up….Again)

Promote A/C Service Now! In many parts of the country spring has kicked in and the weather is warming up nicely. Start today to market you’re A/C service. You have a golden opportunity every time a vehicle is brought in for service. Ask each customer, in for service, if they have used their air conditioner yet and if they feel it’s working ok. Remind them that it’s better to spot problems now before that first hot day arrives. Create an “Air Conditioner Service Special” that’s priced just right and recommend it. Customers will be very thankful that you found an A/C problem before they found out while on the road.

Having my father and many family members who served in WWII, this is an honor. Great video! Every American needs to watch this!

I have been using Mitchell Manager for a very long time. My rep wants me to upgrade to the new Mitchell SE version. Has anyone have any information or feedback on this upgrade? I hear a lot of conflicting views. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I'm finding the same thing. And, you are right about advertising. We need to spend the money for continued growth, but the balancing act of not enough work vs being overbooked is tough at times. It's as if people today are conditioned to get everything they want now. Years back, people were more understanding.

In order to expand our company and add another facility, I pushed the envelope a few years back to increase traffic and car counts by offering while-you-wait service. For a period of time we also advertised, “No appointment needed.” The trick was to retain quality and still offer speed of service. We found we could not do both. Our car counts did go up. In fact they went thru the roof, but we felt we were not giving each car the care that we wanted to give. We soon stopped advertising, “no appointment needed.” We still offer while you wait for certain services, but we book the appointment and allotted time. We only take walk-ins if we are absolutely sure that it will not negatively impact workflow. Our new plan is working, to a point. We still get a lot of people coming in asking for service with no appointment. The issue is there are a few tire stores in our area that take everything in, no appointment needed. There are also a few new car dealers that have quick lanes (all makes-all models). It’s a tough competitive world out there today. WAY BACK in the ancient times (you know, the 1980’s) we would actually laugh at someone who walked in without an appointment. But things have changed. How are other shops handling this situation? I know we have members with shops from 1 bay to 30plus, so any feedback would be appreciated.

Always here to help in any way I can. Conversation is key to learning.

Great tip and it's nice to see a parts company like CARQUEST hosting such an event. In our area (New York, Conn and Long Island) CARQUEST hosted three shop owner/tech conferences. They had guest speakers, tools and equipment on display, food, raffles and lot's more. We need partners in our industry, aligning ourselves with companies that understand the relationshiop of part supplier to independent repair shops.

I have a Robinair and a Snap On...buy a Robinair

The car makers are removing more and more services from the owner’s manual and are extending the required oil change interval. For some fluids, there is no recommended service recommendation. This is ridiculous on the part of the car maker. Car manufacturers are in the “CAR SALES” business, not the car service business. They also want to paint a picture that their car model needs very little maintenance. Well if that were the true then why don’t they warranty the car for life? If they never require replacing the transmission fluid, or brake fluid or whatever fluid, then why don’t the car manufacturers warranty the component, (that the fluid is protecting), for life? We all know the real reason… We had Mercedes (AWD) in the other day with a harsh moaning noise from the rear on sharp turns. The car had 150k on the clock. We recommended a driveline service, which solved the problem. THE BATTLE was to convince the car owner...he kept on saying, " Service the fluids?, it's not in the book". Finally I said to him, if you are referring to the owners manual, it does not state to replace brakes, wipers, tires or put gas in the tank either!

Gonzo, great article, (as usual) and a great saying...I use it myself quite often. Truth is, things are probably not going to change, although I fight to improve the industry everyday, that's the main goal of ASO. You hit the nail on the head when you said there are bottom feeder shops out there, that’s the real issue. We too often point to the motoring public, when we need to look at our industry. The only saving grace is that the overwhelming majority of shop owners and techs truly are professional and want to do a professional job. Keep writing Gonzo, we need to keep up the fight!

It would impossible to give you a full-blown business management course on how to run a business in the lines of this forum, but we can help you. First, many shops are in areas where the time of year plays a big role in keeping the bays busy all year round. “Assuming” that everything is being done to maximize the car count and sales, a shop owner needs to understand the overall numbers of the business. In other words if we spread out the sales across 12 months, what would the average monthly sales be? Knowing this number and calculating your breakeven will help you budget your check book. You can then calculate what you pay someone based on these figures. If you base a tech’s pay solely on flat rate in some cases, the tech will be riding a payroll rollercoaster. The problem will be in the slow months because he will have not budget his money and will come up short in the lean months. Create a base pay plan that takes into account the average sales income across the year. Build some sort of incentive based bonus that rewards the tech in the good times, so he will want to work harder when the work is there. If you budget correctly, there will not be a drain on the business. Again, I go back to making sure that a shop is doing all it can to maximize its potential will play a key role in reaching sales goals. I hope this helps and look forward to you continued contributions to the forums. Good Luck!

If you’re like me, in the over-50 age bracket, it’s no surprise that you view the world a lot different than the younger generation. On the other hand, people from the younger generation will struggle with many of the values and ethics of the older generation. When you consider the diverse demographics today combined with a multi-generational workforce, it’s easy to see how the differences in values and behavior are having a profound impact in the workplace. These differences may lead to conflict, which could have negative consequences on your business. Shop owners, in particular, need to understand these differences in order to maintain order and morale. Our perspective on life is molded by our upbringing. Our ideals are taught to us by our parents and from the events of our childhood, which help to shape who we are and how we live our lives. I am part the baby boomer generation. I am the son of parents who were brought up during the Great Depression, fought in World War II and learned that sacrifice and survival are the same. When I entered the work in the mid 70’s, the boss was the center of authority. The “My way or the highway” attitude was accepted as the way things were. If the boss raised his voice, he probably had a good reason. There was no discussion about it. If you screwed up, you knew it, and you vowed to yourself to do a better job next time. Because this was an accepted way of life, many people from my generation adopted this style of management and implemented it into our own businesses. The problem we now face is that yesterday’s management style no longer works with today’s diverse workforce. Priorities and lifestyles have changed. Past generations mostly focused on family and work. Free time was a luxury that was reserved for that rare vacation. Today, people place a high value on free time for themselves, family and friends. In my era, overtime was considered a gift. Today, overtime is often viewed as an inconvenience if it conflicts with personal time. How we approach workers today has also changed. If the boss approaches an employee to discuss an issue and is perceived as being confrontational, the conversation will not go well and will cause a rift between the employee and the boss, even if the employee was dead wrong. Before we go on, I want to make one thing clear. I am not judging any generation or group of people to be better than the other. Being right or wrong, or should I say being perceived as being right or wrong, doesn’t really matter. Everyone has their own way of thinking and adheres to certain core values that they believe they should live by. For business owners, it becomes a problem when we cannot see beyond these differences. My own shop went through difficult times recently with personnel after we expanded and built our second facility. With the hiring of new workers, most under the age of 30, we lost that close-knit family atmosphere. Moral and productivity tanked. My first mistake; I had forgotten that skill should never outweigh attitude. Identifying people with the same culture of your company means more than an impressive resume or grade point average from a trade school. I knew that morale and working as a team was essential. So, in my effort to improve morale and unify the company, I made more mistakes by refusing to accept the differences of the younger generation and by pushing my values on them. This resulted in alienating people and divided the shop even more. Some of the newly hired employees had to be let go, some left on their own. The reason in both instances however was the same; they were not the right fit. So, after a series of employee turnovers I eventually found the right people and at the present time our staff consists of people who age from 18 to 60. Learning how to get along and work as a team, however, was another thing. Morale becomes the foundation for success. Your workforce is a team, no different from any other organization. We all know that a divided shop cannot survive; morale will suffer along with productivity and profits. All teams must find common ground that can hold the group together. In order for any team to be successful, they need to rally around a common cause. A baseball team rallies around winning the World Series; it becomes the chemistry that bonds the team together. To improve morale at my shop we started to hold open meetings to air out opinions about how to make improvements in the business, particularly workflow. I let the meetings run themselves, only adding my input as a moderator, not an enforcer. From these meetings I began to understand what was dividing the shop. It became apparent that the diversity in personalities and ideals were causing indifference, dividing the shop. It was not lack of respect or animosity; it was more about the lack of understanding in the differences among the group. It also became clear that being the leader meant I had to set the mood of the shop. The mood and culture of an organization is always shaped by the frame of mind of the leader. If I am frustrated or negative, the rest of the shop will follow. In order to improve morale I needed to remain positive and become a leader that represented the culture of the shop. This also meant I needed to find ways to bridge the gap between the workers. What is the bridge? Find out what is important to each of your employees. What are their goals in life? What do there care about? Why do they get up in the morning and come to work? What do they want to see in the workplace? Most of all, find that common cause, a goal or series of goals that will inspire the people in your company to rally around. Running a business today is more about managing personalities than managing the numbers. To have a successful company you need to learn that it’s not all about you, you can’t do it alone. You need good people around, who feel good about themselves. The better the people in your company feel about themselves and about their coworkers, the stronger the company. Your culture must align people and inspire them. When looking to hire, find people who fit the culture of your shop. High priced talent alone does not insure success. The culture of your company is what matters and that can only come from you. Build a company where the culture is so strong, that people go to work because they want to, not because they have to. View full article

No, sorry, never heard of them.

Yes, we need to deferentiate ourselves from the mass marketers. The problem will be in educating the consumer.

family...that's what it's all about!