You’re Fired! A tough opening statement for sure, but one that, as an owner or manager you need to be familiar with.  I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s start from the beginning. I have been working with this particular client for a couple years and as such have become very familiar with his operations and personnel.  During my visit last month I discovered a HUGE discrepancy in Cost of Goods, specifically Parts in the P&L’s versus the Point of Sale (POS) system.  The P&L’s showed a MUCH higher cost for the first 6 months of the year than did the POS system.  After much research I was able to verify that we had indeed spent almost $7600.00 a month more than our POS system indicated we had!  No increase in inventory, and minimal “owner” vehicles being worked on without the proper paperwork occurring.  After accounting for the above mentioned owner work we still had $7300 plus per month whe ... read more

Almost every day I hear a story of a real world event called taking ownership.  Now although there are many different things spoken about when this is the subject line, they all center around one basic concept, that we somehow are or are not responsible for other people’s issues.  For the purposes of this article we are only going to cover why we (shop Owners/Managers) take responsibility or ownership for our customer’s vehicles issue. Where is this coming from you ask?  How many of you have lost sleep and eventually money for sympathizing with your customer instead of empathizing with them?  What’s the difference you ask?  The Free Dictionary by Farlex states: sympathize with - share the suffering of, or feel sorry for someone. To feel sympathy for someone because they are in a difficult or unpleasant situation.  Whereas, empathize with - to have an understanding about the way someone feels; to feel emotional pain with someone elicits v ... read more

Easy to say, easier to preach, but to do it requires a discipline most owners don’t possess.  Most great owners and managers (the ones I work with) are some of the best at making sure their employees are taken care of, my Team included!  What makes them great with their employees is that they truly care about them and as such they encourage weekends away and full on vacations, “down time”!   And the “day here, day there” use of vacations does not really work for this type of time off!  They may not realize it as they work on their employees to take this time off, but they/we ALL need this time to recharge, rejuvenate and let our bodies rest. That being said, this is not about anyone’s employees, this is about the owners and managers who, not through any real fault of their own, but instead because they have what I call the “owner/manager gene” which causes them/us to think about everyone else before them/ourselves. &n ... read more

So, let me ask you a question, do you believe that if you perform business both morally and ethically everything will be OK?  Sure, you also need to make a reasonable profit, have a great crew, have a good reputation but then everything will be OK, right?  Well, occasionally it takes more, much more! Have you ever brought a vehicle into your facility for electrical issues for what you expected to be a starting or charging system issue, it gets late and you realize you have to keep it overnight to figure out what was wrong?  Most of you have at one point or another, “this is part of business” you say, and, you’d be correct.  But what happens if that electrical issue causes a fire, and to make it worse, everyone has gone home for the day and nobody is there to notice?  Could that happen…… “no, not to you” because those things only happen to the bad shops?  This article is about the FACT that this can and does happ ... read more

This is something I’ve always simply assumed (and yes, I know the definition of assume) everybody thought this way, the statement “if everyone around is wrong, you might want to look within” is a given!  Let’s back up just a little, and let me tell you where this started. I have coached and trained automotive professionals for about 18 years now, and one of the issues I occasionally run into is one person dictating how everyone around them should do things.  These are usually people who use the old size 12 method of working (controlling) with people, you know, “do it or I’ll bury my foot up your”……well you get the point.  What I have also noted when working or simply observing these personality types, is that they are never wrong.  Come on, we’ve all experienced these people at some point in our lives!   Anyway, I wanted to bring a observation to the table here; in general, You can’t possibly ... read more

WarrantyMore specifically, warranty costs! Warranty costs everyone!  It costs the customer time, and it costs us direct and indirect money.  Direct money is the money we spend to cover the parts and labor associated with any warranty.  Indirect refers to the costs of a Tech NOT being able to work on anything else while he is handling a warranty, and indirect costs can be more harmful to a business than anyone would ever expect! Indirect costs are very seldom ever accounted for when a warranty occurs and they sometimes cost companies more money than the basic warranty ever did.  Look at what your Techs produce hourly on average; now double that because most facilities run a 50/50, or so, parts to labor split.  Got that number?  Now look at how many hours that Tech or Techs performing the warranty spent on that warranty, and do the math.  Now add that money to what the actual warranty costs in parts and labor and yo ... read more

Tracking Your MarketingYou Know Those Numbers Right?   This was a question I asked one of my clients the other day, and his answer shocked me, “NO”!!  Let me start a little earlier so that you can understand my shock a little.  The original question was, “which marketing is giving you the best return?”, and the client answered, “I don’t know”.  This is what this article is about, tracking your marketing, should you or shouldn’t you?? The short answer is a resounding, ABSOLUTELY!!  How will you know what worked and what didn’t?  And just for the record just because a lot of vehicles came in off one particular type doesn’t necessarily mean it worked!  You see just getting more people in the door isn’t always the answer.  Sure it may fix what you consider to be a low Car Count (CC) issue, but is that a temporary fix or long term ... read more

The “WOW” Factor Mystery (part 2)   Turning my attention back to the Service Advisor, he finished his factory recommends checklist and asked if I thought the air filter should be changed?  I responded with, “is it dirty?”, at that point he picked it up off the counter and said, “just a little” (I never saw them bring it up, again, it kind of just appeared).  I said no and he handed it to a Technician outside the office to reinstall.  With that said, he asked if I would like any water or coffee and pointed to their little convenience bar with bottled water and fresh coffee, then said it would be about another 6 minutes until they were finished.  This was a 5-8 minute process to this point!  I watched carefully as the Technicians worked on my vehicle and what I saw was; properly trained Technicians doing a great job on my vehicle.  When the service was competed, I watched them park the vehicle out ... read more

The “WOW” Factor Mystery   I know you’ve all heard of the “WOW” factor or effect, I have too, but I had never before tried to put it into some quantifiable understanding.  That’s what this article is about.  The “WOW” factor is a REAL phenomenon that too many of us forget about when it comes to our businesses.  So, what is the “WOW” factor, and how does it relate to our industry specifically? Is it greeting your customers at their car door with a smile and handshake?  Maybe, possibly, could be. Is it repairing their vehicle completely, correctly, the first time, on time, delivered clean with NO fingerprints and within the last estimate you quoted them? NO!  That is expected, is exactly what everyone else is doing, and if you’re not, maybe you need to rethink your career choice or business plan.  The customer believes this is always going to happe ... read more

Management 101 or Respect / Intimidation & Fear?   The following are my thoughts on a management “style” that seems to be finding its way back into many automotive facilities across the country.  It is probably being seen in other businesses as well, but for this article we are going to focus on what I have seen in our industry, the Automotive World! Now, to be fair before I start here I do need to point out that this intimidation or fear style of management does occur a LOT more as the temperature warms up!  I get it, this is hard work, both physically and mentally and when it is hot outside, it seems it is even harder. So, as an employee, what affects you more and puts you in “the mood” to work?  Someone yelling at you, threatening you, or simply screaming because he/she needs to get something fixed, changed or corrected?  Or someone who comes to you and asks, “what can we do to correct ... read more