Are You Operating Your Business for the Problem Customer? by Mike Lee Management Success!

Mike Lee
Co-founder
Management Success!

One of the most commonly asked questions at any type of sales or management seminar is "How do I handle problem customers?"  The problem customer tends to drive most automotive shop owners crazy. What is a problem customer? A problem customer is someone who demands special handling and unusual solutions. Here are ten indicators that you probably have a problem customer in front of you. Problem customers say (and do) things like this:

• “I have my own parts, but can you put them on for me?”

• “I called the dealer and found out that I could have bought the exhaust output muffler bearing for less than what you charged me.”

• “Can you tell me what the firing order is for my 1989 Chevrolet?”

• “Don't worry about the fact that the brakes won't stop the car, just do that ‘special’.”

• “Since you worked on my car, I can't seem to tune in to Radio Moscow anymore.”

• “You opened the door and my engine fan flew off and destroyed my radiator. What are you going to do about it?”

• “Can you put an Allison Transmission in my Toyota?”

• A customer calls you from Outer Mongolia about his failed fan clutch that you once worked on. He insists that you give him $800, the amount it cost him to tow his car to the nearest shop. He also says that he wants $1500 for his hotel bill from his three-day stay at the if-you-got-to-ask-the-rate-you-can't-afford-it hotel. He also mentions that he intends to collect for his loss of wages and at least $1000 for emotional distress.

• A customer with a name like Mr. Super Critical-Jones, owner of the car from hell, demands that you completely redo the job on his car because it is still not working right. Of course, you can't find anything wrong with it. You have worked on his car six times and he has never once been satisfied.

•  A guy calls you and says that he is the boyfriend of a woman whose car you just fixed. He claims that the car didn't need that much work and that you have ripped her off. He threatens to sue you.

Even dealing with a few of these types of customers a week is enough to increase your blood pressure to well over 400. Unfortunately, the tendency is to start creating unusual company policies to make sure that you NEVER have this kind of problem again. You start running your business to handle the problem customer.  This is a mistake. You tend to remember only the troublesome customers, and not the majority of really nice people that come into your shop, who go along with the way that you do business, and refer their friends to you. The right way to run a successful operation that makes you lots of money is to pay attention to those quiet, non-troublesome customers that are fairly easy to deal with and who are the real reason you are in business.

Quit running your business for the problem customer! You would be better off if you would refer all of them to some other shop in town. When you recognize that you have a problem customer in front of you, be polite and indicate that, unfortunately, you are probably not the one that can best handle the customer's car problems. You can, however, recommend a shop down the street that would be better qualified to service his/her needs.
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Marketing To Women: A Female Shop Owner’s Perspective By Nancy Knight Management Success!

Nancy Knight
co-owner of Knight’s Automotive
Ledgewood, NJ

As a wife, mother and major decision maker in my family when it comes to purchases of goods and services, I have lots of experience as a consumer.   My past experiences as a female consumer, both good and bad, have helped influence the way I market and manage my own auto repair business.  I make sure that our shop gives the same friendly service and high quality products that I expect from the people I do business with.    In particular, I pay special attention to meeting the needs of my female clients.  

Why do I have so much attention on female clients?  It turns out that I am not alone as the major decision maker on purchases for my family.   Even in what is perceived as a male domain, women request 65% of the service work done on cars (in our shop it’s closer to 75%)  Women spend over $200 billion on new cars and servicing of vehicles each year.  We buy more than half of the new cars in the US and influence up to 80% of all car purchases.  There is power in the female demographic indeed.  It pays to find out what your women customers want and need then deliver it.   To do this successfully you must first understand that men and women—for the most part—communicate and make decisions differently. 

Besides trust, which is important to both male and female consumers, women want a “relationship.”   We all know that being in a relationship requires a higher level of care and communication to nurture and sustain it in the long term.  Women want more information about what is being done to their vehicle and why.  They want you to listen to them, educate them and not talk down to them.   I call this the C.A.R.E. factor:  Completely And Respectfully Explain their car care needs to them in language they can understand.  We like to use visual aids at the counter and walk the customer out to the car when necessary. 

While men tend to communicate less and want a brief explanation of price and function of the repair or service, women want more details.  Female clients also prefer you to take a personal interest in them, their families, jobs and hobbies.  Ask a woman about her kids, her business accomplishments or her hobbies and watch her brighten up immediately.  This increased familiarity, sincere care and concern goes a long way in building long term relationships with your female customers.  Since, happy, long-time female customers are more inclined to refer business to your shop than male customers (in my experience); they are the best customers to have.

Acknowledging birthdays, anniversaries or writing personal thank you cards are successful marketing actions to consider in building relationships with your female client base as well as personal follow-up phone calls after service is performed. Some additional points to ponder when marketing your repair shop to women are:

• Make sure that your shop is clean and neat both on the inside and the outside. Do not confuse this with fancy. The reception area should be scrubbed and fresh smelling.  Include comfortable seating where possible. Female-friendly magazines, coffee, bottled water and fresh baked cookies are nice touches. 
• Pleasant music playing is preferred over a television blaring bad news.
• Insure that your bathroom is sparkling clean and smells good. 
• Just as your physical location should be scrubbed, so should your online reputation.  Women are more likely to engage in social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook as well as check review sites such as Google, Yelp or Insiderpages before deciding who to do business with. Respond to your reviews and engage your customers on these sites.  Happy customers will share your information with their friends and family members online.
• Make certain that your website is fresh and attractive. Including personal information about yourself and your employees makes you real to potential customers. Pictures and education points are also helpful.
• Set up regular maintenance schedules and send reminders. Utilize all the current technologies such as text messaging and email as well as direct mail according to the individual preferences of your customers. 
• Leave your customer’s cars clean and smudge-free. Besides making a good first impression, making a good last impression is also important especially to the more discerning female customer. Use floor mats, seat covers or steering wheel covers to prevent any dirt or grease from damaging the interior. Do not change the radio station. Offering a complimentary car wash or interior vacuum for large jobs are also welcome treatments.
 
These are just a few female friendly ideas to get you started.  Of course the best way to find out what your female customers want and need is ask them!  Survey your female customers.  They will love that you care enough to ask their opinion.  This is another action which builds long term relationships. 

At the very least, ask your wife, mother, girlfriend or daughter her opinion of your shop.  They will tell you like it is, both the good and the bad.  Adjust accordingly.  It is helpful to ask yourself: how would I want my wife, mother, girlfriend or daughter to be treated? Go over this viewpoint with everyone at your shop from service writers, managers to technicians.

Though I have addressed the female customer base, many of these points are good practice when dealing with your male customers as well.   Make the women happy and the men will certainly follow.    It takes a little effort, but it will pay off in the long run, with repeat business, future referrals and an increased viable customer base.  That is a huge return for just “making Mama happy.”

I learned ALL this and so much more with Management Success’s amazing and knowledgeable staff. I very highly recommend that you attend the How To Increase Your Profits seminar—don’t wait! Let their staff show you just how successful your shop can be!

Get help with your marketing and other management tools—join us at a Seminar near you!

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The Size of the Problem by Mike Lee Management Success!

Mike Lee
Co-founder
Management Success!

It is an interesting phenomenon to talk to a shop owner whose statistics are downtrending, whether it is a small shop without enough work or a big shop that is still doing a good volume of cars but isn’t making enough money.    Whatever the situation, the owner doesn’t seem to be able to fix it.

The manifestations of confusion are varied, depending on the problem.   Let’s start by first identifying the problem, which can usually be described as “they are not making what they need to be in order for them to be happy and winning in the business.”  (Translation: They are not making money!) 

It Is The Economy

When a shop is not doing well, there are many reasons that create the problem.  Normally, the shop owner picks out the one that seems to be the most obvious.  There is not enough work, or customers are not spending like they normally do.  

Whatever the shop owners have been doing to solve the problem has not worked and they go into apathy!   Oh! Talking to them about solutions is like talking to a stone wall.  They aren’t listening and they are sure there is nothing that can be done about it.

But, I never let that stop me!   So I start attacking the problem.   When I ask what the problem is, they start bringing up vague generalities in which there appears to be no possible solution.

1. “Its the economy”
2. “The customers are not spending money on their cars”
3. “Everyone is slow”

You can’t solve any of those problems, because they are a generality and it is not the real problem in terms of the business.   The first step of solving their problem is to move the owner out of apathy!  (Translation:  Moving him from “there is nothing that can be done about it” to “well maybe something might be able to be done about it.”)

The Size Of The Problem

We start by defining the size of the problem.   I first ask what their gross monthly sales have been on average.  Let’s say 40,000 a month.   Next, I ask how much their monthly breakeven is.   Let’s say that is about 43,000 a month.    Obviously, he is losing about 3,000 a month!   If he wants to make at least an additional $1000.00 that means about $4,000 more a month is really the size of the problem.

Ok!  We are at least recognizing the real problem (not enough money) and the size of the problem ($4,000 more a month).  First step in handling a problem is to clearly define what the real problem is.   If you do not identify the real problem, then every solution to the problem will not work.

There is no solution to the economy being bad other than to ignore it and concentrate on the problem the bad economy created for you and your shop.   The real problem that a bad economy created for you is the fact that you are not making enough money to break even or heaven forbid, make some money.   

So if you don’t find the size of your problem, then it is unlikely that you will come up with a solution that will fix the real problem.   Everything is dependent on identifying your real problem and then confronting and handling the real issue.

Next we want to break down the real problem (not enough money) to a size that can be confronted, and then come up with a real solution to handle it.   So in this case, I would ask the guy how many cars he does a month.   Let’s say 200 tickets a month.  If we divided the $4,000 more he needs to make, by the current amount of cars that he is doing, then it turns out that he needs to average $20.00 more per ticket on the work that he already has in order to go from total apathy to where there “might be something he can do about it.”

Or since he is averaging about $200.00 per ticket now, he would need just one more car a day.

Let’s look at a possible solution to getting the $20.00 more per car or getting one more car a day to come to his shop and buy the normal services he offers.

Look, I know about 7 or 8 ways to get $20.00 more per car and probably 3 to 4 ways to get one more car in the shop.  I know how to be more efficient and increase the production of his people.  This doesn’t even count the ways the average shop is just blowing money out the door and doesn’t know it.

Solutions:
1. Do Pre-Service inspections on each car.  This is generally good for $15.00 more per car.

2. Do complete inspections on every car.  Doing it right and selling it right, means easily $20.00 more per car.

3. Get your service writer trained so he does a better job of getting new customers in or handles the current customers properly.   Increasing the Service Writer’s closing rate is good for 2 to 5 more cars a week, which is worth about another $1,600 to $4,000 a month increase.

Body Shops:  Oh!!! Oh!!!  Please, getting your Estimator trained on handling the Insurance Companies if you are part of a DRP program, or increasing the capture rate on estimates if you are not, is good for $1000.00 a week more or the $4,000 a month alone.

Likewise, learning how to increase your shop efficiency in a Body Shop is good for at least one more car a week which is another $4,000 a month.

4. Increasing the production of your technicians 3 or 4 hours week is good for $200.00 per technician.

5. Putting in an effective referral program with your existing customer base is usually good for 2 to 5 cars more a week.

Well like I said, there are about 7 or 8 things you can do to make a change in the overall condition of your operation without costing a ton of dough and changing the bottom line from a negative to a positive.

But, then again, it requires that you want to change and you are willing to change, and that you know how to implement the changes.   

I highly recommend you read the article from Scott Bickley of Little Wolf Automotive in this brochure to see what can happen when you change your mind and start doing something different.

I wish you much success!
Mike Lee

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A Bad Week, by Robert Spitz, Management Success!

Robert Spitz
Snr VP of Business Dev
Management Success!

Recently, a shop owner was venting to me about the “bad week” he was having. He was not really interested in running his shop anymore. He just wanted to coast along until he could sell it, so he could do what he really wanted with the rest of his life.

When I say he was “venting,” it was worse - he was furious! Earlier that week, his lead tech had been into a Ford block and had managed to sheer off the head of a bolt. So, the tech got a bolt remover and sheered the bolt remover as well! That is when the tech ran out of ideas and gave up. The owner, who is an excellent tech, stepped in. He removed it, re-threaded it, and finished the job - bang, bang! Boy, was he ticked off about all this. This incident was not the only thing that had gone wrong during the week, but it was the one that drove him over the edge.

Here is the truth. The entire incident was a direct assault on what he was trying to accomplish. He hired a tech that he thought - in other words, hoped and wished - could do good work. He wanted to slide along as an owner. He definitely did not want to be there, but he had to be there; otherwise, everything would fall apart. Like a ball and chain, he felt he not only had to be at the shop, but he had to have his head under the hood. In his eyes, several things crashed in at once - a very bad week.

This shop owner is a super individual, definitely worthy of the best possible life. So, after I heard this I cut straight to the heart of it all and asked him what he really wanted to do with the years to come. He first apologized for venting and then eloquently outlined some excellent dreams.

He said his time spent thinking about visions of a better future was the only thing helping him get by with a work situation he sometimes hated. But there was an unworkable fantasy in the middle of all this, and I knew it would block his dreams if he did not tackle it. He was sick of sheered bolt removers, but he was even more tired of employees who sheered off bolt removers! He still had a shop and he still had employees, but in his mind, he was done with all of it - and there he sat.

Quite frankly, this adds up to more than a bad week. 

I could not help him with his week, but I could certainly help him with his future.

He needed to learn how to get others to do a good job. An owner’s primary duty is to get others to get the work done. This is easy to say, but it takes tremendous skill. That, alone, would change his life in a big way. Yes, he could do an excellent job himself. That is an exceptional starting point in any activity. If you cannot deliver the goods, then what matters? 

Here’s the bottom line – many shop owners are great techs. They will say (and they are often dead-right about this) that they are the best tech they know. However, they need to be able to say “I make the best techs I know." When they can truthfully say that, from that point forward, their life will change fast. Many things will not change for a repair shop owner until they can make that one thing happen.


It is not the end of all bad weeks, but it is the beginning of a bright new future. Now, here is my question to you: Can you make the best techs you know?

At Management Success! we can show you how. Then, the new game can begin.

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In Search of a Good Technician By Bob Spitz Management Success!



Bob Spitz
Snr VP Business Dev
Management Success 

Let me tell you a story about a shop in Anytown, USA.  Anytown is an expanding upcoming prosperous suburb of a major city.  The town has four dealerships and twenty independent service facilities.  Pat’s Family Service Center is one of them.  Nice shop, good customer base, plenty of work.  In fact too much work as far as Pat (the owner) was concerned.  Pat was frustrated and worn out from the long hours that come with not having qualified help.  He fired one of his three techs that day and ended up back turning wrenches to get the cars done.  He knew tomorrow was already stacked up and he would be turning away new work, which he knew was a really bad idea. So that night sitting in his office with his hand on his head he was thinking,

“Where do you find good help?
There are no good techs in my town.
I ran an ad for a month, but the only guy who showed up was the one I fired two years ago!”

Pat was disgusted and thinking maybe he should close the doors and do something else. He tried everything he knew how to do and it was not working.  His kids were growing up without him and he and his wife had not had a vacation in years.

Although this is just a story this is one of the most common problems in any industry that requires skilled labor.  It is not just the automotive repair industry.  If you are suffering from this problem let us take a look at some things before you throw in the towel, hop in your truck and head off into the sunset.

Do You Really Need Another Technician?

In some shops, the solution will turn out to be getting more production out of the technicians you already have. In other shops the problem can actually be too many people on board. There is a guideline you can use to sort this out. Take your gross sales (minus sales tax) and divide by the number of production people you have. The resulting figure should be at least $17,500 per production person per month. Most shops should be in the $17,500-$20,000 range. If you are a specialist, your numbers should be in the $20,000-plus range. If your number is a lot lower, you’re not getting enough production out of the guys you already have.

All too often, an owner’s solution to low production is to hire more people. However, if the shop is not properly organized for production, more employees will only add to the confusion and adversely affect your income.

You Really Do Need Some Techs!

But sometimes you really do need additional help or a replacement. While you may have had some frustrating “adventures” trying to find a new technician, rest assured that there are good employees out there. You just have to maintain a good attitude and persist in your search. If you believe that “there are no good techs”, or “nobody wants to work,” you probably will prove yourself right and you won’t find anyone! So that is the first step; decide that it is possible to find someone. Once you’ve done that, you’re ready for the next step.

Working the Grapevine

In every community there is an informal communication system called the grapevine. Good technicians don't usually have to look in the paper for a job; they just use the grapevine to find out which shops in town are good to work for. Here are some people who can help you get your message out on the grapevine.

Tool-man
Tell him what you need and want in a tech; give him your business card. Keep mentioning it to him WEEKLY.

Parts Vendors
Talk to the salesmen you deal with, and even the parts delivery people that go into most of the shops in your area. Again, give them a business card or two that they can pass on to prospects. Some parts houses have a bulletin board on which you can post a small ad.

Customers
This is probably the most ignored communication line available to you, your loyal customer base. Put up signs in your sales and waiting areas. If your zoning codes allow it, put a similar message on your marquee or on a signboard in front of the shop. Your customers might have a friend, a relative or a neighbor who is a technician looking for a job.

Local Trade Association
Many local trade association chapters actively help members find technicians. They run ads in the paper (paid for with membership fees), they contact tech schools, interview applicants and sometimes will even build a pool of prospects and resumes that their members can utilize. Usually the pool includes guys with all levels of skill and experience. 

Churches and Synagogues
Talk to your minister, your priest or your rabbi. Let him know you want someone to join your family of employees. Give him a business card, a 3x5 ad for a bulletin board, or run an ad in the Church Bulletin. Or do all three.

Local Business People
Spread the word via everyone you do business with in town, from the person you see every week at the grocery store, to the guy at the printing shop. Give them all business cards and let them know what you need and want.

Vo-tech Schools
Contact anyone you know at the local Vo-Tech, or call one of the teachers and ask for the names of the best graduating students. You might even end up hiring one of the teachers! One note of caution: some Vo-Tech schools are magnets for addicts and criminals who choose tech training to stay out of jail or the army. Make sure the school has high standards for its applicants.

Military Placement Agencies
A local military base will sometimes have a placement service for guys leaving the service. Call and see if they have one of these offices.

 If so, mail or fax them a description of what you need and want in an employee. Guys with motor-pool experience and military discipline usually make good employees.
By now you’ve gotten the idea that you cannot ignore any possible avenue of communication for your search. The more you tell people what you need and want, the better your chances are that you will find what you need and want.

Place an Advertisement

If, in spite of your efforts, the grapevine does not provide enough prospects, do some advertising. There are some very good web-sites for placing help wanted ads. Not only are they less expensive, but you are likely to get higher quality prospects responding to your ads in them.

Your ads should be worded so that they will attract people with good attitudes and some experience. It is better to hire someone with less experience who wants to be part of the team and is willing to work, than to hire some “Super-Tech” with a giant chip on his shoulder. An employee with a bad attitude will affect everyone’s production and drive you crazy.  I have personally heard from many clients how well the  ads they got from Management Success work.

It is also better to hire two or three guys at the same time because one might not show up for work, one might not be able to produce and only one might be a “keeper.”  Rarely will you run into the problem of having too many good technicians on board.

Your positive attitude can create a good, secure atmosphere that will attract and keep good employees. On the other hand, a negative disposition can repel the best guys. Good people don't want to work for a grouch, and sane people don't want to work in a chaotic, insane environment.  Similarly, employees that have a lot of baggage, such as drug or alcohol abuse problems they bring into the workplace, will contribute to an “unsafe atmosphere” that will drive the good prospects away.

Sloppily run, unprofessional shops that have no basic systems or policies in place will attract non-productive, unmotivated technicians who cost you more money than they make you. On the bright side, a tightly run, efficient shop in which everyone is making decent money and which has policies that limit personal baggage will be most likely to attract good technician prospects.

The bottom line is that, in spite of any difficulties you might encounter in the adventure of finding technicians, over 80% of the people out there are decent and willing to help you achieve your goals. Positively decide you are going to find the right one of them for your team. And good luck in the hunt!

“Hi Honey, I leaving the shop early, things are under control.  Why don’t I pick up the kids from school?”

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Building a Winning Team! Getting Everyone on the Same Page - Bob Spitz Management Success!

Bob Spitz
Snr VP Business Development
Management Success!

I was talking with a shop owner the other day and he said to me, “I am having a hard time getting my crew, especially my service writer to understand what I want.  I go blue in the face explaining over and over how I what things done and yet he always seems to be on a different page.  He’s a good guy and sells well but honestly he’s driving me crazy.  How do I get employees to be on the same page as me?”

Wow!  That is what I call a quick question that does not have a quick answer.  I told him I do not like to do off-the-cuff consultations especially on the subject of employees, but let me see if I can help you here.  Before you pop a cork sit back take a deep breath and relax for a moment.  Employee management is the trickiest part of a business.  The reason most employees go off on a different direction from the owner is a lack of understanding what you the owner is trying to accomplish.  There is no agreement.  Telling people what you want done and how to do things only works when the understanding is already established.  In other words when the employee twigs on how their job related to the overall plan. 

What is the goal of the shop?  What are you trying to get done?  Have you put this in writing for yourself and your employees?  You need to do this as a first step.  If you are clear on where you want to go and what you want to accomplish and how you want to get there then it is easy to communicate those concepts to others.

You do this in the form of policy and staff meetings.  You should have a meeting at least once a week to reiterate the purpose of the shop and what it is you want to get done.  The next step is getting an employee to understand his/her job, the purpose of his job and how it all fits in with the overall big picture of the business.  With a service writer you have to break it all down, how many jobs or hats is he/she really wearing?  In most independent shops the service writer wears a multitude of hats: Reception, sales, parts, dispatching, quality control (checking the vehicle before the customer picks it up)  etc.  Each one of these has to be broken down into their actual components or functions and then taught on how the job is to be done according to company policy.  Just telling people does not really work in most cases. You need to hold training sessions where the employee practices the new procedure or technique.  But be careful here, you do not want a group of clones, you have got to leave room for initiative and creation on the position, other wise you end up with robots who can not think.

One of your biggest barriers to training people is if the person you are attempting to train feels there is nothing to learn; they already know it all.  You have got to know how to handle this kind of person and better yet know how to spot this kind of person before you even hire them.  You also need to know how to motive people to attend training.  There are many ways of doing this, but beware of the person who you can not motivate, there are other problems in this case.

People learn in gradients; step-by-step.  It is so easy to overwhelm a new employee by piling on too much too quickly.  Owners tend to forget how much they know especially about their own business.  Too many owners have trouble communicating want they want and how they want it done. To them it is too simple and too obvious.  How could this new employee not get it?  Well I am going to tell you to a new employee neither of these is necessarily true.  It is not necessarily simple, or obvious.

 You have got to break it all down.  Remember, the only thing you ever have in an employee is willingness.  
In the case of a service writer, break down all the hats they are wearing as I mentioned above and take one hat and work out step-by-step what you want them to know and do regarding the functions of that position.

There are many tools you must have and know how to use when you attempt to train people.  But attitude is critical.  If you do not have a high tolerance for stupidity you should not attempt to train anyone!  You have to be willing to go over points time and again.  Most people learn through repetition. 

By the end of our talk this particular shop owner agreed that he had not spent enough time training his service writer and agreed to take some of the tools I gave him and would take a half hour a day to work with his service writer one thing at a time! I heard from him about a month later and he told me that things were starting to improve, and his service writer was not stupid after all!

Management Success is the leader in quality management training.  As an owner you must have strong organization and communication skills, and a big part of organizing is training for yourself and your team. 

Get trained and learn how to train others.  Your life and the life of your employees will greatly improve. It is the only long term solution.  Wishing you success!

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How Much PROFIT are You Leaving On the Front Counter? By Bob Spitz Management Success!

Bob Spitz
VP Production
Management Success!

I was talking with a distressed shop owner the other day, who was worried sick about his car count.   He told me all the money he had spent recently on marketing efforts, trying to resolve the problem.  “I’ve got mailers going out, my website is new, I don’t know what else I could be doing!” he lamented. 

After asking him some basic questions regarding his marketing and advertising efforts, I asked him the following:  “Do you track how many calls or walk-ins you get per week?”  This made him pause, so I continued.  “When someone calls your shop or comes in asking about your services, that is called a reach.   What happens with that reach can mean the difference between eating well and starving.  Marketing materials get the phone to ring, get customers and potential customers to visit your website or to stop by the shop.  Once that person reaches it is up to sales to close the deal.  These are two distinctly different areas of a business and they must be watched and kept track of carefully. 

“Who is answering the phone in your shop and do they like sales or do they think of sales as a necessary evil?”  That got his attention, because he did not know.   “Can you help me with this?” he asked.  I offered to set up some “mystery shoppers” to call and come in to his business to test the waters.  I would get back with him once I had the results.

I set up a team to do a series of mystery shopper phone calls and had a friend of mine drop by the shop and pose as a potential customer.  The end result was very revealing.  This is what we found:

• The phone was not answered promptly and sometimes went to voice mail.
• One three different occasions when the phone was answered the person answering did not announce who they were and sounded rushed and impatient.
• When asked for a price on a repair we were put on hold and waited longer than a customer would normally wait.  When the person came back on they quoted a price and then were not asked to set an appointment to bring the car in for an inspection.  The person on the phone seemed bored with the whole process.
• On one occasion when calling to ask for a price on a repair we were immediately given a discount.
• We were left on hold and forgotten about.
• On one call we were asked to bring the car in, and when we politely declined the person on the phone called our caller a jerk as he hung up.
• The on-site mystery shopper stood at the front counter and was not acknowledged by anyone in the shop until he begged for help from someone walking by the front desk.

We then surveyed the people working on the front and found neither of the two had any professional training in the area of sales, and one of them did not like selling or having to deal with customers!

I went over the findings with the shop owner. He was shocked and a bit embarrassed.  I told him to stop beating himself up, this wasn’t uncommon.   Often a shop owner can be the last to know the true condition of the front once he stops actively running the day-to-day operation of the business.

Then I told him this key concept.  “A shop can have a great advertising campaign, a very good looking, professional website and it will be all for naught and waste a ton of money if the shop has the wrong or untrained people on the front counter.  THE PEOPLE ON THE FRONT WILL EITHER MAKE OR BREAK A BUSINESS!”

We went over a list of attributes that his front people needed to be successful and checked to see how they stacked up.

Attributes of a Good Front Person

• They have to like people
• They have to enjoy the game of sales
• They have to be highly skilled at communication
• They have to know how to sell and close the deal
• They have to really care about the customers and the shop
• They have to enjoy responsibility
• The have to be organized
• They need to have good computer skills

Measuring his front people against this list, we came up with a solid plan to get his ship righted and went to work. We started monitoring his reaches and sales on a weekly basis, and started getting his guys grooved in on the “Good Attributes” and got them really selling!

The turn-around for this shop was not something that happened overnight, but is also did not take forever either, and the results where nothing short of miraculous.

I called the shop the other day and was greeted promptly and professionally by a cheerful individual who was a joy to speak with.  The results of a follow-up round of mystery shopping showed a 180 degree turn in the front, and the statistics prove it.   Sales were up 26% and the owner is breathing a lot easier these days!

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Should Your Technicians Be Selling Service? by Robert Spitz, Management Success!

Robert Spitz
Sr VP Production
Management Success!

In this industry, there are two schools of thought on this matter. I have heard arguments on both sides that are both good and bad at the same time. Let us take a look at this and come up with a consensus. First, we need to clarify a technician's job.

What Is a Technician's Job?

Defining what is wanted from a particular position in a company helps simplify what functions must be done to get the product or end result of that position. With a technician, it is fairly straight forward:

A technician must correctly diagnose, repair, and recommend any future needed repairs and services so that the vehicle does not have any immediate problems.

From this, we can draw up a list of actions that must be done to achieve the desired product or result. So where does sales fit into this picture?

Most shops are started by technicians who have more ability and drive than the other technicians in town. They have a desire to be their own boss and to have their own successful business. To survive, they quickly learn that they have to have some sales skills. Mixed with their technical skills, this can become a powerful combination. If they fail to learn even the most basic sales and management skills, their growth will stall, and so will their dreams. They eventually figure out they cannot do both jobs of selling and fixing cars. There are just not enough hours in the day.

In order to grow, technicians or sales people need to be hired. Of course, this requires new management skills on how to recruit, hire, and put people on the job so they can now produce in a volume that allows the business to grow and the owner to make money.

A technician earns a living by diagnosing and repairing vehicles. All of a technician’s time must be focused on these two functions. When we pull technicians off vehicles to deal with customers, they are now mixing the functions of sales into their job and are no longer doing what needs to be done to achieve the purpose of the position. This cuts heavily into their production and creates comebacks. So, organizationally, this does not make much sense.

When Using Technicians for Sales Does Makes Sense

There are times when using a technician to help close a sale makes sense. Sometimes the customer is skeptical or just does not understand even though you have used sales aids in your presentation. Using technicians as a “technical tag” can be very powerful in this instance. Knowing which technician to use and when to use him or her is a sales skill that all service writers need to have. The technician needs to be trained on how to do this and must keep the answers short and to the point. The service writer guides the customer back to the vehicle and asks the technician to show the customer why he recommended a particular repair.

Learn this technique and use it on those tough sales, and you will close a lot more. Sales people have a purpose and a function, and technicians have theirs. Do not mix up these jobs, but learn to use the strengths of both to your and the customer's benefit.

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It's The Economy! By Mike Lee Management Success!

Mike Lee
President
Management Success!

Ah! Over the years, we have heard this complaint on numerous occasions. Shop owners complaining about things getting tight and that there is not enough business and "I can't pay my bills, etc."

Let's go over some basics about business and handling the "tight economy." A shop goes through cycles or periods of where business is good followed by a period where business is bad. This has been going on since the beginning of time. So we can conclude that it is going to happen again. It appears we are in one of those times when things are a little tough.

Now, if you have been through this before, hopefully, you have learned some things. Some businesses survive and a lot don't. Why? Most of the time, the shops that survive know how to handle the tough economy!

They do the right actions which helps them through the difficult period. Such as:

Work Harder

Successful shops know when the economy gets tough, they have to work harder. What I really mean is they have to work smarter. Just working an extra 3 hours day will not solve the car count problem. It will not solve a shop that has gotten lazy and dropped out successful actions they were doing when they were small.

The most common of these successful actions is they used to be "hungry". When they first started in business, they were very aggressive. They did whatever it took to get business in the door. Many times, new shops will pass flyers out door-to-door or in malls promoting that they were a new business that was opening. They passed out business cards to everyone they knew.

But as soon as they got busy, they stopped these actions, even though they contributed to the shop getting busy. So part of the working harder is go back to being hungry and aggressive.

Promote!

They promote! This doesn't mean they spend a million dollars on advertising or promotion, but they do actively increase their efforts with their customers. They are able to effectively get results without having to spend lots of money doing it.

When things slow down, shops tend to stop promoting. This is not the right thing to do.

I love people who spend lots of money to learn how to create tricky, expensive promotional campaigns. When in reality, the key to promotion is word of mouth. So instead of spending tons of money on promotion, you can increase your car count by having a plan to spend more time with your existing customers.

Personal contact with your existing customer costs you additional time, but is more effective than any promotional piece ever created. Explaining the bill and what you are doing and why is very effective promotion. There is no promotional piece that will replace having a high care factor and good communication skills in dealing with your customers.

Fix The Cars!

The other day I got an e-mail about a problem a potential customer was having. He was complaining about bad checks, business slowing down and then proceeded to give a full picture of all the promotional actions that he was doing. He was spending a ton of money and he indicated that 50% of his business was new customers. He asked a ton of questions that did not make any sense.

I asked a couple quick questions like what his average repair order was and what was his cost of parts and labor. It was very obvious that he had other problems than promotion problems. The number one problem was the quality of work going out the door.

When 50% of your weekly business is new customers, wow!! Something is definitely wrong in the quality of work. A growing and expanding shop is built on repeat business and word of mouth. The part of the industry that has heavy repeat business needs to have about 90% of their business be from existing customers or you are starting to have problems.

If you are in the part of the business that doesn't operate on repeat business, then word of mouth is everything to you. Every time you finish a car, you put a referral out in the world. This referral is either good or bad and generally it is up to you to make it a good referral.

First Rule of Promotion: Fix the Car

Second Rule of Promotion: Treat the customer fairly with a high care factor.

I know of shops that do no promotion or are not even listed in the yellow pages, but they do terrific business, because of the way they fix the cars and handle their customers. They have a good number of new customers coming to their shop because of referrals from their existing customers.

A New Level of Expense

In good times, shops tend to get very lax on the control of the money. They start buying things and expanding without looking at the long term effects of this. They take on heavy debt and commitments due to the fact that they are making lots of money and it appears to be no problem.

But when the economy slows down, they begin to get into real trouble because their monthly overhead is now out of sight. While smaller and the overhead was low, they could handle a drop in business and survive rough times.

I find that the most successful operations go back to the basics when business slows down. They work smarter. They get more aggressive on making sure that they are doing everything that they know helps create good customer referrals and repeat business. They tighten the financial belt, make sure that they don't spend money on things that don't work and do spend money on those that do!

I hope this helps.
Mike Lee

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Marketing Your Business, by Robert Spitz, Management Success!

Bob Spitz
VP Production
Management Success!

The nine year old son of a shop owner looked up from his video game when his father walked into the room. The boy said, "Dad, I had to do a math project for school last week. We were supposed to compare different amounts of the same thing. We had to go out and compare a lot of something to a little bit of the same thing. So I got this incredible idea! I decided to count cars! When mom dropped me off at the shop after school I counted 642 cars driving by! And I counted 3 cars in the shop. I got really good at counting cars and at comparing numbers all at the same time!" Dad was a little shaken up by this fact. It was the truth. As young boys see everything, including parents' reactions, the boy said, "Isn't that great, Dad?" Luckily, the Dad snapped right out of it and said "Yes, son, that's super! Nice job!" Dad didn't sleep well that night. But he woke up the next morning with a powerful purpose. He decided to tackle his car count problem. But how was he going to do it? It's not like he hadn't tried to solve this 100 times before...

The above story is an all-too-common story in our industry. Marketing is a big subject that is not well understood by a lot of people; as a result, owners are suffering financially from a lack of traffic into their shops. So, we are going to start at the base and work up from there.

First off, what is this thing called marketing? Marketing is the action of making a target audience or a specific type of public (in our case, people who operate vehicles) aware of the goods and services an activity has to offer. It comes from the idea of bringing your goods to a central meeting place, the "market," where the goods can be displayed and interest can be generated.

Now, let's look at how this applies to a vehicle repair facility. Gone are the days when a shop did not need to do a whole lot of marketing, advertising, or promoting to stay busy. Although word-of-mouth is still a primary force for getting new customers, word-of-mouth alone is not enough anymore.

Today, the independent has competitors with very deep pockets; as a group, they can spend millions of dollars on slick marketing campaigns and promotions. How does the independent business owner compete with this? Following are some tips to help you in your marketing efforts.

1. Identify your target audience or specific public. Who do you want to service? Who are you in business for? What kind of work do you do, and who would benefit from your goods and services? Who do you want as a customer? If you are a general repair facility, it is fairly straightforward. Anyone who operates a vehicle that you are willing to service is your public. If you are a specialty shop, the picture changes. What do you specialize in? Who owns or operates these kinds of vehicles? What do the owners of these vehicles need and want from your kind of shop? Are you working with insurance companies or doing fleet work? Insurance and fleet have a very specialized public with different needs and wants.

2. Survey (get input and organized feedback from) your public. Trying to guess what consumers need and want is a waste of time and potentially very expensive. Most people in our industry are not consumers of vehicle repair and, therefore, do not necessarily think like the consumer. So, in order to know what consumers are looking for, you have to ask them. A simple survey can tell you a lot about your customers and potential customers.

A common example is a shop that promotes and advertises low prices, thinking this is what the customers need and want. This might get people in the door; you may even get very busy, but I have seen too many shops almost go broke with this strategy! Most good customers want service, service, service! They want the vehicle serviced and repaired on time and done right the first time. Consumers almost always complain about the high price of auto repair, but they tend to complain no matter what you charge! So, base your advertising on service first, price second.

3. Do not forget to market to your regular customers. This is the area that I see as the weakest point for most shops when it comes to marketing. A shop's current customer base is a gold mine. Yet, I see too many shops ignore their regular customers, assuming that they will come back. This is really bad thinking! Remember earlier in this article, I mentioned the Big Dogs with the multi-gazillion dollar advertising budgets? Well, they are out there, and they have no problem servicing your customers.

It is easy to lose customers and not even know it. It starts with simple services. You lose your customers' minor service work. Then, it gets into the lucrative maintenance work, and you lose that too. Then, the only time you see your customers is when they have a big problem, a drivability problem, an intermittent short, or some other mind-numbing situation with their vehicle. This happens when a business fails to keep the line of communication alive with customers. If you do not keep your name in front of your customer, someone else will!

A shop owner who yells, "They're stealing all my customers!" is actually saying, "I don't know how to market my business!" Following are some basic and simple marketing and advertising actions that need to be done by all shops to ensure regular customers keep coming back.

• Service Reminders: These are cards or letters that you send to your customers to remind them that it is time to bring their vehicle back for service, such as an oil change, transmission service, cooling system service, or air conditioning service.
• Recommended Repair Reminders: This is when the owner of the vehicle has declined to get a repair or service that should have been done. To assume your customers will automatically bring the vehicle back to get the additional repair done is a mistake, as well as bad customer service. Within 10 days of their visit, you should send out a reminder to customers to call for another appointment since their vehicle still needs additional work.
  
• "Thank You" Cards: This needs to be done by all shops, but it takes some judgement. "Thank you" cards should be sent out primarily to new customers. Include a business card or two, along with a discount coupon for their next service.
  
• Follow-Up Calls: The owner or the service writer should not make follow-up calls. Most people are well-intentioned and hate telling someone they have bad news. Have someone the customer is not in contact with make the call. This could be an outside salesman, a relative, or someone else. You are more likely to get the truth this way.
  
• Seasonal Mailer: In most parts of the country, there are seasons. This gives a shop the opportunity to offer season specials. This can be done in conjunction with a newsletter. Newsletters can be very powerful when done right, but do not waste them on people who do not know you. Newsletters are best used as a tool to keep in touch with regular customers.

Putting your first newsletter or an effective mailer together can be tricky. There is a lot to know about what should be in the ad or the newsletter and how to design an ad that captures the consumer's interest and attention. This is where you might seek some professional help.

4. Continually seek new customers. A shop has to have a program in place for attracting new customers. Most shops get new customers via word-of-mouth. If this is true for your shop, capitalize on it. Even if you do nothing more than give each good customer a couple of business cards and ask for business, you will get new business.

• Welcome Wagons and Marriage Mailers: These can also help with gaining new customers. Find out who is new to your community by joining the Welcome Wagon program that most town councils or chambers of commerce have. Contact one of the marriage mailer companies, and get your coupon in with other businesses in your area. This cuts way down on the cost and the work. This is another area that takes an in-depth knowledge of design. An owner needs to know the components of a good ad; otherwise, a lot of money can be wasted on bad ads and coupons that do not work. But you need to know how to track what works in your market. Some actions work well in one part of the country and fall flat in other areas.

Marketing is a vast subject, and there are a lot of things you can do. The problem most shops have is they lack the time to strengthen their marketing. This is where professional help can make a big difference. The cost of professional help is a drop in the bucket when compared to the amount of money wasted on ineffective advertising, or worse - an empty parking lot.

If you are currently not doing any marketing get something, anything, going! It is that important. Look out for the next article where I will tie sales into the picture. I hope the above helps. Good luck!


Robert Spitz

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