Thinking about overhauling your company’s culture can be overwhelming and intimidating. Is that because culture is more of an intangible? Something you can’t see or touch? Something for which you can’t write out a standard operating procedure? Something you can’t put in place over the weekend and have ready for your staff Monday morning? We like to fix things with our hands or with a written process or a set of rules, but we can’t fix culture that way.
While all positive reviews are valuable, reviews that are stories written by your average customers about common repairs, services and everyday visits that resulted in great experiences will inspire the most trust, and have the most influence.
Anyone who has been in our business for some time can tell you the auto industry has changed dramatically – and so have our customers’ habits and expectations. For today’s customer, convenience is everything.
If shops have no staffing strategy or formalized hiring process in place, clearly, they need to make a change. While shop owners may not be able to control things such as recalls, interest rates or industry evolution and trends, they can control who they hire.
For years, I’ve stressed the importance of setting appropriate benchmarks, holding your team accountable for reaching them, and measuring daily to track your progress so you can train and adjust to hit your goals by month’s end. The old way of running a shop, where you send your financials to an accountant and find out on the 15th of the following month whether you made or lost money, is long extinct. You can’t fix the month’s numbers if you don’t see them until it’s too late!
Service is the name of the game. Customers have too many choices today for everything they want to buy. When you deliver service that is second to none, you will become your customers’ “first call” for ongoing vehicle repairs, says Mary DellaValle, editor of Shop Owner magazine.
Former Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, said, “People with passion can change the world.” A bold statement for sure, but perhaps you’re not looking to change the world. Perhaps you’re just looking to create a more successful automotive repair business. Then, does passion really matter? In short, yes – and quite a bit at that.
As automotive repair shop owners, we are absolutely held to higher standards to meet customer service expectations. That’s because of the associated negative stereotype that comes with consumers having to dole out money on recommended repairs, oftentimes that are unexpected or that amounted to more than they can afford. Most customers equate honesty from a shop as good customer service, and feel it should also be an inherent practice. And, they wouldn’t be wrong about that notion.
Everyone shows up late to work once in a while. But some employees have made it an art form. According to a new CareerBuilder survey, one in four workers (25 percent) admitted that they’re late to work at least once a month, down from 29 percent last year.
Neglected auto care almost always means much higher costs down the road in the form of more extensive repairs or lost vehicle resale value. You know that all too well, but your customers don’t necessarily buy into that concept, says Mary DellaValle, editor of Shop Owner magazine.
Given the myriad risks of on-the-job drug and alcohol use – and the steep price that shops can pay for negligent repairs – it’s more important than ever to ensure that your employees are focused, clean and sober.
Experts say there is a direct relationship between keeping employees happy and getting the best out of them, but improving morale in the shop is a deceptively simple goal. Sometimes, in order to raise morale in the shop, you have to get creative. Here are four areas where business owners can lift employee spirits and create a happier, more productive workforce.
