Elite Worldwide Inc.

By Bob Cooper Looking to improve your service business? Here are 5 practices used by many of the most successful shops in America to dominate their market. #1. Generating New Customers The top shops realize that auto repair and service is a community-based business. With that said, I advise shops to invest at least 50% of their advertising budgets into non-traditional marketing campaigns. This includes involvement in charitable events, fundraisers, car care clinics and social media campaigns. They also realize that the Y and Z Generations are emerging markets, so they will typically invest at least 50% of their non-traditional marketing dollars into campaigns that directly target these demographics. Time and time again I’ve seen the implementation of this grass roots marketing strategy help shop owners achieve considerable gains in their market share, even when operating on a limited budget. #2. The Right Service Advisors and the Right Training We have found that the top shops embrace our philosophy that when it comes to recruiting, you need to hire for attitude, aptitude, talent and ethics, rather than for product knowledge. They understand that people do business with people, not with companies, so they consciously hire advisors that have remarkable people skills. They’ll also place a heavy emphasis on properly training these advisors upon hiring them, and will have them participate in service advisor sales courses at least once a year. In order to constantly improve their skills, a good percentage of the top service advisors use small digital voice recorders to record their own sales presentations. This way they can self-critique, discover their own weaknesses, and then adjust accordingly. #3. Bringing in More First-Time Callers The top advisors recognize that the first and most important step is to sell each first-time caller on their credibility as an advisor; not the shop or service. This is why they prefer to take the incoming calls, rather than having them screened by a receptionist or call center. Secondly, they understand that the overwhelming majority of first-time callers that ask for a price do so in order to start a conversation, not necessarily because they are price shoppers. By having this awareness, these advisors don’t fall prey to prejudging or prequalifying the callers, as most of their competitors do. Lastly, the top advisors in America know that one guaranteed way of driving up car counts, and sales, is by providing their customers with the option to bring their vehicle in now, rather than solely offering a future appointment. This is why shops should staff in a way that allows them to at least perform an inspection for a customer that did not have an appointment. Top advisors realize that if they are able to meet the caller face-to-face, they will have a far greater probability of turning them into a customer for life. #4. Closing More Service Sales There are a number of things we encourage shops to do in order to generate good, ethical sales. Yet where the top shops really shine is in their ability to build strong personal relationships with their customers. They do this by consciously engaging their customers when they first come into the shop, asking several fact-finding questions, and selling the benefits of the service rather than parts and labor. These advisors also realize that although people don’t like to be sold, they love to buy, so whenever possible they’ll offer their customers a choice in services. We have found that when advisors are able to offer options, not only does it allow the customer to feel more in control of their purchasing decision, but it leads to substantially higher ARO’s and higher CSI scores. By following these easy-to-implement procedures, many advisors are able to close over 75% of the services and repairs that have been recommended by their technicians, while still maintaining extraordinarily high CSI scores. #5. Car Delivery The top shops understand that their customers are going to judge them far more by what happens after the sale than by what happens during the sale, so here is what they will do... First of all, with rare exception, the car delivery process is handled entirely by the advisor. When the customer comes in to pick up their vehicle, the first thing the advisor will do is resell them on the service they chose. This in itself will immediately help quell any buyer’s remorse the customer may have. They will then review the paperwork with the customer, they’ll ask the customer if they have any questions, and they’ll offer the inspection or return of any replaced parts. They will also instruct the customer on how to better care for the service or repair that they just purchased. They will then process the repair order, they’ll use their sales skills to help the customer see the value in scheduling their next appointment while they are still at the service counter, and then they will ask the customer the two questions every customer loves to hear: “Do you have any questions for me?”, and “Is there anything else I can help you with?” These questions not only allow the customer to clear their mind of any lingering questions or concerns they have, but also send a strong message that the advisor genuinely cares about the customer as an individual. Before the customer leaves, the top advisors will say something along the lines of, “Tom, before you leave, there’s one other thing I’d like to say. I know there are a lot of well-run shops in the neighborhood, so I just wanted to say thanks so much for your trust in us.” When an advisor says this to a customer, three things will inevitably happen... First of all, it will send a message that the advisor is well aware that the customer has choices, and that in itself sends a strong message of appreciation. Secondly, and on a more personal note, the reason I have spent years encouraging business owners and sales staff to thank people for their trust rather than their business, is because decades ago I discovered that if I were to thank someone for their business, in reality all that I’d be doing is thanking them for the economic exchange. Yet what I find to be priceless isn’t the money a customer is passing on to us. What’s truly priceless, is their trust in us. So by thanking a customer for their trust, what we are really doing is reminding them that they made a decision based on their trust in us, not on price, or on convenience. And then lastly, and most importantly, a statement such as the one I just shared with you will resonate with the customer, and if it comes from an advisor’s heart, it will resonate beyond just a day or two, but for years to come. The way all great companies are built is by delivering extraordinary service to each and every customer. It’s a simple principle, and one that without question is followed by the top shops in America. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite (www.EliteWorldwide.com), a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while elevating the industry at the same time. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses.

In the world of auto repair, one thing is for certain: Every shop in your community has their eye on your customers. So in order to keep your customers, there are a number of things you will need to do. Here are 6 tips that will bring you amazing results: #1. Make sure that you deliver on the customer’s expectations, and whenever possible, that you exceed those expectations. Simply put, fix the car right the first time, make the experience as pleasant as possible, help your customers see the value in your services, and over-deliver at every opportunity. #2. At the point of car delivery, go well beyond what your competitors do. You need to resell the customer on their decision, assure them that their problem has been solved, and review their repair order in detail. During the “sales process” you need to put the focus on the benefits of the service rather than the price, but at time of car delivery you need to ensure that they understand what they bought, and how much they paid for the services. You then need to offer them the opportunity to inspect their old parts (or return their old parts back to them), review the warranty, discuss anything they will need to monitor or do once they leave, schedule their next appointment, and thank them for their trust in you. #3. When scheduling the next appointment, rather than asking when they would like to schedule it, be presumptive and tentatively set the date and time for them. If and when they tell you they are unsure if they will be available on that date, just tell them “No worries, Mr. Butitta. We’ll be sending you a reminder card the week before, and we’ll give you a reminder call as well. If you need to reschedule, it’ll be no problem at all - we can simply reschedule the appointment for you at that time. The benefit of doing it this way is that there’s nothing you’ll need to remember, because we’ll remember for you.” #4. Sell the benefits of the next service at the time of car delivery. Rather than just telling the customer that they’ll be due for a cooling system service in 6 months, help them see the value by explaining how that service will save them money, time, etc. If they feel the only reason to return is because you told them they need to, you’ll see far fewer returning customers, because they will feel they will be spending money, and getting little, if anything, in return. #5. Build relationships. Regardless of how well you build value in their next visit, customers will be far more prone to returning to your shop if they feel there is someone there they will enjoy seeing again. Remember the Elite rule: When people buy a product, they will always remember the product, but when they buy a service, they will always remember the people that provided the service. #6. Stay in touch. Beyond a customer follow-up program, you need to ensure your customers are exposed to your brand on a continual basis. This means you need to invest in your brand building campaigns, and be integrated into your community in every way that you can. In closing, all the reward programs and slick marketing gimmicks will always pale in comparison to one simple business philosophy: Provide a great service at a competitive price, build relationships with every customer, and live by the principle of never putting money ahead of people. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite (www.EliteWorldwide.com), a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while elevating the industry at the same time. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses.

By Bob Cooper I have found over the years that despite all their good intentions, there are 5 mistakes that most shop owners make not just sometimes, but every single day. The first mistake comes the very moment they walk through their door. 1. They forget to say two simple words. We all have tough days, and as business owners we have many of the same challenges our employees have. Yet when we come to work, we need to put all of our troubles aside, and smile. We’ve all heard that before, right? But what most shop owners fail to do is walk up to each employee, and while they still have that smile on their face, say; “Good morning!” Regardless of the size of your shop, you should greet every employee in the same heartfelt way you would if you just had one employee. Remember, it’s our responsibility to keep our employees inspired, it’s not their responsibility to inspire us. 2. They forget Job #1. In order to grow a successful business, you need to have clearly defined goals. This is why the most successful shop owners not only have their goals in place, but they break them down into monthly, weekly and daily goals. They then share those goals with all the relative employees, so that every day their advisors know their daily car count and sales goals, and their technicians know their daily efficiency goals. 3. They forget to catch their employees doing things right. Most shop owners catch their employees making mistakes, but unfortunately, they fail to catch them when they are doing things right. Regardless of whether it’s saying something as simple as, “Great job, Mike!”, or taking an employee aside to give them a heartfelt thank you for what they have just done, it’s critical to the success of every business. By praising positive performance at the time it occurs you’re reinforcing the behavior, and improving morale. As we all know, when morale improves, so does productivity. 4. They help… in the wrong ways. It’s the role of a shop owner to help their employees do their job well, but not to do their job for them. If a shop owner has a technical background, and one of their technicians runs into a problem, they will often jump in to help. Although their intentions are good, there is a better approach that’s used by our top clients at Elite. Simply put, they will lead their employees to the answer, rather than providing it to them. If you give a man a fish, he will eat for a day, yet if you teach him how to fish, he will eat for a lifetime. It’s no different in business. 5. They try to be everything to everybody. Most shop owners have big hearts, and they want to help as many people as they can. Yet what they fail to realize is that they can never be everything to everybody. The top shop owners realize the people that want to supply their own parts, as well as the people that are looking for a discount or the lowest price, are more than likely not their customers. So while most shop owners try to be everything to everybody each and every day, the successful owners understand the value of telling some people that unfortunately, they’re unable to help them with their particular needs. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite (www.EliteWorldwide.com), a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while elevating the industry at the same time. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses.

By Bob Cooper Now that we are coming into the holiday season, there are a number of things you can do to drive up productivity, sales, customer satisfaction and profits. Each one of the below tips worked wonders for me when I was still in the auto repair business, and they are still effective today for many of our coaching clients, so I know they can work for you as well. 1. End of Year Performance Bonuses – All that you need to do is set a sales goal for the end of the year, and then tell your entire staff that if the goal is reached by December 31st, they will be entitled to a really nice bonus. You can also tell your techs that if they reach certain productivity goals, you will give them a predetermined amount of credit that they can use on their favorite tool truck. 2. Schedule a Holiday Season Charity Drive – Pick a charity (or cause) that is close to your heart, and that will reach the hearts of your ideal customers. Examples would be the US Marine Corps Toy for Tots campaign, food for the homeless, and fundraisers for life-threatening illnesses, local humane societies and the Wounded Warriors Foundation. By raising money for these types of organizations you’ll not only be helping a worthy cause, but you will be connecting with people who may very well be your ideal customers. In my case, we took out full-page ads in local publications notifying our community that we were collecting toys for battered children who were in protected safe houses, and the stream of donors who came through our doors was overwhelming. Nowhere in the ads was there any promotion of our company or services. It was all about the battered children, and how others could help by simply dropping off the much-needed toys. 3. Send the right greeting cards – Identify your top customers, and then rather than sending them one of the typical pre-printed holiday season cards, send them a nice boutique card with a hand-written message inside. All that you will need to do is go to a local card shop that sells really nice cards that are blank inside, and then find the cards that best reflect the holiday season. Then write a short, handwritten message inside that comes from your heart. You have my promise; your cards will be absolute standouts that will send a powerful message to your customers that you really do care about them. 4. Make those phone calls – As we all know, there are certain customers in every business that rise well above all others. You should make a list of those people, and then call them to personally wish them a happy holiday season. 5. Place a ribbon on each computer screen - The reason I did this at the shops I owned was to remind my advisors to wish each and every customer a happy holiday at the point of car delivery. I’m not suggesting a quick “Happy Holidays”, but rather am recommending that your advisors take a minute to pass on a heart-felt message to their customers, and then ask those customers to pass the message on to their families as well. 6. Gifts to key customers – I am not recommending that you give gifts to everyone, but to those customers who are particularly special in many ways. In those cases, you may want to give them a beautiful book that contains images of wildlife, nature, etc. along with a personalized message from you written inside. 7. Give to those who serve – Whether it be to the police and fire departments, or to the doctors and nurses who work in the hospital ICU’s during the holiday season, by giving those who serve a beautiful gift basket of fruit, candies, etc., you will be rewarding those who have earned it through their service, while sending a powerful message about the type of person you are. If you apply these tips to your business, you have my promise; not only will your sales, customer satisfaction scores and profits go up, but you will be separating yourself from your competitors in ways that will help you build a more profitable, successful business for years to come. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite (www.EliteWorldwide.com), a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while elevating the industry at the same time. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses.

By Bob Cooper If you are looking to drive up your profits, you need to ensure you have service advisors that have the right attitude, aptitude and ethics. They will need to have the natural talent to sell, they will need to be well trained, and they will need to have the proper support systems in place. And lastly, you will need to have the right compensation and incentive plan in place to help your advisors excel. Here are some tips you can use to drive up your sales, profits and customer satisfaction scores, all at the same time. 1. In drafting any pay program, the first question you should always ask yourself is what are you looking to accomplish? With service advisors, you should be looking for them to generate three things: sales, gross profits and happy customers. This is why at Elite we encourage our coaching clients to implement pay programs that only reward their advisors when all three objectives are met. For example, the advisor can earn a graduated commission on sales, but in order to be eligible for the added income, they will need to meet minimum requirements for gross profit and customer satisfaction scores. With a program like this in place, with each sale the advisor will work toward ensuring that it is profitable, and that the customer is pleased. Compensation programs for advisors that only address sales without considering gross profit and CSI requirements are set up to fail because the shop typically encounters much higher expenses, and lower CSI scores. Remember, the behavior we get is the behavior we reward. 2. If you have more than one advisor at your shop, you have a number of options for how you can compensate them. Many shop owners will put each advisor on their own commission program, but unfortunately, this leads to an unhealthy type of competitiveness, and there is no incentive in place for them to help one another. This is why we recommend a shared commission whenever there are multiple advisors, especially when they have to cover for one another. If you have a more experienced and more productive advisor working with a less experienced and less productive advisor, you can easily adjust by either giving the more productive advisor a larger percentage of the shared commission, or you can provide them with a base pay that is supplemented by the sales commissions they will earn. These pooled commissions incentivize the teamwork you need to grow a successful auto repair shop. 3. One of my best-kept secrets is implementing daily car count goals and daily sales goals. If your monthly sales goal breaks down into a daily goal of $4,000, and if your ARO is $400, you would need to bring in 10 cars a day. When your advisors come to work in the morning they can write the amount of $4,000 on a note pad, and next to that dollar amount they can write the number 10. As soon as they write up the first repair order that day they would strike a line though the 10, and write “9” (the new, revised goal) underneath. As soon as they sold the first job that day they would strike a line through the $4,000, and write the new revised sales goal underneath. If you apply this procedure to your company you will be amazed at how it will help keep your advisors focused on the vehicles they need to generate the sales, and the sales they need to reach their goals. When I first applied this procedure to the shops I owned, our sales went straight up. If you don’t have clearly defined car count and sales goals in place, your advisor may go home tired, and they may say they were busy, but there is no way they can say they were “successful” when the definition of daily success has not been established. On the other hand, if you have these goals in place, then you can reward your advisors at the end of the day by congratulating them on reaching the goals, and letting them know how much you appreciate them being a part of your company. That in itself is a reward they all need, and one that money just can’t buy. It’s called recognition, and you have my promise - it’s a reward that every superstar needs. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite (www.EliteWorldwide.com), a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while elevating the industry at the same time. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses.

By Doris Barnes of Elite We can all agree that generating happy customers is critical to the success of your shop. Below you’ll find 5 tips that are going to help you do just that. Apply them, and you’ll be pleased to see the positive results that come from making just a few simple changes! 1. Find as many things in common with your customers as possible. Think about your closest friends for a minute. Why do you connect? You connect with them because of the things you share in common, right? As sales professionals, we need to get really good at finding common ground with our customers. When I was an advisor, I would always use conversation starters that were dear to my heart. I love my family, so would bring up the customer’s family at the first available opportunity. Be very careful, however, not to choose a subject that you know nothing about, or that you feel no passion for. For example, if you don’t love kids, it’s not a good idea to start taking about their kids. Your customers will always pick up on flattery vs. true intent. 2. Listen intently to your customers and take notes. When asking your customers questions at the beginning of the sales process, make sure to listen intently and make mental notes that you can convert into actual written notes. The points and concerns that your customers vocalize are the ones that truly matter to them. So when you call your customers back with information on their vehicle inspection, it is wise to bring up their concerns immediately, before ANYTHING else is mentioned. For example, start the conversation with something like, “Mr. Jones, before I go any further, I know that the most important things we need to address are your brake squeak, and getting your car back to you by 4:00 so that you can pick up your son from practice. Is that right?” We win big when we truly listen to what is important to our customers, and when our customers realize that we genuinely care about their needs and concerns. 3. Do personal follow-up calls the day after delivery. As an advisor, I would call my customers the day after they picked up their vehicles to make sure that every part of their experience met with their expectations. I realize that you may not be able to do this with every customer, but you should make a habit of reaching out to as many as time allows. You may want to start by just contacting 5 per day, and working up from there. Before starting on your follow-up calls, make notes about any small or large customer issues that you are aware of, and of course, call these customers first. The more personal the service experience, the better! After all, people do business with people, not with businesses. 4. Follow through with promises…always! It is so important to follow through 100% of the time. I know that we all get busy, but in a world where our success is dependent on customer satisfaction, we need to establish trust. If you tell a customer that you will call them at a certain time, deliver on that promise. If you tell them that you will wash their wheels and windows…deliver. Once your customers see that you always follow through, they will undoubtedly admire your character. An even better tactic is to make a habit of under promising and over delivering! If that wheel and window wash job is the expectation, deliver the car with the interior sparkling clean as well! Big bonus points! 5. Always set expectations for customer follow up. One thing’s for certain: This will have a huge impact on your level of customer satisfaction. Time and time again I’ve seen advisors get into trouble with this. Our customers’ time is valuable, and if we recognize this, we will hit a home run every time. When I was an advisor, I would be sure to tell each customer something like, “Mr. Jones, you have my promise: I will call you the very instant I have news for you. I wouldn’t bother calling any sooner because I will not have any answers. I can assure you, however, that if you need your vehicle by 5:00, I will make that happen.” This conversation does two things: It frees up your time by helping you avoid repeat phone calls, and lets your customers know what they can expect from you. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this article. I truly hope that you are able to apply these tips to improve your CSI scores, and generate happy customers each and every time. This article was written by Doris Barnes, Elite's Director of Customer Relations, who is also one of the industry leading sales trainers that helps service advisors through Elite's Masters Service Advisor Training Program.

By Bob Cooper Henry Ford once said, “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” Clearly one of the keys to success in building an auto repair shop is having your entire staff working together as a team. The question is, how do you create an environment that fosters team spirit? Here are six easy steps that will not only help you create team spirit, but will help you build a more profitable, successful auto repair business at the same time. Step #1. Know your responsibilities. Team spirit will always start with you: the business owner. As an owner, it is your responsibility to set the goals of the company, to create the plan, to hire the superstars, to bring out the best in your people, and to ensure the success of the company. By having clearly defined goals for your company, it will not only keep you focused and motivated, but will help keep your entire team focused and motivated as well. Step #2. Define your mission. Please don’t confuse your mission with your goals. Your “goals” are your objectives, whereas your “mission” is the reason for your goals. Over the years I have discovered that when the people who work with me understand the mission of our company, they are far more committed to the goals. A Mission Statement for an auto repair shop may read something like this: “It is the mission of Elite Auto Service to provide extraordinary service to our customers, a safe and enjoyable workplace for our employees, and an ethical environment that creates opportunity for all.” Once you have defined your Mission Statement, you should share it with your entire team, post it in your customer waiting area, and incorporate it into the communications you have with your employees. If you haven’t drafted one yet, you may want to consider input from your entire team. Step #3. Hire the stars. Here at Elite we strongly believe that business owners need to hire for attitude, aptitude and ethics. As I am sure you will agree, you will have a hard time creating team spirit if you have employees who don’t truly enjoy what they are doing, and who are not 100% committed to customer satisfaction. Step #4. Have the right compensation programs in place. You need to have compensation programs that at least in part are based on overall shop productivity, otherwise everyone will focus on their own success rather than the common goals. You should also avoid having your employees compete against one another. Although some management companies encourage shop owners to do so (to the point of posting the billable hours of each tech), we feel otherwise. If you have your employees compete against one another, you’ll inevitably have one winner, and the rest will view themselves as losers. As you can imagine, after a few weeks you will notice an erosion of morale, and that your employees have little interest in helping one another. What you should do is have each employee compete against themselves by setting individual productivity goals that are based on their experience, their skill levels, and the opportunities that you provide to them. This way they can all be winners. Step #5. In order to create team spirit you need to provide consistent communication. At Elite we encourage all of our coaching clients to perform one-on-ones with each employee, where they can learn about their goals. We also encourage our clients to have regularly scheduled employee meetings where they discuss the goals of the company, the Mission Statement, and any positive comments from their customers that will support the Mission Statement and fuel team spirit. Step #6. As business owners, we need to feed the hearts of our employees. The more you catch your people doing things right and the more you give them positive reinforcement and praise, the happier they will be. Combine this with clearly defined goals, a well-defined Mission Statement that your employees can embrace, the right incentives, and consistent communication, and you will then have my promise: Not only will you be creating team spirit, but you will be building a more successful auto repair business. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite (www.EliteWorldwide.com), a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while elevating the industry at the same time. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses.

By Bob Cooper Every shop owner has a number of important responsibilities. First and foremost, they are responsible for setting the goals of the company and hiring the right people. They are also responsible for creating the plan, managing their employees and ensuring the success of the company. But there’s another major responsibility that every shop owner has, and that’s to bring ethics into every decision making process, and to let their moral compass guide them. This checklist is certainly not meant to be a complete list of all ethical considerations, but I feel this will give you a good starter-list to consider, and hopefully review with all of your employees. 1. Setting Customer Expectations. We are the professionals in all cases, so at the very first point of contact we have an ethical responsibility to set clear expectations for each and every customer. These expectations need to address the services that will be performed, the benefits of those services, the time they will take, and the cost of those services. 2. Performing Complete and Accurate Vehicle Inspections. In all cases, inspection services need to be clearly explained to the customer, and they need to be completed in professional manner that meets with industry standards. With the understanding that the customer’s safety is in our hands, beyond any operational reasons, we have an ethical responsibility to complete such services so we can better protect our customers. This means inspecting all the relative vehicle components, the customer’s hard copies of service receipts, and any vehicle history that is stored in our customer databases. All discoveries and recommendations need to then be documented in an easy-to-understand and legible manner for the customer to review. 3. Disclosing all Discoveries. The customers that turn to us for services and repairs depend on our honesty. There is an unspoken expectation that we will disclose all of our discoveries at all times, and do so in a manner that allows our customers to feel comfortable, and under no pressure whatsoever to authorize any additional services. 4. Selling Additional Services. As professionals, we need to ensure that each and every service recommendation is presented in a professional and customer-centric way that follows your company’s sales procedures. The sale should start by confirming the customer’s initial concerns, and then prioritizing the additional services in a way that builds customer confidence, and stimulates a conversation about the recommendations. In all cases we need to explain the benefits of the recommended services, and provide the customer with a copy of the estimate if they elect to not authorize the recommended services. As service providers, our moral compass should direct us to treat the customer as though they are family, and in doing so, we need to view the sales process as helping the customer make the right decision, rather than looking at the dollars and cents that are associated with the sale. 5. The Morality of Pricing. As business owners we need to live by a number of rules when it comes to pricing our services, yet the most important rule states that we need to treat people the way they should be treated. At Elite we certainly understand that no two shops will ever be exactly alike, and there are many things that need to be considered when establishing your pricing, yet one thing we tell every single coaching client is that there is always a point where pricing moves beyond generating a reasonable profit, and to the point of greed. One of our mantras at Elite is, “Just because you can charge more, doesn’t mean you should charge more.” Simply put, you can never put money ahead of people. 6. The Morality of Employee Equality. This is a subject in itself, so I will just give you one example of employee equality. Here at Elite we certainly understand that most shop owners have pay plans in place that they have developed, in many cases, over many years. This often leads to them having techs in their shops on different pay plans, and earning different incomes. Rather than taking this approach, you should have a pay plan in place that is transparent, and allows every tech to see what they can earn based on their ASE Certifications, their productivity, and the quality of their work. By taking this approach, every tech will be working off the same pay plan matrix, and your moral compass will tell you that you’re being fair to all. 7. General Decision Making. As business owners we are constantly making decisions throughout the day, and while in most cases they are not too difficult to make, we inevitably run into those decisions that are a little tougher than others. In many cases, those difficult decisions involve two things; people and money. To ensure we make the right call when faced with these difficult decisions, all that we need to do is ask ourselves, “What’s the right thing to do?”, rather than, “What’s best for us?” For years here at Elite we have used my “Grandmother technique” whenever we are faced with these difficult decisions. We simply ask ourselves, “What would our grandmothers say?”, and by the time we are done with that exercise, we inevitably feel good about our decision because it was made based on ethics; not dollars and cents. 8. Never Lose Faith in Ethics. By embracing the value of ethics, and consciously bringing them into your life, a number of things will inevitably occur. First of all, the superstars that you would like to have working with you, will want to work with you. Secondly, not only will you feel good about your decisions, but the people that work with you will feel good about them also. And finally, if you never put money ahead of people, if you consciously bring ethics into your decision making process, and if you never lose faith in your moral compass, you will be serving as a role model for all of the people that work with you, and you will be building a really great business based on principles that have withstood the test of time. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite (www.EliteWorldwide.com), a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while elevating the industry at the same time. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses. You can contact Bob at [email protected], or at 800-204-3548.

By Bob Cooper If you want to build a successful auto repair business, you will need to have a number of things in place, yet nothing is more important than having service advisors who can sell in a professional and ethical way. In today’s competitive environment you’re seeing vehicles less frequently, customers have greater access to information, and they have choices unlike ever before. So here’s a guide to help you hire the superstar advisors who will take your shop to the top: 1. Look for talent. When you are looking for the superstars, never forget: talent is king. Talent is something that can’t be developed or taught, so you need to make sure that the prospects you are interviewing truly are “people people”, and that they naturally smile. Otherwise, you’ll spend years trying to develop your advisors into something that they may never become. 2. Look for drive. Every superstar who I have met or hired has been goal-oriented, has had a positive attitude, and has been competitive, quick-witted, persuasive and driven. Similarly to talent, these are all personality traits that can’t be taught, so be sure to look closely during your interviews. 3. Look for a track-record of success. Henry Ford once said, “Tell me what you have done, not what you can do.” At Elite we take this a step further by saying it’s not just what prospective employees have done, but more importantly, what they have accomplished in their careers. For example, the fact that someone has been an advisor for years isn’t nearly as important as the sales growth they have brought about, records they have set, etc. This is why you need to quiz them on their accomplishments. If they have been in the business for a few years, and they can’t give you any specific sales accomplishments, then there’s a good probability that there won’t be any meaningful accomplishments achieved if they work with you either. 4. Look for a win/win attitude and ethics. Over the years I have discovered that there are basically three types of salespeople. First, there are the win/lose advisors who care about their own needs, at a cost to the customer. These are the advisors who will drive up your sales, and erode your customer base at the same time. The second category is the lose/win advisors, who are overly sympathetic, and who will give your store away in order to please each and every customer. The real superstars are the advisors who fall into the win/win category, because they have the ability to close sales, will make sure your customers are satisfied and make the right decisions, and will help you build a more profitable auto repair business. Ethics is the hardest trait to judge during the interview process, which is why we are such strong supporters of pre-employment behavioral testing. 5. Pay close attention to their interests. Although there are always exceptions, service advisors who are looking for an hourly rate, a salary, or a big guarantee, may very well be looking for a job rather than an opportunity. On the other hand, the advisors who are interested in commission-based pay are typically self-motivated, and will help you drive up your sales. 6. Take them for a test drive. You should hand every applicant an estimate and have them sell you a service. I have discovered over the years that if someone can’t do a good job of selling us during a role-play, they won’t be able to sell our customers either. You should also have them do a role-play where you act like a first-time caller. I can tell you from first-hand experience that I have interviewed many service advisors who aced the interview, and then miserably failed during the role-plays. 7. Take advantage of pre-employment testing. There are a number of tests you should consider, but the three at the top of our list would be pre-employment physicals, drug screenings and behavioral assessments. At Elite we have found that the behavioral assessments are priceless in that they are inexpensive and quick, they can be taken online, and they reveal many strengths, weaknesses and propensities. In addition to revealing how well your prospective employees work under stress, and with other people, these tests can also detect irregularities in honesty, which could be an indication of questionable ethics. Follow these tips, and you’ll have a staff full of service advisors who drive up your sales, while always having your customers’ best interest in mind. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite, a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while elevating the industry at the same time. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses. You can learn more about Elite by visiting www.EliteWorldwide.com

By Bob Cooper With vehicles being built better than ever before, and with service intervals continually being extended, you are going to see your customers less often. This means that your service advisors have to be razor sharp when that phone rings. Although there is no silver bullet that will allow you to bring in every first-time caller, there are a number of things you can do to get more appointments. In this article, I would like to share some of the best practices we teach in our service advisor training that will bring immediate results. In order for your customers to buy from you, three things need to occur: They have to like you, they have to trust you, and they have to view you as a credible expert. So when your phone rings, the first thing your advisors need to sell is themselves; not the service or repair. The best way of accomplishing this goal is with a professional, courteous and upbeat greeting, such as, “Thank you for calling Elite Auto Care, this is Bob. How can I help you this morning?” Starting out by immediately thanking the customer shows appreciation, volunteering the name of your company helps assure your callers that they’ve called the right number, and providing a first name is the first step in building personal relationships with your callers. By asking how they can help, your advisors are asking a question that will allow them to control the conversation. By being upbeat and using the right tonality, their likeability goes up, and the customer’s anxiety goes down. The second thing your advisors will need to do is slow the conversation down so the callers don’t feel rushed. Your advisors will have to become good detectives by asking a number of questions, because when your customers are responding to the questions, it will take their focus off the price, and will help them begin feeling more comfortable with your advisors at the same time. When it comes to asking for the appointment, one of the best tips I can share with you is this: With rare exception, your advisors need to offer every caller a choice of appointment times, and whenever possible, one of those options should be to bring the vehicle in now. For example, “I can squeeze you in now, or would 2:15 be better for you?” When it comes to auto repair, customers love finality, which is why providing the “now” option is a powerful sales tool. Now here’s the absolute best-kept secret for dealing with the tough first-time callers. Every one of your advisors needs to be aware that many “price shoppers” are asking for price just to start the conversation, and beyond that, with rare exception, callers don’t know the questions they should be asking. This is why in all of our service advisor training classes we encourage the students to write down a list of the questions they think an educated caller would ask. Once they have their list completed, and committed to memory, then it’s easy for them to say something like: “Well Larry, I know price is important to you, and it should be, but if you call five different shops today, you’ll more than likely get at least five different prices. Some of the other questions you might want to ask are how long they’ve been in business, whether or not they have certified technicians and a drug-free workplace program, and you might want to have them walk you through the diagnostic processes as well. You might want to also ask them if they always explore all of the options that are available to customers when it comes to any recommended repairs, what kind of warranties they provide, and if those warranties are in writing.” Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve closed hundreds, if not thousands, of tough first-time “price shoppers” using this technique, so I know it will work for you. If you’re still not quite sold, then consider this: If you take my recommendations, when those price shoppers start calling other shops, you know as well as I do, they’ll more than likely ask some of the questions your advisors suggested to them. Not only will your competitors be caught off guard and struggle with the answers, but in each case, the callers will be thinking of your advisors. This is when your customers will not only realize how well your advisors handled the call, but they’ll trust your advisors, and you bet; they’ll now view them as credible experts as well. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite, a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while elevating the industry at the same time. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses. You can learn more about Elite by visiting www.EliteWorldwide.com

By Bob Cooper Not long ago it was easy to beat your competitors. All that you needed was more equipment, a healthy advertising budget and the ability to fix cars right the first time. Well, those days are long gone. Today, cars are being built better and require service less frequently, customers have more choices than ever before, and they are able to do a tremendous amount of research online before they even pick up the phone. Additionally, this industry is experiencing an extraordinary shortage of qualified technicians, and profit margins are being squeezed every day. To top it all off, the dealerships have their eye on one thing and one thing alone: Your customers. So the question is, during these challenging times, how can you stay ahead of your competitors? First and foremost, you will need to have clearly defined goals in place, and you’ll need to create a plan for reaching those goals. The right goals and an action plan will enable you to make far better business decisions, and improve productivity and profits. Secondly, your success will be predicated on the caliber of people that work with you. We can never forget that whenever someone buys a product, they will always remember the product, but when they buy a service, they will always remember the people that provided the service. How will the top shop owners find and hire the superstars in the coming years? In addition to having an apprentice program in place, they will create a recruiting plan that contains a well-designed compensation program, and they will market to the superstars in the same way they market to their retail customers. The top operators will also create marketing plans that target their ideal customers, and they will use the right media. The successful shop owners will be brand builders rather than price promoters, and they will invest at least 4-6% of their total sales into their marketing programs. They will recognize that the Y Gens and Millennials hold the key to their future, so will be investing a part of their marketing budget into campaigns specifically directed towards them. The successful shop owners in the coming years will constantly analyze every component of their customer process with their crew, and they’ll create policies and procedures that better ensure extraordinary service at every customer touch-point. They will also embrace the philosophy that keeping their superstars happy, motivated, well-trained and productive will depend on their employee management skills. They’ll realize that their brand is their people, so to further develop those skills they will invest in books and courses that are directed towards employee management. And lastly, the top shop owners in the coming years will not only know their numbers, but will know what needs to be done in order to reach each and every one of their performance goals. In conclusion, if you want to build a world-class shop you will need to have clearly defined goals with a written plan, and will need to know your numbers. You will also need to have a team of superstars, and a well-designed marketing plan that brings in your ideal customers. If you do these things, if you never forget the importance of the people that work with you, and if you live by the principle that you will never put money ahead of people, then you will not only stay well ahead of your competitors, but you will have a far more profitable, successful business in the coming years. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite, a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while elevating the industry at the same time. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses. You can learn more about Elite by visiting www.EliteWorldwide.com

By Doris Barnes In a world where service advisors don’t want to be considered salespeople, we need to search our souls. Why is it that “selling” has become a dirty word? Why is it that we cringe at the term “sales?” It’s simple! Most service advisors do what they do each day because they care about people. To become a “salesperson”, in their mind, means to become pushy and overbearing. To most, it means that their interest must shift to one thing and one thing only… The customer’s Visa card! So, what’s the best way to overcome this misperception? First and foremost, we need to get something clear: Selling is helping people through a difficult decision making process. Let’s face it: Many of our customers are poor decision makers. How many times do customers come into your shop, only for you to discover that they’ve been neglecting their vehicles? In many cases, this is because a service advisor has never helped them truly understand the value of vehicle maintenance. These customers who have a pattern of making poor decisions are the ones who need our help the most! True salesmanship is always going to put the customer’s best interest ahead of everything else. If selling starts violating ethics, in my mind, it is no longer selling; it’s stealing. Over the years as an advisor, I discovered that in most cases, a customer’s decline in vehicle maintenance happens slowly. This gradual decline can be primarily attributed to the failures of the advisors. Rather than genuinely caring about what’s in their customers’ best interest, service advisors are acquiescing to their customers with the attitude that, “It’s the customer’s money, it’s the customer’s safety, and he can do whatever he wants”. This is the easy way out; the path of least resistance! We need to ask ourselves…is this right? What if this customer was your grandmother or your daughter? Would you just roll over and accept that they made the wrong decision? Of course not! So, where do we go from here? Well…service advisors need to become true salespeople. In large, sales skills come into play once you really grasp how people behave and react in a buying environment. When we sell auto repair, we have to keep in mind that we’re selling something that isn’t pleasurable for people to buy! Many times, we’re also selling an intangible. Talk about tough! We need to learn how to sell in a way that helps our customers see the true value of each service, because in order for the customer to authorize the service, the perceived value of that service needs to exceed the value of the money the customer will have to spend. We always need to ask ourselves, “How will the customer win by saying, ‘yes’?” This is, after all, what your customers care about most, in that they will always be thinking, “How do I benefit?” If we, as salespeople, can master selling benefits instead of parts and labor, then we’re one step ahead of the crowd. Let’s work together to help our customers, because they need us! After all, we are the experts… right? This article was contributed by Doris Barnes of Elite, a former industry-leading service advisor who is currently Elite's Director of Customer Relations, and one of the expert trainers that helps advisors through the Elite Masters Service Advisor Training Course.

By Bob Cooper I am sure we can all agree that our industry, and society, has been going through quite a transformation. One of the changes that’s had an extraordinary impact, and will have an even bigger impact in the coming years, is transparency. Not only do today’s consumers have an expectation of transparency, but they have access to pricing information that was beyond our wildest dreams just a few short years ago. Just look at all the major retailers. With rare exception, you can walk into any consumer electronic store, appliance store, or in many cases even the home goods stores, and you’ll find that they not only offer price matching, but they put their price guarantees front and center. This is a growing trend, and there is no question that it comes from one source. The retailers are very well aware that their customers have something they never had in the past – access to pricing information that is literally at their fingertips. So here’s my recommendation to you as a shop owner: take a different path than your competitors. First of all, we all know that in order to operate a successful auto repair shop you need to maintain a certain level of gross profit. Accordingly, what most shop owners will do is establish gross profit margins on their parts, and they’ll typically set a different gross profit margin on their direct labor. The common numbers are 50% on parts, and 70% on labor. Combine the two together, and they get the overall gross profit they are looking for. As you can imagine, this is what they learned from their mentors, and although it worked in the past, the times have changed. In today’s transparent world, one of the first things customers will scrutinize is the price of the parts you have installed on their vehicles. Now we all know that well-skilled service advisors can take the focus off of the price when providing a service recommendation, and we know they can do a reasonable job in answering questions about their part prices, but no matter how skilled they are, I am sure you will agree; it’s a tough sale at best. So consider this scenario…. There are two shops performing the same repair on identical vehicles, and each shop charges $1,000.00 for the repair. The only difference between the two jobs is that Larry’s Auto charged $500 for the parts and $500 for the labor, whereas Elite Auto Service charged $400 for the parts and $600 for the labor. If Larry’s customer discovers he could have bought the parts for substantially less, and questions the integrity of Larry’s price, then Larry is in trouble. On the other hand, by being more competitive with part pricing, Elite’s customer is comfortable with the price he paid for his parts. Now at this point I know what some of you are more than likely thinking; what if the customer questions the labor charge at Elite? If that question is going through your mind, all that you need to do is ask yourself if you’d rather defend the price you charged for the service provided by your talented technicians, or the price of your parts? For me, that’s an easy question to answer, and the best example I can give you would be the fees charged by physicians. You and I may expect the price of bandages and medicine to be the same between two doctors, but we know we’ll be paying more if we see a leading surgeon. Not only would we expect to pay more, but we’ll probably feel good knowing that we are being cared for by the best. In summary, in the customer’s mind parts are parts, but as we all know, those superstar techs who work with you can’t be compared to the guys down the street. This is why I strongly encourage you to ensure that your high profiled parts are competitively priced, and make up the difference in your labor charges. It will keep you competitive, and better ensure your success in the coming years. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite, a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while elevating the industry at the same time. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses. You can learn more about Elite by visiting www.EliteWorldwide.com

The top shops in America realize that in order to build a successful business they will need to have team players that are self-starters, who can produce, and who will never compromise their ethics. Over the years I’ve not only been fortunate enough to hire many of our industry superstars, but I have seen hiring mistakes made every day by shop owners all across America. In order to help you with your business, I’d like to share what I believe to be the 5 most common hiring mistakes that shop owners make. 1. They are afraid to pay top buck. In business there are a number of rules that are timeless, and one is that you get what you pay for. The reason the superstars can command top buck is pretty simple; it’s because they can produce. The techs and advisors that earn average incomes all have one thing in common; they produce average results, and average employees will never take you to the top. Every top shop owner that I have consulted with will agree that once you hire a superstar, you will quickly see that they are one of the best investments you will ever make. 2. They are afraid to provide a respectable guarantee. Most shop owners are reluctant to give a respectable guarantee because they are afraid the new hire may not produce, and they will be stuck paying a big guarantee. Now here are two important points that they don’t understand. First of all, if they believe they are providing the potential employee with a great opportunity, then providing a respectable guarantee shows the candidate that they have confidence in their business, and in the position they are looking to fill. Secondly, most shop owners are so concerned about how much the guarantee could cost them, they completely forget that if the employee doesn’t produce, there’s a simple solution: You let them go. 3. They use the wrong criteria when making their employment selections. Most shop owners hire techs and advisors based on their level of knowledge and industry experience. Although those are both important considerations, what’s more important is the attitude of the applicant, their aptitude and their ethics. A wise man once told me we hire people for what they know, and we fire them for who they are. 4. They don’t look beyond the candidate. The shop owners who employ the superstars all realize that when they hire Larry they get Mary. What this means is that if the candidate has a significant other in their life, you can rest assured that they will play a role in the candidate’s decision. This is why at Elite we encourage all of our clients to ensure their compensation and incentive package has what we refer to as “go-home” benefits. Examples would be retirement programs, paid holidays and vacations, well-days, etc. 5. They forget that the superstars will be interviewing them. The top shop owners all realize that the superstars they are interviewing will have no trouble at all finding a shop that will hire them. Accordingly, throughout the interview process the superstar will be interviewing the shop owner, and they’ll be asking themselves whether or not they would like to work at the shop. They will be evaluating you by the type of questions you ask, and the interviewing-qualification process you take them through. If at any time they feel you are hiring out of desperation, rather than ensuring it’s a great fit for everyone, one thing is for certain: They’ll walk, because what they are looking for is the opportunity to work at an ethical shop that enjoys a good reputation in the community, has team spirit, and has leadership that allows them to clearly see their future with the company. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite, a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while elevating the industry at the same time. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses. You can learn more about Elite by visiting www.EliteWorldwide.com

In the world of auto repair and service, one thing is for certain: You are going to lose customers. They will move, no longer have a need for their automobile, turn to one of your competitors, or buy a new vehicle and then take it to the dealer for service. Accordingly, you need a consistent stream of new customers, and since you more than likely have competition in your community, you need to help those potential customers see that your shop is the right shop. The way that you accomplish this goal is by identifying who your targeted customer is, and then investing in your marketing and advertising programs, along with your customer retention programs. The question is; how much money should you be investing in those programs? Well, here are the guidelines that we share with the top shops in America. If you have a general repair shop, a good place to start is at 4-5% of your annual sales. If you have a transmission shop, you may find that you need to increase your budget to 6-8%. Bear in mind that your budget needs to be a percentage of your “targeted” sales, not your current sales. For example, if you are currently generating $800,000 in annual sales, but your target is $1,000,000 in sales, then your marketing budget would need to be 4-5% of $1,000,000, not $800,000. The second thing you should do is something that very few shops do, which is invest at least 50% of your budget into what we at Elite refer to as non-traditional advertising programs. Whereas traditional programs include media like direct mail, TV, radio and websites, non-traditional programs are comprised of media such as fund raisers, social media, car care events held at your shop, and any other advertising programs that are outside of the mainstream marketing channels typically used in your community. Now here is one of our best kept secrets at Elite. We have long recognized the Y Generation (born 1980 - 1990) as the emerging market. These people are not only your customers of tomorrow, but since this generation was brought up using search and social media on their Smartphones, they are often turned to by older generations that are looking for a good auto repair shop. Accordingly, we encourage all of our coaching clients to invest 50% of their non-traditional advertising budgets into programs that are specifically directed toward the Y Gen’s in their communities. We have to remember that the first to reach this emerging market will benefit the most, so why not you? In order to get the best return on your advertising investments, there are a number of things you should do. First of all, we encourage you to explore every opportunity to use the strength of other respected brands. For example, using names such as Valvoline, Jasper Engines & Transmissions, and AAA can enable you to build even more customer confidence in your brand. You will also need to monitor and measure the results of your advertising programs. Here’s how… With all first-time customers, even if they are holding your coupon, you should ask, “By the way, may I ask who referred you to us? When I was still operating my shops, I discovered that this question would send a strong message that we received a lot of referrals, which is a very good thing. In addition, we discovered that many of those customers (even those with a coupon) would respond by saying something like, “I see your ads on TV all of the time.” Since brand awareness media like TV and radio is so hard to monitor, this question would often help us obtain the answers we were looking for. We also discovered that more often than not, customers would tell us that they were referred by a friend, which indicated that while the media (coupons, ads, etc.) were the calls to action that caused them to contact us, the customers were actually sold on us due to recommendations from their friends. We would then call our customers who gave us the referrals, and thank them for their trust in us. In conclusion, if you want to build a base of satisfied customers, you need to know who your ideal customers are, make the right investments in the right media, monitor and measure the results, and then do an amazing job of turning those customers… into raving fans. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite, a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while elevating the industry at the same time. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses. You can learn more about Elite by visiting www.EliteWorldwide.com

There’s no doubt that pricing is one of the most misunderstood elements of business. There’s not only a lot of bad information out there, but with these tough economic times, there’s a lot of uncertainty as well. So what I decided to do with this article is break the subject of pricing down into three components: Base pricing, price modification and measuring results. Base Pricing At Elite we believe that in all cases, your prices need to be competitive. By “competitive”, I’m not suggesting that you need to charge the same price as the shop down the street. What I am saying is that your prices need to be competitive with other service providers that deliver a level and quality of service that is comparable to yours. So take the pulse of your community to discover what other well-run shops and dealerships are charging for the more popular services and repairs. If you’re not competitive you’ll have a short-lived career, so don’t develop a false sense of security by telling yourself that your shop is far better than your legitimate competitor’s. Remember, in the world of business, with all due respect, your opinion doesn’t count. Your customer’s perception of value is the only thing that really matters. And for them, perception is reality. Price Modification Once you have concluded what your base pricing needs to be to ensure you’re competitive, you will have to run the numbers. When you do the math, you should be able to quickly determine if you can operate a profitable business (at your predetermined pricing structure) based on your fixed expenses, the required return on investment, your cost of goods and the potential of your facility. You should easily be able to determine the number of employees you will need, and the number of vehicles you will need to process in order to reach your financial goals. One option you can explore after running the numbers is to find ways to provide added value to your services that will allow you to increase your pricing. Bear in mind that your customer’s perception of added value will need to be easily recognized, and it will need to be cost justifiable, so added value items like longer warranties, premium parts, and complimentary loaner cars could come into play. The other point you need to consider with price modification is how often you should raise your prices. Some management companies suggest that you should systematically raise your prices every quarter, but at Elite we strongly disagree. It makes little sense to say we should automatically raise our prices just because we can. What I would encourage you to do is review your pricing once a quarter. If there are no negative changes in your economy, and no changes in your competition, you may then want to consider raising your prices. If you do, the increases should be small, unless you are correcting a major deficiency. Not only are small increases more easily acceptable in the eyes of your customers, but you will find that your service advisors will feel far more comfortable with small increases as well. Bear in mind that anytime your service advisors have a hard time buying into a price increase, they’ll have a hard time selling it. You also may want to consider loading the majority of your increases in your labor charges rather than your part pricing, and here’s why. In the customer’s mind, parts are parts, but when it comes to your labor charges, it’s far easier to defend because your technicians may be more skilled than the techs down the street. If you spoke to two doctors about a surgery, you would more than likely expect the price of the anesthesia to be about the same with both doctors, but if the one doctor charged more for professional services than the other, you may very well feel it’s worth it, because he or she could conceivably be a better physician. It’s no different in your business. To the consumer, parts are parts, yet the technical expertise between two techs will never be the same. Another good rule of thumb is to avoid falling prey to other shop owners telling you that they jacked up their prices and haven’t lost any sales at the point of sale. These are typically the same shop owners who a year later find that their customers have all but disappeared. The reality is that just because your customers authorize a service, it doesn’t mean they were sold on the job. Often times they’ll approve the service (at a price they feel is too high) just to get the repair behind them, and then they’ll never come back. Measuring Results In all cases, I would strongly encourage you to monitor the “consumer acceptance” of your pricing. First, you need to pay close attention to the sales that are lost at the point of sale and track each one. Secondly, you should do your follow-up calls, and monitor how many of those customers ultimately return. The last component you will need to monitor is your number of referral customers, both in count and as a percentage of your total leads. There’s no question that if your customers continue to return, and continue to tell their friends about you, your prices are considered acceptable. In closing, far too many shop owners have this ill-founded belief that their services are worth more than they really are. They jack up their prices, they make a lot of money for a few months, and then their customers disappear. Don’t let this happen to you. Instead, you should do what all the well-run, ethical shops do. You should deliver great value to everyone who comes into your shop, you should never put money ahead of people, and if you do decide that it’s time to raise your prices, just be sure to do it carefully, and in a manner that will not adversely affect those priceless relationships that you have with the single most important part of your business: Your customers. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite, a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while having a positive impact on their employees, customers and communities. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses. You can learn more about Elite by visiting www.EliteWorldwide.com.

Most service advisors fall into one of three traps with first-time customers: they’ll either avoid recommending a complete inspection, they’ll try to bundle the inspection into a service, or they’ll just inspect the vehicle without the owner’s permission. Unfortunately, all of these approaches can jeopardize the customer experience, and reflect poorly on your shop. Let’s take a look at each one… The service advisors who shy away from recommending a complete inspection to first-time customers are typically doing so for one of two reasons: either they’re afraid that they might find something and will have to sell the customer on that service, or they’re afraid that the customer will think that they are on the hunt for additional dollars. These are the advisors who will typically tell their technicians, “He’s a first-time customer and I don't want to scare him away, so let’s just do the oil service he brought the vehicle in for. We can catch the other things the next time he comes back.” In either case this is a disservice to the customer, and a disservice to your business. Regardless of why the service advisor is afraid to sell, your customers may very well leave and be completely unaware of the risk they are taking with their vehicles, and in some cases, with their lives. Everyone loses in this scenario. The second trap service advisors fall into is trying to “bundle” the inspection. This is when the advisor tells your customers that the oil service, or whatever they brought their vehicle in for, “includes” a complimentary safety or vehicle inspection. What these advisors don’t understand is that telling your customers that an inspection is “included”, is no different than telling them you are on the hunt for dollars. There’s no doubt about it: you lose with this approach as well. The third trap advisors fall into is saying nothing at all about an inspection, then telling your customers that while doing the oil service they also inspected other things, and discovered that those other things need attention as well. Unfortunately, your customers are now under the impression that you have been doing things to their vehicle that they haven’t authorized. What’s the secret to selling complete vehicle inspections to first-time customers? It’s really pretty simple. Since fear is the primary emotion that drives most first-time customers, the first thing you need to do is put the customer at ease. You can do this by smiling, and engaging them in a friendly dialogue about their family, work, etc., when you first meet them. It’s called building rapport. Then, just like a doctor learning about the medical history of a first-time patient, you need to learn as much as you can about the service and repair history of their vehicle. This will typically raise questions about the vehicle’s service history, which will provide you with a great opportunity to build value in your inspection. You can further build value in your inspection by painting mental pictures, and putting their fears that you’re going to “try to sell them something” to rest. One way of accomplishing this goal is to close out your presentation by saying that when they pick up their vehicle, you’ll provide them with detailed notes on anything that was discovered during the inspection. When we are discussing this subject with shop owners, or advisors, we tell them that they need to approach their customers in the same way that a good doctor would recommend a complete physical to a first-time patient. Rather than raising the anxiety of the patient, the good doctors will actually put the patient at ease by taking the time to properly build rapport. They’ll tell the patient that odds are there’s nothing they're going to discover that will be of concern, that it’s a great way to take care of our bodies, and that the physical will help the patient remain healthy for a long time. Ironically, it’s no different with your patients. Just think of the vehicle as your “patient”, and the owner as a concerned parent. If you take this approach, you have my promise: you’ll be thrilled with the results, because your sales, your customer satisfaction, and your profits will all go straight up. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite, a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while having a positive impact on their employees, customers and communities. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses. You can learn more about Elite by visiting www.EliteWorldwide.com.

By Bob Cooper As business owners, our best teachers will always be our employees and our customers. They understand many components of our businesses, and in most cases, they really do care about our success. Learning from our employees is relatively simple. All that we need to do is pay attention to their passing comments, and engage them during our employee meetings and reviews. What I would like to do with this article is provide you with a step-by-step guide that will help you do what every successful business owner does; learn from your customers. 1. First and foremost, you need to set customer satisfaction goals, as well as minimum levels of acceptable performance. For example, your goal would be 100%, and the minimum level of acceptable performance would be set at 96%. 2. Let your employees know how you will measure results. It’s your call, but I would encourage you to categorize any type of customer dissatisfaction as a failure, regardless of the cause. For example, if the customer says they felt the price of the repair was too high, it would be a failure because the advisor did not do an adequate job of building value in the service. Now I understand that there will be some occurrences (such as a part failure) where the employees would feel they should not be held accountable for the customer being dissatisfied. It’s those rare occurrences that cause us to set a minimum level of acceptable performance. In essence, by setting a minimum level of acceptable performance at 96%, those rare occurrences are taken into consideration. 3. Implement a companywide reward program that is based on customer satisfaction scores, and make sure all of your employees are able to participate. This will help incentivize the team effort you need. 4. Conclude who will be making your customer follow-up calls. Although there is tremendous relationship-building value in having your advisors follow up with their customers, the downside is that your customers may not be candid with them. Add to that, your advisors will have a conflict of interest if you are providing them with an economic incentive. I have found that the best person for making the calls is someone with the right personality, and who believes in you, your company and your people. When I was still operating shops I found that the perfect candidates were the customers that loved us, and that were looking to earn a few extra dollars a week. 5. Conclude how you will compensate the person you hire, and where the calls will be made. Ideally you will pay your representative a flat hourly rate, ensuring that they will invest adequate time on each call. I also believe, when possible, the calls should be made from your shop. Not only will this allow your customers to see your phone number displayed on their caller ID, which adds to your professionalism, but if the customer has a question or concern, they can be transferred to your staff immediately. 6. Conclude who you will call and when. At Elite we believe that all first-time customers, and all repair and/or warranty customers, should be called within 72 hours. Out of respect for their time, we do not endorse calling repeat customers who had simple maintenance services performed. Although these calls should never be perceived as “sales” calls, if a customer declined a major safety repair, we do encourage you to have your representative ask the customer if they have had the repair performed, to ensure their safety and well-being. 7. Ask the right questions. I realize most dealerships, franchisees and independents ask a series of questions about the behavior of their staff, the quality of repair, promised-times, etc. At Elite we look at it differently. Our position is that you should say something as simple as, “I just wanted to follow up with you and ask; ‘How did we do?’” Our reasoning for this approach is really pretty simple. Rather than leading the customer with specific questions, it will allow you to learn what is important to your customer. If it is important enough to be at the top of their mind, then without question, it is exactly what you need to hear. 8. Put the information to work. Share all your discoveries with your entire crew, and solicit their recommendations as to what can be done differently based on what you have learned from your customers. Not only will this allow you to build a more successful shop, but it will show your employees that you value their feedback as much as the feedback you receive from your customers. If you want to build a more profitable, successful business, there are two rules that will always be at the top of your list: Never put money ahead of people, and listen intently to your customers. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite, a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while having a positive impact on their employees, customers and communities. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses. You can learn more about Elite by visiting www.EliteWorldwide.com.

Over the years I have had the opportunity to work with many of the top shop owners in America, and I have met thousands of owners who are living from day to day, and then unfortunately fail. There have been a lot of discoveries along the way, so I would like to use this article to share what I feel to be the top 7 reasons why most shops fail. 1. Pride. There is no question that pride plays an important role in a shop owner’s success. It causes them to make sure that their shops are clean, vehicles are properly repaired, and the customers are pleased with their services. Certainly there is a place for pride, and all successful shop owners have it, but they also know when to turn it off. They turn it off by admitting to their mistakes, complimenting their employees for doing a job better than they could, and as Henry Ford did, they accept the fact that they can’t build successful businesses on their own. The shop owners who are unwilling to set their pride aside when it’s appropriate to do so, are the owners who inevitably fail. 2. Fear. As with pride, fear also plays an important role in a shop owner’s success. The fear of not doing a good enough job for their customers, the fear of a new competitor moving into town, and the fear that comes along with investing in themselves and their employees, are all shared by the top shop owners in America. What separates them from those who fail is that they face their fears head-on, and they take the proper action to ensure their success. The shop owners who fail are paralyzed by their fears, they take no action, and then their worst nightmares come true. They lose their key employees, their car counts drop, and their profits disappear. 3. Not realizing what their jobs are. Successful shop owners know that the best way for them to build their companies, and help their customers, is by doing what they should be doing as business owners: Setting the goals of the company, developing the plan, hiring the superstars, bringing out the best in their people, and ensuring the success of the company. Those who own failed shops typically have big hearts, but instead of doing what they should be doing, they are found under the hoods of automobiles, chasing parts and sweeping their parking lots. These are all things that need to be done, but by other people, not by the owners. 4. Not knowing when and how to invest. Most shop owners are quick to invest in equipment, inventory, and in most cases, their marketing programs. Of course these are all investments that certainly need to be made. Beyond these types of investments, the top shop owners constantly invest in their most important assets: Themselves, and the people who work with them. Whenever I look at the financial statements of a struggling or failed auto repair shop, one thing is almost certain: There is a glaring absence of any investment in their own education, and in the training of their staff. 5. The absence of systems. Successful shop owners have clearly defined procedures for answering every phone call, writing up their customers, inspecting vehicles, recommending and selling services, performing services, car delivery and customer follow-up. The shops that fail rarely have systems in place. I have found that their employees typically have their own ways of doing things, which is a guaranteed recipe for failure. 6. Trying to be everything to everybody. Most shop owners try to please everyone, and that’s good. But the top shop owners realize that bringing in the wrong customers will drive down their profitability, erode morale, and wipe out their profits. They know exactly who their ideal customers are, and they target them with all of their advertising programs. The shops that fail are more interested in filling up their service bays than in bringing in the right people. While they are thinking of vehicles in the bays, the top shop owners are thinking of the right people and the right vehicles. 7. The absence of goals. By having clearly defined goals, the top shop owners are passionate about their mission, they make better decisions, they do a far better job of hiring, they have happier customers and they put more money on their bottom line. The shop owners who fail operate their shops from week to week, they run up debt, they burn out, and they ultimately close their doors. In closing, if you want to build a more profitable, successful business, as I am sure you know, there are no guarantees of success. The one promise that I can make is that business, as with life, is all about choices. If you set your goals, and if you put fear and pride aside, you can build an auto repair shop that is second to none. Others have, so I know you can as well. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite, a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while having a positive impact on their employees, customers and communities. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses. You can learn more about Elite by visiting www.EliteWorldwide.com.

By Bob Cooper In today’s market, service advisors are facing a number of challenges. One of the more complex challenges is when a skeptical first-time customer comes in for an oil service, and the advisor discovers that this customer needs a long list of repairs. This is what most advisors refer to as the proverbial “laundry list.” Unfortunately, what most service advisors will do is either hold back some of the recommendations because they are afraid they’ll scare the customer away, or they’ll struggle through their presentations. So here is what I am going to recommend that you do... #1. With every first-time customer you need to do a lot of fact finding. Beyond the standard questions you ask, you need to ask them how long they have owned the vehicle, and whether they bought it new. You also need to ask when was the last time the vehicle was in a shop, what it was in for, if anyone else drives the vehicle, and what their plans are for it. In essence, you need to discover if they plan on keeping it, and if so, for how long. #2. Have a conversation with every first-time customer about your vehicle inspection process, and how they’ll win. Take a moment to tell them about the qualifications of the technician who will be inspecting their vehicle, and let them know the inspection service is being performed for two reasons: to ensure there are no safety concerns, and to establish a baseline for what services may need to be done, and when. #3. When you build your estimate, always bundle all repairs and services that are relative to each system on the vehicle; the brake system, suspension system, cooling system, etc. This way you are prepared with a price for taking care of everything that needs to be done in each of the systems. #4. We all know that when we start a sales presentation, and the customer senses they will need a number of repairs, they’ll get anxious. They’ll then immediately ask for a price, or they’ll tell you they just want the oil service done. The secret? Always ask for permission to talk about the price after you’ve reviewed your discoveries with them. For example… “First of all, Mr. Smith, when you brought your car in this morning, you said you were concerned about a couple of different things, so tell me if I am missing something here! You said the brake pedal was going down quite a bit, and you also said you needed to have your Mustang back by 4 o’clock. If I remember correctly, something about an anniversary dinner; is that right? Well look, I have some really great news for you. When it comes to your brakes, and being able to have you out of here by 4 o’clock, we’re going to be able to solve both of those problems for you. As I mentioned this morning, the gentleman who inspected your Mustang is Jim Piraino. He’s an ASE Master Certified technician, he’s been with us for 12 years now, and I have to tell you; he’s really gifted at what he does. Now we’ve taken a look at all of your service records, and I’m actually looking at a copy of Jim’s inspection report, so let me tell you what we discovered. First of all, I’d like to say congratulations on taking good care of your automobile because your battery, your tires, your suspension, and your drive train all appear to be in good, operable condition. Now, in addition to the brakes, there are a couple of other things that I’d like to chat with you about, so if it’s ok with you, let me tell you what Jim’s discovered, we’ll have a conversation, then I’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you might have, and we can go over the prices at that time as well. Are you on board with this approach, Mr. Smith? Terrific!” #5. If they can’t authorize everything, and you need to prioritize, always start with what they brought their vehicle in for, followed by anything that has to do with their personal safety, then the safety of others, followed by vehicle maintenance and comfort items. #6. Never compromise your ethics. If you do the right things for the right reasons, and if you never put money ahead of people, it will show through to your customers. Combine your shop’s ethics with the above guidelines and you have my promise: you and your customers will be thrilled with the results. For additional help building a more successful shop that will have a positive impact on your employees, customers and community, please feel free to take advantage of Elite's Complimentary Shop Performance Review.

By Bob Cooper of Elite For decades shop owners have had the luxury of being able to rely on a short list of traditional media to bring in new customers. They’ve primarily utilized directory ads, print media, radio and TV, and to some extent, local grassroots marketing programs. With rare exception, each of these advertising mediums has had a long-standing track record of performance (either good or bad), so you knew what you were getting when investing in these mediums. Today, we live in a completely different world, and how you go about marketing in the coming years will have an unparalleled impact on your auto service business. Here’s why… First of all, with today’s ever-expanding technology, we will certainly see a continued growth in new and creative e-marketing channels. Just look at the amazing growth that we’ve seen over the past few years: we now have YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, social couponing, and cell phone offers, just to name a few. Not only will your number of choices in e-media continue to expand in the coming years, but with many of them, there will be little or no record of historical performance, so determining which mediums are best for your business will become increasingly difficult. So if you are not careful in the coming years when it comes to marketing your auto repair business, you will find yourself spending a fortune in dollars, time, and resources, only to fall short of the results that you are looking for. So rather than jumping on the bandwagon with every new media that hits the market, you need to put first things first. You can start by picking up a copy of Fortune Magazine and paging through it. You’ll see a lot of really great ads, but one company that will certainly be absent is Monster, the energy drink company. Regardless of whether or not you like their product, you have to admire them for their marketing genius. What Monster has done, as all great companies do, is identify its target customer, and invest wisely in the advertising mediums that best reach those customers. Monster’s target customers are the younger generations, so they spend their marketing dollars passing out samples on college campuses and hosting parties and events, not on ads in Fortune Magazine. In your business, it’s no different. You need to put first things first by identifying who your ideal customer is, and then pinpointing the campaigns that attract your ideal customer before you start throwing money at new marketing campaigns. In every case, you should start by analyzing your existing customer base. Look for the commonalities in the customers who have generated your highest sales and profits. Beyond the type of vehicles they drive, and the type of services performed, you should look for commonalities in their age and gender. Once you have that list, you should then look for commonalities in their approximate income, their education, and their social behavior. For example, you may discover that your ideal customer is a 45-year-old male who has a college degree, goes to church on a regular basis, and is involved in his community. Once you have this information, it’s just a matter of finding the right advertising mediums to attract this target customer, and focusing on these mediums as the core of your marketing efforts. So before you invest in a new advertising medium, ask for a demographic breakdown of who the medium reaches. If you are confident that this medium is going to effectively reach your ideal customer, consider taking your research a step further by asking a handful of your long-time customers who meet your ideal customer criteria whether they are familiar with the medium, and if not, whether they can see themselves using it. Can your target customer change over time? Of course, but if you take my recommendations, you’ll keep your service bays full in the coming years, because as the list of advertising options continues to grow year after year, you’ll know which ones are best for you. You see, with the right research and focus, you’ll know exactly who you are trying to reach, and best of all, you’ll know how to reach them. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite, a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while having a positive impact on their employees, customers and communities. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses. You can learn more about Elite by visiting www.EliteWorldwide.com.

I am sure you will agree that in our industry there are a number of unwritten rules that shop owners have followed for decades. They know that they have to hire gifted technicians, stay at the forefront of vehicle technology, and can never jeopardize their relationships with their customers; just to name a few. Unfortunately, there is another rule that far too many shop owners (and service advisors) have believed in for decades. It’s a rule that’s been passed down from one generation to the next; the one that says that whenever you have first-time customers in your shop, and you discover that their vehicles need a lot of work, you are better off holding back on some of the recommendations. The basis for this belief is that with first-time customers, too many recommendations will scare them off. These owners and advisors typically feel that they are better off just recommending the repairs or services that the customer brought the vehicle in for, building a relationship with the customer, and then discussing the other required services during the next visit. There is no question that these owners and advisors typically have good intentions. They believe in their hearts that since they are not trying to sell their customers something they don’t need, they’re not crossing any ethical lines. Unfortunately, that’s the furthest from the truth. When customers entrust you with their automobiles, they have a presumption of full disclosure and honesty. Rightfully or wrongfully, I am sure you will agree that your customers also have an expectation that every time their vehicles enter one of your service bays, your technicians will immediately pick up on everything that needs to be done. So do this… Have a shop meeting and pull up an extra chair. Tell your entire staff that the empty chair represents the spirit of your customer, and that everything that is discussed during the meeting should be able to be said in front of the customer without hesitation. Start the meeting by reinforcing your commitment to both ethics and customer service. You should then review your vehicle inspection process. I strongly recommend using well-constructed vehicle inspection forms, and taking advantage of a variety of those forms: A form for complete vehicle inspections, a safety inspection form, forms for the inspection of specific systems, etc. You should then let all of your employees know that every vehicle will be inspected in a manner that complies with your company policies, that all discoveries are to be documented, and that the inspecting technician is to sign the completed inspection form. Once the completed form is turned over to the advisor, all of the recommended repairs and services are to be estimated, and everything is to be fully disclosed to your customers. Not only is this the professional thing to do, but equally as important, it’s the ethical thing to do. Your customers have the right to know about everything that you have discovered, and they have the right to know how much the repairs and services will cost if authorized. I am sure you will agree; when it comes to ethics, there are no exceptions. Yet many shop owners and advisors will argue that if they have a vehicle that is worth $1,000, and they discover that it needs $5,000 worth of work, then there is no sense in putting together an estimate. At Elite, we adamantly disagree. The vehicles belong to your customers, it’s their money, and it’s their choice. Add to that, just because an advisor feels that a vehicle is not worth fixing, it doesn’t mean that the customer will feel the same way, as the vehicle may hold a special place in the customer’s heart. So mandate complete and professional vehicle inspections that meet with you policies, and insist on full disclosure to all of your customers. They may not buy everything that your advisor has recommended, but a few things are for certain: Your customers will know about everything that needs to be done, you’ll have detailed records, your sales and profits will go up, and you will be doing the right things for the right reasons. If you follow this advice, and if you never put money ahead of people, you can’t lose. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite, a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while having a positive impact on their employees, customers and communities. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses. You can learn more about Elite by visiting www.EliteWorldwide.com.

As we all know, the most powerful form of advertising always has been, and always will be, word of mouth. Although every shop owner would like to believe the majority of their customers are songbirds, the reality is, they’re not. I am not suggesting that you don’t have some customers who love to sing your song, but it’s safe to say that they’re a very small percentage of your overall customer base. I feel comfortable making such a strong statement because even if as little as 10% of your customers were telling their friends about you, and if those people were to come in to your shop, then within 90 days you would have to shut down all of your advertising programs, and you would be booking appointments 30 days out. The reality is that regardless of how well you treat your customers, and no matter how pleased they are with your service, when your customers walk out of your shop they’ll step back into their busy lives, and they will forget about you. Will there be a time when they think of you again? Of course, but it’ll only be when they have a need for your services, or when a friend engages them in a conversation about auto repair. So here’s an easy-to-use procedure I created years ago that will turn your customers into salespeople, and fill up your service bays with customers who are presold on you. Start the process by identifying the customers in your customer database who are your biggest boosters. Ideally they will be good communicators, and they will either work with a lot of other people, or their social lives will put them in constant contact with a lot of other people. Then when they are dropping off their vehicle, or at the time of car delivery, say something like this… “Before you leave, Kevin, do you have just another minute? Great! We’re growing our company, Kevin, and in my perfect world, every customer would be just like you. You are always a pleasure to work with, and everyone here who knows you thinks the world of you. Now I know birds of a feather flock together, so here is what I would like to do…” While they are in front of you take two of your business cards, and on the back of each card write – “One complimentary oil service”. Hand the two cards to your customer and say: “What I’d like to do is give you these two cards. Each one of them entitles the bearer to a complimentary oil service, so when you go to work today, if you could be so kind as to take just a moment to give these two cards to a couple of people you work with, it would be very much appreciated. They’ll get a complete oil service at no charge, and we’ll be able to meet a friend of yours.” This works so well because if you give the cards to the right people, they’ll be excited to pass them along to their friends, and since you gave them specific instructions on how and when to do it, there’s a good probability they’ll pass the two cards out the very same day. You know as well as I do that they will be singing your praises when they pass along those cards, and there is a good probability the cards will be used. Your cost? The potential cost of two oil services, and the cost of an oil service is meaningless when you consider that you are getting a new customer who is presold on you, and you are giving your best customers the opportunity to give something of value to two of their friends. If you are looking for an immediate increase in car counts, then this is one way to not only bring in more new customers, but to turn your customers into salespeople at the same time. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite, a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while having a positive impact on their employees, customers and communities. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses. You can learn more about Elite by visiting www.EliteWorldwide.com.

By Bob Cooper of Elite Many years ago when I was still working on cars, I came to the realization that I would someday own my own shop. I also realized that in order to do so, I would first have to learn how to sell service. The challenge I faced at that time was not only did I not know how to sell, but I also had little respect for salespeople, because I viewed them as people who would take people’s money, and more often than not do little in return. So I was actually faced with two challenges; having to somehow learn how to sell, and also deal with my internal struggle of becoming part of a profession that I had little, if any, respect for. So here is what I did. I went to the local book store looking for books that would help me learn how to sell, and hopefully help change my perception of selling at the same time. To my amazement, I found a book that I knew would be perfect for me. It was written by the nation’s top car salesman at that time, and I thought even though he sold cars instead of service, it was likely more closely related to the auto service industry than any other book I would find. I bought the book, I hurried home, and I began reading each and every word. As you can imagine, I was thrilled with what I was learning, so I was circling key phrases, and taking pages of notes. And then I came across a part I will never forget, where the author said that every time he was selling a car, he would look across his desk at the customer, and he would view them as a bag of groceries. He said the reason he would do this was to convince himself that if the customer didn’t buy that car that day, he would not be able to eat dinner that night. As soon as I finished that passage, I folded up the book, and I put it away. To this day I never finished the book, but it still sits on my bookshelf for one simple reason; to remind me of everything I never want to be. With all due respect, that author may have transferred a lot of titles, and he may have ran up the numbers, but the one thing that he appears to have forgotten is this: The people he was dealing with were your moms and dads, and your brothers and sisters. They were people with hearts and souls, not just commodities, or a means to an end. Ironically, at the same time I was also captivated by two people; the late, great John F. Kennedy, and the late, great Martin Luther King, and what I learned from these two was something that has been with me ever since. It’s the understanding that selling really has nothing to do with money. It never has, and it never will. You see, what selling really is, is helping people believe in what we believe. President Kennedy was able to unite America by helping us believe that we were the greatest nation on earth, and Doctor King was able to help us believe that all mankind is equal, regardless of the color of our skin. Over the decades I have hired many superstars, and as a company we have trained tens of thousands of advisors, so I can tell you with a clear heart that the best advisors in America have a number of things in common. Most importantly, they never put money ahead of people, and they understand that just because someone authorizes a repair or service, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they were sold on the service. The true superstars will always sell from their hearts, and they know that when that magic moment occurs, and the customer believes in what they believe, then and only then, have they closed the sale. The money? Interestingly enough, there is another principle that I have learned over the years, and it’s another one that is timeless. It’s the one that says, “If we do the right things for the right reasons, the money will follow.” Selling service is one of the easiest and most rewarding jobs on earth as long as you believe that the service is the right choice for the customer, and as long as you sell… from your heart. For additional help increasing your shop's sales and customer satisfaction in a professional and ethical way, learn more about Elite's industry acclaimed Masters Service Advisor Training.

By Bob Cooper Over the last 22 years I've been amazed to discover just how many shop owners are lost when it comes to knowing and understanding “the numbers". In order to build a successful auto repair shop, you are going to need to know two sets of numbers: Your “financial" benchmarks, and your “operational" benchmarks. Without a clear understanding of these benchmarks, it becomes quite challenging for shop owners to pinpoint where they are falling short of their goals, and where improvements need to be made. Far too many times I've seen shop owners finally start monitoring these numbers closely, and quickly realize that for years they haven't been charging enough for parts, have been overpaying their employees, have been operating inefficiently, etc. There's no doubt about it: a clear understanding of your shop's financial and operational benchmarks is critical to effective auto shop management. Since your part cost is one of your largest expenses, it's something you need to monitor continuously. At Elite, our top clients spend no more than 52% of the dollars they bring in through their part sales, on part cost. This means that if they bring in $40,000 in part sales by the end of the month, the cost of those parts should not exceed $20,800 ($40,000 in part sales X 52% = $20,800 part cost.) If you find you are spending more than 52% of your part sales on part cost, then you need to take a good hard look at how you price your parts, any parts that are being replaced at no charge, your warranty failures, purchasing habits, and the possibility of theft. When it comes to your direct labor (the cost of your techs), the top shops we work with spend no more than 35% of the dollars they bring in through labor sales, on technician pay. This means that if they bring in $40,000 in labor sales by the end of the month, their technician payroll does not exceed $14,000 ($40,000 in labor sales X 35% = $14,000 labor cost). You also need to pay close attention to the cost of your service advisors, and here at Elite, we like to see that number at no more than 8% of your total part and labor sales. For example, if your shop generates $80,000 in monthly auto repair sales, your advisors should not be costing you more than $6,400.00 ($80,000 total sales X 8% target = $6,400 advisor cost). You'll need to watch your “operational" benchmarks very closely as well. One key indicator is your labor hours per repair order, and our top clients consistently generate at least 2.5 hours of labor sales with their average repair order. If you are not seeing 2.5 hours per repair order at your shop, you need to review your vehicle inspection process, what's being recommended to your customers, and the declined services. As a shop owner you also need to pay close attention to your technicians' “efficiency" rate. This is a powerful key indicator that will show you just how good your techs are at getting the work done in a fast and effective way. It's easy to discover your efficiency rate by simply dividing the hours you billed for the repair, by the amount of time it took your tech to complete the job. For example, if you bill a customer 2 hours, and your tech gets the job done in 1½ hours, they would be 133% efficient (120 minutes billed/90 minutes to complete the job = 1.33, which is 133% efficient). The top shops are typically operating at an overall efficiency rate of 125+%. There are a number of things that can bring down the efficiency of the technicians in your shop, including a lack of experience, the lack of proper technical training, and one of the biggest culprits, the wrong compensation programs. And then lastly, after you pay all your expenses, there's the money that is left over for you. In business we call that profit, and the top shops will typically earn a profit of 15 - 20% of sales. So if your shop is generating $80,000 in monthly sales, in most cases, you should be able to earn $12,000 - $16,000 per month in taxable income. The good news is, if you know your numbers, and if you never put money ahead of people, you should be able to generate these profits in a professional and ethical way. Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite, a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while having a positive impact on their employees, customers and communities. The company offers one-on-one coaching from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with sales, marketing and shop management courses. You can learn more about Elite by visiting www.EliteWorldwide.com.