Joe Marconi

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

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

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

No, sorry, never heard of them.

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

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

Gonzo, I can top that. We had a Subaru towed in last November, new customer with a no-start. We diagosed the car and repair it the same day. Every day the the customer would call and asked, What time do you close?" Well, after six weeks of this he finally arrived at the shop, gave us half the money for the repair and did not pick up the car for another 3 weeks! Is it that bad out there?

Are You Tracking Comebacks? “Comeback”, one of the most hated words in our business. We all get them. But how we handle comebacks, track them and learn from them is vital to our success. I don’t have to tell you how important it is to take care of a comeback in the quickest manner. In addition, no matter what the comeback, you will need to follow up with the customer in a day or so to make sure everything is ok and to show you care. Another thing you need to do is keep records of the comebacks. Was it a part issue, a tech issue, a training issue or a procedure issue? Keeping track and reviewing the findings with your staff will help make necessary changes and improvements to your business. If you find that an unusual amount of water pumps are failing from a particular supplier, you will have the documentation to back that up and possibly look for a new supplier. If your tracking identifies a problem with one of your techs, you can use this information to retrain the tech or get him the necessary training to avoid issues in the future. You need to share this information with all staff members; I call it, “Shared Knowledge”. We can often learn more from our mistakes than any other way. Knowledge is power, it takes a little effort on your part, but trust me, it will go a long way at improving your bottom line.

Well, you are right, not politically correct....but.......

i want to wish all the Mom's a very Happy Mother's day. To all ASO members, have a wonderful day with your family. Joe Marconi

According to Honda, thier Ow20 is a semi synthetic blend. As far as a better oil change...most shops were charging more for an oil back in the 80's, when the oil, the filter and labor was a lot cheaper. Marketing and advertising from some segments of the industry (including new car dealers doing $19.95 oil changes) is killing us. Look what we do when we do an oil change....It should be called a maintenance service. Plus now you have to reset the light, take down the splash pan, on and on and on. An oil change is just not an oil change. Sorry for getting off topic...

Some new Honda's require 0w20 oil, which is a synthetic oil from the suppliers that I have contacted. The local Honda dealer in my area sells the oil change service for the same price as conventional oil. This is hard to compete with. Any thoughts on oil and marekting 0w20?

I understand the issue with correct friction modifiers, but if your service your transmission using BG fluid every 30,000 miles, BG will protect your car and give you a protection plan for the life of the vehicle for your transmission. The plan will give you $2,000 if you start the servicing under 36k miles, $1000.00 if you start the program under 75k miles. BG is a good company, why would they stand behind their product, if the product did not work? Maybe we should hear from a BG rep????

That's the biggest issue in our area too. The condition of the rotors are so bad due to corrosion, it is not in the best interest of the customer to attempt cutting them, in most cases.

I was waiting for your post....and you did not dissapoint me! Too funny!

Oh boy, I got 12 out of 15....what does that tell you?

Ray, I have been around the block a few more times I care to remember, and I can tell from the way you express yourself that you have great potential. I am glad you found AutoShopOwner.com. I hope you stay active in the forums; there are a lot of fine members with so much to offer this industry. The power of our industry is our collective knowledge. Remember, success is not a destination; it's a never ending journey.

Hey Gonzo, do you ever wonder if there's a book out there that the consumer reads on how to treat a mechanic? You know, a book that for some reason is never shown to us? There has to be, think about it. How else do you explain these things? How can there be so much similarity among what people say to us. There's a book out there...I know it!

So, You Fix Cars…So What? Do you ever think about why you are in business? Do you ever think about how you market your business to your consumer base? I know; you perform brake work, oil changes, steering, suspension, tires, alignments, check engine light analysis, blah, blah, blah. We all do that, so what? What I want to know is why you do what you do. What makes you different from your competition? Now, you’re not going to tell me it’s because you do a “quality” job, are you? The fact is the consumer can buy a Goodyear tire anywhere and get a brake job or an oil change done anywhere. Plus, there are a lot of quality shops out there. Is the only reason you keep going back to your favorite restaurant because of the good food? The truth is quality work is expected, and must not be used to define your company. Another truism; the average consumer has no clue nor do they care about your Snap-On sockets, Hunter Wheel Balancer or your OE factory scan tool. Those are things WE CARE about. Do you go to your doctor and say, “Hey Doc, what brand X-ray machine do you use?” Do you ever ask your dentist, “Those are nice instruments you are using on my teeth, who makes them?” Indentify who your most loyal customers are and find out WHY they keep coming back. The answer will define your business and define who you are. This is what you market and advertise; this is how you attract more customers who fit your culture.

Yes, I know...here's a story for you. We had a Ford Probe with a no start at times and would break up under hard acceleration, ONLY at times. To make a VERY LONG story, real short. This car was at a trans shop for a transmission overhaul. They broke the end off the tab for the crank sensor on the flywheel and bent it back into place. Well, it lasted for about a year before having problems. It took me 4 days to find out this problem. I kept getting a strange signal from the sensor, but it would start, stall, no start, break up. Drove me nuts...It felt real good when I found it and fixed it, but lost my shirt, my socks, my pants and my underwear on the diag labor.

Wow, that would have drove me crazy! You must really know your stuff, you stuck with it with conviction. Hope it was worth it $$$$$, becuase you deserve it...

We all need time away from business to focus on those things that truly matter in life; family and friends. A little down time is good for the soul and will reenergize you. Your business will always be there. Happy Easter!