Steps Toward Smooth Sailing: Establishing Proper Policies & Procedures To Improve Your Shop’s Productivity
We’ve all been there. Customers keep coming in waves and your shop is crazier than it’s ever been. The bays and parking lot are completely full, your waiting room has guests who are waiting to speak with a service writer and you can’t catch your breath trying to keep it all organized. In other words, your policies and procedures broke down. The systems that worked when business was slower fell apart as you grew, and now you’re left trying to pick up the pieces or the shop morale will take a dive and your customers’ trust will fall right along with it.
Navigating The Roller Coaster Ride Of Running A Small Business, And Realizing The Importance Of Personal Well-Being
Running a small business is simultaneously one of the most frustrating and rewarding journeys a person can embark upon. Even more so when that small business is an auto repair shop. The highs and lows can both be extreme – one minute, you’re on top of the world and everything is going great. The next minute, the sky is falling and nothing seems to be going right.
All Work And No Play Is Not The Secret To Success: Achieving Both Work-Life Balance And Shop Success
As small-business owners, we are often caught up in this obligation to do everything it takes to succeed. We feel that we owe it to our investment, to our future, to our employees and to our customers. So, we stay late, we fix employee mistakes ourselves, and we lose whole weekends working to catch up on the work that employees didn’t get done.
Location, Location, Location Should Come Last: A Detailed Guide To Help Reproduce Your Success In A Second Shop
Opening a second location is a tempting idea for many shop owners, and why not? Twice the sales, twice the profits, and a chance to go through the process again and do everything right the second time around! If only it were that easy.
Honesty, Service And Integrity: The Details That Matter Most To Customers During The Vehicle Service Process
This probably doesn’t come as news to you, but every new customer who walks through your doors comes preloaded with trust issues. They have already been betrayed by their car and probably also by the dealer at one time or another, and they expect you to be the latest one to disappoint them.
Foreign Affairs Auto: Shop’s Competitive Advantage The Result Of A Differentiation Strategy Focused On Its People, Processes And High-Quality Product Offerings
While change can be good, and some might say inevitable, sticking to what’s worked for nearly 35 years is probably a good idea. Foreign Affairs Auto has served the European car owners in the West Palm Beach, FL, area since 1982, and General Manager Jonathan Ortiz says a focus on the customer has always served the shop well.
Executive Interview: Brad Drummond, COO, Aramark
Brad Drummond is Chief Operating Officer of Aramark Uniform Services and Refreshment Services – leading providers of uniforms, facility supplies and food beverage services. He is responsible for operations with nearly 15,000 employees with more than 300 distribution and market facilities across North America and revenues in excess of $2 billion.
Keller Bros. Inc.: Working Smarter, Not Harder
It takes a lot of technical know-how to service modern vehicles. But there would be a lot more shop owners and technicians walking around with fat wallets nowadays if running a successful shop were only about technical acumen.
The Value Of Training Your Entire Team – Including The Owner
If an owner doesn’t take the time to train employees, to teach them the processes used in the shop, and to explain the benchmarks, they cannot expect the employee to deliver on these expectations. Training for new employees is a good start, but it’s far from the whole picture. Does the rest of the team understand your expectations? Do they know who is responsible for holding other techs accountable? Are they incentivized for meeting and exceeding expectations?
Boosting Productivity Through Collaboration
Most meetings are – at best – boring and a waste of time. For most shops, meetings aren’t a positive experience. That’s because many team meetings fall into one of two categories: either the boss pulls everyone together to scold and lecture about problems, or the team uses the meeting as an opportunity to complain, whine and make excuses.
