What A Customer-Focused Culture Really Means

What A Customer-Focused Culture Really Means

When you're truly customer-focused, you do whatever you can do to help a customer in need, whenever that might be.

It has been 10 years this month since I began working with the tire/auto service industry. Over that time, I have worked with many of the very best tire/auto service businesses in all of North America. One of those businesses is my client Virginia Tire & Auto, Tire Review’s 2011 Top Shop winner.

Since winning the Top Shop Award, the business has become even more successful. I began my Pinnacle Performance Training relationship with Virginia Tire in 2012, and, like with all my clients, I provided semi-annual onsite training supported by ongoing online training, plus evaluations and coaching on incoming sales calls managed by their 120 or so customer-facing associates. The founder and patriarch of the family-owned business, Myron Boncarosky, is not only one of the best people I’ve met in this industry, he’s also one of the best people I’ve met, period. In a business sense, he reminds me of my dad (who passed away in 2013). My dad started with a Citgo gas station back in 1966 and went on to be the R (Rocky) at R & A Automotive, my family’s auto service business that I grew up in. 

When you’re truly customer-focused, you do whatever you can do to help a customer in need, whenever that might be.

In 1976, Myron started with a Shell station and went on to develop Virginia Tire & Auto, now with 17 shops. I first met Myron when I spoke at the Virginia Auto Association Convention. I’ll never forget the first in-house training I conducted for the business. Myron attended every session of the four-day program and made a point of introducing me to the team. In doing so, he said, “Steve’s going to be working with us for many years.” When I asked him about that comment, he told me he understood “it’s a culture thing” and “what we’re looking to achieve doesn’t happen overnight.”

Of course, I still had to deliver. He not only positioned the program to succeed, but also demonstrated he clearly understood what many (if not most) business owners do not — it really is a culture thing. More specifically, it’s a customer-focused culture thing. 

Ferrante-Customer-Focus-1

Myron has since phased out of day-to-day operations, and his daughter and son-in-law, Julie and Mike Holmes, have done an outstanding job moving the business forward with the same commitment to building a winning team and fostering a customer-focused culture. 

Need evidence? Here’s an excerpt from their 2011 Top Shop profile that’s aligned with this principle: 

“Myron, who visits each location once a week, knows all employees by name and greets them with a smile and a handshake. Further proof of the employees-as-family mindset of the organization is John Miller, store manager of the Centreville location, who personally thanks each of his employees and gives them a hug or handshake on paydays.”

Ferrante-Customer-Focus-2

Miller recently celebrated his 40th year with Virginia Tire & Auto. Over my years working with the business, he has become a good friend. He embodies everything you look for in a leader to support a customer-focused culture. From the big pile of rave customer reviews that have come in for John and his team, here’s my personal favorite: 

“Without a doubt, I had the greatest customer service experience at Virginia Tire in Centreville, VA, that I have ever had in my life… I want to especially commend John Miller and Travis at that location for all they did to make my visit so great. I went to the location because I noticed I had a flat tire. My wife and I were planning a trip in the car the next morning. I went to Virginia Tire on my spare tire and they plugged my other tire… Later that evening, I noticed that the tire was flat again. I changed plans for the trip but emailed John to explain that my tire was flat again. John emailed and called me the next day, Easter Sunday, when he was off to see what he could do. John had Travis go to my house, remove the wheel, take it to Virginia Tire and check out the tire. John stayed in touch with me throughout the day to let me know what he was doing. I wanted a new tire, and John got it for me, had Travis mount it, balance it and go back to my house and put it on my car in the driveway. The fact that he and Travis did all of this work for me …simply amazed me. I could not ask for better service. I have already told a dozen people about the excellent service that I received, and I will continue to tell people about Virginia Tire….Thank you so much for your caring about your customers and the work that you do!!!”

Myron, who visits each location once a week, knows all employees by name and greets them with a smile and a handshake.

This may just seem like a great review for a job well done, but it’s so much more than that. It’s really about a customer-focused culture. None of this would have happened without it. The average shop would have been unresponsive on a holiday, deferring the matter until business reopened and, ultimately, leaving the customer stranded. When you’re truly customer-focused, you do whatever you can do to help a customer in need, whenever that might be.


Article courtesy of Tire Review.

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Shop Equipment ROI – Tooled for Profit

Understanding how to calculate ROI can help your purchasing decisions.

I’m not a financial scholar by any means, but I know what return on investment (ROI) is. It’s a mathematical formula that yields a representation of the profitability of any type of investment. In the automotive repair industry, we primarily associate this with equipment. Admittedly, I’ve never used the term much, more often approaching things from the standpoint, “Am I making money with this or not?” As technicians and shops, our typical thought process centers on each individual job, how much time and money we have into it, so we’re used to thinking profit or loss, and also pretty good at knowing if we made money, or if we lost our “back quarters.”But over time I’ve learned that the thought process alone is not always the best approach, and making money doesn’t necessarily mean a good ROI. Even if you don’t go crazy with an exponentially long, complicated equation, if you understand the basic idea and process of calculating ROI, it can help you make good purchasing decisions. The base calculation would be dividing your net profits by the cost of the equipment. That’s your ROI. Then, if you want to take it further, you can divide that number to get a time-based ROI average.Let’s look at a basic calculation. You buy something for $10, then sell it for $14. Your profit is $4. Divide profit by investment, ($4/$10) and you get an ROI of 40%. Not bad, but if it took two years to make this profit, then your ROI would be 20% annualized, which is not as impressive. You can use this basic formula to compare products you sell as well, and it may help you decide what’s best to keep in stock or not.Now let’s try something with equipment. You have an old tire machine that’s paid for. You average one set of tires per week and it takes 1.5 hours to complete the job. You decide to buy a new tire machine that is much quicker and more efficient but it cost you $20,000. Now the same job only takes one hour. Based on the cost of technician salary, you calculate that it saves you $30 per job with this new equipment. In this case you would use the formula: savings (additional profit)/investment. At one set of tires per week, that works out to $1,560 per year. $1,560/$20,000 equals an ROI of approximately 8%. That’s not too good. It will take you almost 12 years to pay off the new machine.On the other hand, if you average five sets of tires per week, then your additional profit for the first year is $7,800. $7,800/$20,000 equals an ROI of 39%. That’s pretty good. A general rule of thumb is to pay off any piece of equipment within two to three years. This puts you right on track.But now, here is the problem. This is where we throw the proverbial wrench into the plans. Equipment is tricky. You should also calculate in installation and maintenance costs, as well as the cost of training for the new equipment, and factor in how long the equipment is going to be relevant. This is an especially important factor when considering a scan tool, the required updates and how long before it’s potentially obsolete. In the case of a tire machine, you can also calculate in savings from other benefits of a new machine, such as no more damage to wheels or tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) sensors, which the new machine can eliminate.Some of this can be overwhelming, and it makes me realize why it’s easier just to fly by the seat of your pants and wonder, “Am I making money or not?” It’s an important business aspect, however, to know what is behind the idea because it can benefit you in so many ways. Even without math, you can almost visualize the numbers in your head.I’ll try it by leaving the formulas out to decide whether it makes sense to buy a dedicated TPMS tool when you already have a full-function scan tool with TPMS ability.If you get a TPMS problem every day and you use your full-function scan tool to diagnose it, most likely it takes much longer to boot and longer to navigate to the function. Even then, it may not cover all you need. Because there’s such a vast amount of information that a full-function scan tool has, it simply takes more for the manufacturer to keep everything current. Plus, you often must still rely on service information for certain procedures and then, if it’s the only scan tool for your shop, it ties it up for use in other diagnostics.Now, let’s compare that to a dedicated TPMS tool. Built with only one function in mind, they can make the process much quicker, have greater coverage, boot quicker and quickly walk you through all steps of any required TPMS resets. When you factor in the savings in time and the fact that your primary scan tool isn’t tied up, you can prove the value of a dedicated TPMS tool through ROI calculations. On the other hand, if you rarely work on TPMS systems, you can prove it wouldn’t make sense at all, since you do have the function on your primary scan tool.While you haven’t done any calculations, you’ve thought of it in that manner and can picture where the calculations might end up. If you’re on the fence, the math will give you the answer. Ultimately, your accountant could take the idea even further, with an undoubtedly more advanced knowledge of ROI, and almost certainly a way to calculate depreciation into the formula. That’s where I sign off, but you get the idea. It’s a great concept that represents fundamental business financials.

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