Auto repair shop management doesn’t have to be a mystery. Long time automotive business coach Gary Gunn shares his decades of automotive industry experience running multiple shops with you! When you take Gary’s and head coach Brian Gillis’ advice to heart, you will put your business systems in place and see results in no time!
Defining Auto Repair Shop Management – How Is It Different From Leadership?
Gary opens the clip, polling the group on the difference between auto repair shop management and leadership.
Pam believes that managing is staying on top of details and keeping staff on top of their tasks. Fred believes Leaders hand down goals and processes to Managers. Then the Managers use the SOPs to guide the people.
Joe defines the Leadership role as one who sets the pace and tone for the shop’s business. Management then manipulates the Technicians and Service Advisors to execute the Leader’s vision. Joe clarifies that the staff roles are similar to that of military ranks. As the owner and leader, he recognizes the strengths of each employee in their positions.
Jerry continues by agreeing with all the previous points. He then adds that Auto Repair Shop Management means overseeing the systems and processes, so Mechanics and Service Writers can do their thing.
Gary also reminds us that people do not want to be managed. They can’t! That method of management always reduces people to robots. Effective managers should manage the systems, so the SOPs themselves can manage the people.
Learn More – Get Your FREE Strategy Session
Does your independent automotive shop lack a clear vision? Maybe your business plan has stalled out. You need an experienced automotive industry coach to help you. Then why not schedule a FREE business strategy session with Brian? You’ve got nothing to lose, so sign up today!
Are you feeling crushed under the weight of running your business? You’re not alone. Many auto repair Owners and General Managers wonder why running their businesses is so hard. But not all of them. What strategy is in play to create their success?
Strategy – Big Picture Planning
We often hear the mantra, “Work Smarter Not Harder.”What does that mean? Let’s talk about Strategy versus Tactics for a bit. Understanding the difference between them is critical to your business’s success.
Strategy is looking at the big picture planning you need to do before diving into the tactics. If your spouse wants you to build her dream house, you don’t just run to Home Depot and purchase a pile of bricks. If you HAD a pile of bricks laying around in the backyard, would you then start laying them out? No. You would end up with a disappointing mess, as well as an unhappy spouse. Not good.
When you want to build your dream house, there are specific steps you need to take before beginning the build process. First, you need to purchase the land and survey the land. Next, you will meet with an architect and draw out the plans. Then, meet with the builders, acquire the permits, and make sure there is money in the bank to pay for it all. That’s called strategy.
Tactics – Laying the Foundation
After all that, THEN you can begin laying the foundation. You’ll be counting the number of bricks you’ll need, setting up the framing, installing the infrastructure, hiring the electrician, and so on. That’s tactics.
If you try building that dream home without strategy or tactics, you’re screwed. It doesn’t matter how good the architect and builder are. Without strategy and tactics, you get stuck with analysis paralysis! You wonder why that dang house has become such a money pit.
How Do Strategy and Tactics Apply to Your Auto Repair Business?
Well, if you want to build your ideal company, then you need to put together your strategy. Once your business plan and marketing strategies are mapped out, you need to employ the tactics that will get you there.
Fortunately, You Net Results has the experience to walk you through both the strategy and tactics you’ll need to get your business to the next million dollars in annual revenue. It’s not an overnight project. It takes a lot of work. However, it’s a solid plan that will help you reach your goals, as long as you implement and take action.
At You Net Results, we facilitate coaching groups for auto repair shop owners. Together, we can all reach a turnaround point. You will emerge from the experience of moving from a business owner to a confident business leader. Thus, you will eliminate the obstacles that hold you back.
Are you ready? Let’s do this.
To find out more, contact us for a complimentary consultation. Brian Gillis will discuss your business strategies and find ways to improve your annual revenue and company culture.
If you are looking to expand your team and grow your business, you must put your systems and processes in place, so new hires can learn them. Otherwise, you’re in for a surprise with people winning stupid prizes by playing stupid people games.
How many times have you hired someone who you thought was a promising candidate? Someone who interviewed well, passed your criteria, and looked like a winner on paper. Then, you hired that individual and found later that they were poor performers. Or worse, you thought they were just plain stupid.
Do you really think they were stupid? Seriously, after all that vetting, do you think you hired someone dumb? I would argue that you didn’t hire a foolish person. Instead, you had non-existent or poorly defined systems and procedures in place — if there was any documentation at all — and that “stupid” person was thrown into the fire with no procedural support system.
After all, we don’t hire dumb folks. Instead, we have lacking systems and processes that make them look stupid and force them to underperform.
In short, it’s not their fault. It’s ours. We failed them because no one is inherently stupid. But too many business owners don’t recognize this, and they continue pretending. They’re winning stupid prizes by playing stupid people games. Here’s what I’m talking about:
I was talking with a shop owner recently. During the course of our conversation, he told me everyone he hired was stupid, and they never did what he told them to do. I asked him who hired them? There was silence on the phone. Was it the owner or the people? What prize do you think he won?
Quite frankly, it’s a stupid way to run a business.
If you were to build a house and laid the foundation before meeting with the architect, you have on your hands a failed and expensive home-building process. Your systems and processes dictate your success, and we have seen too many small business owners jump into action without having a solid plan called systems and processes in place. That is why Standard Operating Procedures or SOPs are critical to the success of any business.
McDonald’s and other major fast-food chains have learned how to streamline SOPs in such a way that the average 16-year-old high school student can train in one or two days and become highly productive within their first week of employment.
So here’s the question: What is preventing you from hiring intelligent and talented people who prove to you over time that they are worthy? What’s stopping your new hires from reaching success is your lack of Standard Operating Procedures guiding them steadily toward that success.
Let us help you solve your systems problems!
If you are genuinely searching for a streamlined system that will help your employees win, your business grow, and will lower your stress level, and you need to adapt well-thought-out systems and processes. When you work with You Net Results, we will take you through proven systems and techniques that will help your business grow. Our strategies help shop owners reach their next million dollars in revenue and help their company culture thrive as well.
Who do you know that could benefit from well-documented, seamless systems and processes? If you know anyone who could benefit, including yourself, please schedule a consultation with You Net Results. After all, great intentions don’t pay the bills. If you are willing to invest in yourself and your team, you are on the right track in avoiding stupid people games that waste your time and money.
At You Net Results, we dedicate many training hours to business systems. Our classes and coaching sessions address how to reduce mistakes and prevent lost details. To find out more, contact us for a complimentary consultation. Brian Gillis will discuss your business strategies and find ways to improve your annual revenue and company culture.
Have you ever played the game “Telephone”? You start by lining up a group. Then, you whisper a sentence into the first person’s ear. They then whisper the message to the next person. The game continues until the message gets to the final person in line, who announces out loud what sentence they heard. It is often much different from the original sentence. Quite the exercise in communication!
At You Net Results, we know this game shows what happens when messages, systems, and processes are undocumented. Just like in the game of “Telephone,” something can get lost in the telling. When you don’t write down instructions, client comments, or repair orders, this is inevitable.
Communication breakdown
In auto repair businesses, it happens like this:
The Customer tells the Service Advisor something. Time is short. The Service Advisor doesn’t write it down, but they repeat it verbally to the Technician. The Technician may also skip documenting it, so they present the Service Advisor with new information. The Service Advisor then reports to the Customer via phone. More back and forth happens, and then the Customer picks up their vehicle. Later, the Service Advisor is surprised to read the Customer’s one-star review. Why? Communication was not clear. They lost something in the telling.
How can you avoid losing something in the telling?
Do you see how simply repeating verbal information can lose accuracy? It is obvious how the customer felt wronged. How can your team reduce miscommunication? How can they improve clarity?
The answer? Use transparent systems and processes to document all communication. Enter repair issues through DVI reports, notes in your CRM, text messages, recorded phone calls, and other exchanges. When you do, you will reduce your chance of poor reviews.
Perfect your shop’s communication chain!
At You Net Results, we dedicate hours of training to communication. Our coaching sessions help prevent mistakes and lost details. To learn more, contact us for a free consultation. Brian Gillis will discuss your business strategies and ways to improve revenue and company culture.
Check out this clip from our General Manager Process online Zoom meeting. Members can watch the whole discussion in our You Net Results members library. In this video clip, our own Brian Gillis asked a roundtable of automotive repair Owners and GM’s to list ten things that every General Manager must do well. Once our discussion was done, we had compiled a comprehensive list of duties. When you read through them all and focus on each one today, then you will truly up your game!
Tasks 1-3 for Effective General Managers
After Brian set the table for our YNR members, he called on veteran shop owner Jerry Kaminski of AutoWise Car Care. Jerry suggested that keeping an eye on your numbers is an imperative move. Whether you review your financial records daily or monthly, taking a regular look is key.
Next, Andy Arndt stressed how important it is to delegate tasks you can’t make time for yourself to your staff. No matter how skilled you are, you can not do it all! You must trust your staff to take some of the workload off of your already full plate. Your time is valuable! If a general manager is stuck under a car, he or she can’t handle their administrative duties.
Task Three that a general manager must do well means both finding and maintaining the right staff. Jim Ryckman invoked the acronym PAHR – Prepare, Attract, Hire, Retain, which is the method we teach for staffing. Without the right crew on hand, none of these other tasks are possible.
GM Duties 4-6
Our friend Dana stressed that good communication skills are essential in any management situation. You must stay cool under pressure, and learn the right things to say to both your staff and concerned customers. Above all else, listen!
Edward continued by saying that all managers must learn to be diplomatic. When you are managing a team of skilled automotive technicians and service advisors, conflicts will inevitably arise.
You should not show any favoritism between your children. In much the same way, you must learn to step in and resolve the disagreements between your staff, whether they are personal ones or professional ones.
It is so easy for us to get caught up in the day to day tasks going on in an automotive repair shop. If you do not reserve a block of time to work on the nuts and bolts of your business, then it is not going to happen. Go in your office for an hour and shut the door. Don’t forget to also tell your crew that you are not to be bothered for that hour.
Finally, Andy Arndt mentioned that all General Managers must motivate their teams. Remind your staff members regularly that you are working toward a common goal. Share your vision when you hold your daily and weekly team meetings. When your technicians and service writers are in tune with that vision, then your shop will run like a well oiled machine!
General Manager Task List Review
To summarize this session, Brian then surveyed our group of experienced auto repair shop Owners and General Managers. They determined the following list of ten things that every GM must do in order to succeed:
Defining Auto Repair Shop Management – How Is It Different From Leadership?
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