Why do some warehouses work better than others? Simply stated — design. But this concept goes far beyond just where products are placed or how inventory is organized. In fact, there are five focal design elements that impact the effectiveness of warehouses, or distribution centers as there are also often called — space, layout, tools, technology and management.
Dennis Hensen, director of integrated systems with Siggins, a Missouri design firm, walked attendees through the importance of these five elements during an Automotive Warehouse Distributors Association (AWDA)-sponsored Webinar last week.
Warehouses need to incorporate all five of the elements, but determining exactly the right mix is up to each individual business.
"A lean distribution center is more than just a warehouse, it is a production facility," Hensen says.
SPACE
First, assessing space if vital. Too much space is too expensive to maintain, and too little clogs a warehouse and hampers inventory management.
Three layout patterns were presented:
Circle — Dock doors are positioned in the middle of a square building, with shipping on one side of the building and receiving on the other
U-shaped — Dock doors are separated along one wall of a rectangular building, with shipping and receiving separated similar to in the circle pattern.
Flow-through — The dock doors are at either end of a building and shipping is on one end and receiving goes through to the other end. This works best in a very large facility.
LAYOUT
When deciding on an overall facility design plan, Hensen presented a few key pointers to keep in mind:
-A square building shape is best to reduce travel time
-Put dock doors on same side for U-shape or Flow-through layouts
-Pit levelers should be 48" above pad with seals
-Place the employee entrance near the break room, rest rooms
-Offices should be concentrated to one side building side and be expandable
- Ensure the building has adequate parking and a truck turnaround
-40' by 50' column spacing is optimal
-Ensure 27' to 30' clear height at eaves for optimum safety
-The sprinkler system should be sized for high-pile storage and expandable
-Receiving/shipping space should begin 40'-50' beyond doors
-6" steel reinforced floor is the most durable
TOOLS
When determining the tools to use in a facility, there are many options, such as storage media-pick modules, conveyors, a carton flow, pallet rack or carousels. What will work best depends on your space, or lack thereof and your products sizes and inventory frequency, Hensen says.
TECHNOLOGY
"You must have the information you need to do your job," Hensen says. Therefore, a technology system that works with your inventory is the best option. Look for a system with good visibility to help effectively track inventory, catch mistakes and pinpoint efficiencies and areas for improvement.
MANAGEMENT
Careful and effective management of space, layout, tools and technology will lead to a profitable business, Hensen says.
"Always be looking for process improvements in small areas," he says. "When we do it right you increase lines per hour picked, enhance workforce, reduce operating cost, improve order accuracy and satisfy customers."
You Can’t Eat Atmosphere
Some years ago, before chain restaurants where popular in my town, an elderly gentleman and I were discussing where to have dinner. He pointed out that we had a choice of going to an up-scale restaurant that had really nice atmosphere, or a less expensive one that had really good food. In offering his advice, he paused and made what has become a classic comment in my household, “You know….you can’t eat atmosphere". (In order to fully appreciate this comment, you'd need to hear the way he said it - with a gentlemanly and somewhat pretentious Southern drawl!)
The point is that we can relate his comment to the collision industry and go down a couple of different paths with it. Perhaps you don't think that the look of your shop is very important, and maybe you don't think that the quality of your repairs has anything to do with atmosphere. We could spend a lot of time on the merits of quality versus appearance, but that is not what I would like to focus on. When I consider atmosphere, I think of something that's not obvious in the way that appearance is. In the context I'm referring to, the definition of atmosphere is "the air or climate in a particular place; a general pervasive feeling or mood; a special mood or character associated with a place". So how is the atmosphere in your place of business, and where does it come from? I personally believe that the true atmosphere of a shop is reflected in the general attitude set forth by management and ownership.
As the Business Development Manager of COLORMATCH, and also as a part time I-CAR Instructor, I work with hundreds of shops on a regular basis. I see shops where attitude is high and employees seem to be motivated and happy to work there. However, I also see shops where people are negative, and as my dad used to say, “their lips are poked out so far they look like a mule eating oats out of a churn." These shops are the ones that are typically complaining about profitability and lack of business. A wise person recognizes that there is some correlation going on here between the bad attitude and the bottom line. You can argue that "off" business results cause "sour" atmosphere, but I personally think that it's just the opposite: bad atmosphere causes low productivity.
So how do you go about adjusting the atmosphere? One major step is to cultivate change. Embrace new ideas and thoughts, be open to new concepts, and don't be set in your ways. If something isn't advancing your business, give it up! As I go around doing seminars on an array of topics, and make suggestions on trying different marketing strategies and improving business methods, I hear things like, "they won’t pay that", or "that won’t work here". Well, why not? Change is always in effect and it will not stop for any of us. Just look at what has taken place in our industry in the last ten years. I don't suggest jumping on every fad that comes along, but be on the lookout for opportunities to make positive changes. Maybe it's time to consider switching to waterborne, or trying a team approach instead of paying on commission. We need to look beyond our door and think about ways to better our industry and embrace change, and that includes what to do to improve the atmosphere in your shop.
Tony’s Tips:
Marketing & Sales Since you have to clean most cars after repair, why not try to up-sell some extra clean-up and get paid for it all? A little additional shampooing and polish doesn’t take much more time.
Production & Cycle Time Triage jobs by severity, and try to schedule techs so that small jobs can be put through a fast lane process without creating delays for the larger jobs. When we use small jobs as fillers, we are planning potential delays.
Profitability & Management Match techs to the task that is being performed to maximize everyone’s time. If attachment and lift points are identified, an entry level tech may be able to put a vehicle on a frame bench and secure it in stands.
Safety & Thinking Green Develop a program that rewards those employees who are safety minded or environmentally friendly on a consistent basis. If given some thought, your program can be a good marketing tool as well.
Estimation It is often necessary to do some disassembly to inspect for indirect damage. If you need to remove air cleaners, sill plates, or weather strips, don’t forget R&I.
Technical Taking a ball joint measurement and a strut tower measurement before removing a car off the frame machine is a good way to be sure of proper wheel alignment without putting the vehicle back on the machine.
I recently looked at a driver seat on a Mercedes for a prospective customer. He met a competitor working a car lot in this area weeks earlier. The tech looked at his leather seat and quoted a too cheap wholesale price to dye the leather. Then he did something that I’ve seen before. He filled in the leather creak lines with a product that cracked out almost immediately. To top everything off, when this customer called to confront this person with his complaint, he was told nothing else could be done to correct the problem and to go and buy a new leather seat.
For the leather to move and stretch naturally there has to be a limit to the repair done. You can’t spread putty in all the cracks and expect the leather to look good long term. If I could have had a first crack at this seat, I would have sprayed it with a good dye and that would have been it. Sometimes I look at the small cracks on a piece of leather and what looks like small cracks in the leather are actually in the dye. Stripping off the original dye before applying the new can make a big difference. Most of my competitors won’t do that but if the original dye is going bad it has to be removed. If this story brings back memories of an upholstery job gone wrong, feel free to study this website. We are experiencing an explosion of new people getting into this business and it appears most of these guys are working out their mistakes on innocent people. If you can learn from somebody else’s experience you hopefully can weed out the rookies in this business. In every town there are a few professionals and a lot of amateurs.
Watch for natural gas/gasoline powerd trucks and cars in the very near future - if we have the political will to make it happen.
With the blow out in the gulf and the moratorium on off-shore drilling - and that means all of it - even existing wells - The pressure on oil prices are sure to be felt at some time down the road. The off-shore oil business is basically toast - many of these drilling fleets will be called to other parts of the world and tens of thousands of american oil workers will be out of a job - more unemployment!
That being said, the opportunity waiting in the wings is natural gas. Recent technical breakthroughs have allowed old shale based wells to be tapped and fractured so as to release previously unreachable gas supplies. Only a small percentage of these wells have been revisited and the gas supply has gone through the roof. A conservative estimate is that, at current usage rates, we have 80 to 100 years of natural gas in the ground - and that does not count the capped old wells that have not been tapped. The neat part of the whole thing is that natural gas is 110 octane, 39% cleaner than gasoline, it's on our own soil, it costa about $1.00 per equivqivalent gallon of gasoline, there is lots more available, and virtually every building in America has a gas line.
This is the perfect bridge fuel that can be used untill new sources of power can be developed. It' cheap, available, and clean, and it can power our economy untill other power sources are found.
All of the major manufacturers have approved retro-fit kits available and approved service points around the country - the technology has been around for years and these kits are EPA certified and safer than gasoline.
Now the only problem is the government. There is a $10,000 liscense fee per approved manufacturer that each shop has to pay yearly for the right to do these installations. That must be lifted or reduced dramatically.
I predict that the natural gas bill now before congress will be held hostage to the cap and trade legislation being considered as we speak. It will not see the light of day unless cap and trade id passed - THAT CANNOT HAPPEN!!!!
We need a NASA style energy retro-fit program. With a tax credit of $2500, most cars and light trucks could be retrofitted within 3 years. Thousands of jobs would be created. Our reliance on foreign oil would be reduced 50%. Add the government and millitary fleets, as well as trucking fleets, and you have totoal energy independence within 5 years - with no off-shore drilling!
John
Business owners are more savvy now than ever, and they are understanding how successful the Internet can be in bolstering business, says Ron McArthur, president of WSI, a provider of Internet marketing solutions to small- and medium-sized businesses.
Just like cars need monthly maintenance, the same philosophy can apply to your company’s website. With more than two hundred million people around the country using the Internet – and social networking becoming more popular than ever – websites have become a vital part of a businesses’ success. Proper upkeep along with engaging content and design can help drive more visitors to your site and customers to your business. Take a look at the following tips that will bring your website up to par.
1. Avoid information overload.
Who is your audience? Does the content on your site speak to those people? In writing copy for your site, make sure to think first and foremost about the readers. Use language that they can understand and include information that they would want to know. Essentials include the services you provide and costs you charge. Also, think about what sets you apart from your competition. Do you have a unique product or special deal available? Consumers want to know how you can save them money!
2. Add a personal touch.
It’s important to shape a positive image of your brand through other people’s words. For instance, layering customer reviews and testimonials can help paint a better picture of your company’s strengths. Other examples include creating a blog (and add a link to it on your website) or record interesting things happening within your business. This will engage readers and let them feel involved in your business, as well as give them an opportunity to comment and provide feedback on the things you’re doing.
3. Show, don’t tell!
It’s important to connect with your customers. Instead of telling them how efficiently you can repair their car, show them. Upload images or create multi-media components, such as a video with dialogue and music. This will get potential customers excited about using your services. They’ll also have less questions and more trust in your company. By adding these elements to your website, you’ll not only save your customers time but your business too. These elements can be easily created with a digital camera and help from an employee.
4. Less is definitely more.
Your website is a reflection of your business. If it’s not aesthetically pleasing, then your client will assume your business is unorganized and outdated. Consider not only design but also colors. And keep it simple. Internet users are lazy, and they want their information to be easily accessible. Use the one-click rule. With no more than one click of the mouse, your potential customer should be able to venture off your homepage and find exactly what they’re looking for.
5. Create a stir.
Just like you network in person, you must network on the web. It takes work to bring traffic to your website, so link it to as many search engines and social networking sites as possible. Examples include Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Make your business its own Facebook and Twitter profile where you can display company specifics and a link to your businesses’ site. You can also visit relevant blogs and post a comment with a link to your site below other’s postings. And make sure your website is compatible with mobile phones.
6. Keep up to speed!
The technology and content on your site should both be up-to-date. You want to make sure you have the proper technical support so readers aren’t waiting forever for pages to load and pictures to pop up. Frequently check external links and make sure they are actually linking the reader to another site. Additionally, you must update your site’s content regarding industry buzz. Stay in the know by reading trade publications and attending educational programs.
Bottom line—if you decide to hire outside help for your website, it’s important to find a company that has the industry knowledge and marketing background to not only drive traffic to your site but convert visitors to customers. And once you’ve found the right fit, listen closely to that outside source. Make sure they know the end result you seek, but be adaptable and roll with the changes they might recommend.
Ron McArthur is the president of WSI, the world’s leading provider of Internet marketing solutions to small- and medium-size businesses. Prior to joining WSI in 2004, McArthur served as a president of the largest Office Coffee division of Canadian-based Van Houtte – one of North America’s leading gourmet coffee companies. He can be reached at 1-888-678-7588 or via e-mail at rmcarthur@wsicorporate.com.
Sakura is more than a flower in Japan. It's an omen, a symbol of good fortune and emblem of love and affection. In the United States we know Sakura as cherry blossoms. Those who have been to Washington D.C. in early spring likely have witnessed the beauty of cherry trees in full bloom. While we appreciate them, most Americans don't have the same attachment to this brilliant flower as the Japanese. To the Japanese, Sakura has an unending depth and beauty, which makes the flower a revered icon of the island nation.
There's value in understanding the connection between consumers and what they hold dear. If you understand what makes them tick, you can understand what makes them buy.
In the case of Racingtek Co. Ltd, of Taiwan, such cultural triggers serve as building blocks for product development. Michael Chen, company general manager, explained how designers within his wheel manufacturing business examine consumer trends and other market data to formulate product concepts that sell. "When you get a trend you have to understand what the customers need," he says. Chen spoke to journalists in his company's booth during the AMPA trade show at Nangang Exhibition Center in Taipei, Taiwan.
Once the company has a powerful concept, 10-20 ideas are presented to customers via sketches. The better ideas are turned into small 3-D clay prototypes that give customers a better idea what the finished product will look like. It's a lot cheaper and more efficient to use scaled down clay models to perfect the designs. It's all about fashion, says Chen, especially in the aftermarket.
Take the Sakura. Chen says his company used the flower as inspiration for a pedal-shaped wheel design that offers love and protection for the driver away from home.
In your business, what do your really know about your customers? Who are they? What gives them comfort in their daily lives? Tapping into powerful cultural clues may help you move the needle on your business.
A press release I got that I thought you'd all like to see. This is our future, ladies and gents.
Chrysler Group LLC to Develop New Fiat 500 Electric Vehicle for the United States
New Fiat 500EV demonstrates benefits of Chrysler Group and Fiat Group alliance
Zero-emission Fiat 500EV provides an environmentally friendly, clean, quiet driving experience freeing customers from escalating fuel costs and costly oil changes
Department of Energy provides up to $48 million grant toward test fleet of 140 Ram Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles
PHEV technology to improve fuel economy up to 65 percent with up to 20 mile electric-only driving range
Auburn Hills, Mich., Mar 22, 2010 -
Chrysler Group LLC today announced its plans to engineer and produce a pure electric vehicle using the Fiat 500 platform. Shown earlier this year at the 2010 North American International Auto Show, the Fiat 500EV demonstrates the immediate benefits of the alliance between Chrysler Group and the Fiat Group as well as the speed at which the two companies can work together on advanced vehicle programs.
"The alliance with Fiat presented new opportunities to merge Chrysler Group engineering knowledge with new platforms and the Fiat 500EV is an outstanding example of our efforts," said Scott Kunselman, Senior Vice President Engineering--Chrysler Group LLC. "The Fiat 500 is a small, lightweight platform perfect for integrating electric-vehicle technology."
The Fiat 500EV powertrain is comprised of three main systems; high power electric powertrain module, advance lithium ion battery, and an EV control unit to manage power flows. Beginning in 2012, Chrysler Group will manufacture the Fiat 500EV for the United States market. All powertrain engineering and vehicle development will take place at Chrysler Group headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich. Pricing will be announced closer to launch, but will be competitive with similar electric vehicles in the market.
Chrysler Group is the vehicle electrification center of competence for both Chrysler Group and Fiat Group. The company is exploring ways to promote zero-emission transportation and the development of an electric-vehicle charging infrastructure through partnerships to be announced in the future.
Last year Chrysler Group announced the company's intention to build the Fiat 500 with a combustion engine for North America. The vehicle will debut in late 2010.
Ram Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV)
Chrysler Group has been selected for a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant of up to $48 million as part of a $2.4 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act DOE Vehicle Electrification program. Chrysler Group is planning to build a total of 140 Ram PHEVs for a three-year demonstration project that includes various geographic and climatic locations across the United States.
"This initiative represents how government, automotive industry, suppliers and key partners are reaching common goals and demonstrates how rapidly this type of advanced technology can be brought to market," said Paolo Ferrero, Senior Vice President--Powertrain, Chrysler Group LLC. "DOE-support for domestic advanced technology is an important enabler for Chrysler Group and its key suppliers in order to understand and test customer acceptance and the capability of PHEV systems in a variety of real-world conditions."
The Ram PHEV features Chrysler Group's 5.7-liter HEMI V-8 with a two mode hybrid transmission and a 12KwHr lithium ion battery. The vehicle is capable of up to 20 miles of zero-emission, pure-electric range without the need for gasoline. An overall fuel economy improvement more than 65 percent is expected for average drive cycles. Chrysler Group has partnered with Electrovaya Inc. to supply the advanced lithium Ion batteries for the Ram PHEV test fleet.
The DOE grant will expedite the development of vehicle-electrification technology. More than 21 Chrysler Group partners across the U.S., including utility companies, government agencies and Universities will independently test the Ram PHEV and provide valuable data for the advancement of the technology.
In 2008, Chrysler Group announced the company's intention to bring a Ram Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) to market. After closely evaluating the response to hybrid pickups in the marketplace, the company could not formulate an appropriate business case and has decided to cancel development work on the 2011 Ram HEV.
Chrysler Group's alliance with Fiat Group brings new platforms and technologies that allow the company to create an improved long-term product strategy with greater fuel efficiency and reduced emissions. Chrysler Group's five-year plan has an uncompromising product schedule, including a progressive vehicle electrification strategy.
The market for air suspension is small, but Ford has been selling it long enough to spawn a nice little niche for aftermarket parts, tools and information. While researching the article we found several companies that sell replacement parts that may be prohibitively expensive or simply unavailable from Ford. There are also conversion kits for customers who decide to save money by having conventional springs installed rather than repair their air suspension system. Some of these replacement and conversion parts are quite well-made and have earned a good reputation in the professional aftermarket.
We also stumbled upon several Websites that display some of the Ford factory service information for air suspension. More complete information is readily available from the OEM and third-party information Websites, and on the newer 4WAS systems, the PIDs are worth the price of information access.
On the newer models, some aftermarket scan tools will display the RAS and 4WAS fault codes. After mechanical or electrical repairs, some techs have recalibrated the system without a scan tool by simply driving the vehicle and letting it recalibrate itself. But the only way to recalibrate the system after replacing a sensor or control unit is with a scan tool with full bi-directional control. Same goes for setting static ride height during wheel alignment. While the Ford NGS or IDS scan tools are the obvious choice, a search of iATN turned up a few aftermarket tools that reportedly work with most manufacturers’ air suspension control units. While it would be inappropriate to list the names here, some of the aftermarket scan tools work well on Ford systems, particularly on older models, and some definitely do not. If you’re planning to get into the air suspension business, do some serious research on tools, scan tools, repair parts and information sources.
The Automotive Service Association (ASA) is getting ready to bring in more of its members to Washington, D.C., this spring for the second year in a row.
Expanding its Capitol Hill Fly-In to include Mechanical Division members this year, the ASA is bringing the automotive aftermarket to policymakers and their staff members with the two-day event, May 11 and 12. There are a number of issues shop owners and managers will have to bring up with their lawmakers, from repair practices to air conditioning regulations to individual business practice they face in their states.
Overall, there is a lot to be gleaned from a visit to the nation’s capital. (ASA also is pairing its fly-in with an Automotive Management Institute (AMI) leadership conference, so attendees will get more than just facetime out of this.) But I can hear some of you saying now, “I just can’t leave my shop for two days.”
OK. We’ll talk about management techniques some other time. Let’s stay focused on the legislative aspect here. Getting in front of your senators and representatives (or their aides in some cases) is a good move for your business and industry. Small businesses are crumbling daily under the shaky economy. If you’re upset with the government and its treatment of businesses or if you think things are going great, say so.
You can’t complain about things if you don’t try to do something about them.
So write a letter, send an e-mail, make a phone call or attend a fly-in. Those first options don’t take much time; most organizations, including ASA and other local groups you’re a part of, will have form letters you can use. You might think it doesn’t make s difference, but if you make some noise about the way things are and what’s bothering you now, and so does the guy in the shop down the street and the one in the next town over, things will get pretty loud.
In 1961, my dad had yet to turn 30 years old when he leased a couple of buildings in Daleville and put up a sign that said “Foreign Car Garage.” A lot of the soldiers from Fort Rucker drove foreign cars and most mechanics in this area didn’t like those European rides (Japanese cars were few and far between back then). Dad had done some tinkering and had good mechanical aptitude, but he had never professionally repaired vehicles. Within two years he had built a thriving auto repair and body shop business, servicing some 28 different makes of foreign cars. He was an inspiration to me; for just two examples among many others, my dad could look at a bolt and instantly identify the size and thread pitch and he sharpened drill bits by hand on a bench grinder. I found out later that there were a lot of professional mechanics who couldn’t do that kind of thing, in spite of the fact that from my perspective all technicians should be able to. Dad fixed some cars with mysterious magical adjustments and always had something interesting to drive.
During my formative years I spent time at his shop riding around on a creeper, collecting steel balls from old wheel bearings, melting solder in shiny blobs on the greasy wood of a work bench, or sneaking the squirt can to shoot engine oil into the red-hot innards of the coal-fired pot bellied stove – I enjoyed the light show the oil created in there. Once an electrical cord shorted out when the left front wheel of a car stopped on it and the cord started spewing a plume of smoke like a dynamite fuse at the rate of about a foot a second all the way to the wall outlet. I was standing near the cord (about five years old at the time) and my dad kept shouting for me to grab the cord and unplug it!
I cherish my childhood memories of that shop, the smell and feel of grease and oil, lacquer thinner and paint, dirty hands, noisy-smelly gasoline exhaust, the thumping sound of an air compressor, the chattering or buzzing of expensive pneumatic tools, and a wall mounted Gojo hand cleaner dispenser next to the grease-splattered mirror over a permanently stained washroom sink, great tasting hamburgers from the little café next door for lunch, and all the rest of it.
In those days the most complicated electrical stuff might be power windows or turn signals, and a guy who understood engines, transmissions, and brakes could consistently earn a decent living. My dad was almost always self employed, but he never charged quite as much as he should have. After he lost the lease on his shop in Daleville (a bank bought the land and built a branch there) and he specialized on VWs, he would do a tune up on a Volkswagen bug for $7.50 labor plus parts, and there were some people who would have let him do the work for free if he would, and sometimes he did. I saw it happen!
My automotive career started as I worked with my dad, then I took a job at a local filling station pumping gas and working on cars. Dad and I were notorious speculators, buying cars that came in on the chain with blown engines, fixing them and selling them for a small profit (usually too small). Once I talked him into going halves with me on a 66 Chevy pickup somebody wanted to sell over at the filling station and we paid $145 for it. When I drove the truck to his shop, I walked through the door and said,
“Come and see my truck.”
“OUR truck,” he corrected. When we walked out to the truck he walked around it, kicked the tire, looked inside, and said, “YOU got stuck.”
I drove the truck for two weeks without laying a wrench on it and then sold it for $175 – that piece of speculation paid off.
Right out of high school I hired on with some custom harvesters (family friends from Texas) and operated a combine until the boss man yanked me out of my air conditioned cab to overhaul the engines in two of our grain trucks – seemed like everywhere I went I wound up being the resident wrench.
It was weird to me how I could disassemble and reassemble a four speed transmission and make it work, yet at that point in my career I couldn’t have explained how it worked. My automotive knowledge was like Swiss cheese – there were holes in everything I knew, holes that didn’t’ start filling in until I attended my first factory school in 1981 (paid for by a Delco parts supplier I used), and that school took place about seven years after I started wrenching for a living.
It seemed like everything started falling in place about that time and I learned a lot by reading trade magazines like Motor magazine and Motor Age. I worked at an independent shop in Enterprise for awhile and then during the oil boom years of the late seventies I moved to Southeast Texas where I worked at an offshore services company and performed fleet maintenance on cars, trucks, forklifts, pipe loaders, and even cranes. Our company had helicopters too, but after I watched the guys working on those choppers in the hangar I determined that aviation work just didn’t appeal to me.
Moving back to Alabama with a wife and children in 1983, I found myself working at the local VW dealer, which was to shape the rest of my career, and I typically worked at dealerships from then on (with the exception of a short stint at a heavy truck shop).
The largest part of my dealership experience was at Bondy’s Ford in Dothan, where I spent fifteen years, most of that time as a specialist in driveability and electronics. Automotive technology was changing at warp speed in those days and for awhile I was the only driveability technician Bondy’s Ford had. We were running 100 cars a day through the shop (25 mechanics) and I was working out 10-15 of those cars a day all by myself. I was stretching in ways I never thought possible and made a good living and a good name for myself at that dealership. Once a farmer brought his truck to Bondy’s and handed the cashier a blank check.
“My truck is skipping,” he said, “I want it fixed.”
What do you think the outcome would be if you did that at just about any car dealership today? Well, they told me about the blank check when I drew the ticket, and I wound up replacing ONE spark plug wire. I think his total bill was $20. I took a great deal of satisfaction in fixing peoples’ cars for less money than they expected to spend. Once a guy drove all over Dothan paying first one shop and then another in an attempt to get his van straightened out – by the time he finally limped through the gate at Bondy’s, he had spent a total of $725 at the other shops. While he watched, I removed the engine cover, found a wire harness scratching on a bracket, did a simple repair, and charged him $25. He was stunned at how quick and easy it had been to fix after all the other shops threw first one part and then another at it, charged him a lot of money, and sent him on his way.
In May of 2000, through a peculiar chain of events, I got my first opportunity to write for Motor Age magazine, and when I submitted my job application to MacArthur State Technical College 6 months later I was able to include some of my published Motor Age articles along with my application; subsequently, I changed careers in January 2001, and for the past 9 years I have been an automotive instructor. Since May of 2000 I have had an average of 8 technical articles a year published, most of them in Motor Age, but I have also written for other trade magazines and have traveled on my own time, teaching electronic diesel classes to professional technicians on several occasions, mostly in Houston and Fort Worth, but one of my most interesting training sessions was done in El Paso at the Border Patrol station. I maintain a website called www.askamechanic.info where I answer questions (to the best of my ability) from vehicle owners in distress at no charge.
So, what’s my perspective on automotive service? Let’s see, where to start….
One Sunday morning in 1984 a local farmer knocked on my door at about 6 a.m. It seemed that his irrigation engine hadn’t been started all winter long, and he was wondering if I could go and help him get it going. He had purchased the parts, and I agreed to do the job. He and I rode down to his pond on his little blue Ford Courier pickup truck, waded through knee high grass, chased the wasps away, and I screwed a new set of spark plugs in, replaced the points and condenser in the distributor, then had to connect the batteries in series to get enough voltage to spin the engine fast enough so it would start. I set the ignition timing by ear (learned that from my dad), and when the job was done and the newly planted peanuts were receiving a generous spray of water, he drove me back home.
“How much do I owe you?” he asked.
“About twenty dollars,” I replied. He dug a twenty out of his wallet with a pained expression on his face and handed me a $20 bill. I dropped it in the offering plate that morning, primarily because I was feeling a little guilty at having earned the money on Sunday.
A few days later I saw his little blue Courier sitting beside the road with the hood up, and him tinkering with it. I pulled my pickup over to the side of the road and asked what was going on.
“I don’t need any help,” he tried to wave me off, “I’ll get it figured out.”
“Hogwash,” I told him. He had no idea what he was doing and we both knew it. I repaired a poor connection at the ignition switch and fired the truck up. He gave an exasperated sigh, reaching for his wallet.
“How much I owe ya?”
“When I stop and help you, it’s free,” I told him. “But when you knock on my door at six on Sunday morning you’ll pay me. Did I charge you too much for working on that irrigation engine?”
“Well, you charged me enough!” He snorted. This guy had enough money in the bank to buy my house and give it away and never miss what it cost, but he felt like he got cheated if because he paid me 20 bucks for a couple hours of my time.
During a short period of time when I was operating my dad’s little shop (dad was in Tennessee for a few months learning about sawmills) the interim pastor of our church dropped by and asked if I would replace the brake shoes on his 78 Buick. I told him to bring it by the following Wednesday afternoon and charged him $25 to replace the shoes. He kept asking me if I was making any money and finally I told him that I paid $7 for the shoes and I was charging him $9 for the shoes and $16 labor. I could tell by the look on his face that my rundown of the price made him angry. He never asked me to work on his car again. Go figure.
Another guy stopped by the house one evening and asked me if I could put some refrigerant in his air conditioner. When I was done, he smiled really big at me and drove away without offering to pay me a dime. And I can’t count the hours I’ve worked on my brother’s car without any offer of compensation.
One of my most persistent personal experiences has been that there are a fair number of people who believe that the mechanics they know should be willing to work on their vehicle for free. And they don’t feel guilty for expecting it, even if he works for hours and hours fixing their car. From their point of view, he should be willing to help them out because he loves what he does.
What’s surprising is how often a mechanic who works on commission at a regular shop is expected to do work literally for free – I’ve been there too. There are a lot of hours we have to put into troubleshooting vehicles that have irritating intermittent problems. A mechanic can spend several hours trying to duplicate a concern that may or may not happen - the customer can’t be charged for those hours so the employer won’t pay for them either, and the mechanic gets burned. If he makes some kind of repair as an educated guess and turns out to be wrong, he’s “married to the car” and loses even more time trying to make things right. Those hours are unrecoverable and represent a LOT of work the average technician (if he’s a troubleshooter) has to spend working for nothing except a smile and a pat on the back for trying. Meanwhile, the bills are piling up at home and groceries still have to be bought. And buying groceries is, at its root, what working is all about.
Thanks Dad: Remembering The 3 R’s Of Business
So by now I hope you’ve had some time to think about our first R discussed in the last blog entry.
For those of you just joining in, my father had a unique and often quirky way of conveying his take on the collision repair industry. He would often pay homage to Jethro from the television series The Beverly Hillbilly’s, and remind the shop staff to focus on the 3 R’s of business: Relationships, Reputation and Repetition.
Let’s talk a little about Reputation.
To begin with, the quality of your work has nothing to do with your reputation. This is the hardest part for most repairers to get past in this discussion. We are proud craftsman and we believe in our work. For us, collision repair is not what we do, but who we are. However, let’s be honest we can all think of a shop that does not have the best quality of work, but has a good reputation in your town or with an insurance partner in your market. It drives you crazy right? How are they continuing to keep a good reputation and deliver that work?
So how do you build a reputation in your market?
The secret is: Your reputation is how your customers “Feel” about you not what they “think” about you. Your job is to give them as many opportunities as possible to feel great about not what you do, but who you are. When I work with a shop I ask them to complete a whiteboard exercise about their reputation: 1.) What are you “known” for? 2.) What makes you different? When that is complete, I always then erase everything that corresponds to repairing the car. For example: we have certified techs, we have top of the line equipment. The truth is every customer assumes that you have all this and should have all of this. Is there anything left on your board?
If not then let’s get to work! Collision repair is a business that touches customers during what many would count as their “worst day”. When they are choosing who to trust or assist them with this worst day, they want to lean on someone they feel they already have a relationship with. This has commonly been what we called “repeat business”. Seems simple right? When you have a bad day who do you call? But if you’ve never had an accident before or your last experience was bad, who will you choose now? It is at this time the customer is most open to suggestion or persuasion of which shop to use.
There are a number of ways to build your reputation in a community. You can sponsor sports teams, host a neighborhood clean-up, build a small playground for children or get involved with the Humane Society. One shop we know of participates in a program that is like a pet adoption underground railroad. In each of these examples you are buying into the upkeep and well being of your community. I also encourage you to set down with your employees and ask them what they are already involved in. Then find ways to empower those employees to use those outlets as brand and reputation building blocks for your business.
You must remember to find ways to tie these activities into your business and then promote them. Here is short example integrating your website, Facebook and Twitter.
Your business has selected a neighborhood park in need of repair, paint and new equipment.
Do you have technicians that can take traditional car parts and turn them into art? Can you make a park bench from an old front/rear end or steel bumpers?
Choose the equipment you want to purchase and pick two to three different models within the budget you have.
Now add a page to your website and name the project, be catchy you need people to pass it on. Add the photos of the equipment that is up for vote (there are free survey services you can place on your site) and the date you plan to overall the park. Be sure and look at a local calendar of events and pick a date that does not conflict with other special events.
Now go to Facebook and Twitter and start promoting! Ask the fans and followers of your pages to come and vote on the equipment (on your site). Give them a space to sign up as a volunteer for that day. Now go out and meet with some of the insurance agents in your market ask them to help. Visit the local rental car agency and be sure to hit up those part suppliers your spending money with on a daily basis. You not only want their help on the overhaul day, you may want them to contribute to the budget. One important point to remember here, points back to the first blog on relationships. Your not visiting agents asking them for referrals or dropping off material on your shop, just like every other shop in your area. You're there offering them a chance to help better the community in which their policyholders live. You're building a relationship by adding value point different then any other shop.
Be sure to encourage your fans to re-tweet and share on Facebook. Ask the partners you select to also promote the project on their social media accounts. Then you need to Tweet and update Facebook on a regular basis. In addition, you need to interact with others on their pages and twitter accounts.
Once you’ve got the flow going, it’s time to hit the media. Getting radio and TV to cover your events is not a mystery. You need to give them a good story and you need to give them time to plan. Contrary to what you may think, news reporters are great at reporting news, not inventing it. They are in the business of post event after the story has happened. You have to be in the business of creating and selling events to news directors. I recommend a media release about 3 weeks before the event and then a few follow-up calls as the event progresses. During those calls add nuggets of “latest developments” give them a feeling that the event is progressing and growing grassroots following.
Here’s your story line:
neighborhood commitment- improving the lives of children and families- uniting a community for a cause- and donating unique “art” (that park bench) to the project.
Now, rewrite your whiteboard exercise...What are you known for?
I'm writing the start of this blog in the parking lot of our closed family collision repair business. While it’s been over 10 years since the sell of the property, I still find myself here from time to time to gather my thoughts. At the time of the closure I was unsure of the reasons for our “loss”, and too young to take over. As all children do, I idolize my parents for the business they created and the principles on which they ran that business daily. A few years, later we would learn that the slips in the business were the foreshadowing of our current family foe, Alzheimer’s.
Now as I build my own brand, I wish I could turn back the clock and remember all of the lessons my father had to share. More then anything I wish he could share in this venture with me. This year one of his sayings keeps coming to the forefront of conversations. In a humorous play on Jethro from the television series The Beverly Hillbilly’s, Dad would always remind the shop staff to focus on the 3 R’s of business: Relationships, Reputation and Repetition.
Though time and technology has changed the delivery and application methods, these basic principles are still the foundation of a great business.
For time sake, we’ll segment this into three postings trying to provide as much detail as possible.
Relationships
It’s critical that you understand the importance of building relationships for business, but it’s more important that you understand the best ways to do this.
Famous Amos, the cookie man, said, “Picture everyone with M.M.F.S. on their forehead…. it stands for: Make Me Feel Special.” That in a nutshell, is the business mantra for 2010. Relationships in business are NOT about you, your company, your product, your quality of work or certifications on your wall; it’s about them.
The principle of relationships applies to all areas of your business, not just customer service. As the business climate and social expectations of business change even successful advertising campaigns have become relationship invitations.
Let’s think of relationship management as a bank account. What is your balance? Each time you show interest in others over yourself, you make a deposit in that account. As those deposits build they have the potential to accrue interest and gain value. Simple economic principle, so why do so many business owners get this wrong?
Deposits must be beyond your interest, meaning how they relate to your business. Everyone is important and you need to cultivate every relationship you can. I’ve seen many associates discount some individuals because they were not perceived to have a business connection to their company or be high-ranking enough. The problem is, you never know whom those people are friends with and how it will impact you over time. The best example of this: I had just been hired in the insurance industry and was sent to home office for claim school. Each day the company bus picked us up from the hotel to take us to class and carried us back each evening. Our bus driver was a young female that a few of the gentleman in class decided they would place some unwanted attention with. What did it matter; she was just a bus driver? Turned out that bus driver was the daughter of a company executive working a summer job. That afternoon there were three empty seats in my class and three new openings on the job board. The message for our class was, we insure bus drivers how you treat everyone is how you treat a customer. Invest in everyone you meet from the gas station to the cab driver, you never know.
So let’s say you meet a business customer at a networking event. When you greet the person what do you say? Good deposits show interest and importance of the other person. This means you need to train yourself to remember details about the people you meet and follow up. I keep a networking journal from every event I have attended. It allows me to keep track of the information that people share. For example, if during NACE a business contact shares that they have a baby due in March, I make a note. At the end of March I would send a short e-mail following up about the birth. At the next meeting when I see this contact, my first communication with them would be about the child and asking for some coveted baby pictures. That is three solid deposits in my bank account with that business contact. You need to establish a system of tracking your contacts by company and by segment of the industry. It also needs to allow you to make some notes and follow-up reminders. This can be done with most PC contact applications or the old fashion way of index cards and a daily planner. Regardless of what system you choose, use it!
The big take-away here is that business relationships have nothing to do with your business. They are about how you relate to others. Do you know someone that always talks about how much they know, how important they are to the industry and how lucky you are to know them. Do you want to do business with this person? If they were in trouble, would you help? Are you this person?
Remember the old adage “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” If you don’t make deposits, but continue to withdraw funds, you’ll overdraw your account and drain your business of vital relationships.
# Networking Tip- Law of Three. When you meet someone ask three questions about him or her before you discuss yourself.
I know several people in our industry that are brilliant, but due to poor relationship management skills, they never open accounts and often close the bank. The flaw here is some people approach meeting others as a finite window in which to share their message. I have watched as people launch into their “elevator” speech only to see that person throw their card away as soon as the conversation ended. Worse yet, I’ve watched as individuals have approached leaders within corporations to tell them everything they feel is wrong with their company. In these cases your account with this person will always be closed, as this self centered impression is what they will filter future interactions with you through. If you have an elevator speech, throw it away. It is preventing you from interacting with people on a real level. When you meet someone, you are most likely looking for a chance to deliver that speech, instead of listening to others. If your waiting for your opening, your not building relationships.
Focus on depth and quality of your relationships to build a strong network over time. Networking is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s not enough that people are aware of you; they need to have some level of familiarity and interaction so that you actually have a connection with them.
You’ll know that your network is becoming valuable when you hear someone say, “I was just talking about you.” That small statement means you are in the forefront of your colleagues and customers thoughts. And after all that is what any business wants to be, a customers first thought.
Does Your Printed Collateral Feature Social?
If you’ve successfully integrated a social strategy with regular business practices than you get a shiny gold star. By now I am sure you have noticed that it is a full time job to manage a clean social footprint despite what some of the web’s leading blogs say. Whether you are managing and organizing the brand for yourself or a business (of any size), it is important to include this social aspect of your branding into all that you do, online and off.
The first step to social brand consistency is to take charge of the campaign and be sure that you and your team fully embrace its value to your business model. After that, begin to discuss integrating it into any and all places that a customer may have an interaction with your business. This includes, but is not limited to phone ‘on hold’ recordings, websites, newsletters, advertising and printed collateral such as brochures, business cards and promotional components. I highly recommend charting out the areas that customers may interact with you or your company on paper first and then find the best strategy for implementation.
Since this article is focused on your printed collateral we will skip the second half of the above illustration and safely assume that you’ve already started to integrate your social channels into online campaigning.
Think of social branding as if you were to change your corporate logo. You would first make sure it is immediately integrated – this process would also apply to the marriage between your social campaign and everything that you do. It is ideal to build your social footprint around your company name (ex: ‘joshua hays’) so that you can avoid taking up valuable printed real estate with lengthy URLs. Instead, replace them with the social channel icons (find these via Google) you’ve chosen and a simple statement such as ’search: joshua hays’. Most of the major networks offer a search function and if someone were to search for your company name via the individual networks, it should be first in the results and will be if that is what it is that you are branding.
There is a growing anti-print movement and while I am a tech/social enthusiast, I understand the continued need for printed media. Most of the ‘leaders’ in this online movement have never had to sit across from a client and try to sell them a real product without some sort of printed aide. Most would argue that they could simply use their laptop but unless you’ve ever been in the heat of a sale, you wouldn’t understand the difficultly of that statement. It’s all in the moment and sometimes the client needs something to touch and feel. Branding your social campaign on that printed collateral I am referring to is a bit more tricky than with online collateral, you only have so much room on the item and so much time to capture someone's attention.
Unless you are selling social, it shouldn’t be the primary focus of whatever it is you are printing it on. Create a space that is small enough to work on anything, including business cards – the smaller of your printed material.
If you can properly execute all of this and anywhere a customer may make contact with your organization (that also means online), than you are in great shape! It is important to treat social branding seriously. Not only does it add credibility to your organization, it provides channels for your clients to communicate with you using other methods other than just calling you to place an order. Why is this important? With the dramatic shift and recent addition of social media to big business, it is becoming increasingly critical that you aren’t the one left out in the cold. Most importantly, you should want to provide better methods for reaching out and connecting with your customers – the personal interaction can bring great value to whatever product or service you may be pedaling.
Follow some simple steps to get started, integrate it into your online campaigning and slowly move it to your printed collateral. It is important that you see the bigger picture and that just because those networks exist online, it doesn’t mean they should be kept from paper.
Joshua Hays is an aggressive marketing consultant for autoshopanswers Joshua Hays can be reached by visiting www.joshuahays.com.
E-mail marketing may no longer be the new, fresh marketing tool in the automotive marketplace, but it still offers a great return of investment for a small cost in comparison to other marketing tools. The key is to make the marketing avenue work for your, which is what Michael Kelly (shown right), director of business development for ClickMail Marketing, focused on during his SEMA seminar this week.
Kelly has been active in the permission-based e-mail industry for about 12 years, and he has been the speaker at numerous ESP User Conferences around the U.S. ClickMail has actually been a vendor/partner with SEMA for the last three years. ClickMail is also a Gold Sponsor of the Email Marketing Council (EEC), charter sponsor of the DMSnc and on faculty with the ASM (Association of Strategic Marketing).
Kelly describes e-mail has a marketing property that’s still hot, and that it and social networking are two most popular mobile Internet activities. In fact, Kelly notes that integrating e-mail with multiple channels (such as social media) will increase your marketing impact tenfold. Social media can help improve delivery penetration on newsletter because it requires user engagement and therefore provides an incentive for a customer to open your e-mail.
Kelly notes that the top challenges to e-mail success are insufficient budgets and attention, deliverability issues to your customers, increasingly more crowded inboxes, delivering a relevant message to your customers and the increase in Spam hurting people’s trust in e-mail. Kelly says there are two main requisites for online marketing with e-mail: making it to the inbox, and do the “right things” once your message is there.
Authentification important as it helps to authorize your message to customers (more information can be found at DNSreport.com), and there are even ways to check your company’s “sending reputation,” and though it is difficult to do it can be repaired. Two free tools Kelly suggested for checking reputation can be found at senderbase.org and senderscore.org.
Kelly went on to note the key attributes that every e-mail should have, which includes a discernable “from” address so readers know who is sending it, a clear and compelling subject line, personalization to connect with you customers and a message with a hook to draw them in. It can offers newsletter receivers special access, educate them, entertain them and provide them something they couldn’t get elsewhere. The two biggest attributes for e-mails that get opened are subject lines and the “from” field Kelly notes. Kelly also noted the 40/40/20 Rule, saying that for any campaign 40 percent of the success will be from the message, 40 percent depends on the audience, and 20 percent will from the creative look and feel of your e-mails.
The idea with e-mail marketing is to have a clear focus, a message that will reach readers, and a clear indicator it’s form a reliable source. “Deliverability is still a concern,” Kelly said. “Relevance is the answer to that problem.” Conditional discounts and coupon are ways to re-engage your customers and keep them coming back.
I am the president of a consultancy aptly named Autobody Consulting Group - we like to just say ACG though, it fits easier on a business card.
ACG specializes in servicing the auto body repair industry with process management, advanced production practices, social media integration, and in implementing local marketing action plans.
As a consultant to the auto body repair industry (bodyshops), I have 20+ years of real-world experience in helping businesses make more money with the same volume of work they already have, increase productivity through efficiency changes, gain more local and business-partner market share, and create a replicable customer experience your competition will envy.
My perspectives and experience are such that I have appeared in or have had articles published in every major collision and insurance trade publication; like - ABRN, BodyShop Business, Claims, Collision Hub, Damage Report, FenderBender, National Underwriter, and Parts & People.
Having also consulted for such a diverse clientele such as information providers, modest to multi-million dollar auto body repair facilities, insurance companies, trade associations, small businesses, post repair inspection companies, independent franchised collision repair businesses, and autobody franchise companies, I have a solid understanding of what works - what doesn't - and how to make what needs to work – work for your business.
There are a few other companies under the ACG umbrella too, like the internationally recognized vertical market search engine- CollisionVision.com, the Autobody Bookstore, and AutobodyAdvocate.com.
Lately I have been blogging here at Auto Body Repair News (ABRN), and at Collision Hub. I also run my own blog, and frequently tweet too (of course I do - who doesn't tweet).
I am passionate about helping people find their potential and reach their goals.
Call or E-mail me to find out what I could do for you. . .
Im a body tech that has been in the business for almost twenty yrs. i went to wyoming tech and got an associates degree in bussiness. after school i started my journey in the career i thought i would retire doing. its now almost 2010 and i find myself out of work again due to the shop having to close its doors. i havent found too many shops that promise retirement let alone health benifits that are affordible. ive worked for some big shops and dealerships as well as the small mom and pop shops. for one reason or another i found myself working with the same bunch of guys in the area through different shops and meeting up again in another. the economy is hurting everyone and everybody is looking to cut cost and get by with a minimum number of techs. i pride myself on striving to make the next job better than the one before only to be told that things are tight and work isnt coming in the door. this is very discourageing knowing that when i started there was a shop on every corner looking to hire me because there was so much work and they were in dire need of a good tech.two of the shops i stayed in were almost 6 yrs each. both of witch are now closed. most recently this last shop i was in was only four years before he had to close the doors. in my job search today there is nobody looking to hire right now. exspecilly somone with the experiance i have. they just need a lacky. is because i have all the experiance to rebuild a car start to finish my down fall in this bussiness? is the economy this hurt that everyone geting into an accident needs to take the money and run? how can i find the shop that is going to keep in bussiness long enough to bring me to retirement? or is this truly the end and now my passion for rebuilding cars has become my weekend hobby?
