Shop Management/Marketing Archives - Page 13 of 29 - Transmission Digest
If You Don’t Tell Lies, You Can’t Get Caught in One

Upon arrival I noticed that all three service advisers were on the telephone. There were no other customers waiting at the counter. I could overhear their phone conversations and it didn’t sound to me like any of them were talking with customers about their vehicles, yet not one of them bothered to greet me or cut their conversations short. Standing there that way for what seemed like an eternity made me feel very out of place, but I wrote it off. After all, I’m new to the area. Maybe that’s the way they do things here.

There’s No Excuse

Great people throughout history have chalked up numerous failures before succeeding at whatever their chosen profession or goal. Is it OK to fail? Sure it is, and sometimes often and quite miserably, before finally reaching your ultimate triumphs. Business owners don’t always make it on the first try or the second or third for that matter. Inventors often try and fail hundreds of times before finding a solution. Did you know that the famous artist Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime, all the rest sold after he died, but that never stopped him from painting? Henry Ford went bankrupt five times. Albert Einstein was expelled from school for being a terrible student. Winston Churchill lost every election in which he ran until he became prime minister at age 62.

‘Bossypants’: The Art of Creatively Hiding Business Insight

At first glance, it looks like a regular ol’ memoir about a working-class person hustling her way to success in entertainment. Kind of like a Drake song with better prose. And, yeah, that’s the gist of “Bossypants,” but it’s a lot more than that. It’s about overcoming insecurity and kicking a$s in the male-dominated comedy business, all while dishing out some hard truth on leadership, growing a career, and work-life balance.

Keeping Up with Change

I come from a time in this industry when building a transmission was a simple thing. Of course we didn’t know it then. The problems we faced looked just as big to us way back when as the ones you now face. We were dealing with hydraulic pressure and vacuum with just the slightest bit of electricity thrown in, but even then, that kickdown solenoid that didn’t work could have us scratching our heads for quite a while. Today you have lots of solenoids, sensors, and one or several computers to deal with, and if you’re a rebuilder or a troubleshooter you’d better know how they all work and what to do when they don’t or your shop will lose an awful lot of money.

Where Did All the Good Customers Go?

Every 3,000 miles, I get to make a decision – where to take my car in for an oil change. Typically, I take it to my usual place, so it’s kind of a non-decision. But on my most recent visit, their customer service was particularly terrible.

Monologue vs. Dialogue

A two-way conversation in which both parties are giving and receiving information is a dialogue, and it’s what is needed to make successful sales. You may be the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to mechanical skills. You might even be great at handling customer situations and problems after the sale, but if you can’t have a successful dialogue with a potential customer over the phone or when they pay a visit to your shop, those wonderful attributes won’t mean a thing because you won’t be making profitable sales.

Bless Their Hearts: Selling the Diagnosis

Words are all we have, but the right words can be a very effective weapon. Look at it this way. If we cannot sell a free diagnosis on the phone, we are not going to sell a transmission repair. Your best bet is to position yourself as the friendly guy at an honest shop that has a free diagnosis that saves the customer $200 off the dealership price for a diagnosis. You won’t get them all, but statistics show that your chances of getting a sale are better than those of the shops giving lowball prices over the phone. It is a percentage bet. So, for you managers out there who think you have a better solution, I just have to say to you, “Good luck with that and bless your heart.”

The Best Choice for Whom?

I think it’s a safe assumption that I’m not the only customer who wants options, whether in terms of buying a new product or a solution to a problem. As a customer, you want to feel you have some say and/or power, a choice in how your business could be handled.

The Straw that Broke the Camel’s Back

Unless you’re a one-man or -woman business, there are multiple people, touchpoints and experiences that connect your customers to your business. Any single mistake – which may not seem like that big of a deal at first – could just be the straw that breaks that customer’s back and sends that person running to your competition.

Price Negotiation – Steer Clear of It

Negotiating price on a repair job you’ve already quoted is never a good idea. It will always leave you with a lower figure than what you started from. After all, you can never go up, only down. So if you had priced a job to make the least amount of profit you could live with (as many shops do) and the customer gets you to drop your price, you’ll have made nothing or maybe even lost money. As we know, it also sends the message that you’re easy to undercut. Customers put that in their memory banks and will use it against you whenever possible in the future, so it’s a bad trend to start.

Don’t mess with the builders’ paycheck

Have you ever noticed that no matter how well you plan, there is always something that goes wrong and blows up your plan that you did not see coming? I hate that when it happens. Let me tell you what just happened to me. It might help me blow off a little steam. On Friday, I had my first shop-owner sign up for the new Wholesale Club at my website. He signed up both of his shops. I was pretty excited because this launch had been a long time coming.

Alphabet Soup and Employee Engagement

In short, engaged employees give a damn about your company. They’re not working just for a paycheck; they’re working because they’re connected to your company’s values, committed to its goals, and feel responsible for its successes or failures. Not only are they valuable as employees, they’re valuable as recruiters, salesmen, and marketers.