Shop Insight: The confidence of being ?branded for life?

Jan. 1, 2020
If you really want to know why some shop owners are as cranky as they are perhaps I can help shed some light on the subject. You see I am one. In many cases, they are cranky because they are no longer able to do that which brought them into the indus

If you really want to know why some shop owners are as cranky as they are perhaps I can help shed some light on the subject. You see I am one. 

In many cases, they are cranky because they are no longer able to do that which brought them into the industry in the first place, and that is to work on cars and trucks. Responsibilities on the front counter just won’t allow it. It’s almost as if there is a hidden camera in the office that alerts someone, somewhere to call just as you are ready to go to work. That’s why most of us have just about given up unless it means working on our own vehicles, or a “project car,” and then it’s generally after hours or on a weekend.

In this case, it was a project car: my 1981 Corvette. What started as a simple resurrection has become a major restoration. A few Saturdays ago I found myself here at the shop intent on completely rebuilding the front end. I had even ordered all the parts from one of our local suppliers and had everything I thought I would need right here waiting for me in a big brown bag. That was until I opened the bag…the colors at the bottom of the bag were all wrong!

In my haste I forgot this supplier had changed lines a number of months ago and the reason the boxes in the bag were the wrong color was because they were the wrong boxes! 

It was an interesting turn of events. It was Saturday and not everyone is open on Saturday. Hesitating could cost me precious time. Ordering ball joints, bushings, springs and tie rod ends and then waiting for them to appear could cost me even more than if I failed to complete the work I started because it would leave a rack crippled with my car on it, something I wasn’t sure I could live with. Service Bay Productivity is hard enough to come by in an independent repair shop without cutting your capacity by one bay. But, the parts that were here and ready to be installed weren’t the “right parts,” at least they weren’t right for me.

That may sound foolish or naive to you, but it proved a real crisis of confidence for me. I grew up with the other parts. And 30-plus years of brand reinforcement and the confidence and comfort that comes from dealing with a company whose products do what they are supposed to do is hard to ignore or overcome. I took a deep breath, bit my lower lip and picked up the phone. I called another supplier and ordered the “right” parts, the parts I was comfortable with, and that is something worthy of more than a footnote in the distribution industry “Book of Why.”

Brands are important, more important than many of you might think. So is positioning. They may be even more important in today’s economy. In a crisis, especially a crisis of confidence, people will revert to what they know — the comfortable and the familiar. On our side of the parts counter, comfortable and familiar mean the brands we grew up with.

You see, everyone who does what I do knows they can’t afford to put the wrong parts on a customer’s car. No one wants to worry about it either. That means defaulting to a known good commodity rather than experimenting, and defaulting to a known good commodity means brands and brand loyalty.

I guess what I am really saying is that while I may not know why my supplier changed brands, I know why I didn’t, or wouldn’t or couldn’t. Whether by choice or by chance, I’ve been branded by more than 30 years of experience and that may be something to think about, because 30 years of imprinting and experience can make it harder to change brands than suppliers.

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