Joe Sevart has been around the automotive industry since the mid-1970s when his father purchased a gas station he now operates as a full-service repair shop. But just this year, Sevart has been recognized by his peers with one of the biggest awards for today’s technicians.
Sevart, owner of I-70 Auto Service in Kansas City, is the 2014 NAPA/ASE Technician of the Year. He recently spoke with Motor Age about his shop and the award.
MA: What does being named NAPA/ASE Tech of the Year mean to you?
JS: It’s the biggest honor that I’ve ever received. It’s pretty awesome to know that I am considered in a group of the best of the best. Personally, it just get much better than that as far as a career. I was just pretty much totally shocked when Dan Askey that gave me a call and informed me that I was selected by the committee. It was something that I was very aware of and it’s pretty amazing. I’ve been so busy that I really haven’t absorbed it, and we’re not even into the month when I really take that position. It’s the biggest honor that I’ve ever received. Being a national wrestling champion, it’s pretty awesome to be considered by my peers to be one of the best of the best in the country.”
MA: Tell me a little about your shop. What types of service do you perform?
JS: “My father purchased a three-bay service station back in 1976, actually Dec. 16, 1976. We added onto that in the early ’80s, about 1980, ’81. We added on a 40-by-50 metal building that connects to the old gas station. We removed our pumps in 1999 and went strictly automotive repair. We do all types of general car repair as far as your oil change, tire repair, up to today I’ve got a computer to program, we’ve got all kinds of drivability vehicles in here. We specialize in drivability, but we do everything. We do a lot of fleet work. I would say total, probably close to 50 percent of everything we do is fleet related. And I’m going from a two-car fleet up to a 35-car or truck fleet. We do medium duty fleets. We do diesel work. We are just kind of working into the hybrid stuff. We have a few customers with hybrids. All we’ve really had to do so far is just service them, just maintenance work.”
MA: What is something most people might be surprised to learn about your shop or your employees?
“One of the things at our shop is a lot of our customer base is from outside the normal three-mile radius. I’d say our average customer is outside a five-mile radius from our shop. We have many customers that come in 20 miles-plus. We do a lot of marketing. We’re leading our community of Kansas City in the marketing (area). That really helps us. What I’ve found are the Google reviews are king. When we talk to our customers when they come in, that’s where a lot of them are finding us. Then it’s our job to wow them and keep them coming back. We tend to do a good job of that.”
“We’re located not too far from Arrowhead Stadium. We’re about a mile and a half from where the Chiefs and the Royals play, so we’re down in the city. We do get a lot of traffic by; we’re just off of I-70, probably about two blocks south.”
JS: My service advisor is my nephew. He was a Division III national wrestling champ. So not very many people have one of them working for them. Mine was at a different level than Tyler’s. His was collegiate, and mine was AAU.”
MA: What are some lessons you try to instill in your employees to make them better advisors or technicians?
JS: “Training. We’re real big into training and always have been. I myself take as much training both technical, service advisor training, technician training, management training. I’m part of an R.L.O. Training Bottom Line 20 Group, which has been a huge impact to my business and my employees. I’ve learned a lot from hanging around a lot of good, smart business owners. Putting yourself in that position really helps out a bunch. More than anything is the training awe stay in and I really preach to my staff that it’s all about the customers. We have to go out of our way to wow them every day. The little things count. My 20 Group was in here last week and the small things you do, the really nice, clean bathrooms, the beverage center, the coffees, the teas, all of those little things, they look at that. You do have to fix their car right and you need to do it in a timely fashion and you need to do it for a fair price. We do pick up and delivery; we’ve already delivered three customers today. We’ll pick up a car that’s 20 miles away for an oil change. It’s just something that we do different than most other shops. It’s all about the customers.”
MA: How did you become involved in the automotive industry and start your own shop?
JS: “I didn’t have any choice. I was 14 years old when my dad opened the doors. I came down on the weekends. Back then you had to be open seven days a week because we were pumping gas. Saturdays and Sundays he drug me down here and taught me how to pump gas. That’s where we got service-oriented. … That’s where my dad really taught me the customer service part of that. When I turned 16, he bought me a car and said, ‘When you get out of school at 2:20, you’re to be down here at 3.’ We would work from 3 to 7, go home and do my homework and do that five days a week and then on the weekends. He didn’t pay me much, but it didn’t matter because I was always working and didn’t have time to spend it.”
“Then about 1983 is when I started running the business pretty much 100 percent. My dad was still kind of around at that time, but he would just run errands and come and go. He didn’t really take care of any day-to-day kind of job down at the shop.”
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