Shop owners share success tips at NAPA Expo 2015

May 6, 2015
Shop owners were able to learn from their own, as their peers shared real-world success stories from within their own four walls during the NAPA Expo 2015 in Las Vegas.

LAS VEGAS — Shop owners were able to learn from their own, as their peers shared real-world success stories from within their own four walls during the NAPA Expo 2015 in Las Vegas.

The expo, May 5-8, welcomed 18,000 attendees from around the world. Shop owners from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Mexico attended the event — last hosted in 2005 — said Paul Donahue, president of Genuine Parts Company, NAPA’s parent company.

Paul Donahue
Adam Ferrara

“Many can trace their NAPA roots back to their fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers. And what you and your teams do for us every day it is what makes us NAPA,” Donahue said to attendees at the general session on May 6. “We thank all of you for your business and for the support you give to NAPA.”

Donahue praised NAPA shops and partners for their dedication to the brand and also highlighted NAPA’s motorsports partnerships. Hendrick Motorsports announced NAPA will sponsor Chase Elliott and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chevrolet for three years, starting in 2016 when Elliott replaces Jeff Gordon. Elliott, Gordon, Tony Stewart and others will make guest appearances during the event.

Adam Ferrara of Top Gear, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Rescue Me and Nurse Jackie, hosted the event, and kicked it off by talking with shop owners about their technology and sales and marketing efforts.

Brian Bates

Shop of tomorrow
Brian Bates with Eagle Automotive Services in Littleton, Colo., shared his experiences in implementing new shop and vehicle technology into his daily business. bringing digital inspections into his shop.

“It’s still about focusing on the customer. We need to focus on what our customers need individually to take care of them,” said Bates of his company’s philosophy.

Ten years ago, Eagle Automotive Services was a huge proponent of paper inspections, but the process was riddled with pitfalls.

“It made the sales process an uphill battle for our service advisors. This digital inspection that NAPA has included in the Auto Care subscription solves a multitude of issues. We know what the tech is recommending, and it includes photos so the customer can talk to the service advisor and see exactly what is going on.,” Bates said. “We moved to the next level and integrated our inspections with the shop management system. So our techs have the history of the vehicle in front of them when doing the inspection so they can truly take care of the customer without embarrassing mishaps or missing out on opportunities.”

Being prepared and trained to address ever-changing vehicle technology is another challenge Bates said he tackled, with the help of NAPA.

“We partnered with the NAPA leadership team and business development group to set up a training schedule that met our needs, and they really delivered. The program blends sales and technical training to bridge the gap among the technician, service advisor and customer so the customer can fully understand what is needed,” Bates said.

Sales and marketing 
Other NAPA shop owners from Missouri discussed the importance of a comfortable waiting room, complete with phone charges and a clean and relaxing feel.

They offer interest-free payment plans to provide more flexibility for their customers. They also understand the importance of communicating to their millennial customers. “We offer constant updates for customers — we share the good, better and best options, and communicate with them via text and email,” Ron said.

Lee Weatherby

Profit and productivity
The most important thing to focus on when looking to improve profits is the labor margin, said Lee Weatherby of Accurate Automotive in Phoenix, Ariz. “You’ve got to make sure you are making the most of it. You can never devalue it. A lot of us have a tendency to give things away. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. And you can’t measure what you are giving away,” he says.

Technology is also vital in Weatherby’s business because it helps improve efficiency, which allows more time to focus on the customer.

“We need to be fixated on customers and build the relationship at all costs. We are building families, relationships with our customers and our people, and we should be exposing them to all the things we are doing, such as electronic inspection reports. The customer loves the convenience of getting a report at the click of a button. And the digital display boards in the shop  — the customer can be updated right away; it is a silent salesman if you will,” he said.

Weatherby said his shop also uses NAPATracks as its shop management system, which offers ease of ordering and customer reports that help his technicians to better interact and engage with them.

“In our business we really only need two things — customers and cars. With no customers, we are extinct. So it is imperative to focus on them,” he said.

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