Last year, Dave’s Car Care was able to proudly announce they received the Better Business Bureau’s International Torch Award for Ethics. As one of only four companies—in ANY business, mind you — to receive this honor in 2015, how did this Glendale, Ariz. shop achieve this honor? Owner Dave Denmon hit the books.
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At a Glance: Dave's Car Care |
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Glendale, Ariz. Location |
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Dave Denmon Owner |
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1 No. of shops |
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6,000 Total square footage |
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12 No. of bays |
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35 Years in business |
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87 No. of vehicles per week |
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$450 Average repair ticket |
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www.davescarcareaz.com Website |
First there was In Search of Excellence, or rather its co-author, Tom Peters. “I was mesmerized by that man back in the late ’80s, early ‘90s,” laughs Denmon. “If you saw him speak, he’d get up on the table and jump up and down screaming, ‘Image is everything!’ and ‘A man who can manage technology will manage success!’”
Opening his doors as a tire franchise in 1980, Denmon was receptive to any and all ideas as he began transitioning from retail to full repair. “We went from three working bays to five, then to nine, and finally 12. Same corner, same building, but we grew. That’s the evolution of the business,” he explains. “I have a real ability to just sit in seminars and bring home something that enhances the business, particularly branding; that became important to me. Who am I — Interstate Batteries or NAPA? No, I’m Dave’s Car Care.
“You will know who your best customers are, who your most productive technicians are, what to look for, what not to look for,” counsels Denmon. “When we go to hire a technician now, we profile. If an applicant doesn’t meet the profile, we won’t talk to them. One of the key factors is we won’t interview a technician who hasn’t been at their last job for 5 years or more. If he has, he can fix a car right and get along with the staff.”
Then in 1995, Denmon read The E Myth by Michael Gerber. Subtitled “Why Most Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It,” Denmon contacted a colleague who had retired from the auto repair industry, and together they were inspired to create Automotive Management Systems — essentially creating a book of their own.
“’Systems and processes to profits’,” says Denmon as he recites their mission statement. “What we did at that point was redefine the business into five key areas: management, technical operations, sales, personnel and marketing. We wrote an operational system for every aspect of that for our business.
“I grew up in a military family,” he relates. “I also served in the military, and they do everything by a standard operating procedure. So back before the age of the computer and computerized inspections, we literally had a printed inspection sheet for every aspect of vehicle repair: air conditioning, brakes, cooling systems, drivability diagnostics, engine replacement, transmission replacement, etc.”
They based their inspection process on three key factors: “Concern — what the customer came in for; cause— what’s the correction; and then quality control — completion,” outlines Denmon. Based on the cause, they would come up with the manufacturer’s recommendation of service needs or safety.
“Then we utilized a very simplistic idea of three different color highlighters on the inspection sheet,” he continues. “Yellow was the cause, blue was the recommendation, and red was the safety issue. When we implemented that program in 1996, we had 9,500 cars come through our facility at an average ticket of $186. Last year we had about 4,500 cars with an average ticket of $450. We got rid of half the vehicles, half the chaos, and increased the net profit from 5 percent to where we consistently run 26 percent to 30 percent.”
This color system extends to work orders. “Say a consumer’s got a coolant leak or needs an oil change,” Denmon explains. “That gets written up on a tan ticket. Someone else schedules an appointment for an oil change and an alignment; that gets written up on a yellow ticket. If you’re a brand new customer, never been here before, that gets a blue ticket. Now say you’d gotten your car fixed three days ago, an oil pan gasket that’s now leaking, that is written up on a red ticket and analyzed.”
To help avert the latter, Denmon has the technicians organized into two-man teams, “the thinking being that by working together everyone achieves more on a daily basis,” he reports. "If they’re struggling then they all put their heads together. They’ll confer on the scope pattern; they’ll look at this and that, and make a decision. For example, we were all up against the wall last week: a car came in running fine, everything worked; we sold the work, we repaired it, we go to start it — and a weak battery lead to a power surge which burned up the body control module and the ECM. It took us 8 hours to figure what was wrong, but we worked together as a team.
“Here’s the key,” notes Denmon. “I think we’re utilizing technology, possibly at the highest level in the country. We have all factory scan tools — Honda, Toyota, GM, Ford, Chrysler — whatever the vehicles manufacturer is, I’ve got a scan tool. I’ve got five technicians versed across the board, and all of them can use all of the scan tools. I bring in drivability diagnostic trainers from Chicago every quarter. They spend two days here at the shop; that allows my technicians to build relationships with these people. (When they’re not here) these trainers have the ability to get on Skype with the technician and see live what the car is doing. It works really well.”
Dominating the remodeled showroom of Dave’s Car Care is a giant flat-screen TV, mounted amidst diamond plate and brushed stainless. An interactive touch screen, it can access the shop’s website, display a 3-dimensional car that shows how a vehicle in Dave’s system works, even pull up parts prices. “We have a $134 an hour flat rate here in Arizona,” Denmon explains. “If you charge that much, you’d better look like $134 an hour.”
Maybe it can even pull up a good book.
