In searching for ways to improve their businesses, many of the clients I speak with are determined that there must be something more exciting and exotic than the lowly courtesy check. There must be some secret formula or strategy — or at the very least we must have a magic pill that will both cure the common cold, prevent baldness and drive car count and sales through the roof. Many of these clients are determined that car count and marketing are their primary issues and are equally determined that doing courtesy checks is a waste of time.
The fact is that without spending one dime on additional marketing, without seeing one additional car, you can dramatically improve both sales and profitability by doing more and better courtesy checks.Why do we do courtesy checks? The easy answer might be to drive sales and profitability, but I believe this is more the result than the reason. The real reason we do courtesy checks is to exceed the expectations of our customers and to provide them with the complete comprehensive service that communicates our care and concern for their vehicle. They come to us as they would go to their doctor and expect us to inform them of the repair and service concerns we have. In the midst of this, they expect that we are ethical and honest and will make recommendations only for repairs and services that are actually needed.
A lot of the clients I speak with have a real problem with this and even think that doing courtesy checks is nothing more than digging for dollars at the expense of our customers. I strongly disagree with this. As long as we can honestly say that the repairs and services are needed now or will be needed before the next service interval, you are obliged to make your customers aware. Who do you think your customer will blame when a week after you do a major brake overhaul, their muffler falls off? More importantly, who do you think is to blame when, in doing the brake overhaul, you notice the broken exhaust hanger and don't inform the customer?
I promise they are blaming you. You need to be their car doctor and inform your customers of your concerns. They have the right of refusal, but you have an obligation to inform them.
Almost as difficult as buying into the necessity of doing courtesy checks is getting technicians to actually do them. Though in doing a courtesy check we benefit the customer, the tech and the business, I often run into imaginative excuses as to why we can't do them. I hear that they are too time-consuming, that "we are too busy" to do them and that they are a rip-off for the customer. A courtesy check should take five or 10 minutes and never more than 15. This is a truth that I have seen and insisted upon over the years and is entirely reasonable and realistic.
I have come across clients who were doing compression tests and checking the alignment and pulling spark plugs in an effort to be thorough and cover the most unrealistic possibilities. A good, reasonably thorough courtesy check will allow the tech to give a quick visual inspection to all the major systems on the vehicle and in nearly all cases yield a clear picture of required repairs and services. It does not pretend to identify every potential defect on the vehicle, but does a good job of pointing out the vast majority of these and allows us to make recommendations that will ensure the safety and maintenance status of the vehicle. If other items are subsequently noted, we inform the customer and move on.
Above and beyond the merits of the courtesy checks, we have great difficulty in changing our habits and behaviors, and the courtesy check can represent a big change for many of us. As leaders it is our job to assign this task to our technicians; we set standards for numbers and quality.
Up to this point, most of the clients I talk to do pretty well. The real problems start when we have to do the follow-up and make sure our techs are actually doing the courtesy checks and our expectations are being met. Very often the owners give up in the face of resistance and the program sputters and stalls from the start.
Overt and determined leadership is required here. This does not have to be loud or threatening, but it does need to be firm. From time to time, you will need to verify what is being done, and from time to time, you will have to remind your techs of expectations and enforce your standards. It is extremely important that you stick to your guns here and insist that we do courtesy checks.
Leadership is nothing more than the process of influencing others (your staff) to accomplish a task by providing purpose, direction and motivation. To whatever degree you can lead in this and to whatever degree you can provide direction, you will benefit. They are your dreams, it is your vision and you need to lead your staff and insist on excellence. We are talking courtesy checks, not programming your remote, and they are a key to your success. Achieve your dreams, see your vision achieved, do the courtesy checks. Your business potential demands it.
Brian Canning as more than 25 years in the automotive service, tire and parts industries. After his discharge from the U.S. Army, he has run multi-state, multi-location automotive operations across the mid Atlantic. He is currently employed as a management and leadership coach at the Automotive Training Institute (ATI) in Baltimore, Md.
