If employees in auto parts stores could have it their way, would they vote Amazon out of the marketplace? Scores of counter people who serve on the frontlines – selling product directly to do-it-yourselfers and service repair shops – are at risk of being replaced by e-commerce technologies. Self-reinvention to update the role of counter people by combining relevant tools and social skills is the smartest offense to ensure that Amazon doesn’t gain the upper hand.
Amazon, which thrives on innovative customer-centric solutions, is capitalizing on the trend that future shop owners will be ordering parts directly from them. Throughout 2016, Amazon signed billion-dollar contracts with Federal-Mogul, Cardone, Bosch, and Dorman Products.
Tomorrow’s Tech, a trade magazine, reported last year that 71 percent of vocational students between the ages of 17 and 25 conduct online searches for automotive content. Many industry experts concede that the shop techs’ self-help mentality happens over their mobile devices, but not over the phone. Techs who use Amazon can research a part they need within a fraction of the time that a counter person can do the same.
Apart from the annual $99 Amazon Prime unlimited delivery subscription, Amazon has transformed its model from simply connecting and placing orders to serving as an affordable business utility that tells repair shops the most available product at the best price. While Amazon has yet to address the immediacy issue of delivering parts within 30 minutes, The New York Times observed on March 26, 2017 that experiments involving automation to improve access to product are on the rise.
Given massive amounts of power exercised by shop owners, the auto care industry should not take a wait-and-see position regarding what the endgame will be as Amazon executes more tests toward a workable e-commerce model that optimizes service and price. Amazon’s vast scope reduces the chance for brick-and-mortar stores to sell products or services that the online giant cannot offer.
Consequently, parts stores need to focus more on customer outcomes. Specifically, they must find unique ways to improve the shop owners’ lives. To this end, they must reshape that role of counter people by releasing them from the task of taking orders and making them invaluable business advisors who are focused on assisting the shops’ goal of turning the bays.
“Thank You for Being Late,” a book written by Thomas Friedman, explores possible self-reinvention anecdotes, but specific remedies to redefine the role of counter people will depend entirely on management, who know their employees best. In his book, Friedman advocates for educating people for work, organizing them at work, and helping them adjust to the accelerating technological realities. He envisions education in a constant peddling motion in a continual relearning mode of different skills that needs to happen all of the time. Training is no longer a fixed event, but a lifelong journey along the career path. Motivation is the fuel that Friedman says is needed to build upon talent, skills and creativity.
Self-reinvention also begins with identifying routine tasks such as answering phones, looking up products, checking for availability, or anything that technology may replace. However, Friedman emphasizes that this does not mean those repetitive tasks ever go away. A good example is the effect of ATM machines on the traditional role of bank tellers: the tellers’ tasks went from shuffling cash all day to performing more non-routine marketing and customer service activities. Consequently, more jobs and branch locations were created while operating costs fell.
In another example, Friedman illustrates General Electric’s remarkable transformation from maker of appliances into people acting upon sensor technology. GE successfully melded humans working with machines and data technology to drive better efficiencies and to fix things before they break, such as when an engine needs to be replaced and injected with the appropriate detergent. Data patterns recorded by the sensors enabled employees to identify problems before they arise, which GE dubs “predictive maintenance.”
Friedman also points out that, to date, no machine has empathy, which is why social skills are still needed. While Amazon is great at innovating, how good are they at human contact? On June 4, 2016, The Economist wrote about how retailers are creating in-store experiences. Customers visit Nike, not because the trainers will give them advice, but for the running clubs, the magazine said. Similarly, there’s the draw to shop T.J. Maxx for the thrill of the hunt for brand-name goods.
As the industry moves forward, interpersonal skills that complement how people work with machines will probably make the most difference in terms of cooperation—and above all, in terms of empowerment. To gain more ideas to transform the role of counter people, leaders can attend program group meetings, the Auto Care Association conferences, and trade shows events such as AAPEX and NACE Automechanika Chicago. Leaders must also cultivate a motivated work force throughout the ranks. It’s essential to engage employees as active participants and motivate them to serve as partners who work side by side with management to chart their own paths.
None of the answers to empowering actionable counter people will come easy, but self-reinvention will advance the auto care industry further down the path of job creation and avoid the job elimination experienced by Macys, Sears, and J.C. Penny. This is the time for leaders to seek ways to bundle technologies and education for their employees who are hungry for new knowledge-based skills. Today is the moment for the counter people to have it their way to grow their repair shop customers and to enrich the DIYer’s enthusiasm for the neighborhood parts store.
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