Putting this shop's service to the test

Feb. 27, 2014
As President/CEO William Hill — better known as Bill — puts it, he built up his business based on superior consumer relations.

There’s a song from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” called “Be Our Guest” — you know, the one sung by the candelabra? OK, so maybe you don’t have kids the right age, but the concept of top-quality customer service espoused by the tune probably goes a long way toward describing Mighty Auto Pro’s success in the Medina, Ohio, market outside Cleveland.

As President/CEO William Hill — better known as Bill — puts it, he built up his business based on superior consumer relations.

“I felt that at every shop I ran prior to my own, everybody tried to talk over the client,” he states. “What I felt needed to be done was to listen to what the client had to say, and then repeat it back to them so they knew you were listening. It became really important for especially women clients, because I think women always have a feeling going to an automotive repair shop they’re not being listened to.”

Mighty was a large 19-bay facility when he bought it in 1987, but not very well known until Hill brought his methodical approach to his new enterprise. “I used to carry this little notebook in my pocket all the time and I would write stuff down that I felt really irritated me as a customer,” not just in automotive but any service industry, he notes. “When I go to a place like a restaurant, I want to make sure I’m being treated properly and in a timely manner.”

Later Hill would expand his customers’ perks. “I used to provide just coffee,” he says. “Now I have a coffee maker that has hot tea, hot cocoa, cider, 10 different types of coffee. I have a small refrigerator that not only has bottled water and juices, but all different kinds of sodas and chocolate milk for the children. When you come in to Mighty Auto Pro, we try to make the experience more like sitting in my living room, and you’re being treated as a guest not just a customer.”

Hill would apply the same methodology to shop operations. “When I decided to take my business to the next level, I learned that I needed to have some systems and procedures in place, explaining how everything should work. Like say we have a car come in with an overheating problem; there’s a procedure written up on how to deal with that.

“I’m a very detail-oriented person and I like organization,” he says of his zeal. “Nothing occurs in my business by happenstance. Everything we do has a way of being done properly. I’m one of the few people in the automotive repair business who’s written their own manual, a systems and procedures book.”

So it was that Hill’s habit of organizing his thoughts and ideas on paper lead him into another field, book publishing. Hill has so far co-written two books with Amy Mattinat, who owns Auto Craftsman in Montpelier, Vt.. The first, “How to Buy a Great Used Car”, came out of a conversation with a client who asked for some pointers. Naturally Hill started jotted notes down, and five or six months later he had a tome. His second book, “What Ever Happened to Outstanding Customer Service,” was based on the notes he had taken before starting his business.

“We have to make customer service a reality again,” Hill argues, “because in my opinion it’s not a big thing anymore. We all get treated poorly and we just accept it.” The books themselves aren’t geared to generate profit; it’s all about helping the clients.

Hill got the input to organize his shop through his participation in Repair Coach Shops, a national group, but he notes that when it came to marketing back in the 1980s and ’90s, there weren’t a lot of tools out there. So he developed index-sized postcards with offers of $25 off anything over $75, and put expiration dates on them. “For the first year and a half to two years I would print them on my own printer, cut them up, put address labels on them and mail them.”

Of course that’s Flintstone technology compared to what’s available now. “There’s Mudlick Mail,” Hill comments, “where they’ll design a whole campaign for you. All you have to do call them up. If you’re looking for new clients, there’s a place called New Customers Now; they’ll build a list, make you a marketing campaign, mail it for you and everything.”

However Hill admits they still design their own campaigns, although they contract the footwork out. Outside of the discount flyers and emails, Hill instituted the Mighty Auto Pro Car Care Card Club, a more traditional discount which offers $475 worth of service for $99.95, and the VIP Text Club, which knocks $10 off the next service if you join via a text code with more monetary savings to come.

Then there’s the Women, Wheels and Waffles program. While it sounds like the title of his next book, or at the very least an intriguing lifestyle, it is Hill’s seminar program for the ladies. “Sixty-two percent of the clientbase that comes through my door are women,” Hill reports. So one Saturday morning five years ago he called in a caterer and set up work stations designed to teach about car computers, changing tires, fluid levels, etc.

“This year when we had it in September, we had 153 women,” proclaims Hill. “What’s amazing to me is that out of the 153, close to 61 of them had never been to Mighty Auto Pro before. The seminars are about two and half hours long, and it’s a roaming thing.  There’s no schedule involved; if you’re not there at 10:30, you’re not going to miss something. It’s supposed to be fun.” For besides the waffles, there’s an open bar featuring mimosas.

“If we do something kind of cool, we’ll put it on Facebook,” notes Hill. “The first thing you’ll notice there is that we have a lot of fun at work. Like my girls will dress up; every Friday around Christmas they dress up as an elf and Mrs. Claus and have cookies. Then we have a Nancy Sinatra day, a pirates day—“ (record scratch). Whoa, back up. A what day?

Hill laughs as he explains: in honor of Nancy Sinatra’s one hit wonder, ‘These Boots Where Made for Walking,’ the women on the front desk wear blond wigs, miniskirts and, of course, the boots. “We get a lot of guys in on that day.”

It’s only fair to the guests; mimosas for the women, boots for the men. 

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