It’s no secret that most consumers have a guarded view of us. In a recent survey, 86% of the respondents thought that the cost they paid for their repair was outrageously high, and 40% of the consumers asked were certain they were being overcharged for the repair. Additionally, it is estimated that consumers are being charged tens of billions of dollars every year for unnecessary or ineffective repairs.
Are these studies accurate? Do they truly represent our industry?
I try very hard to remain optimistic about our profession. I have been fortunate to meet hundreds of talented, honest and hard-working people from every corner of the country. These men and women work hard every day to do the right thing by their customers and, for the most part, their businesses are booming as a result.
But I have also met just as many that are, in my opinion, the reason behind these consumer opinions. Let me share a story of my own experience – one that, I’m afraid, is not an isolated one.
Time for some new shoes
I am fortunate enough to have a fairly well equipped shop at home. This is the “garage” I use to film our training video series, “The Trainer”, and other projects. It is also my “man cave” of sorts, where I tinker with my own little projects, help out friends with their repair needs and maintain my own vehicles.
Sometimes, though, I don’t have the equipment to perform the repairs. Then, like most consumers, I have to find a shop to perform the work for me. In this case, it was as simple as it gets. I needed new tires for my RAM pickup.
Just like any other consumer, I did my homework and got a few quotes. My wife found a coupon for Goodyear tires through the official corporate web site that promised as much as 35% off on my purchase. The truck originally came fitted with Wrangler SR-As and I was happy with them and at nearly $150 a pop, saving 35% was rather attractive.
Making the purchase was very easy. Select the tires, apply the promo code for the discount and complete the entire transaction (including mount, balance, disposal fees and tax) online. Then select your closest Goodyear store and make the appointment to get the tires installed. I entered my credit card info, completed the transaction, and selected a shop about 30 minutes from the house. Within minutes, I got a confirmation that my appointment was scheduled and I was all set! So far, so good.
First one in
I was at the shop at 6:45 a.m. for a 7:00 a.m. appointment. I made the appointment for the first available time they had so I could minimize my time away from work as much as possible. I was preparing for some vacation time and was pressed to get all my normal duties taken care of before I left.
The bay doors were closed but the lights were on. Even so, I stayed in the truck until a few minutes before 7. I remember all too well all the little things I needed to do to open a shop in the morning and how much it irritated me to have those early birds that arrived before dawn and then stared at me through the door, waiting for me to unlock it. I figured I’d leave the guys alone until it was officially time for them to open their doors to the public.
I walked into the reception area to an empty room. It only took a few minutes, though, for the service writer to walk up to the counter. I would like to report that I was met with a smile, but quite the opposite was true. The greeting I got was cold and distant, as if I were a problem to be disposed of quickly so he could get back to his coffee.
After confirming my appointment and printing out the paperwork, he asked for my keys. Now remember, I’m buying brand new tires from a business that specializes in tires. If you were in his shoes, what would you have done next?
I have been in his shoes, on numerous occasions, and I always walked out to the vehicle with the customer in tow. I would take a TPMS tool with me and check the operation of all the sensors prior to bringing into the shop, explaining to the customer what the system did as I did so. I would also check the tire wear patterns and would recommend an alignment check, at the least, to make sure that the new tires would have a chance at lasting as long as possible. Last, I would get the vehicle mileage and check for the oil sticker left behind by the last service facility, to see if there were any routine maintenance items I could discuss with them before any work began.
Didn’t happen here – not one little bit.
I had to bring up the request for the alignment. In fact, I know I needed an alignment and I was more than prepared to pay for one. Unfortunately, the service writer person said, his alignment tech wasn’t in yet. Fortunately, I said, I had brought my work with me and was prepared to wait. Not a problem!
All done
Less than two hours later, the service writer came out from the shop with my keys in hand. Note here that I didn’t spend the entire two hours peering through the glass into the shop, watching the work being done. Nor did I stand at the bay door behind the plastic yellow safety chain. I’ve had customers who’ve done just that, watching my every move to make sure I did the work I was being paid for and didn’t steal anything from their car in the process. (At least, I guess that’s why they stood there!) No, I was perfectly content to drink my coffee and get some work done.
I wasn’t quite prepared for the avalanche of BS I was about to be hear.
“Mr. Meier, your truck is ready”, he began. “The alignment was only off a little bit so we made a few minor adjustments. I’m not going to charge you for it.”
Awesome, I thought! Since the truck had recently been in an accident, I was curious as to what adjustments had to be made. So I asked to see the printout.
The service writer passed over a form that looked like most alignment machine printouts with the “before” column on one side, the specifications in the center, and the “after” on the other side. Both the “before” and “after” columns were filled with dashed lines – no numbers.
“The left front and right rear were a little off but not much”, he said, pointing at the sheet.
“But there are no numbers here”, I said. “What angles, exactly, were off?” I don’t think he was prepared to respond to someone who knew that there were different angles involved with an alignment.
After a moment’s hesitation, he answered, “The caster on the front and the toe on the rear”, actually referring to another printout he wasn’t showing me.
“Interesting. How did you adjust the toe on a rear wheel drive truck with no toe adjustment?”
You could see the color drain out of his face when he began to realize he was dealing with an informed consumer. “Well, that came into the green after we made the front adjustment. But we’re out of green ink. That’s why you don’t see the numbers on the printout I gave you.”
Now I’m thinking I should hop across the street to the local Walmart and buy some waders. It was really starting to get deep in here.
I wanted to ask him why he would spend the time to make a caster adjustment on the truck and not charge me for it. After all, I’m more used to service writers coming back and looking for more money to start moving the control arm around. I, as a tech, sure as heck wasn’t going to do it for free! But it was obvious that I was being fed a load of you-know-what and didn’t feel like pursuing it any further.
Besides, I was thankful that he had supplied me with the topic for this month’s column!
Another alignment story for you
Speaking of alignments, I had a similar experience with another tire specialty store when looking for tires with my youngest son. The service manager offered to perform an alignment check for free to help us make sure we wouldn’t wear out the new tires prematurely.
Great! Go for it!
A half hour or so later, he comes up front with the printout. Both front wheels are in the “red”, he tells us, indicating the need to perform an alignment. He recommends a 4-wheel alignment on my son’s Toyota Corolla, and I don’t disagree, even though the rear wheels are showing “green” on his form.
Taking the printout from his hand, I look at the numbers and quickly see that there is nothing wrong with the alignment, regardless of the “red” numbers. Total toe is right where it should be, as are caster and camber. The reason for the red? The steering wheel was turned to the left when the readings were printed out.
This one I called him on. Either he, or his tech, was trying to pull a fast one and collect over $100 for doing nothing more than returning the wheel to center and printing out the actual measurements. I asked the manager to join us and judging by the look on the service manager’s face, he was none too happy about my request to speak to him.
I asked the manager point-blank if he was in the business of fleecing his customers and went on to explain what had just happened. Of course, he assured me they ran an honest shop but he would investigate my complaint. He even offered my son a free oil change, but I asked him if he really thought I would trust anyone in that shop to perform any kind of work on any of our vehicles ever again? To his credit, a few days later he informed me that both the technician and service manager had been terminated. He had found evidence of similar disparities. And that news didn’t bother me a bit.
How many others?
I really wish I could tell you that my experiences here were the exceptions, but they aren’t. I’d honestly have to say the odds of my running into a great shop are about even with my running into one that needs help. I will say that I believe that most negative experiences are caused by lack of training or experience, rather than by any willful aim to cheat someone out of their money - and that leaves me with some hope for our ability to improve our overall reputation.
What kind of shop do you work for? If you’re fortunate to be in a great shop, stay there! If not, then consider what you can do to help make it a great shop – or move on. The talent pool is getting shallow and there is no shortage of great shops looking for great people.
If you’re the shop owner or manager, and not sure of what kind of shop you have, try having someone you know (and your employees don’t) come in and put them to the test. Are they delivering a quality customer experience or are they treating customers as an annoying interruption of their day? Invest in your business by investing in your employees training – both at the counter and in the shop. Let them know that delivering anything less than an exceptional job is not acceptable and reward those that rise to the expectations.
The time is right for us to reinvent ourselves as an industry and as a profession. How high will you raise your bar?
