In all aspects of business at Downing Street Garage in Denver, co-owners Douglass and Rebecca Kirchdorfer have made sure respect is the basis for all they do, With respect comes improved customer service and sustainability, two factors that set the shop apart from others.
“It’s really not an auto shop, per se. It’s a customer service location, because every piece of what they do is customer service from vendors, employees, community, everything,” says Shelly St. John, who handles marketing for the shop. “It’s all about the experience that people have.”
The service starts with the shop’s model of sustainability.
“The reason we went that route is because it really follows along with our core values, which are to build long lasting, respectful relationships with our customers, employees, vendors, the community and the environment,” Rebecca Kirchdorfer says. “I feel that we need to have a global approach. I feel that we are a global community. We need to have a much larger perspective about how we come across in the world and how we serve in the world.”
The shop has a large focus on being environmentally responsible, winning numerous awards for its recycling and other green initiatives and setting standards as the first green auto repair shop in Denver. It also focuses on giving back to the community. One of its many service projects is taking part in Young AmeriTown, a curriculum in the schools for fifth graders teaching them about having a checkbook, taking out a loan, applying for a job and more. At the end of the curriculum, they run a town, including a repair shop sponsored by Downing Street and other local businesses.
“We’re trying to really expose fifth-graders to a really positive image of the auto industry, as well as helping kids become financially responsible,” Rebecca Kirchdorfer says. They don’t get current business from it, but they all feel it is a good thing to do for the young people and the auto industry by giving positive representation of it. “This is a way we can inspire those young people who have that inclination and who have that maybe even skill at this age, and excitement about the industry to continue with that desire.”
Policies in Place
Explaining these messages to adult consumers is part of 150 procedures in place to ensure consistent outcomes and provide job descriptions for every position in the shop. While Douglass Kirchdorfer created the majority of the procedures throughout the last 20-plus years, if new ones are needed the shop’s regular Thursday lunch meetings come into play.
“If a new procedure is needed, then discussion happens at the Thursday lunch meetings around even the potential of a new procedure being developed,” Rebecca Kirchdorfer says. “If there’s a new one that he is implementing, he’ll take it to everyone and see if they have any other ideas about it. He listens to those ideas.”
She adds that it is an overall tool to running the shop. “We really believe in written procedures because if it’s not written, you can’t really train it.”
The procedures tie into both technical operations and marketing. On the technical side, all fo the shop’s technicians are master certified.
“It gives credibility, but also it provides a higher level of service to the customer, because the technicians are more educated,” Rebecca Kirchdorfer says. “Many customers, they don’t know what that means. And yet when I talk to customers about it, then they’re glad to hear it.”
Technicians also have access to wireless tablet computers at each workstation. All are hooked into the vehicles’ computer systems, shop information systems and online platforms including Alldata, Mitchell, Identifix, iATN and iSHOP. Rebecca Kirchdorfers says this has improved efficiency in the shop.
“They don’t have to walk to another computer. They don’t have to walk or call or walkie-talkie or send a note up to the front desk to ask them, ‘Hey, what did we do on this car before?’ or ‘I’m noticing that the transmission fluid looks a little dirty, when was the last time we changed it?’” she explains. “They can look that up right at their workstation. It’s truly an efficiency and efficacy issue, meaning the quality of the work they are able to do from those tablets.”
To convey all of this, Downing Street Garage recently updated its website and turned more attention to its online marketing. The shop has moved from a 100-plus placement in organic searches to a top-five placement, St. John says.
“That’s huge, because we have tried to add content so that information is available for those who choose to access it. Everybody buys auto repair differently,” she says. “Some people want to know a detailed invoice of everything that was done, where every part was disposed of, while others just want to pay the check and drive away happy. We built a website for information for those people who do want to access it.”
While they are focusing on the site and Internet marketing, it has helped them build a customer base, and Rebecca Kirchdorfer says the time now is to grow that.
One place they learn about growing that is through aftermarket associations like the Automotive Service Association (ASA). Douglass Kirchdorfer is a member of the National Mechanical Operations Committee and voluteers at Skill USA Colorado and national competitions. Shop manager Chris Lechman is an ASA Colorado Mechanical Division board member as well.
“It’s these peer organizations that you give and you get so much from. You give back to because you get so much from,” Rebecca Kirchdorfer says. “There’s synergy in the numbers. When you combine your efforts and your information and share that with one another, then one plus one isn’t two, it’s 11. It’s a synergistic effect. There’s greater power in numbers. It’s camaraderie, it’s learning from your peers.”
Camaraderie is built between the shop and its suppliers, as well. The shop views suppliers as customers, too, including its main supplier Havana NAPA Auto Parts. It not only buys from them, but includes them in the shop’s community service projects like Habitat for Humanity.
“I think we are constantly striving to show them respect and courtesy,” Rebecca Kirchdorfer says. “To treat them with respect, because we realize that we need to develop relationships with them as well as with our customers and with our employees.”
That means they pay on time, for example. They get parts on time and right from their suppliers, so they reciprocate that respect. They do other things like sending pizza to their suppliers or other shops like a transmission shop they work with. They also use custom-wrapped candy bars during the holiday services to thank their customers and their suppliers. They give the candy bars to the drivers, and send them back to the parts store to give to the guys they talk to on the phone and who are working in the store.
“We just try in little ways to let them know we appreciate them. That we notice them,” Rebecca Kirchdorfer says. “That they’re coming here every day giving us parts and yeah, it’s their job, but isn’t it nice to hear, ‘Hey, thanks for all the work you do for us through the year.’”
That respect factor ties back in to what the shop as a whole does for its customers, community and environment.
