While no stranger to these pages, when last we profiled Haglin Automotive, we really only scratched the surface. Operated by Dana and Judi Haglin out of Boulder, CO, the 2015 Top Shop is naturally on the cutting edge of repair practices. As reported previously, the Haglins pride themselves not on responding to the market, but anticipating it. Telematics, GDI, Millennials—they stay on top of issues through conferencing and thorough research.
“Dana and I believe in ‘steal’ and adapt,” laughs Judi Haglin. “If I like an idea, I look at how I can adapt it here. (For example) we heard about ‘Come Back Cash’ at a conference, only they talked about doing it for the entire year.” To make it more relevant to her young crew, she decided it would work better as a monthly exercise.
“Because of inexperience, we were having issues with some cars coming back. With our ‘Come Back Cash’ program we start with like $2000 for the month, and if the check engine light comes back on, a tool was left in the car—if the customer comes back for any reason, the (technician responsible) gets dinged; $30 comes out of the fund. If you break a part, the cost of that part comes out as well.”
The program works like this: say there are 10 employees; at the beginning of every month everyone starts out with a $200 bonus. By the end of the month, minus any deductions, they get the remainder. “So the first month, they got $120,” Haglin explains. “Just last month everybody got $197 each as a monthly bonus. Everybody in the shop is now totally aware that it costs to have a car come back. This has worked very well, because we were losing $2000+ in just silly things.”
The normal pay scale for her employees utilizes a plan from ATI. “Basically they are hourly wage—clock-in, clock-out,” outlines Haglin. “Then they’re also paid on a billing structure that after 33 hours of production they basically slip to flat rate, and they make more money because it’s on a higher level. Pay is really based on production. What I like about it is that my main job as an owner is to make sure I have adequate cars coming in. If it’s snowing in November and I can’t get customers in the door, I don’t want my guys to starve. I want them to have a living wage where if I’m not busy I take a bigger hit, but they are able to pay their bills. That’s the happy medium.”
Admittedly, the staff’s youth has become a big factor over the past couple of years with the number of Millennials entering the work force. Thus the Haglins have re-classified their shop as a ‘learning facility.’ “Dana and I have always been believers that we need to be a team, and that you’re always learning every single day,” states Judi.
To be part of that team, the Haglins are looking for not just skill and aptitude, but ambition as well. “Everybody you have in your organization, can they go up to the next level?” Haglin poses. “We’ve embraced this for a long time because a technician who’s been with us three years started off as a lube tech. He didn’t have the experience, didn’t have the knowledge, but he had the willingness to learn. He’s now taking his 5th and 6th ASE tests.”
Meanwhile, the Haglins discovered that learning is a two-way street. “That’s where Dana and I kind of stay young,” Judi acknowledges. “We’re always working with the younger kids coming up, and they push us to change the technology. We now have tablets in the shop: our J-curve on that was very low compared to other shop owners we’ve talked to; their J-curves were huge and they’re still struggling with it. We did all of our homework: I researched which (tablet) was going to work well with our system, we prepped it, did all the training on it with our technicians, and said this is what we’re doing—paper’s gone, here you go. A very successful change for us.”
With these tablets technicians can do inspections online, look up the history of a customer’s car, and access sources like AllData, Indentifix and MotoLogic. “There is so much more information out there,” comments Haglin. “Where Millennials excel is they know how to tap into that; it’s natural for them. If they’re sitting in the car, they can look up YouTube, which has a lot of how-tos on different things. They have Instant Messenger so they’re texting up front asking ‘hey I need this,’ or ‘I need to let you know that.’ They are communicating back and forth, which saves steps. ”
Just for transcribing information, Haglin reports that the talk function on these tablets is “awesome—it’s better than my iPhone. And with Mitchell’s Bolt-On program, there’s a checklist for each section, and you can use canned Notes, Jobs and Recommendations. (The latter function) actually figures labor and parts. Say you’re replacing a serpentine belt; it has options for tensioners, rollers, etc. A technician selects what they want and it goes to the front counter. It doesn’t estimate out the job; my service writer actually has to look up labor for those. Where this technology has really helped is in what the technicians need in parts; if you have an overheat, it will include not only the radiator, but the thermostat and the radiator cap too. Meanwhile the front desk has to be able to embrace this technology, be able to understand (the information coming from the back) and in turn interpret that for the customer.”
On the flip side of this technology, cell phones have been a big topic of conversation at the shop. “Do you let your technicians have them, do you let the service writers have them, do you ban them?” Haglin reflects. “I looked at the situation and there are times when they do use them for work. I like it when they take a cell phone with them on test drives, so if they get stranded they can call me. I like that I’ve got one guy who texts messages up front to the service desk, and another who calls. As for Millennials, you have to embrace the fact that they are ‘plugged in’.”
Another idea the Haglins have adopted is the so-called Disney philosophy. “We heard a speaker a couple years ago who worked with Disney,” Haglin recalls. “He pointed out how [at Disneyland] you never see Mickey Mouse talk, or Cinderella smoking a cigarette, or trash on the grounds. There’s a ‘front stage/back stage’, and everybody has to participate in that. I’ve always been a huge proponent of how you look, because the biggest advertising that you do happens as soon as a customer drives up to your shop.
“What’s the outside look like; is it clean, do you have junked cars?” Haglin muses. “What’s the restroom like? How are your people dressed? We’ve always been aware of that, but with the Disney front stage/back stage, that was something we could apply to everybody at the shop. Here’s front stage, like in my office, and here’s back stage in the shop. But when a customer comes to the back—guess what guys, you just turned front stage. That means if someone walks within 6 feet of you, you say hello, ask them how they’re doing, and speak intelligently, not loud or obnoxious. If a tech walks through the front office, they need to look good, be tucked in, etc., and if there’s somebody in the customer line, make sure to ask if they’ve been taken care of. Front stage is always taking care of your customers.”
Of course this requires hiring people who will share this vision. “In the hiring process you try to ferret out the unconscious biases as well as the conscious ones,” Haglin explains. “These can be detected through the affinity bias, like to what our core values are. My team knows that we are a learning facility. They know they’re learning and they’re growing. So our culture is you don’t put anything on a car that doesn’t need to be, don’t charge them for anything extra. You make it right, do what it takes. You’ve got to start off with a good culture.”
In his own youth Judi’s husband Dana played saxophone in college, but eventually settled on auto repair as a vocation. “He fixed and sold cars with his brother and dad growing up,” she reports. After college he opened the shop in 1981, but economically times weren’t very good, so his first paying job was painting a horse trailer. “When they used to fix cars up, they also did some bodywork,” Judi notes. But her own brother was an engine rebuilder, and when he opened his shop next door to Haglins’, they got some referrals in the bargain. “Between Dana’s great personality and our customer service, we’ve been able to grow the company.”
