[Joseph Taylor]

Hello Allison

My name is Joseph and I have 24 years experience in the automotive industry. I have worked in over 15 independent and dealership automotive shops, in almost all roles from owner to manager to technician to advisor, and I will give you my thoughts on a few of your questions.

At the moment, we also suffer from a lack of quality automotive technicians in Canada. One of the largest problems I see (both in your questions and in most shops in general) in the industry right now is the lack of ‘care and concern’ by most technicians. With good pay, and very little chance of being fired, most technicians have more power and control in their repair shops than the managers or owners. The main problem with this shift of power is that most technicians don’t deeply understand business principals like revenue and expenses, parts and labour margins, productivity and efficiency, ect. Most technicians simply see the labour rate charged to the customer vs their take home pay.

 

The shops that I’ve worked at that have had the best quality while also having good revenue have a few core things in common.

#1 The technician and apprentices genuinely ‘care’ about the business. They care about what they are doing and how long they are taking. But how is this accomplished?

#2 Leadership – whether it’s a strong service manager, shop foreman, or lead technician, I believe a great shop MUST have guidance and direction. I also believe a hierarchy is necessary, so the leader has the power and platform to influence and direct the technicians below him and impose (maybe influence is a better word?) a culture of quality and productivity. I have seen too many shops where all the technicians are treated equal, and paid equal, and each technician operates as his own small independent shop within the larger shop (diagnosing vehicles differently, repairing differently, producing unequally). I also believe the individual that is leading your shop MUST have skin in the game. An hourly or salary based individual sees no correlation between their paycheck and the shop’s revenue. A leader must have financial interest, be it a strong bonus structure or small percentage of labour revenue on top of their wage, they must have skin the game to truly care about the reputation of the shop they are leading and to care about the volume of work they are trying to accomplish.

#3 Shop transparency / educating employees. I’ve found shops that are honest about the numbers, and educate their employees about the numbers, are generally more profitable. Technicians are far less likely to drag their butts if they know the shop has lost money for 3 months in a row. If a technician understands ALL the expenses behind the high labour rates being charged, then perspectives begin to change. But, back to my point earlier, for these numbers to really hit home the employees must also have financial incentives to push that bit harder when the opportunities present themselves.

I think I could actually go on further but I have already ranted WAY more than I intended. Sorry :s

Is your lead technician the most experienced and knowledgeable? Is he your diagnostic and driveability technician? If so, maybe his 20-27 hours a week would be acceptable if the licensed technicians below him were producing 40 to 50 hours a week in general labour and maintenance? I think great shops are like great sports teams and you need good players for each position that are best suited to what they do. Every shop I’ve worked at has been unique and required unique solutions to their problems. Solve the problem of culture and attitude first, get everyone invested and caring. Once you all work as a team, as a well oiled machine, the quality and revenue will build up on it’s own.