In my last column we reviewed the need for growing our own qualified and quality techs to combat today’s obvious shortage, some of the history of service production teams and their purpose, as well as the need to reexamine how the system might provide assistance with growing our own superior tech workforce. Now we will review some of the details related to how the team program functions, the bits and pieces of its makeup, its many benefits, and what it takes to install it efficiently and correctly.
None For All
The idea of assembling a “technician team” here, was to accomplish numerous goals: 1. To maximize the use of the available stall space; 2. To provide an ongoing aggressive daily training environment; 3. To utilize synergy (group-solve) to find quicker fixes; 4. To create a smaller highly controllable dispatch / accomplishment environment for the team manager and customer; and 5. To enhance the customer experience by providing their desired one-on-one relationship with an assigned decision-making “manager” rather than an order-taking clerk. It’s no secret that independent shops, which typically employ team tendencies while enjoying little turnover, experience some 80% customer retention, while providing few extraneous benefits (i.e. food, drinks, shuttles, loaners, extended hours, massive discounts, whining lounge customers, etc.) compared to dealer franchises. No need to note the pathetic customer retention for dealers, which includes significant amount of guaranteed warranty and recall-have-to-come-backs.
While all of this team thinking makes darn good sense, for as simple as it seems superficially, the concept of teaming isn’t a cake-walk. For decades, most techs worked / struggled alone, maybe finding a friend or two to get some advice from the first couple of years while getting wet behind the ears. Now some wrenchers discovered a good-sized money-making niche they aggressively protect (say, “I’m ‘the’ trans man dude”), while some rip off customers, warranty, and used cars regularly, and since most writers are technically clueless, and most shops don’t have an actual functioning foreman, they thrive. Some techs only want to make a fixed amount of money and beyond that they slack off; some just suffer an unfixable case of ineptness, and some just don’t play well with others – ever. I could go on, but I won’t.
My guess is that if you are affiliated with or managing a shop, you have one or more of the above bodies, and with no one knocking the door down to repair vehicles, you protect them out of desperation. I see it all the time. We just don’t often discuss it until one finally leaves and everyone wipes their brow (you have been there too I bet). Now we are forced to find a suitable replacement, and finally attitude plays a much bigger role in selecting the next draft prospect.
The way-back answer to these sad misfits was a form of so-called “lateral support groups.” The thinking was that grouping techs together would work better if they had no co-dependence (shared flat rate), while they could be somewhat managed by a foreman, who might even dispatch to them, taking pressure off the assistant service manager. So, while the full benefits of the true team (one flag sheet) wouldn’t be available, Billy Bob and Fast Eddie PITA would still fit in the formula. That’s pain-in-the-ass in case you didn’t get that.
The bottom line is before a true team program is installed, all the supporting characters and elements must be in place. That includes educated assistant service managers with robust personalities, who view what they do as a career, not a stepping stone. Establishing their own solid customer relationships and resulting “book of business,” some 700+ loyal patrons, so that they and their team can count on consistent income throughout the year, less stress from incessant complainers, additional sales from simply educating them to purchase, and each day something positive to look forward to, takes time and effort. Once this plan is intact, no one is jumping to the next greener pasture to start all over again.
Placing a hungry team of professional techs, ready to pay your bills and theirs, with an uncaring rookie or a just plain loser is a big mistake, and I saw it too often when I went in for the team fix. Replacing that front-line player with the bad numbers and negative attitude has to happen before teams can be considered. You’ll know when you start discussing assigning an ASM to a team and no one wants the bum.
Gotta Have It
A true team produces a lot of quality work and that puts pressure on the parts department. Too many parts counter persons are non-aggressive about performing their job – many are bored, and their pay plans have little to do with productivity – some obscure and miniature percent of the gross paid once a month is hardly related to effort. Another issue is the lack of understanding of the importance of tech output to parts sales. Skilled techs produce about $3 a minute in parts and labor sales (no kidding) and around half of that belongs to parts. Before I even consider teams, proficient, dedicated, and properly compensated counter personnel (I like flat-rate hours) must be in place.
Parts procurement is another part of the formula. Techs hoofing it across the shop, and then hanging around waiting for the counter person to get free is so non-productive. Team techs need to order parts utilizing some type of communication plan, and then have them delivered to their stalls some 50 feet away, just like O’Reilly delivers quickly to my restoration shop stalls some three miles away! One of my GM service manager students told me he posted a large “$3” sign at the parts counter and as he was passing by one day he heard his tech yell into parts, “I’ve been here for $12!”
Utilizing the aftermarket when needed is another issue at times. Yes, I am very aware of the so-called loyalty parts programs the manufacturers are conducting, but sometimes customer satisfaction / retention / buy-another-car comes into play. And the “mannies” don’t require 100% of the parts be purchased from them – there is wiggle room to take care of emergencies and other factors. Lazy counter people may contact one vendor buddy, but the professional counter person knows there are numerous other options and with a little effort they will get the job done. Teams need that kind of attitude and drive from parts.
Teams don’t fly when the parts fill rate is 65%, like a Chrysler store I recently visited. Having the part when needed is vital to continuous and quality shop output. Frustrating high-performance team techs because of low fill rates leads to dissention and worse. Before true teams can be installed, the parts department has to have its act together from the counter person to the inventory to the procurement processes. Poor parts performance is one the prime reasons team installs have blown up.
And There’s more to come in my next column, Part Three. There are additional areas which must be addressed such as internal communications, skill sets, sales to service, and much more – hence the reasons for an additional column. As you can surmise, it’s not easy to assemble the most productive and profitable tech development program ever designed – all the pieces have to be in place first. Of course, the wonderful part of working on the pieces is that you are making improvements which should have been there all along. And get this; even if you stop along the way, you are better off than you were!
Send an email to
Ed@NetProfitGroup.com and put on the subject line “Calculating the Output of My King Pins” and I will send you a nifty Excel worksheet which will do a lot of the work for ya, and it can be sorted too. Knowing the difference in each tech’s output is a vital starting point, and I will get into that next time.
