SINK OR SWIM… OR FLAIL AROUND?
By David Rogers
In some of my recent travels and coaching sessions, I’ve run into what I believe may be one of the 3 most COMMON, CRITICAL, and COSTLY mistakes made by almost ALL shop owners today!
If you’ve been following our blogs here or on www.Search-AutoParts.com, then you know that we are intensely focused on teaching how to control the things that a shop owner and team CAN control, rather than sitting around waiting for life to “happen” to them and looking for excuses for poor results.
We learned this because we had hired other industry consultants and trainers, and were very frustrated with their lackluster results and inability to get us past what we could pretty much do on our own. We wanted systems that ELIMINATED the excuses…our excuses and THEIR excuses!
That being said, as we travel farther down the path of knowledge and build an understanding of what controllable factors affect our business most painfully or profitably (depending of course upon whether or not we understand and then manage it), I would like you to think about YOUR shop’s process for constantly tightening up and improving the process of dealing with information and customers at the counter…especially as it relates to new hires that communicate information to and for your technicians!
Here’s what I keep seeing:
Most of us are hiring a service writer or counterman because we’re busy…unfortunately, this leads to a critical mistake. We often refer to it as “throwing them to the wolves” — when we get too busy to conduct or complete any real, formal training. They then get on the phones or counter in an attempt to help wade through the backlog…and the costly errors commence.
Errors like…
- Not getting the correct info onto the ticket
- Not asking the proper questions
- Not understanding the significance of a particular customer or fleet to our business
- Letting their lack of training and their frustration bleed over the phone or counter
There are hundreds more, each with many possible repercussions. I have witnessed this in many shops, including our own.
Whether or not you have access to the dozens of audio and video classes for owners and service writers on the RPM ToolKit that were designed to help shops overcome this problem, YOU can make a TREMENDOUS difference in YOUR shop by simply beginning to design a training process for each hire!
It starts with a simple plan that outlines which areas of the business the new hire will be responsible to perform within…for instance, the counter, phones, technicians, vendors, and customers.
Then take each category and break it down into steps, (answering the phone our way, responding to phone quotes, advising over the phone, etc).
Pretty soon, you’ll have a MUCH more complete list of what you want the new hire to understand. Once you get your list filled, then get to teaching him, or having the best performer in each area help.
As the new hire achieves a level of being able to complete an individual task on their own, have the supervisor and the new hire sign-off on that portion of the training, and add the sign-off sheets to their personnel file. You may find that useful in the future for reviews or accountability sessions and retraining…but that’s another blog!
If you want to know more, give us a call at 866-826-7911, or you can email us through the contact page!