Remarkable Results Radio Podcast

A Perspective on the Value and Future of Technician Training. Listen and learn from Ryan Kooiman, Director of Training at Standard Motor Products, Jeff Masterman, the Manager of Technician Training Development and Wayne ‘Jerry’ Bishop, well known instructor at Standard Motor Products. Listen to a discussion on daytime training, augmented reality, the future of training, hands-on, case studies, course development and the importance of the fundamentals among others. If you are a shop owner or technician and you on the fence about making a 100% commitment to obtaining 40 hours of training per year, this industry will pass you by. Maybe you already feel it. Ryan, Jeff and Jerry are going to serve up a very solid position on why you must be a lifelong learner and attend every training class you can get to.

The Dreaded Come Back: The Keys To Prevention. Comeback prevention starts at the front door. It is all about communication. Writing enough information to the technician the better he/she can handle the diagnosis. To improve the end product and to reduce comebacks, you must build quality into the repair process. Quality control checklists at the end of the repair can only do so much. Quality, not quota, is the strategy you need to adopt to reduce comebacks. You should always be looking to improve. Your processes will drive a well-managed quality program. The quality of parts today is in question and you need to pay attention to comebacks so your costs and reputation are managed. Tracking every comeback is a necessity if you are going to reduce your comebacks.

Philanthropy on Steroids: CarFest – An Industry And Image Game Changer: Built With Hearts and Hands. Mark Colaw has owned Seymour’s Garage since 1985. This episode is about Mark Colaw’s passion: Carfest. This is, by far, the most comprehensive philanthropic event I’ve ever had the pleasure to cover as a podcaster. This event goes miles and miles to improve the image of our automotive repair community and presents the industry in our most positive light. Mark explains the impact Carfest is having on the community, automotive technology schools, suppliers and aftermarket vendors. This two and half day public event repairs 25 vehicles free for a select group of individuals. The vehicles are handpicked by community outreach groups such as Haven for Hope and The Battered Women’s Shelter. When you change lives with heart and hands and bring unity in the community, it goes a long way to build trust in the automotive industry and professionalism in the trade.

Is The Industry Ready For A Diagnostician Learning Platform That Is Deeply Connected To The Industry? Diagnostic Network, Scott Brown’s new venture, will be a learning platform and open a deep channel of communication for diagnosticians and aspiring diagnosticians while connecting the industry that provides the products, services, information and training to the marketplace. If you earn your living in the aftermarket, and for that matter serving the motoring public, you’ll want to give this episode a serious listen as Scott unveils his plans for Diag.net that will focus on the diagnostician. Scott shares his vision along with the industry collaboration he is building to create a very powerful repository of aftermarket intellect. Peer discussions and peer reviews will be part of this program to help refine the rich content. There isn’t a clearly defined guideline as to the skill set you need to be competent in this industry. Scott sees the creation of the right building blocks for training and says it is time to break the mold and to improve engagement and transparency.

The Rule of Holes: Know When To Stop Digging Knowing your break-even point -- the point at which total cost and total revenue are equal is important to running a business. It is not just good enough to reach your daily break even, you must exceed it if you are to stay in business. Knowing the break-even point is helpful in deciding gross margin on parts, labor rates, setting sales budgets and preparing a business plan. If you do not reach your daily break-even then there is a great chance that you had a loss of profit for the day. This episode provides a worksheet download for calculating break-even. The numbers will come from your financial statements. Your accountant can also provide them. The key to knowing your break-even set the tone when you are reaching for your profitable sales goal. You’ll know what the minimum excepted number is without digging yourself into a hole.

Technology Talk, AAPEX, ADAS, CES and More. Chris Gardner, MAAP, is the Vice President or Programs and Member Services for AASA, the Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association. AASA is the voice for the Aftermarket Supplier Industry. Chris also manages all things technology for the association and that is where we spend most of our time in this interview. An interview highlight is Chris’s view of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that he has attended for the last three years. He’ll give you a perspective on what he saw and the impact on the aftermarket as our future rolls out, as he sees it. Among other discussion topics ADAS and the tech he saw at CES. Chris sees a convergence of telematics with the consumer, the service professional and the supplier. We even talked a bit about smart parts.

You Cannot Ignore Your Role in The Automotive Technology Education System. Go inside the Vision 2018 Studio with the Educators Think Tank. Join Rick Escalambre, Retired Instructor Skyline College, and educator of the year 2017, Scott Brown from Diagnostic Network, Matthew Shanahan Assistant Professor, Automotive Technology, College of DuPage and Tim Dwyer, from Consul Labs. This is a great slice of what automotive education is today. A very open and transparent discussion that will help you understand the education process and gain knowledge of how to get involved. Also, learn about the challenges that post-secondary automotive technology programs have and how you can and must get involved. A few key talking points: Automotive technology programs at all levels is expensive, independents must attend career fairs and speak to classes at all levels including middle school and Industry and education needs to come together stronger than ever. The industry has a depth of talent that can help the education system.

How To Get Value From Recorded Service Calls Listen and learn from Rena Rennebohm, service advisor coach and the Chief Training Officer of ACT Group, Keith Williamson, president of Williamson’s Repair and Tire in Bondurant, IA and service advisor Lauren Giver, from Los Gatos Auto Service in Campbell, CA. Listening to just one side of a customer call does not do justice in improving and training your service advisor. Service advisers need quality training, no different than technicians and business owners and the recorded phone call is an important element to that training. Save good calls and go over what a good call sounds like. If your shop does not record calls, then get your shop secret shopped. You’ll be convinced. Find one phone call that works play it over and share it with your team; you will grow your business. Recorded calls and coaching helps to convert and opens the learning to be a better communicator. A great outcome of recorded calls is the opportunity to make changes to your policies. You’ll discover what works and what doesn’t.

The Trip To Vision KC 2018 was 9,000 Miles. One Way. There’s nothing too hard if you are determined to work hard enough. Do not underestimate your talent; you may never know where it will take you. Words from Taurayi Raymond Sewera. He is a shop owner from Zimbabwe, Africa. Taurayi is the only ASE certified technician in Africa and is building a new 20 bay shop he says will be opened by August 2018. He employs 12 technicians and will fix anything with an engine from a lawnmower to a giant earth moving excavator. He is committed to training and has made the trip to Vision KC two times. He’s befriended many technicians in the US and takes ASE tests on every visit to the US. Learn about his story, the Zimbabwe economy and the most popular car he works on. You’ll be surprised.

The Road to Great Technicians We talk so much about solutions to the technician shortage. Here is an episode that will get you to realize that there is so much more than filling the seats in trade schools. It is about what happens when we hire a new tech. The trend is to grow our own technician, but can we outline a career path for our new recruit? You need to be involved in creating a ‘Road to Great Technicians.   Joining me in studio at Vision 2018 is Donny Seyfer Executive Officer of NASTF, Chris Chesney, Sr. Director of Customer Training at Car Quest Technical Institute and Jill Saunders, Curriculum Developer at Toyota Motor Sales, North America.   This straight up discussion on creating a career path for all entry-level technicians through an apprentice and mentoring program outlines WHY this is so important. Do we want the government someday to create a program of standards and competence or should we as an industry start today to build those standards?   Just putting an entry-level tech in the lube bay without a career path is part of the big challenges we have as an industry. Without a defined career path it becomes a brain drain of young talent.

Shop Owners Must Do’s: Daily Actions that Matter: Why Routine Matters. We had a very deep discussion on critical daily actions that will keep your business compliant and running smoothly. You’ll walk away with a strong sense of discipline in building a daily task list that you stick with. Without proper planning and a strong checklist, that you are accountable for (or that you delegate), too many slips through the cracks and eventually crashes into your well-intentioned routine. Bambi Crozier wife and co-owner with Neil Crozier, of Car Clinic in Lowell, AR, Mark Goldsmith Mark’s Independent Service in Chatsworth, CA and Rick White Rick is President and Lead Coach for 180BIZ bring their great insights on the importance of planning to be a strong business leader and watchdog.

Stronger and Better Because of the Challenges He Faced Scott Pelava a fellow shop owner from Lonsdale, MN has had an interesting road to success; sometimes rocky. Many shop owners can relate to tough times. Scott had the ‘grass was greener syndrome’ that happens to may shop owners and he faced some hard realities that running a business was different than being a tech. Scott shares a very personal story of almost losing everything because of a plethora of circumstances he faced. Through his story, gain insights to help you prevent financial challenges that can overwhelm your life and business. Pelava also wanted to share ideas and learn from his industry peers so he started a Facebook group called Automotive Shop Owners Group (ASOG). 

Without Customers You Have No Business. One of the most important jobs of a service professional CEO is to be a marketer; to make the phone ring. In this episode Ron Ipach, co-founder and President of Repair Shop Coach will share with you a very simple tactic that he says could double the number of visits from your customer. Ron is known as ‘Captain Car Count’ and he received that moniker from one of his customers many years ago and it stuck. Ron has some very simple strategies on how to create business from the customers you’ve already served. You’ll hear some very profound stats on the number of messages we are bombarded by each day and how you can get through the clutter of emails, texts, ads, social media and ‘market’ to your customer. Ron’s got a simple message to share. “Pay more attention to the people you’ve done business with in the last year.” Get them to move to a more experience relationship with you than a transactional. Invite them back in the shop.

How to Become the Employer of Choice. Join Ryan Clo from Dubwerx in Cincinnati, Dwayne Myers from Dynamic Automotive in Frederick, MD and the Director of Training at RLO, Barry Barrett. You have an opportunity to listen to three of your aftermarket colleagues who will share their perspective on becoming the employer of choice. We opened up some great thinking pathways to help you create and improve your position in the marketplace when it come to attacking and keeping great talent. We talk the extreme importance of creating and having a great business culture, career ladders, putting your people front and center in your business, pay, reputation and so much more.

The Shop of the Future: Are You Prepared? Have you thought about how you will do business in the future? Well the mission of this panel was to stretch the boundaries and serve up plenty of thoughts, concepts and changes coming that you need to be fundamentally be prepared for. So happy to be able to present this audio recording from Vision 2018. With me are shop owners, Summer Gurerro from Affinity Automotive Services, Inc in Wichita, KS, Keith Williamson owner of Williamson’s Repair and Tire in Bondurant, IA, Trainer and Mobile Technician Eric Ziegler form EZ Diagnostics, Chris Chesney the Senior Director, Customer Training at the Carquest Technical Institute and Donny Seyfer the Executive Officer of NASTF, the National Automotive Service Task Force and co-owner of Seyfer Automotive in Wheatridge, CO. Many great thoughts that will help shape your future. There are many important action steps discussed that need your support and engagement. Listen carefully for those cues.