In the day-to-day grind of keeping our businesses running, it is easy to put the cart in front of the horse. To help realign our goals, I follow the automotive repair process through what I call the “demand chain” as a way to refocus what we do for a living.

Like this article? Sign up for our enews blasts here.

At the root of the demand for our supply is the vehicle owner. There are two reasons they require our services. First, there is a problem with their vehicle. Second, they perceive that a maintenance operation is necessary. I say “perceive” because I am sure we are all aware of the fortune our industry spends to remind vehicle owners that it is cheaper to maintain a vehicle than to replace it or perform major repairs. Based upon the used cars I see, we are not winning that battle. On the other hand, the listeners to my radio show seem to be the proverbial choir. Some of the things they need done are immediately necessary; others are discretionary from their point of view. Now if this seems parochial up to this point, it’s because I am intending it to be. I will tie this together a little further up stream.

The second stop in our demand chain is the service advisor. These folks can be our best or worst emissaries. A well-trained service advisor is in the best position to do the “just in time training” vehicle owners need when a repair or maintenance operation is needed. These folks have the toughest job in the automotive industry. If you don’t believe me, spend a day following an advisor around. They need to have fairly deep product knowledge of both labor operations (what are they doing to my car?) and parts (why do you use that product, and why does it cost so much?). They must have patience, sales skills, marriage counseling ability, good hygiene and a genuine avocation for helping people, just to name a few. This is a position in your demand chain that deserves your recognition and assistance. Most of the time, there is a 3 to 1 ratio of techs for each advisor. They are very time-challenged and will gravitate toward suppliers that make their job easier.

Technicians receive the information conveyed by advisors and in turn provide the explanation of the problem and recommend a correction. These two operations are the most skilled part of what a good automotive technician does. This aspect of their job requires the most training, the most expensive equipment (outside of wheel alignment) and is the least valued by both ends of the demand chain. Customers don’t like to pay for diagnosis, but they sure are unhappy if a tech is wrong on a guess. A good service advisor is responsible for having that discussion with vehicle owners and helping them to see the value of repairing problems the first time. At the other end of the demand chain, many parts suppliers insist on calling the guys and gals who own a loaded Corvette’s value in tools and spend more time in school than anybody else in our industry “installers.” To most of us who sling a scan tool or labscope almost as much as we do a wrench, this demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of what happens in the repair bay. Suppliers who take the time to adapt to this more than 30-year-old reality will be doing themselves a service.

I am covering these three steps of the demand chain to illustrate that it is not just a supply chain. Creating more demand for your products is more about having the right product available, but even more about having the right approach to the source of the demand. An old-school illustration is the supplier rep who comes in to the shop with a great package deal on the hot-moving parts in his or her particular system. The problem with this is that our hero may be asking the shop to put parts in inventory that are not the hot movers for their customer base. To make this outdated model work, a plethora of spiffs are thrown in. Most shop owners are savvy enough to avoid tripping over 1993 Caprice shocks for three years just because they fit about a million equally old vehicles that no longer represent the do-it-for-me market.

Instead of this approach, many of you out there are taking a wide-screen view of how your products are used and creating programs that might involve specialized tooling, vehicle-owner friendly demonstrations and service advisor and technician training that does not require leaving the shop. It is my view that this is the best approach going forward to show the demand chain that you are in touch with who they are and what they need.