If you are a progressive shop owner today, your future looks very bright indeed. New opportunities are about to open for you if you continue to maintain a positive attitude and a focused commitment to your business.
Your prospects are in stark contrast to the fate of those who fail to prepare for advancing vehicle technology, the growing shortage of competent technicians and a new generation of educated and plugged-in consumer and commercial clients. Shop owners who do not keep up with the times will pay a steep price as the business landscape changes.
Thousands of independent shops will disappear in the next few years in North America, but I believe the ones that survive will be terrific businesses to be a part of. Let’s look at what these shops will have done to remain successful.
These thriving shops will typically have 10-12 bays, including two or three diagnostic-only bays in a meticulously clean facility.
Vehicle calibration services will have an impact on bay design. We will see, in some cases, bays as wide as 32 to 35 feet that give adequate room for this specialized service. Vehicle software platforms will become the new training models as many high-end technicians transition to the role, essentially, of software engineers.
Shops will have secure high-quality connections to the internet – both for client use in the facility, and for staff use in the office, back rooms and bays.
Laptops will have replaced clipboards and paper. And accessing technical information, vehicle service histories and management information is all done online. Similarly, parts ordering is done instantly with the touch of a button instead of a phone line.
Shop websites will be managed by outside firms and used not only for marketing purposes but as a reference tool for clients seeking information about their vehicles.
Making service appointments will be streamlined, with everyone’s calendars automatically synced and updated.
And as these shops have evolved, so have their workforce.
Their well-paid and highly trained staff will be committed and fully engaged, with a clear understanding of their shop’s vision for the business as a whole and their role within it.
Management and staff will have established a close, professional relationship. This is developing into a “career” not just a “job” for everyone in the shop. The business will offer them unique opportunities for personal growth and job satisfaction. Challenges will be met with enthusiasm and rewarded with handsome compensation and financial stability.
Shops will have prioritized a culture of respect and cooperation where everyone has each other’s back.
The result of this “team” approach will mean greater trust and loyalty from clients, as they see how professionally their vehicle maintenance is being managed for safety, reliability and efficiency. High-functioning shops will earn valuable permissions from their clients to access the full range of vehicle information available through telematics. This will allow a level of vehicle management that exceeds the highest client expectations.
The relationship between the shop and client will also have reached a whole new level.
The impact on you and your staff will be dramatic. You will need to evolve to be a fully operational team, enjoying a professional wage based on the talents you individually bring to the operation. The most progressive and successful facilities will have taken a profit-sharing approach, where everyone benefits from the shop’s success. The days of offering a simple bonus are rapidly ending. Profit sharing creates a unified team.
As I have discussed before, shops now have a minimum of three labour rates. Some have as many as five different labour rates to handle the unique challenges of advanced technology. These rates will no longer be set around multiples of an hourly wage, but will reflect the need for operational efficiencies, which affect the true cost per billed hour. This new reality will reward the shops that “get it” because achieving efficiencies will be the key to remaining competitive in a marketplace that requires elite skills. You must attract those top-performing techs and compensate them fairly. Inefficient shops will price themselves out of the market.
I believe the tension and animosity between the independent sector of the aftermarket and OE dealer will start to subside. Both sides will need each other more than ever. With future vehicles working their way up to 500 million lines of software code, the potential for more vehicle recalls is very real. High-end independents are highly likely to be solicited by dealerships to give them a hand in making sure commercial clients are taken care of in a timely manner.
The best technicians – the ones reaching engineer status – will see each other more frequently at high-end training sessions and industry conferences. This will allow them to share information more easily and build stronger relationships. These professionals will embrace a culture of continuous learning – something that is already happening in other industries and is long overdue in ours.
Over the next three years, independent shop owners will also start to work more closely together, as the need to specialize in specific vehicle models emerges. The days of working on all makes and models will come to an end. The amount of information, training and tooling will be probative, forcing shops to start working together to meet market demands. This potentially is one of the most exciting changes coming to our industry. Professionalism and cooperation will reach a whole new level within the aftermarket.
We do not get paid for what you do. We get paid for what we know. This is the new aftermarket reality.
Does this sound a little too farfetched for you? Well watch out. It is already starting to happen.
I am confident you will see – or read – about businesses that have embraced the new aftermarket within the next 18 months. Will you be one of the shops that truly excels in this new reality? Or will you be one of the unfortunate statistics that everyone will read about?
The alarm has been sounded. Are you hearing it loud and clear?
