Treating Your Family Like Our Family

By Dave Trux

When I hire somebody, one of the things that I do is tell them about our basic business philosophy. The first time anybody walks through our front door, they’re a friend. It doesn’t matter if they’re a customer, an inspector from the state of California, somebody that runs parts or a process server serving papers. It doesn’t matter.

The second time they walk through that front door, they’re family. You treat them as such and if a delivery person comes in and we have pizza or other food we’re sharing, if they were a family member, wouldn’t you invite them to sit down and have a soda and something to eat?

I feel my personal philosophy on running any kind of business, especially when its service oriented, you want to exude that feeling of contentment and happiness. People don’t come to us because they want to. They come to us because it’s a necessity. When a customer first walks in, they’re likely going to be in a negative space. I think it’s our duty to do our best to put them at ease and make them feel comfortable.

Treating a person like family is probably the fastest way to get there. If there’s any question about how I should handle something, all I have to do is ask myself, “If they were a family member, what would I do?”

We had an incident where we had a problem with a car on Friday, and I came in the following Monday at 10:30 am and it hadn’t even been on the rack yet. I looked at my manager and said, “Not only is this a good customer, he’s a personal friend. He’s been here more than once. Is this how you would treat your family?” When you set the goal of treating everyone like family, if you do fall a little bit short, you’ll probably be okay.

The goal is to show my employees how I expect to be treated. My hope is that this attitude will eventually come as naturally to them as it does to me. I truly like my customers and enjoy speaking to each and every one when I'm in the office.

Enjoy Your Summer Road Trip

By Dave Trux

Nothing can ruin a summer vacation faster than being on the road and having your vacation cut short or interrupted because of a car repair. This is where preventative maintenance can make the difference between having a dream vacation or a nightmare.

Be sure that your car is ready for an extended road trip by having it thoroughly checked over before you take off. Are all your fluids in good condition or do they need to be flushed or replaced? Are your belts and hoses up to snuff? Do your tires have enough tread left to get back home safely? Are they inflated properly and do they have even wear? These are some of the most basics things to be aware of.

You will want to be proactive as you prepare and look forward to that summer adventure. Again, you don’t want to ruin it with unexpected surprises. Be sure to pay attention to all the things that are affected by heat, like belts, hoses, air conditioning and basic engine fluids. Those are your most common points of failure that can lead to bigger problems. You will want to stay away from having to rent a car to continue the trip while your vehicle is in an unfamiliar shop in the middle of nowhere. Not every shop is reputable, especially when a customer is in a vulnerable position and needs their car back in one piece.

At Valley Motorwerks, we offer a free pre-trip inspection check. We’ll be happy to look at your BMW, Mini, Volkswagen or Audi vehicle to give you greater peace of mind before you leave. We’d prefer to point things out to you before you leave rather than having your car break down and ruin your trip. 

Collision Repair at Valley Motorwerks

By Walter Ford

From time to time, we’ve been able to help our customers with collision repair. How this all started was when I would take my cars to the body shop and they would look good on the outside but as soon as you looked underneath the car, a lot of details were left out. Part of the issue is that these cars (BMW’s) are very complicated, like jigsaw puzzles underneath. They require little fasteners. So, you can have four fasteners in a row, and the two in the middle can be completely different than the two on the outside. A lot of non-German shops will use any generic screw. Well, there’s a reason why a car’s interior is a certain way.

What I found was the best thing for everyone was for us to do the tear down, send the paintwork and framework out and then we do all the assembly. We make sure that all the fasteners are properly installed and that all the T’s are crossed and all the I’s are dotted with the insurance company. We actually act as a buffer. The customer never has to interface with either the body shop or the insurance company beyond the initial filing. We are their advocate with the collision repair. We’ve always partnered with collision repair facilities that know they will be held to a higher standard, that the car must look absolutely original or they’re going to do it again.

We started doing this as a soft service about a year and a half ago and we’ve completed about a dozen cars. We haven’t advertised it until now. When a customer calls and says, “Hey, I’ve had a fender bender”, we let them know they can drop it off with us and we’ll make sure it all gets taken care of. We do all the detail finish work and handle all the interface for the customer, so they’re not left with having to deal with all the little things they may not be familiar with. Most people don’t come in contact with this sort of process very often, so when they do, they tend to be a little lost.

Not long ago, we took in a car that was literally shorter than the front. The insurance company didn’t want to fix it and the owners didn’t want a car with a salvaged title. The value of the car wasn’t very high, but the value of the car to the customer was high because it had been in the family a long time. So, we were able to affect a good proper repair that would withstand the test of time. The repair was completely undetectable and the customer now has a car that can be passed down to the children and he feels completely comfortable knowing that the car has been repaired properly.

1 Year after Expansion

By Walter Ford

When we started our business several years ago, our goal was to be the premium facility for BMW service and repair. Once we achieved that goal, we listened to what many of our customers had been asking for: To expand our scope of service to include Audi and Volkswagen vehicles. We decided to go for it; however, we would not have done it unless we were able to hit the ground running by doing it right.

One year later, we’re proud to announce that this expansion has worked out great for everyone. Not only is our business up, we’re also in a great position to help more of our current customers and new customers too. More than once, we have heard our customers say that they had been going to the Volkswagen or Audi dealer but now they would bring the car to us and get the same level of expert care and cost savings. For the last year, with every work order, we’re handing our customers a flyer to give them an additional price break on future service or repair work.

In preparation for our expansion early last year, I hired two people, one in management and one out in the shop. Our office person has a lot of experience in that field, so he takes care of all the daily tactical decisions. Our newest mechanic is an Audi and Volkswagen certified tech, so our current customers continue to enjoy the same level of great service they’ve received on their BMW’s.

So far, it is been a great financial decision as well. Our business is up 40% when compared to the same time last year. Some of that is due to the Audi and Volkswagen work, while the rest is growth from our BMW customers. So, the goal was to add volume in car count and that’s exactly what’s happened. On top of all that, we’re also getting more value out of our advertising. Before, when we were targeting only BMW owners, we were reaching a very small percentage of people who owned that particular car. When we added the two car lines, there was no increase in our advertising budget; however, we’re getting a higher percentage of potential customers, so we’re very pleased we decided to go for it

How would You Like Your Car Cooked?

By Walter Ford

The goal in our shop is to always shoot for 100% customer satisfaction, because if you fall a little short you are still okay. I know I harp on customer service all the time, but I came up with an analogy for our staff that compares the auto repair industry to the restaurant business. I have been in the restaurant business before, so I know how demanding it can be.

I recently had a long conversation with Alex, our service writer. I try to help my staff understand what their role is in the shop and have tried different ways, but it never really sunk in. I realized that I needed to come up with an analogy that they could understand.

I basically told him we need to act as though we were a restaurant. The restaurant business is the hardest business in the world because it’s completely subjective. You can have the cleanest restaurant, the best food and the greatest service, but if there is a little bit of wine running down the glass when you set it down, that could completely ruin your customer’s evening. Even the ambience of background noises and sounds from the street are going to make the difference whether the customer will have a good experience or a bad experience.

I explained to Alex that our business was no different than a restaurant. I said, "Alex, you are just like a waiter. If a customer comes through the front door and say's I want steak and eggs but you write on the board hash browns and potato salad and then hand that back to the chef (the techs), what do you think the customer is going get?

It's very important that “our waiter” not only listens to the customer but writes down what the customer wants and gets it exactly to the letter. When the customer says, “I want steak medium rare, potatoes on the right and all the condiments on the side, the waiter must go back to the kitchen and convey exactly what the customer wants. When our techs are done and they deliver the order back to the front, it is incumbent upon the waiter to check the plate, which means it is incumbent upon our service writer to check that car before it’s delivered to the customer.

If a customer brings in their car and says it pulls to the right, has a slight shimmy and the oil needs to be changed, then when the customer comes in to pick up that car, our service writer is responsible to check to make sure each service has been completed. Same as a waiter needs to assure that the meal is plated and prepared correctly. Our service writer's job is complete quality control, the same as a waiter. If he test drives the car and still feels a shimmy, then he’s not going to call the customer and tell them it's done.

I told our entire shop the same story by saying that you guys are the chefs, so if Alex comes back here and gives you a request and it doesn’t make any sense, you need to say something. Everybody is responsible for quality control and everybody is responsible to the customer for delivering a complete and final product. Then and only then can you deliver the product.

Premium Gas vs. Regular Gas

By Walter Ford

The fuel that comes into the state is from a single pipeline. The factors that differentiate fuels between the different refineries are the additives that are put in. Some additives are better than others. Unfortunately, we’re running into fuels that have additional corn based ethanol, which is not good for our car’s engine. It destroys the fuel lines and makes engines less efficient. Instead of using something like saw grass, which grows on its own and is inexpensive to cultivate, we’re forced to use corn because it’s a little bit cleaner. My personal opinion is to get away from that and go back to using good high quality fuels with good additives.

Back in 2004, we had a problem with some engines having an issue with poor acceleration around 4,000-4,500 R.P.M.’s. I started playing around with some fuels and went to no name gas stations with low grade quality fuel. What I discovered was anytime I used anything less than 91 octane, the problem would return within a half a tank. If I used Chevron gasoline, the problem went away and did not return unless I was driving very aggressively.

About a month later, B.M.W. came out with a recommendation, stating that if you had a drivability issue with a B.M.W., the first thing they did was equip their dealerships with ethanol sniffers. If they sniffed a high concentration of ethanol in your fuel, they would tell you to stop using that fuel, go to Chevron and run two tanks through. If you continued to have a drivability problem, then come back. What B.M.W. did was parallel to what I was doing here at our shop. They determined that the high levels of ethanol in the fuel, along with lower quality additives were contributing to the problem. What would happen is the ethanol, when under the pressure of acceleration would have a wide fluctuation of octane ratings. Under medium to hard acceleration, an octane of 91 purchased at the pump tested as low as 84!

If you want to get better mileage, use the highest quality fuel. 

Number 1, it’s going to be more efficient. 

Number 2, it will have better detergents, so it’s going to keep your engine and fuel system cleaner. And Number 3, it will extend the life of the engine. If you’re experiencing ping and knock, the engine will pull the timing back and make up for that. Over a long period of time, this will become a problem.

No matter what kind of car you drive, I recommend that you do these two things: 

1. Get the highest octane gas possible. You can visit a website called top tier gas.com. Only buy gas from the stations listed on this website. 

2. Never let the fuel go below a quarter of a tank. With new cars, the fuel pump is in the tank and the fuel helps keep the pump running cooler. We’ve seen failures in engines of newer cars when our customers say they commonly run it on empty. Furthermore, if you have any particulate matter floating in the gas tank, the concentration increases as the tank gets lower in fuel. Your engine will last longer and run cooler.

Same Job at Twice the Price, Value?

By Walter Ford

Recently, a customer had his 2000 540i in the shop for a window regulator. He’s recently married and has a baby on the way. Consequently, he had purchased an aftermarket regulator and had a person local to him install it. I did counsel him against the aftermarket regulator as we’ve seen them fail very regularly and will not use them at Valley Motorwerks. His regulator immediately acted strangely and whined badly, prompting a visit to us to install the correct part, well, correctly.

What chaps my behind is that, in most cases, the customer was never made aware that the part was not original BMW. We got the door apart and the lack of quality was immediate and heartbreaking. After looking over the original invoice, it was clear that the other shop had installed it at the FULL retail BMW list price. We only have two cases where we installed the aftermarket unit. One was brought to us after an online purchase, the other; the customer demanded it due to the low price. Both failed within the week. As a matter of fact, the online regulator lasted about 2 blocks. I believe that this happens more often than not at non BMW specialists. They have little to no experience and only see dollar signs when a car rolls into their shop.

The customer with the 540i needed some regular maintenance work on the intake seals etc. We wrote him a quote last year, but due to the reasons above held off. In the meantime, he had taken his car elsewhere to have the oil changed since we are far from his home. The “shop” saw the oil leak that we had diagnosed the previous year and wrote him an estimate. They were charging just about double, the difference was staggering. It was so much more that my friend thought that maybe WE had missed something so he emailed the quote to me.

I asked Alex, our service writer, to go over the other estimate… almost line by line it was the same work we had recommended. When you perform this work, there are a few things you should do maintenance wise and it will save you money. It’s what we call crossover labor. The other “shop” listed everything out and in some cases double charged for labor. Additionally, the auxiliary water pump in the estimate was being sold for $1,000, double what we were charging. The attempted fleecing of my friend continued down the estimate line by line. Needless to say, after explaining this to him and going over the line items he could see what was going on.