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.