Same or Different

What is the difference between one restaurant and another? They'll both serve eggs and home fries in the morning, and burgers and salads at lunch. One of the best ways to differentiate yourself from your competitors is to associate your BRAND NAME with QUALITY. Quality is described as something your customers get from you, that is associated with your product or services, and they see provides a value to them.

Read this month's entire Point of View below, for my take on Same or Different?

This is the time of year when many tool manufacturers spend their weekends talking to an important segment of their business, the mobile tool distributors. I was walking one of the shows recently with a relative newcomer to the business.
He lowered his voice and whispered to me, “Why do shop owners let more than one tool truck stop at their shops during a week?”
I looked at him uncomprehendingly. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I’ve been coming to these shows and I see all the same people (suppliers) here as the other shows, they just wear a different color shirt. It seems like there should just be one mobile tool distributor per shop.”
“Blasphemer!” I thought to myself. But then, the more I thought about it, I had to ask myself the question and answer it honestly.

It’s common knowledge that many small and large manufacturers supply products to the four mobile distributors under the private brand umbrella. Though each of the mobiles are primary manufacturers of some portion of their product line, the majority of their tools and equipment are sourced from other manufacturers. Some manufacturers sell to one or two of them, but many sell to all four. In some cases, they’ll sell just a small portion of their line to the mobiles, in others, the mobiles will take on a majority of the product line. To further complicate the scenario, the manufacturers also sell to the tool and equipment warehouses across the country. Most of the time, the manufacturers provide the exact same tool to all their customers, the only difference being the 3 P’s of Private Branding: Packaging, Product mix, and Pricing. Occasionally you will find a temporarily exclusive product at one or the other of the mobiles, this is rarely the case with the brick and mortar WDs.

So, back to the original question, “why do shop owners let more than one tool truck stop at their shops during the week?”

For the same reason you have more than one loyal customer. Just as the professional technician associates a quality tool with a certain brand, your customers have come to associate good, quality work with your brand, your company, your people. Don’t you offer the same services and repairs that a similar shop in town can do? Are your prices higher or lower? Aren’t you using the same tools and equipment to diagnose and repair vehicles? If that’s the case, you are no different than the mobile distributors. You just happen to have four walls and a roof around your business instead of sheet metal and tires.

People like to have choices. They like to believe there’s a special reason to choose one tool over another. They don’t want to believe that a screwdriver from Sears could be the same as a screwdriver from Mac Tools or Matco or Snap-on or Cornwell Tools. A purchasing thought process might go like this: “The handle is different. It feels more comfortable. The blade lengths are different. One has a lifetime warranty, one has a 5 year warranty. These are not the same. One is better than the other. That’s why I have to make the right choice.”

Each of the mobile distributors started with just three things: an idea of bringing tools to the individual technician, a product or products they were known for, and their brand name. They began with regional strength and grew nationally and internationally. The important thing to realize is how these four major tool distributors have come to differentiate themselves to their customers. You can learn from their success.

1 – Differentiation begins at the top. As the owner or leader of your shop, you need to set the course for your people. Develop a business philosophy and instill it in all your employees. After you have developed your philosophy for the business, be sure to think about and write out a business plan, with your philosophy as the guiding principle. You need to write a plan that has measurable goals. Know where and how you want to grow your business. Once you have done this, share the information with your people. It is important that they understand what you want to accomplish and how you expect to accomplish it so they can be a part of your success.

2 – Differentiation is carried out by your people. It can be as simple as wearing the same uniform to work every day, delivering a service on-time and as promised, or as complex as you care to make it. But as the leader, you must be sure your people understand and are passionate about what they are providing your customers when they come to work at your shop. They need to understand why you believe all auto repairs in your town should be handled by your shop. I would also recommend you ask your people why they want to work at your shop. This should provide an insight into why they think your shop is better than the rest, and can help you in future planning.

3 – Differentiation must be apparent and provide a value to your customers. Product differentiation is worthless if no one can tell you’re different. It’s equally worthless if the difference between you and a competitor doesn’t matter to your customer. With the right amount and type of differentiation, you can realize your potential for success and maximize your profitability.

Another way to look at your business is with the “3 P’s of Private Brand”. Apply the 3 P’s to your shop:

Packaging: Is your shop clean and tidy? Is the waiting area well-lit and clean? Are you and your technicians in uniforms? Do you wear name badges? Does your advertising tell your story? All these are your packaging.

Product Mix: Are you providing the right product for your customer mix? Are you a specialist (imports, domestic, underhood, brake and front end) or are you a generalist? Product mix is important. Having the right product mix is half the battle of success.

Price: Do you charge a fair price for the work performed? You don’t have to be the cheapest for your customers to know the value of your work. You don’t have to be the most expensive either.

The 3 P’s are part of what makes your shop different from any other in the area. They are a reflection of you and your leadership. Be sure you and your staff are comfortable with them

Why do shop owners let more than one tool truck stop at their shop? Because they know their technicians rely on their tools and equipment to operate efficiently, effectively, and profitably. And, just like your customers prefer some shops over others, each technician has his or her own brand preference when it comes to using professional tools and equipment.

2 shops, 2 comebacks, 2 weeks: My Life

In the past month, I've had more than $5,000 worth of repair work done to my vehicle. About $4,600 of it was due to a collision with an uninsured motorist. Fortunately my insurance company picked up the entire bill, less the deductible. I had the work done at a shop that was associated with a local dealership, because they have some sort of deal with my insurance company, AND they were conveniently located 50 feet away from the appraiser. When I picked up my car (earlier than they predicted - YAY!), I looked at it in dismay. What had been a 6-year-old Toyota front-end, had become a new-looking front-end, but something was not right. The missing license plate? The color? No, they did a great job matching the color. The headlights? Yes. They looked funny, and once I drove around in the dark, I found out they lit funny too! We looked under the hood - Mr. Polite Service Writer speaking slowly and evenly as he described how they replaced this, recreated that, and re-arranged the other, using some new, some re-furbed, and some parts from the local salvage yard (I am opposed to none of these - they all have their place in repair work). I asked about the cut-outs in the felt under my hood, "why are these spaces cut out?" "Oh, there should be information stickers there, I'll check on that for you." Hmmmmm. I was surprised they were able to make that hood look as beautiful as they did. Besides having left it looking like a wrecking ball had been dropped on it, late last year I blew a psiton through my engine, which shot like a bullet into the hood. The hole in the felt was still there, but the hood was as beautiful as the day it was born. Yet, even though I did a cursory walk-around with the service writer, and nodded as he told me the work that had been done, I was not happy and felt a slight sour feeling deep in my gut. My 6-year-old baby was no longer mine - it had become this re-habbed, re-furbed something other. The lines betwen the pieces and parts of the front end of my car were no longer parallel. One side had a slightly bigger gap than the other side. At another point, the lines widened - the fit and finish that Toyota is known for, was no more.
And yet I drove it home.

As I pulled in to my driveway, headlights askew, I bravely honked my horn to announce my arrival to the family and dog. Instead of that Asian two-tone horn I've grown accustomed to, I heard a weak single-tone bleat - as tho someone had stepped on a cheap red bicycle horn. That was truly the last straw.

The second bit of work (in my $5,000+ 2-week span)was to repair my front brakes, for a mere $500 or so. I had them repaired because after the accident, even tho the insurance company approved a "visual" of the brakes and the collision center reported them "ok", I didn't feel they had the same stopping power as they did the minute before the accident.

Short Story, Part One: Took the car back for additional bodywork. They fixed the horn, showed me where to find the stickers on the inside of my hood if I ever needed to read them, and re-pointed the headlights. Nonetheless, I can still put all the fingers from one hand through the gap between one of my headlights and the body of my car - NOT a Toyota finish, but because my insurance company and the shop guarantee the work for the time I own the car, I'm not going back a third time to complain. I am left wondering about the effect of additional exposure on my engine and all things under the hood that those extra spaces will make possible. But that's not all, the more I look at the way the hood and the front-end lies in relationship to the body of the car - it's just a case of hurry up and get it out the door. I am disappointed in the quality of their work, to say the very least. Very nice people, but.

On to the brake job.