Creative Tension

Creative Tension…

They call the strain that manifests itself when you’re trying to reconcile your “Current Reality” – where you find yourself in life at any given moment – with your Vision for the future, “Creative Tension.”

Tension, because of the pressures leaving your comfort zone to do new and different things brings with it: creative, because of the new and different things you generally have to do in order to transcend your current reality.

Most of us have experienced “Creative Tension” at one time or another in our lives; we just didn’t know it had a name. It’s that uneasy, uncomfortable feeling that washes over us every time we challenge ourselves with something new, something different, something more.

My entire professional life has been filled with creative tension. It’s an integral part of the changing technology that is the automotive service aftermarket and the many different hats I’ve learned to wear moving from ‘pump jockey’ to ‘driveway salesman;’ ‘mechanic’ to ‘technician’ and, then, ‘shop owner;' ‘trade journalist’ to ‘seminar facilitator’ to ‘author.’ It’s become a natural element of remaining successful in an infinitely changing environment, a survival skill in an ever-changing world.

A natural element of my creative tension is leaving the shop. I say that as if leaving is a ‘bad thing.’ It’s not… Not if you’re leaving for training, education or to expose yourself to new and different ideas all focused on creating a better experience for everyone involved in your business: clients, associates, vendors… everyone.

OK… Leaving for vacation every once in a while isn’t such a “bad thing” either! But, either way, leaving still involves not being there and not being there is still stressful. 

Being someplace else, doing something else – regardless of what that ‘something else’ might be. Even in a digital world, your physical absence still involves some loss of connection, which is generally accompanied by a fair amount of discomfort.

The stress I feel isn’t due to lack of confidence in our people… Nothing could be further from the truth. We have a great crew and as different as our backgrounds and experience might be we all have one thing in common. We all have a profound and very personal sense of what it is to serve. We’re all proud of the profession we’ve chosen as well, and approach what we do deliberately with enthusiasm and a real understanding of the responsibility we’ve accepted when it comes to the service, maintenance and repair of our customer’s vehicles. We also understand how important it is for our clients to have the freedom to go wherever it is they want to go with the security and confidence of knowing they will be able to return home safely.

This is what you think about at 35,000 feet on the way home from two meetings focused almost exclusively on “Best In Class” automotive service delivery. It’s what you think about after almost a full week spent discovering new and different ways to improve and enhance the relationship you share with your client base – improve and enhance it from the client's perspective as the purchaser of automotive service: the client's perspective as a customer.

Something else you think about is how you are going to balance the creative tension you know will accompany integrating these new concepts into your service mix without compromising the same high quality customer care our client’s have come to expect from us. 

The good news is the kind of creative tension I’m feeling as I consider everything I’ve experienced over the past ten days: everything I’ve listened to and learned, is every bit as exciting as it may be stressful. Things like moving toward a more Customer-Centric service delivery model: looking at the whole process and every conceivable interaction through the customer’s eyes, managing diversity in the workplace, engaging Generation “X” and Generation “Y” clients, coping in a web-enabled world and much, much more.

As far as I can see it’s all good and more than exciting enough to drive us into a shared and mutually beneficial future: a future much more consistent with the Vision I have for all of us. A Vision worthy of the Creative Tension that is certain to accompany its achievement…  

Living Inside My Own Head...

I spend a lot of time thinking and writing about our industry. I've been doing it a long time. Long enough so I can't remember not doing it.

For years, it was just one column flowing from the office and the shop floor. Then, it was a second column written to distribution and manufacturing. Now, it's two columns, this blog, the bi-monthly webcasts I've been presenting for the past year and a monthly newsletter produced for our customers and clients.

That's a lot of time lost in thought, analyzing what shop owners like me go through every day: a lot of time spent trying to capture the most important elements of our experience well enough to share them in a host of different venues. Something has to drive the kind of extreme commitment that draws you to your home office every night and every weekend for hours at a time. There has to be a pretty powerful "Why?" 

Well, if it's true that beliefs influence purpose… and, purpose drives behavior… here are mine.

I believe the motoring public deserves the finest quality parts and the best possible service available... provided they are willing to make the investment that kind of service and those kinds of parts require.

I believe members of the repair community deserve more... provided we make the necessary commitment and are willing to invest in our profession, our industry and ourselves.

I believe just as strongly that unless we can differentiate ourselves: our ability and the quality of our service from those in our industry who are not willing to do as much or go as far, we will never achieve the respect or reap the rewards we have worked so hard for.

I believe we do this through explanation, education and our actions and interactions with the vehicle owner.

Those beliefs have given my life purpose and that purpose fuels virtually everything I write: everything I do.

One of the things that bothers me most about our current reality is the fact the technology repair professionals deal with every day has all but escaped the vehicle owner in virtually every aspect of the vehicle's operation.

The automobile once acted as a kind of "technological bridge" between the average man or woman and the world in which they lived. You could move the throttle and watch fuel squirt into the venturi. That technology was not only visible, it was almost understandable. It was easy to understand how points worked: you could see them open and close and you didn't need an Owner's Manual to tell you when to change the oil: engines were less efficient and you could almost see the contaminants turn the oil black while you watched.

Today, that bridge is down. The vehicle has infinitely more computing power than anyone could purchase and put on their desktop. The vehicle's on-board computer is exponentially faster and more powerful: period!

They don't understand computerized engine management, active suspensions, modern lube requirements, extended service intervals, controlled vehicle comfort systems, anti-lock braking systems or in-vehicle entertainment any more than they could tell you how their home thermostat, refrigerator, entertainment center or Wi-Fi works. They don't know - or, care - what makes their 3-D, 60" LCD Flat Screen function. They just want it to work.

They want their vehicles to "work" also. The only problem is the vehicle is maintenance intensive and justifying that maintenance demands explanation and understanding.

I've started writing about these maintenance-related issues and more  more for you - our customers, and the general public, in the hope it will help tell our side of the maintenance story.

It's my hope that by sharing what’s inside my head we’ll be a little closer to getting to where we need to go: a place we will never see unless or until you both know and understand what your automotive service professional is doing and why he or she is doing it… what you need to do and why it's in your best interest to do it.

Till then, stay well, take care, make money, have fun and don’t do business with anyone you don’t like. That's the same advice I've been giving shop owners for years. There’s probably a good reason you don’t like that person whoever they might be and there’s no need to find out what that reason is!

Mitch

Lemme Splainit Tooya... Again!

I think I’ve spent half the time I spend at the service counter wondering why I spend so much time at the service counter.

I know it’s an integral part of the job. And, I know I love my ‘regulars,’ the customers, clients and friends who have been coming in and coming back forever. I really do!

They make me smile and reinforce the resolve you need to do this every day, especially in this economy.

I like people… in general. And, I really do appreciate the important role we play in the lives of the people we serve. I also understand and appreciate that service is a verb as well as a calling and a privilege.

It’s the people who magically appear after a prolonged absence as if they were still coming in regularly every three or four months I find the most likely to have problems like these. It's as if they've forgotten why they came to you in the first place, how much they trusted you or the great job you did finding their problem or fixing their vehicles.

However… And, I know you’ve been waiting for the ‘however’ to appear – I don’t like or appreciate having to explain things: the same things, three or four or maybe even five times before someone at the counter ‘gets it.’ That is, if they ever ‘get it’ at all.

 Now, that statement clearly needs some explanation. Or, at least, I feel it does and since I’m the one whose fingers are tap   dancing all over the keyboard, I get to decide.

People who were once regular customers and for one reason or another haven’t been back because: they purchased a new car, ran into to financial difficulties, moved out of the area or decided they would like to try something else, someone new… and, then returned because that new vehicle is finally out of warranty, they are back in the ‘black’ again, moved back or realized that we look pretty good compared to a lot of the automotive service possibilities out there are always welcomed home and welcomed home as if they never left.

The people who have been everywhere else, to everyone else... and, then returned because we’re up next in the rotation are a “whole ‘nother story!”

As an example, the person responsible for this particular piece – just appeared after a two year and 20,000 mile absence. Two years ago, she came in for a problem and a cost-free general inspection. We performed the inspection, came up with the solution to her problem and solutions to at least a dozen other problems she was both aware and unaware of. She said thank you and left.

This time, she was back for a severe oil leak… and, another inspection.

I told her the inspection would have to wait a day until we cleared our schedule sufficiently to actually look at the vehicle and I told her how much it was going to cost.

“You’re going to charge me for the inspection? You didn’t charge anything last time…” She said.

“Last time you had less than a couple of thousandths of an inch of friction material left between the brake pads and the rotors. It’s 20,000 miles later and the brakes aren’t making noise. I think you may have had someone else do the brakes. You might want to ask them to look for the oil leaks for free…”

She left the vehicle…

It was assigned and the tech started the inspection with a road test. He got to the driveway, put the vehicle in reverse and slowly backed into a parking space. When he got out of the vehicle his face was ashen and he was shaking. The vehicle had no brakes. Even after pumping the pedal it would barely stop. We finished inspecting the vehicle and created an estimate for the list of problems we were able to identify, both new and those remaining from the first inspection, starting with a failed brake master and booster.

She returned to the shop that evening with a friend… her resident ‘expert.’ I told her about the oil pan gasket that was leaking, the front seal and the valve cover gaskets. I also took a minute to explain that oil leaks were like ants at a picnic: there is no such thing as just one and it was likely there would be residual oil leaks, albeit smaller ones!

I told her about everything else we had found and then I paused, took a deep breath and asked, “Is there anything special you forgot to tell us about your brakes… Like, there is a terrible hissing noise when you step on the brakes, the brake pedal goes all the way to the floor and the vehicle won’t stop…?”

“Oh, she stops… But, you do have to pump the brakes really fast and really hard. And, I guess there is that noise when you step on the brakes. But, I haven’t really paid much attention to it…”

Another deep breath, “But, it doesn’t want to stop… How and where do you drive this vehicle?”

“Just to school and back when I take the kids…”

I took another deep breath and went over the inspection and the estimate again with both the owner and her expert and then asked her what she would like us to do… She was focusing on the oil leaks when I stopped her.

“We’re not going to touch the vehicle unless we’re asked to fix the brakes first. If you want anything else done other than brakes you can take it some place else. But, you’re going to have to tow it because I won’t let anyone drive it off the lot in its present condition.

It doesn’t matter how the vehicle runs or much oil the vehicle is leaking because nobody should be driving it without brakes! None of the other problems matter either – not until you get the vehicle to stop!”

We did the brakes…

She came back the following evening to pick up the vehicle and we went over it all again – twice.

She told me how great we are and how happy she was and that she would be back to see us in a couple of months to get the rest of the work done. I smiled. That’s what she told us two years ago.

I guess we’ll have to see whether or not she makes it into that treasured group of regular customers that either returns after a short break or remains with you; or, the group that leaves to start a new cycle of visits to every other shop in town.

I’m OK either way. First, I'm OK because we were paid and paid well for both the inspection and for what we did. So, I don’t really feel too bad about what we didn’t get to do.

And, second, having to say “Lemme ‘splainit twoya… again!” may actually be a good thing. If nothing else, it helps you appreciate the clients, customers and friends for whom it isn’t necessary.