Last evening, as I was thumbing through my April issue of National Oil and Lube News (NOLN), I began to reflect on why and how the folks in the independent automotive repair and maintenance business managed to take such a large chunk of service business away from the franchised dealers. Well, in truth they didn’t take it away…we gave it away…years ago…based on our focus on warranty work, our prices, and our indifference to the service customer. The really interesting thing, however, is that no matter how hard the manufacturers and many franchised dealers today try to regain that business, they are only met with moderate success.

That’s the main reason I decided to subscribe to the NOLN magazine and their free eNewsletter.  (Check out both at www.noln.net.) I wanted to learn how the “independents” continue to be so successful in attracting and retaining those who should/could be customers of the franchised dealers. One of those reasons will soon become apparent…based on how you responded to the questions in the title of this article.

If I asked these questions of most of my client dealers or GMs, less than 5% would have good answers; if I asked the questions of client service managers, less than 25% would have good answers; if I asked the owner or manager of an independent maintenance and repair facility, I’ll bet that more than 75% would have good answers. Why the differences? Because almost industry wide, the independents know what’s important, and they “measure what they need to manage.” (Probably haven’t seen that quote before, have you?)

When these same questions were asked at the “Lube Talk” forum in the April issue of NOLN magazine, here were a few of the answers:

1. What: Air Filters; Why: Easiest for our techs to perform; very visible to the customer; the geographic presence of “just plain sand, dirt, etc.”

2. What: Fuel Injection Service; Why: Rising price of fuel; on the manufacturer’s preventative maintenance schedule.

3. What: Tire Rotation; Why:  Provides great information to the tech…cause of uneven tire wear…discovering a bad strut…reviewing brake pad life; tremendous resource for additional upsell.

Should you know the answer to these questions about your service department? As a dealer or GM, only if you want to be in the 95th percentile; as a service manager, only if you want to be in the 75th percentile.  I hope that the most important realization from this exercise is that there is a whole group of additional questions you need to ask and answer on a regular basis. I assure you the independents are doing it.