Complete Repairs Provide Value-Added Service to Customers by David Brooks Import car owners don’t expect to spend a lot of time in repair shops. That’s the main reason most of them bought an import vehicle in the first place. For many, their only service experience has been routine mainte- nance, often at the dealership or possibly the quickie oil change places. Now, they’re out of warranty, need some work done and have selected your shop, probably because of a friend, co-worker or family member’s recommendation. Let’s put ourselves in their place for a moment. What are their expectations and anxieties concerning the repair process? There’s no motorist left in America who hasn’t seen one of the “20/20” or “60 Minutes”-type auto scam expo- sures. Book stores are full of titles such as, “What Auto Mechanics Don’t Want You to Know,’ and “How to Avoid Getting Mugged by Mr. Goodwrench.” The “If You Can’t Trust Sears, Who Can You Trust?” mentality is wide- spread. Millions listen to syndicated automotive talk shows such as “Car Talk,” which although highly entertaining and informative, aren’t exactly repre- sentative of the typical shop owner’s approach to all things automotive. In short, consumers don’t automa- tically assume this will be a pleasant and hassle-free experience. Some will even anticipate that you will try to do work on their vehicle that isn’t actually need- ed. For these customers, you are effec- tively guilty until proven otherwise. These are the cards you’ve been dealt. So, how do you best play them? This can put you in an awkward position. You must balance the cus- tomer’s need to have the work done competently (yet as cheaply and quickly as possible) with your professional need to see that all the work needed is properly done, in a reasonable amount of time, using first line parts. And you must make a fair profit so you can continue to invest in the personnel, training and equipment that allows you to (1) fix it right the first time, (2) have a reasonable expectation that it will stay fixed and (3) build a “customer-for-life” relationship in the process. Or, as the coach told his pitcher when the league’s best hitter came up to bat with the bases loaded, “don’t walk him, but don’t give him anything good to hit either.” The Wrenching Dilemma In a perfect world, motorists would be able to describe their vehicle’s symp- toms exactly, would have complete knowledge of its previous maintenance and service records and would possess a degree of technical literacy enabling them to understand the complexities and “inter-relatedness” of modern automo- tive systems. On your end, you would be able to diagnose the exact cause of the problem at first glance, the cost of all necessary replacement parts, and exactly how long the repairs would take. This may happen in a parallel universe but not often in these woods. More likely, the car is dropped off with little more explanation than the brakes have been squealing “for some time,” or “there’s been these little red or green or kinda yellowish-black splotches on the driveway,” or maybe “the little red light in the middle started coming one a week ago and now it’s pretty much on all the time.” These statements invariably end with “how much will it cost to fix and I really need it back this afternoon.’ You’d actually love to have them ask for a written estimate, because that means they’d stay around at least long enough for you to take a test drive or run some preliminary diagnostics. In the real world you usually have to take an educated guess on both the problem and the estimated cost. Customers assume the parts are readily available, at least they do if it’s their first import vehicle repair situation. So, they go back home or to the office, and both of you dread that follow-up call in a couple hours after you’ve had a chance to take a better look. You might even start feeling a little guilty asking them to authorize additional repairs for problems that couldn’t jump up and scream, “FIX ME, FIX ME” while the customer was still in the shop. Come to think of it, that customer did look a lot like Mike Wallace, didn’t he? New and early-relationship customers might still be skeptical and wonder for just whose best interests you are looking out. This is where your work has been cut out with large, confrontationally- tipped scissors. Fortunately, most of your longer term customers trust your opinion and know that your primary interest is in restoring their vehicle’s performance and level of safety. There’s nothing like a good track record to pave the road ahead. Here your risk is in not recommending additional repairs or a more frequent maintenance schedule. As the poet Ogden Nash pointed out, you’re judged just as harshly for sins of omission as for sins of commission. The repairs you don’t recommend could hurt you, and your customers. Losing the occasional customer because you insisted on doing the job right or not at all is just a cost of doing business. The savi