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 EDUCATION & TRAINING
No Free Rides
One of my most persistent personal experiences has been that there are a fair number of people who believe that the mechanics they know should be willing to work on their vehicles for free. And they don't feel guilty for expecting it, even when a mechanic works for hours and hours fixing their cars. From their point of view, mechanics should be willing to help out motorists because they love what they do.
It has also surprised me how often a mechanic who works on commission at a regular shop is expected to do work literally for free. Perhaps you've been there? There are a lot of hours we have to put into troubleshooting vehicles that have irritating intermittent problems. One can spend several hours trying to duplicate a concern that may or may not happen. Some shops are reluctant to charge the customer for those hours, and they offset this by not paying the technician.
Many times, in those kinds of shops, if the technician makes an educated guess while repairing a car and turns out to be wrong, he's 'married to the car' and loses even more time trying to make things right. Those hours are unrecoverable and represent a lot of work the average technician (if he's a troubleshooter) has to spend working for nothing except a smile and a pat on the back for trying. Meanwhile, the bills are piling up at home and groceries still have to be bought.
There's also the customer's perspective to consider. Let's look at a few actual case studies that have crossed my path, and the 'lessons learned' that inspirated me to build that better relationships with customers:
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Find satisfaction in fixing customers' cars
for less money than they expect to spend.
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One time a farmer brought his truck to the dealer and handed the cashier a blank check. "My truck is skipping," he said, expecting a large bill. "I want it fixed." What do you think the outcome would be if you did that at just about any car dealership today? I was told about the blank check when I drew the ticket. I wound up replacing one spark plug wire, resulting in a $20 invoice.
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Thinking first, rather than throwing parts, solves problems.
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In an attempt to get his van straightened out, a guy drove all over the area, paying first one shop and then another. By the time he finally limped through our gate, he had spent a total of $725 at the other shops. While he watched, I removed the engine cover, found a wire harness scratching on a bracket, did a simple repair and charged him $25. He was stunned at how quick and easy it had been to fix, after all the other shops threw first one part and then another at it, each charging him a lot of money before sending him on his way.
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Too much might just be worse than too little. Learn to be prudent.
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A lady called to tell me that her 2000 Malibu ran very weakly. She had already spent $2,000 bouncing around from shop to shop trying to get her car fixed, but nobody had figured it out. Everybody else who worked on the car got paid, but she remained unsatisfied. When she finally made it to the dealer I worked at, we found that it was 2 quarts over-full on transmission fluid. In most cases, that usually causes a transmission leak, but not on that car. You see, that model doesn't have a dipstick — you're supposed to remove a red cap from the top and a plug from the lower side of the transmission and pour fluid in the top until fluid runs out the hole on the bottom. When it stops running out, it's full. Somebody had figured too much was better than not enough and had poured too much fluid in it. She paid our $5 basic charge.
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You have rights too. Exercise them. Give back on your terms.
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One Sunday morning, a local farmer knocked on my door at about 6 a.m. It seemed that his irrigation engine hadn't been started all winter long, and he was wondering if I could go and help him get it going. He had purchased the parts, and I agreed to do the job. After a few hours work, I screwed a new set of spark plugs in, replaced the points and condenser in the distributor, connected batteries in series to get enough voltage to spin the engine fast enough so it would start and set the ignition timing by ear. "How much do I owe you?" he asked. "About $20," I replied. He dug a 20 out of his wallet with a pained expression on his face and handed it to me. Later in the morning, I dropped it in the offering plate, because I was feeling a little guilty at having earned the money on Sunday.
A few days later I saw his blue pickup sitting beside the road with the hood up, and him tinkering with it. I pulled my pickup over to the side of the road and asked what was going on. "I don't need any help," he tried to wave me off. "Hogwash," I told him. He had no idea what he was doing and we both knew it. I repaired a poor connection at the ignition switch and fired the truck up. He reached for his wallet, sighed and asked, "How much do I owe you?" I replied, "When I stop and help you, it's free," I replied. "But when you knock on my door at six on Sunday morning you'll pay me. Did I charge you too much for working on that irrigation engine?"
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I could go on and on, but hopefully, you get the point. Many of you likely have a story you could also share. But let's get serious here for a moment.
In the United States today, there are more cars registered than there are licensed drivers. With that in mind, it's not a stretch to say that most of us would give up just about any other piece of technology we own before we would give up our vehicles. Why is that? Our cars give us a measure of freedom we simply can't get any other way. So those cars deserve more from us than just oil and gas.
If we treat our vehicles right and keep them maintained, they will continue to provide the service we expect. But somebody has to do that service work. Somebody has to know enough to find out what's wrong when things go wrong. The increasing complexity in vehicles today makes this even more important. Every minute of a technician's time is worth paying for. It's getting harder every year to find capable, seasoned technicians who can surgically repair vehicles without fleecing the people who own those vehicles. Competence is worth paying for.
Where once I fixed cars, I'm now trying to do my part to help fix an industry. Twenty-first century technicians (and students) have to know some elements of chemistry, metallurgy, physics, electricity (AC and DC, including high voltage), electronics, hydraulics and even computer science. We don't need new technicians who are less than committed to excellence and quality. Those who enter service bays must do good work with integrity.
My personal mantra for teaching is Performance, Attitude, Integrity, and Dependability - an acronym that spells PAID. If a shop owner, technician or aspiring student is short in any of those four areas, he or she won't get paid much or for very long. That's why I teach, and that's who I am.
(Editor's Note: Richard McCuistian is an ASE Master technician and a Ford-certified Level III Master Engine Technician. An expert in driveability and electronics, Richard is currently an automotive instructor at LBW Community College's Technology Division in Alabama and a contributing editor to several industry trade publications.)
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