JUST ONE THING
Maximizing Auto Repair Efficiency
Episode 147
With Rick White, 180BIZ
In this episode, I’ll talk about the ENEMY. Our minds are kind of wired that way. We're wired for the enemy. How many can give me a hands-up on a low productivity issue? We all have it. We're never truly running at full capacity. There’s always something that we can work on to help improve productivity.
Low productivity is a by-product of bottlenecks.
Here's the problem. Low productivity is a byproduct of bottlenecks. The mistake you all are making is you think your techs are the ENEMY. Your techs are not the ENEMY. When you see low productivity right away you think it's a motivation issue or it's an issue with your techs. You may think that they don't know what they're doing. Whatever the case is, in many cases, you set up a combative environment.
Your techs are just as frustrated as you are.
Believe me, your technicians are as frustrated as you are. They're just not saying anything because part of them thinks it's something they're doing wrong. What you should be doing is to separate the problem from the person. They are not the same.
Once you do that, you can go to your wonderful technician and say, “I need your help. You're a great tech. You're capable of 10 to 12 hours a day. I’m only getting five hours. It's not a you issue, it's an US issue. I need your help.”
It’s always more powerful to be collaborative rather than combative.
Do you see how this changes the entire dynamic? Whenever you're collaborative instead of combative, it's always more powerful. Here's why. (1) You're letting them off the hook. Now they don't feel like it's their fault. Believe me, they're walking around feeling like they're not doing something right. They know you're upset. They know you're not happy, but they don't understand why. They don't understand how to fix it. You think they should, but they don't.
By solving productivity together, you get the almighty holy grail of buy-in.
But when you can sit down together, you let them off the hook. You figure out what's going on together. And by doing it together, you will get the almighty holy grail of buy-in because they're part of the solution instead of it being dictated to them. You do not want them feeling like crap. You want them to feel like they're part of the solution. And when they're part of the solution, buy-in is a byproduct because they own it. It's not something you're telling them to do. It's something they came up with.
Your enemy is not your technician. “But Rick, I've got all the tools, all the flows, everything is there, and they're still not producing.”
Is the bottleneck because of your lack of communication?
Maybe the bottleneck is your lack of communication. Maybe it’s your lack of setting goals and minimum levels and not communicating. Maybe there's a training issue and you’re not dealing with it. When you are so busy just getting to the end of the day, there's no energy to grow it.
How can you show up differently this week to be more collaborative?
So how can you show up differently this week to be more collaborative with your techs and the rest of your team so that you're solving the situation together?
One of my clients was afraid to have this conversation with his staff. He was afraid he would lose people. He was afraid they’d check out or even walk out. However, you will build up the team environment when you solve the production issues together. And that’s exactly what he found. He was amazed at the amount of buy-in and how much his team wanted to work on this together.
Now, if you want more information on bottlenecks, we have a webinar, and if you decide to join our Pocket Business Genius series, there's a library of over 70 webinars to access. It's like having me in your back pocket all day long.
My Shop Owners’ Round Table is the second Thursday of each month at 7:00 PM Eastern. If you know someone who could use some help, get them in.
Then I have just one more favorite ask. Please share this video.
