CARS ARE GETTING MORE COMPLICATED:
THE IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING
by Greg Byler
I have
been known to go on and on about the importance of training. I do
so because of the need I see on a daily basis and, unfortunately,
it seems overall it’s getting worse instead of better. True,
there are more companies realizing that training is simply a cost
of doing business, putting training in the yearly budget. Some of
the better operators have gone as far as putting together a training
department. Unfortunately, this is overshadowed by overwhelming number
of other operators whose idea of training new employees is to simply
assign them to vacuuming and tires their first month, hoping they
will ‘catch on’ to the process. I refer to this as training
via osmosis.
This brings
me to the title of the article. The lube I started at many years ago
had just opened when we encountered our first diesel with a canister
oil filter. Canisters were not common back then, so when a canister
filter was coming in the bay, the manager on duty would simply key
on the filter and it was his job to complete the oil filter change.
As we began seeing more canister oil filters, more people began getting
trained on doing the canister oil filters. The manager trained himself
out of the job, which left him to do more essential duties.
At that
time, dealers saw oil changes as a waste of their time and gladly
gave the oil change business away to fast lubes. Since then, there
has been a shift in the mood of car manufacturers. In an attempt to
get car owners back to dealers and away from fast lubes, auto manufacturers
have made a concerted effort to make cars less serviceable to the
average ‘do it yourselfer’. This sounds like a good thing
for fast lubes, right? Doesn’t fewer DIYers and more do-it-for
me people mean more customers for lubes? Not necessarily. Here are
a few things the dealers have done over the years to slow down DIYers
and later fast lubes too.
First,
there was the ‘check engine’ light that seemed to go on
and go off inexplicably. Soon after came ‘in-pan’ canister
oil filters and oil filters that were located so that it made removal
next to impossible unless you were double jointed. Vehicles that didn’t
need tune ups or coolant changes until 100,000 miles; ‘sealed
for life’ automatic transmissions, with no dipstick to check
the level and no service intervals. Then there are the ‘dealer
only’ gear oil and lubricants. One of the latest variations is
‘change oil soon’ lights that are triggered not by the actual
condition of the oil, but instead by algorithmic calculations.
The manufacturers
are doing these things for the benefit of the dealers and for themselves
as well. The more often a car (and therefore its owner) gets to the
dealer, the higher the likelihood that the car owner will become a
‘new’ car owner. So whether it’s the parts the manufacturers
sell the dealers for repair or the new car that gets sold, big car
manufacturers are winning by getting your customers back into their
repair bays.
Many dealers
have even taken matters in their own hands by building fast lubes
into the service bays or even gone as far as constructing stand-alone
lubes on the dealership property.
So what
does this all have to do with training? By making regular maintenance
harder for DIYers, manufacturers are forcing DIYers to become DIFM’s
banking on the consumer coming back to the dealer for service. These
changes also make it harder for fast lubes to service cars. Training
lube techs on proper procedures for servicing new makes is critical
and practice makes perfect. This will pay off in customer confidence,
as well as lower damage claims. When a DIYer brings in his new and
seemingly complicated ‘high tech’ car to your shop, he will
be paying close attention to how well you negotiate the service of
his vehicle. When the lube tech proceeds very quickly and efficiently
under the hood without hesitation, the car owner is put at ease and
will feel comfortable and return again for service. Fumble through
the service and he will search for other places to service his car.
Chances are he will opt for the dealer. If we are going to keep up
with the changes manufacturers are making, training is the only answer.
With flat
or declining car counts, we cannot afford to lose a single customer.
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