Dan:
Okay. Jimmy Alauria, Victory Teambuilding Group, here with Dan brown. Jimmy. Thanks for the time.
Jimmy:
Glad to be here, Dan.
Dan:
Yeah. Hey, so we’re gonna do the first of a number of podcasts here. We’re gonna do it video style. So it’s available so people can see the video. Not that there’s gonna be a bunch of visuals here, but what are we talking about today?
Jimmy:
We’re gonna talk about hiring. One of the biggest problems in the industry right now is finding good people, whether it’s technicians or service advisors. So we’re gonna talk about that process and what it takes today.
Dan:
Okay, good. And you’ve got some amazing successful tips for other shop owners who are struggling with this problem; we don’t want to get into necessarily the reasons behind it, but we’ve got some interesting things happening in the job market created by a number of things. COVID, the economic stimulus, etc. And people are staying home and still being paid. It’s creating an interesting shortage. You’ve come up with some great ideas to overcome that shortage – things that you’ve done prior to this shortage, but that got you quality people. Is that right?
Jimmy:
That’s right.
Dan:
Good. So let’s talk about how to recruit when looking for a tech. You told me about some interesting things. You mentioned PR events. Tell me a little bit about what that is and what does that mean for a shop owner?
Jimmy:
Well, you know, you are always looking at public relations from the standpoint of what does the community, or what do your customers think about your business? And rarely do we really look at what is public relations mean to potential employees or to the public of people that would want to work for your shop? You know, so it’s not just about public relations in the community, meaning your direct target market for new customers. It’s also the community of shop owners, technicians, service advisors, the tool guys, the parts delivery people, the parts suppliers. There’s a public relations area there too, that we need to focus on as well.
Dan:
Nice. I want you to touch on those points because back when we were talking about this originally, which blew my mind, really, I had no idea about this culture that exists. You brought up the point that there are people out there that are getting data about what’s happening in your shop. And that gets around the community of technicians and employees of shops and how important it is to know what your public reputation is like in those environments. Give me a little sampling of the good and the bad and the ugly on that.
Jimmy:
Well, you know, what’s funny is we recently did a survey and between me and a couple of other shops we’ve surveyed over 150 technicians across the US. And we have found that one of the main things technicians do when they, when they’re looking for a shop or they’re looking for a job, is they’re talking to each other. So whether that’s through social media or just their direct friends, you know, technicians know technicians.
Dan:
And forums probably, you know, online forums and Reddit and the communities and such.
Jimmy:
That’s right. You know, so they’re on Facebook groups together. They’re on Facebook groups that are closed to owners. I mean, because there’s some owners that are technicians that are in those groups. I see, but guys are networking together. Whether we wanna look for it or not, there they are, they are networking, they know other technicians and the day you go up and you say, I’m looking for a technician guys, I need some help. Do you guys know any technicians? And they’re all “mums the word”, you know, like, “nope” (laughs). You know, because there’s a little bit of a side of a technician that one, you know, maybe their buddies, a guy who can flag 50 or 60 hours, they don’t wanna bring that much production into the shop because that might hurt their paycheck. So sure. You know, these guys do know each other and they do network and, and by survey we’ve found that about 50% of the guys, when they, you know, when they’re looking for the reputation of a shop that they might interview with is they’re asking other technicians or they’re asking the tool guy, or they’re asking the parts houses.
Dan:
Right.
Jimmy:
So that PR out in the automotive community is crucial.
Dan:
So let’s talk about that. I can absolutely agree with you. And you know, I take a look at, within the groups and communities that I’m involved in when it comes to things I wanna know more about. And I wanna check. Yeah, I’m gonna check out the place that I’m looking at. As a consultant, I look at the business and the Google profile, the reviews and stuff, but let’s talk about, these are things that somebody might think they cannot control. How can I control what somebody thinks about my shop? You have come up with some amazing ways to build that external credibility. Can you share some of those?
Jimmy:
Yeah. Well, I mean, one of the main ones was a couple years ago we started working with other shop owners in town, it was just a couple of us elite shops in the city of Phoenix. None of us are necessarily what we would call competition. We were spread out enough amongst each other. But what we started doing was training events and we weren’t waiting for the parts houses to put these training events on. We actually came together and one of my good friends actually started this and we’ve started doing trainings at our shops. So rather than go to a Napa sponsored training or just an independent training company, doing something at a hotel, we hired on a consultant trainer to come on. I think the biggest one we had, we had about 25 technicians at one of our shops and they did a Saturday training.
So they got there eight in the morning, had breakfast, now these guys are talking to each other and the shop’s in good shape, it’s clean, it’s organized. And so they get a chance to look around, you get to show off the equipment, because if you’re putting on that training, you know, like for those trainings we were using the the PECO scope, which is a diagnostic tool that is pretty popular right now. And so, you know, you could see that we had our diagnostic toolbox, where we have all of our original equipment scan tools. We’ve got a big monitor on there. We’ve got about a $25,000 toolbox. If you add up all the equipment, you know, again, technicians are seeing this stuff and not all of them that were at the training were in shops that were as clean and organized having the equipment that we have, and seeing what the ownership was actually putting there for the guys to make a living with.
Dan:
Right. And we’re not necessarily trying to get those guys. We’re trying to get people who they know. So when they hear from a buddy, Hey, I’m looking for a job. And they say, Hey, I was just over there at 3A Automotive and boy, it was just awesome, etc. That’s probably more of our target. Is that right?
Jimmy:
Absolutely. I mean, it’s public relations. We’re not, we’re not using it as a recruiting event, right. That’s not the point of it. The purpose of it actually is to train our technicians. And again, by survey, one of the main things that technicians are looking for is diagnostic and electronics training. They want that training. Now we’re talking in the independent space. That’s what they’re looking for. So not only are we putting that training on, we’re putting it on in a clean, organized shop, we’re bringing in top trainers. And so it’s all that good feel of, gosh, I would really like to be a part of this group, or, you know what I mean? Like when they have those guys that weren’t privy to being able to be at that training, they have a friend who’s a top guy, you know, is complaining that he is not making enough money or the boss is a jerk or whatever it is. Right. Sure. They’re going, well, hey, why don’t you go and give 3A a call and see if they’re looking, man, that’s a nice shop. They’ve got all the DIA tools. And they were part of this training group that I’m a part of.
Dan:
Right.
Jimmy:
Again, you know, public relations is “good works while publicized”. So it’s when other people are talking to other people about your shop.
Dan:
Right.
Jimmy:
Right. It’s not you bragging about how great your shop is and how great it is of a place to work. Right. It’s when those other technicians are talking to other technicians in that community, away from you, not intended by you, directly anyway.
Dan:
Sure.
Jimmy:
To talk positively and favorably about your company as a possible opportunity or a good place to work.
Dan:
Right.
Jimmy:
Actually, that’s what you’re trying to create.
Dan:
Right. You have just fulfilled one of the top things that came up in your survey recently about training. And I wanna know a little bit more about that because this came up, I think resoundingly towards the top. And you’re then showing this space, they see you you’re put together, they see the shop it’s put together, it’s clean, great tools, etc. And it creates a bit of a…
Jimmy:
…Chatter. Absolutely. Yeah. So you know, what we’re doing is we’re bringing in the guys that are coming to that type of training. Even if they’re young, they’re the guys that are looking to be the best. They wanna know the answers, they’re taking a Saturday. Some shops are open on Saturdays, ours isn’t but our guys will never turn down an opportunity to get that special training. Doesn’t matter if it’s on a Saturday or not. Wow. Now we actually even incentivize them to go to the training because it benefits our shop as well. But they will never turn down taking that day off of theirs for an opportunity to advance themselves. So you’re not talking about guys who are just going to a job. You know, these are the guys that are investing $100,000, $150,000 in their toolboxes.
And, and they know that they have a mental toolbox as well that they need to invest in. And if it’s available to them, they’ll go. They don’t want to go to the free trainings. You know what I mean? A lot of the top guys know that if O’Reilly or Napa are really any of the parts houses put on a training a lot of times, not always, but a lot of times, all that is is a supplier of theirs. You know, let’s learn about struts, the new technology of struts and shocks and they’re gonna be pitching their product the whole time. Now they might pick up a few tips, but the truth is, really the top guys want to go to that specialized training that is going to address the really advanced problems that they see in the trenches.
Dan:
Gotcha. Okay. Good. And then tell me about this. So you said you do incentivize them. I’m just curious about the structure of these events, the training and such, how does it roll out? What is the incentivization? You said, you mentioned they come for breakfast, you know, right down to the nitty gritty. Do you serve them lunch?
Jimmy:
Yeah, it’s a wine and dine event, you know, for the technicians, you know, you don’t wanna have ’em come in and they’re not fed first of all. And you know, ’cause some of them will eat. Some of ’em won’t, they’re expecting to be fed. So, you know, you provide a good breakfast for them. It could be just breakfast sandwiches and stuff like that, but something that’s that’s healthy. Good coffee, you know, give ’em some time and space. It’s not like they arrive at 8:00 and then at 8:10, you’re starting the training. It’s like, come in at 8:00, we’re gonna start about 8:30 or so, let these guys mingle, look around the shop, look at the equipment, talk to the trainers, talk to each other. Again, it’s a nice event. We’re giving them a little bit of … we’re acknowledging them for who they are, and the fact that they’re there, you know? And so we’re not just gonna throw McDonald’s breakfast sandwiches at ’em and say here, well, let’s go, let’s start the training. It’s not about that. Yeah. You know, lunch, you provide a good lunch, a catered meal, barbecue, you know, I mean look, technicians, typically aren’t guys that are gonna be going to be expecting, you know, some…
Dan:
You know, three course meal, right?
Jimmy:
Yeah. Fancy dancing, you know? Sure. But…
Dan:
Just something nice, something nice.
Jimmy:
Yeah, exactly. Something nice. Hearty, you know, I mean barbecue, some sodas, you know, they’re pretty easily pleased, but it’s that type of acknowledgement, you know, it just makes them feel important.
Dan:
Nice. And what’s the incentivization for attending? You said a lot of these guys would probably do it for nothing, but you do incentivize them, what would that be?
Jimmy:
Yeah, I mean, so on a training like that we’ll we’ll pay them. We just made like a flat fee of a hundred bucks. Okay. Some of my friends have paid them their hourly wage for however many hours. So if it was 25 and it was a four hour, that would be a hundred dollars. Usually the trainings are about six hours minus an hour for lunch maybe, maybe eight hours. So yeah, I mean it’s fine with them that, you know, it’s a little incentive to, to do that. We, we also incentivize ’em even if they do an hour, hour and a half training after work on a weekday. Sure. We’ll pay our guys $50 to go to those events. Right.
Dan:
And then would you say that, um, what it goes to like 3, 4, 5…
Jimmy:
Yeah, yeah. On a Saturday. Yeah. Yeah. So, so typically what we’ve done is, is had them arrive at between 8:00 and 8:30. And then the training will start at 9:00, we’ll break for a lunch and then they’ll go until 3:00 or 4:00, but they go over an hour, half hour just because they’re engaged and the trainers are really engaged, they’re not the type of guys that want to get out of there because it’s time to leave. I mean, they’re really engaged in teaching these guys what they know.
Dan:
And you created that network by reaching out to these other shop owners, creating a little bit of a get-together agreement about it again, far enough that they’re not extreme competition, but understanding that we’re all of a certain group and it would be beneficial to pool resources and economy of scale so that we don’t all have to individually pay for that trainer.
Jimmy:
That’s right. And you know we started initially with some of the guys as part of our ASA group – Automotive Service Association. Everybody’s got a local chapter. There’s some areas that have different groups like that. But you know, there was actually shops right down the street from me that were a part of these and I’m not worried about the competition. Right. You know, if one of their guys came to me and wanted to interview, I would not interview ’em. I, I would have a conversation with him first and say, hey, have you talked to Joe, the boss, about that you’re that you’re unhappy. And it’s not like they’re off limits completely, sure. Per se, you know what I mean? But you’re going to have the back of your fellow shop owner as well. You know, so somebody comes to you and says they’re looking for a job, you’re gonna tip him off. And I probably would respect the technician as well that he was looking but I would, I would tell the technician, go talk to the boss, you know, see if you can work this out first before, you know, I get…
Dan:
…Involved. Good. And before we get into what you’ve done with the tool and supply guys, which I think is just fascinating, is there anything else to PR events that, you know, that has helped, because you said, when you surveyed these guys, they’re reading the Google reviews, they’re going onto Google, looking at the photos, going into Yelp. If that’s applicable in the area, they’re going onto the website and checking you out, and this is what they are doing because you’ve surveyed them. And they’re checking into how is the shop? How is this thing run? So there is a reputation management aspect to these PR events. Is there anything else from a reputation management perspective that you think, or could advise other shops do to make sure that if somebody is checking around, they’re gonna see some good stuff?
Jimmy:
Yeah. And, that is so true. I mean, one of the main things that they say that they do when they are looking is they look at the shop’s reviews, like they go right to Google. They go right to Facebook and they’re looking at the reputation. So it does go right into your normal public relations activities. So it’s not okay to have 25 or 50 or no reviews. You want to have hundreds. You want to have a lot of exposure. And then what are people in the community saying about you? You know, I mean, we’ve had people referred to us that go to other shops and they found out that their service advisor or their mechanic is moving to another part of town, you know?
So through that public relations, that reputation that we have being referred to somebody, because we put an ad out on Facebook and our customer saw it. And, you know, you could see them forward it to this person who is moving across town. Right. So absolutely everything that you do, your reputation follows you around and whether that’s to hire somebody or it’s to attract a new customer or it’s to sell your business. Whatever you’re doing, your reputation is following you around. So it’s really important. And again, I didn’t guess at this, I mean, we’ve actually surveyed it in what they’re looking for. So, they are asking around and they are checking the reviews and just like a customer, it’s the same thing that’s what they’re looking for. They’re looking for those positive vibes, but also the pictures of the inside of the shop, the pictures of the equipment, all those things that we’re doing on Google and Facebook, the technicians are looking at that stuff too.
Dan:
Interesting. Now I’d love to get your agreement that in a future video podcast we go through what you have done because how many Google reviews do you guys have now at 3A?
Jimmy:
There’s 452.
Dan:
Right. So, um, are you willing to share some of your secrets in a future video? Yeah. Okay. Good. Absolutely. Great. Okay, good. So we’ll save that for then. I know what you do and I just think everybody would be fascinated with that.
Okay, good. So let’s talk about tools and supply guys. And you know, I know that we’re limited in our time here, but what you have done in this regard, I think is fascinating. So if you could just take it from step A on this, and why you did what you did.
Jimmy:
Yeah. So, well, there’s a couple things we’ve done. One, I wanna go back to the idea of public relations, and we all know as managers, shop owners, this industry, there’s some challenges and the type of people that you’re dealing with on the phone that don’t have the answers are looking up parts that you need yesterday. And, and it can be really frustrating, but I’ve also seen the other end of it where shop owners or managers, or whoever’s talking to the person on the other line, the parts guy, demeaning them, yelling at them, hanging up on them, calling them every name in the book, because they didn’t get their part there when they said they were going to. And as frustrating as I know it can be, if you get that reputation that you’re the the jerk or your shop is the jerk, because there’s somebody in your shop that doesn’t treat those guys with respect. What are those guys gonna tell a technician who says, man, you know, it’s been really slow around here. I think I’m gonna be looking for a job. Do you know of anybody looking?
Dan:
Right. Right. Right. Or if the guy specifically…
Jimmy:
That’s the guy that you just ripped into, right, has your next technician talking to him? (laughs)
Dan:
Well, or even the guy that says, hey, I’m looking at going over to 3A Automotive. Anything you could tell me about that? Because I’m sure they would ask that person.
Jimmy:
Yeah. And there’s very rarely does somebody say, yeah, they’re okay. You’re either creating a good effect or a bad effect. Right. You know, and that’s what all of your staff have to be thinking with whoever they’re dealing with on their phone, you know, somebody dials the wrong number, I’m always willing to help ’em find the right number. What are you looking for? Maybe they’re on the road and they’re on their phone and you say, oh, you’re looking for AAA, you know, or let me give you the number, but you’re creating positive effects. So yeah. I mean, you gotta look at who do the technicians talk to, who are the lines of communication that these guys are networking with? Where do they go?
They go to the parts houses. They go to the tool guys. They go to other technicians, some of ’em know other shop owners. They’ve worked for other guys and they still have a good relationship with them. So it’s the effects that you’re creating with these guys. So that’s number one. Really looking at how you’re talking to people on the phone, as maddening as it can be and getting the part on Friday afternoon at three in the afternoon, and this guy screws up, don’t demean him. You know what I mean? Can you get mad? Sure. But don’t demean these people, even when you’re not dealing with somebody with the highest IQ. Right. Because you never know when they’re going to be the one that’s that’s being asked, who do you know that’s looking.
Dan:
I guess a suggestion, we can talk about this in the future too, but in such scenarios, whether it’s, you know, a staff member or a supplier or whatever, if you need to get stern, get stern and do what you need to do, and then repair things after that’s done and put that all back together, put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Jimmy:
That’s right. When stress is high, tempers can flare sometimes and that’s exactly right. Call ’em up, send the store lunch. You know what I mean? It’s amazing what just an acknowledgement of and taking responsibility for a situation will do for people and, and they get stressed too. So they, they completely understand. So it’s a really good point. Absolutely.
Dan:
Yep. Good. So then, so what then do you do with these tool and supply guys? What was this thing that you told me about?
Jimmy:
Yeah. So, so recently what we’ve done again, looking at how do we get ahold of technicians? Like how do you get into the minds of enough guys to find out what they’re thinking? And because we assume we know, but I can tell you that I talk to shop owners all over the country and every single one of them, they say the same thing. They put an ad in there, but it’s not working, I’m not getting any responses. And it’s like, well, number one, we’ll talk about this a little bit later, but it does take a little bit different approach today, yeah. To communicate with the technician, and how much effort it takes. But also we’re assuming that what the technicians need and want is the same as it was. And so we found that we need to survey. And so what we did, we put a little game together. We found that that there’s certain opinion leaders in the area, meaning people that they look to, they ask questions to…
Dan:
Trust advice from and seek advice and guidance from…
Jimmy:
That’s right. And the Snap-On dealers, or Mattco or Mack. A lot of those guys have a fairly decent reputation. If the guys who are doing really well in their territories are taking care of their guys and they won’t get involved in recruiting and stuff like that. They kind of respect the position that they’re in, but at the same time, they are willing to help the industry. And so what we did was we put together a survey and we asked, we went onto the tool truck and we asked the tool truck to help us out getting surveys done. And it was an anonymous survey. And so what we did was we bought anywhere from $800 to $1,200 or one guy bought $1,500 worth of gift cards. I bought about $1,200 worth of gift cards. Yep. And we put a survey together and it was an anonymous survey so that we weren’t stealing anybody’s guys.
Sure. All we want is their opinion. Right. We want to know what they think. And we put a survey together that was strategically put together to find out what is important to the technicians. Now, how would this benefit the reputation of the tool guy? Well, one, he is giving away free stuff. So we’re taking these gift cards, and as an incentive for these guys filling out, they get put into a drawing where literally one in five is gonna win a hundred to $250 in gift cards. Wow. So they get free tools. The guy gets a nice, you know, $1,200 or $1,500 bonus on his truck right away. Right. And he gets to be a hero going around and, and for free giving guys tools.
And everybody knows that a technician is never gonna go onto a tool truck with a hundred dollar gift card and only spend a hundred dollars. It’s like trying to go to Costco and keep it under a hundred bucks. Right. It’s totally impossible. Even if you’re just buying for yourself. Right. Sure. So, you know, it’s free money. So, you know, now that $500 tool is $400 or that $200 tool is only $100. That’s really the way they’re doing it. So we’ve found that these guys are more than willing to help us again, allowing the technicians to remain anonymous. We’re not collecting identities, we’re collecting information. And I even told my tool guy, I said, look, you’re gonna have some owners that are coming on here and they’re gonna see this survey, tell ’em, if they’re curious about it, they can email me.
I will share every bit of the information that I gather with them. Right. It’s not just for me. I know what I know, and I know how I’ll use the information. I’m totally willing to share it with them. Right. We have an ongoing survey that is just about wrapping up. I haven’t had one guy reach out to me and ask for the information. Interesting. Yeah. But also we haven’t just used the tool guys. We’ve also used the industry trainers to do the same thing, you know, again, they have the lines to the guys and I don’t know exactly what they’re offering the technician trainers, but the same thing, you know what I mean? Like giving him some sort of incentive, it might just be, you know, VISA gift cards. But you know, some sort of a game, everybody likes a game. And everybody likes free stuff.
Dan:
I think it’s awesome. So now let’s talk about that. So what was the game that you gave these tool truck guys? How many surveys did they have to get done? When do they do the drawing? How does that work?
Jimmy:
I did 50. I wanted 50 surveys. So we broke it down into into $100 and $50 gift cards based on that. And I wanted 50. So that was the incentive to the tool guy that he’s got 300, 400 people coming on his tool truck every week. That’s not a high percentage of his guys to actually do it. And at times I’ve kind of been nudging them along like, hey, this is where we’re at. And so he has the identities. So he is like, give the raffle numbers. I wanna see who hasn’t filled out their surveys, ’cause I’m gonna nudge him along because again, he’s benefiting from it. And he’s asking his guys who he helps to help him out.
Dan:
Sure. The way you did it, you had a QR code and they just scanned the QR code and fill the thing out anonymously. Right.
Jimmy:
That’s right. So we created a little promo piece that that they could give out, a little postcard, had a QR code that the guys, they all carry their phones with them. Or even if they don’t have their phone, they give ’em the little postcard, scan the postcard and then they take ’em right to the survey. Again, it’s a totally anonymous survey. But the important thing that we’ve got was just looking through the information this morning because I’m, I’m getting ready to place another ad for technicians. And it’s like, well, let’s look through this information. What are they saying? And it’s mind…
Dan:
…Boggling. What are they saying?
Jimmy:
You know, I had this consideration for a long time that technicians had to live within, you know, 30 minutes of our shop.
Dan:
Okay.
Jimmy:
Well, the truth is, is by survey, these guys are willing to drive up to an hour and a half. And so the reason is like we’re in Phoenix, Arizona. So we’re the fastest growing city in the US. People are mostly coming from California. It is not uncommon for somebody to drive to their job for an hour and a half.
Dan:
Yeah. Two hours if you live in LA, 100%.
Jimmy:
Hour and a half, two hours. It’s like, that’s a breeze. No problem. That’s right. That’s just how I relax. They’re totally used to it. And so me being a native Phoenixian, I was used to people wanting to drive around the corner to go to their job. Well, Phoenix has changed. It’s changed over the last 15, 20 years since I’ve been working in this industry. I mean, I’ve been doing this for 20, 21 years now.
Dan:
So now that would be potentially different by survey data for somebody in Philly or somebody in here in, in Florida or wherever. So that, that data is specific and territorial, meaning it’s got geographic sensitivities. Correct.
Jimmy:
Very, that one is definitely geographically sensitive. Right. We, we have found by marrying up these surveys, we did different surveys. And luckily we did ’cause the initial thought was to do ’em all together and combine all the information into one. But luckily we didn’t because we have found there was certain questions like that… and I’ll give you another one here in a second. Like that question where the demographics of location are totally different. You know if you go to one of my friends that lives in central Florida, those guys don’t wanna drive very far. Right. You know, they want to be, they wanna be close to their shop. It’s not an hour and a half, you know, an hour drive. Now I probably wouldn’t go over an hour, but I just recently had somebody apply just, it was a referral. Not a technician, but a service advisor and they’re about an hour. And before I would’ve thrown the lead in the trash. Wow. But I told my manager, I said, let’s talk to this lady because she’s already driving further than that. And she was a personal referral. And again, doing the survey, it wasn’t necessarily, she’s not a technician obviously, but it it’s just a reality that they’re willing to drive a little further.
Dan:
Nice. What was the other question that you you say was, uh, buried…
Jimmy:
Pay range – how much did a technician make.
Dan:
So you asked that question point blank on the survey.
Jimmy:
How much? Yeah, we asked them, what should a top technician be making, not in this town. We just said, what should technicians be making. And we found in Phoenix, it’s about $75 to $100,000 a year plus.
Dan:
Okay. Okay.
Jimmy:
Now that number holds true in central Florida, but it’s a lot less up in Idaho.
Dan:
Hmm. Interesting.
Jimmy:
Yeah. You’re talking about a 20% difference, right. In, you know, a smaller, more rural area. But we were on a, a conference call with other shops and we were talking about this survey and one of our friends up in New Jersey said no way, if a top tech’s not in six figures, they’re not even gonna look at my ad. Sure. You know, our top guys are making $120,000 to $150,000.
Dan:
Sure. But cost of living up there as compared to Idaho as compared to Phoenix as compared to Florida.
Jimmy:
Yeah. That’s right. Totally different. You know what I mean? So the importance of understanding, doing a survey, asking the right questions about the survey. You know what I mean? Like it is important because demographics are gonna play a role for a lot of these questions that you need answered.
Dan:
Nice. Well, I think we’re probably close on time here, but I wanna know. So you’ve done all these surveys. You now know what these techs need and want. You’re not guessing because you’ve got all the data now. What do you do with this data? You’ve got all this data, man. Now, what are you going to do to use it?
Jimmy:
Well, I mean, it’s no different for attracting new customers. It’s no different. I mean, you have to speak to their reality. And so what we’re doing is we’re taking that information and we’re putting it directly in our ads, communicating directly to the the personality that we’re trying to attract. Again, I’m not looking for the the arrogant guy that is way above what I’m looking for and I’m not talking to the guy that’s working at Jiffy Lube. I’m talking to that top guy, who’s working in an independent auto repair shop. And you know, the things that are important to him. What’s that pay range? What kind of an environment do we have? Like when you ask technicians, what do they like most about where they’re working?
It’s not how much they’re making, it’s the culture. So we’re communicating the culture, we’re communicating the training. We’re communicating that it’s a no drama environment. Again we’re a Monday through Friday shop and I’m not saying that that’s the way to go. I’m just saying that that’s one of the incentives that we have to offer. And we’ve seen enough surveys to say that that’s an incentive thing we’re putting that. I put it right in the headline. So we’re using that information to communicate rather than put a bullet point of…
That must have this many tools, must have this much experience. Must have this must have that. You gotta remember the technician today is interviewing us. They’re interviewing you as much, or actually, probably even more before they even interview than we are them.
And the top guys, they don’t have their resumes on Indeed. They don’t have their resumes on jobbing.com. They don’t have to, they can just look. And one of the other things that I do is I provide a direct line. We’ll go into that some other time, but I’m not sending him to my human resources department.
Dan:
Interesting. Interesting.
Jimmy:
I wanna talk to that guy.
Dan:
Yeah. I definitely think we’re in a hot area here, and I think there’s a lot more to discuss. Maybe in the next episode, we could bring up some of your ads that get responses and how you’ve tied in the survey data and plugged in what we call the “buttons” that we got from the surveys into the ads to attract people and keep these people going.
Jimmy:
Yeah. That would be very useful information. It’s mind-boggling what you see out there. And again, I see guys offering up to $10,000 signing bonuses, and they’re still running those ads week after week after week. So, we always go back to is it about the money? Yeah, sure. Money is one of the points of motivation, but I had a guy come in and interview with us about four weeks ago. He was making $180,000 a year in a dealership, and he was willing to come and work with us. He actually called me back twice to come and work for us for a $100,000 less.
Dan:
And tell me what he said as to why, because you had to ask the question, like, what are you thinking here, dude?
Jimmy:
Exactly. Well, it was it was culture. He was tired of the stress. He was coming from a dealership, he was tired of the warranty work and he was tired of the dealership politics and the culture there, so a guy that’s got 20 years of experience, $100,000 in tools, looking at making a lot less money because he was looking for culture. And Saturday’s off were important to him, but he’s looking for lifestyle. He’s missed too many soccer games. He’s missed too many baseball games. And he has worked, you know, 12, 14 hour days, too many days. And in his career and he’s not even an old guy. You know what I mean? He’s an early forties technician…
Dan:
Right. Exactly what you’re looking for.
Jimmy:
That’s good years…
Dan:
Right. Yeah. Good. Jimmy, this has been awesome. I can’t wait for the next episode. We’re gonna talk about a bunch of other stuff. And specifically, some of the topics that we have on the list are how can you afford today’s technician? You know, costs are going up, labor rates are increasing. What does a consumer want? It’s easier to confront delivering the best service, or trying to get a top check. So we’re gonna get in there, how to be competitive, all this stuff. So I think we’ve got some exciting stuff. Are there any last notes before we tell people what to do, if they want to reach out and get some help or talk to you? Should they reach out to you on Facebook? Should they email you?
Jimmy:
Yeah. So we have our Facebook group, which is winning auto shops. And you’ll see a link below the video. And then also you can email me directly at jimmy@3aautomotive.com. And yeah, just reach out to me. I love to help. There’s always an answer, you know, you gotta remember, there’s always a shop out there that is hiring the guy that you need. How did that shop find that guy? That’s the question you need to ask yourself. And we just need to put a little more effort, a little more creativity into it, but there’s always an answer to finding technicians, especially if you’re a top shop.
Dan:
Nice. Awesome, Jimmy, thanks for your time. This has been awesome. And I look forward to the feedback from the people who watch this, and until the next episode, huh?
Jimmy:
Awesome. Thanks a lot, Dan.
Dan:
Cool, Jimmy, thanks.