Challenge Your Teams

Feb. 10, 2023
Getting results with out-of-the-box challenges.

In this magazine, you’ve read about teams who have taken aim at challenges and had success. There are still a ton of us out here who have done the same. Many of you weathered a pandemic and managed to keep your doors open. Some of you have seen unprecedented price increases in core industry items and adjusted to stay profitable. There are even some new owners that have given their teams a vision and have started to see them following their core values. Today, I will give you some challenges that you can use at a store level to have your teams compete among themselves—all while setting you up for success and breaking new barriers in 2023. 

We all know that the lifeblood of our business is customers. We need them to come in, have a good experience, add a few extras to their bill and leave with a smile on their face. This short meeting of your team with them can do wonders with a good service, as they will tell someone else about you and potentially gain another new customer out of it. So, many of us probably utilize a version of a customer service survey system and gain scores from these to gain insight into how we are doing with our service in the center. 

Set the Score 

One way that you can get customer buy-in to get the highest scores possible is to set up a top score game. Reward a number of teams each month or quarter for achieving a level of customer service scoring that you have chosen as the mark. Those who hit it, maybe their team gets a cookout at the store or a store bonus. What does this small amount get you? Word of mouth advertising and returning customers for the next service cycle. Challenge your teams to excel in customer service and watch your car counts rise.

A second opportunity for store level teams is generating sales. Now this does not necessarily mean just the highest amount of money in the bank. It is actually easier to set incremental goals or games to hit in order to achieve long term success. I tend to hold two to three big contests a year involving my additives. It is based on the percentage of cars, so that even a small store has an opportunity to win. The winners get prizes like jackets, dinner and movie packages, and more. The real reason that I do this so many times a year is to build repetition. If you are asking over and over again for a period of time, it becomes a habit to ask. Which, by the way, is the key to sales. Now you don’t have to do additives. You can set us a sales contest for anything that you need to work on. How this will benefit you is by having your teams learn that valuable lesson in asking. This will lead to higher sales and higher KPIs, which ultimately lead to more bottom line profit.

Thinking Long Term

We have discussed customer service and sales. So, what remains is a way to challenge your teams on how to grow their customer counts for the long term. How is your fleet business? I bet you all wish it was better no matter how many you have. Fleets have higher volumes of vehicles to bring to you and generally they allow you to do more services to them to maintain the fleet. A great way to incentivize your teams to look for these businesses is to set up a sign-up program.

Have your teams submit fleets that they contact. Once the fleet signs up and then completes the first service, give the employee a $25 bonus. This can be easy to do, as there are so many work vehicles on the road with their business plastered on a vehicle wrap. This is the perfect way for you to grow this part of the business without you having to use your limited time to source them out yourself.

In conclusion, we have discussed ways that you can think out of the box to reward your employees. In turn, you gain customer service skills, sales and car count. Isn’t that what we are all looking for anyway?

Take one of these, or all, this year and see how your 2023 can be the year of the challenge breakers and watch your business move to another level. If you have any ideas to share with us on what you do to get employees motivated, feel free to reach out and let me know!