Tatum: Give Your Team a Spark by Shaking Things Up

When you have a very experienced team, you are likely doing well off in operations. These guys know what to do, when to do it, and the best way to do it. But there is a downside to a lot of experience. When you get to a certain level, you tend to see people rest on their laurels and become set in neutral. This is a habit that we can combat, but it takes work to get them back into that go-get-it attitude.

As a generality, the quick lube business is entry-level automotive. We hire many young technicians, train them up to a certain level, and a number will leave with that experience to head to a bigger shop or a dealership. Do a quick account of your turnover, and see how many rising techs left you for those opportunities. So, when you have a very experienced crew, they get comfortable. In our industry, we are looking for growth each year. Whether that is from higher sales, more cars, or an increasing KPI, we want growth. Below, we will discuss a few ways to fight stagnation.

Let us start with the easiest thing that you can do: Hold a contest. Simple enough, but when you have seasoned managers trying to duel their younger peers, this can reignite a fire in them and a crew. You can choose any metric that you want to focus on at the time. Maybe you are not growing car count as you were in the last few years. Set up a challenge where you are rewarding the location with the highest increase. Maybe you want to get your tire rotation and filter sales up. Run a contest that sets up points for each one that they do. The prizes do not have to be monetary, as you could do something like a store cookout for the winner. Things like that build teamwork.

Another method to bring motivation back into a shop is to introduce a new service. When people do the same things repeatedly, they need a challenge to get them going. Bring in a new machine, teach, and train, and set them loose on getting it going. Maybe it’s not a machine that would require a return on investment time. Maybe it’s starting a program with brakes or tune-ups. These actions would bring more revenue into your business and get your guys excited about working on something new.

In building off that last suggestion, when you want to bring in a new service or program, you could get some training time in. One thing that teams want is to know that there is a path forward in their career advancement. Let’s say that you want to start doing brakes on a daily basis. Send your manager to train and get an ASE certification. They will feel that you are investing in them and they will be motivated to show you that in return.

In the end, there are ways to get your teams reignited. Maybe you will try one of the ideas that I have discussed. Maybe you will try something that you have come up with. Just remember one saying: “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.”  If you want to move forward or get better results, you need to be willing to try something different.