Do My Customers Only Want to Deal With Me? Bek and Trent's Answer
Almost certainly not, and the belief that they do is one of the most expensive things an owner can carry.
Bek Jackson of Busselton Automotive Repairs names it exactly:
"I guess we both had the mentality that we needed to be at the front of our business for it to work because our customers would only want us."
They were wrong, and finding out changed how the whole business runs. They now work a four-day week and recently had their biggest quarter.
Where it started
Their own word for the approach was winging it.
"We just had the whole winging it mentality."
Underneath that, two specific gaps. They did not know their numbers, and more tellingly, they were not checking them together. And the rate was wrong:
"Our rate was nowhere near what it should have been and what it is now."
Bek has the best phrase I have heard for how that happens. They were charging with their heart, not their head.
Why the owner-at-the-front belief is so costly
It feels like customer service. It is actually a cap.
If every customer must deal with you, then your shop can only handle as many customers as you can personally speak to. Not as many as your technicians can serve. As many as one person can greet, quote, update and invoice. Everything else queues behind that.
It also guarantees the hours. If you are the front counter, you are there whenever the counter is open, which is how owners end up there until eight at night, six days a week.
And it is usually untrue. Customers want their car fixed properly, on time, by somebody who explains it clearly. Most of them have no strong preference about which person at the counter does that, provided the person is good. The attachment the owner feels is real; the dependency they assume is mostly imagined.
Which is why Bek's other line matters so much:
"Not being busier and not getting more cars in doesn't exactly make you more money. It just creates more chaos."
More cars through a bottleneck is not growth in a mechanics workshop. It is more queue.
Watch: Bek and Trent go deep on this, in a full conversation rather than a short clip.
What they changed
They hired a service advisor, which they are candid was not their idea: "it wasn't even something on our radar." We pushed for it.
They moved to a bigger workshop, after we looked at the finances with them and confirmed they could afford it, and planned the move around Bek's maternity leave.
Profit First, early.
A better accountant, then a better one again. Two moves, not one.
They learned to charge with their head.
Quarterly retreats and game plans broken into weekly tasks, with tune-up accountability and weekly webinars holding the pace.
Outsourcing and letting go, which is the hardest item on any of these lists.
And they changed how they hire: for personality, training the skill.
Then the structure of the week itself: from a nine-day fortnight to a four-day week.
Where Busselton Automotive is now
Their biggest quarter, on fewer days. In Bek's words: "We work less and we're making more and the team's happier."
No more being there until eight at night, six days a week.
The bigger workshop is already jam-packed and they are planning the next move, this time hoping to buy rather than lease.
And the advice she gives other owners, which applies to every item on that list:
"There will never be a good time to do it. There will never be a perfect time or situation to do it. We're glad we did it when we did, and you'll regret not doing it sooner."
What a service advisor actually frees up
The objection is always that a small mechanics workshop cannot carry the wage. The number that matters is the other one.
An owner on the counter is interrupted constantly, and every interruption costs far more than the minutes it takes, because the work being interrupted has to be restarted. So the owner's productive hours are not what the roster says. They are whatever survives the phone.
Put somebody good at the front and two things happen at once. The owner's hours become usable, which is where quoting properly, chasing declined work and building systems actually come from. And the counter itself gets better, because it is being done by somebody whose whole job it is rather than by somebody doing it between other tasks.
That is why Bek and Trent's biggest quarter came on fewer days rather than more. The days got worth more.
Which part of this sounds like your shop?
If you believe your customers will leave if they cannot deal with you personally, test it rather than assume it.
If you are chasing more cars while the counter is already a bottleneck, the extra cars will become chaos rather than profit.
If your rate was set by feel rather than by arithmetic, you are charging with your heart.
Questions auto repair shop owners ask
My shop is too small for a service advisor.
Bek and Trent thought so too, and it was not even on their radar until somebody pushed. The question is not whether you can afford one. It is what the owner's hours at the counter are costing in work not done elsewhere.
Won't my regulars be annoyed dealing with somebody else?
A few will mention it. Almost none will leave, provided the person is good and the handover is warm. The belief is far stronger than the evidence for it.
How do you move to a four-day week without losing turnover?
By fixing the rate and the bottleneck first. Their biggest quarter came on fewer days because the days were worth more, not because they squeezed five days into four.
When is the right time to make a change this big?
There isn't one, which is Bek's whole point. They planned a major move around a maternity leave, which is nobody's idea of a calm moment.
We don't check our numbers together. Does that matter?
It did here. Two owners working from different pictures make decisions that pull against each other, and neither of you can see why.
What to do tonight
Ask one honest question: if a customer rang tomorrow and spoke to somebody else who was genuinely good at the job, what would actually happen?
Write the answer down. Then notice how much of your week is built on the version you assumed rather than the version you just wrote.
If stepping back is where you want to end up, our 4 Day Work Week ebook shows what it takes.
Where to go next
- How to hire your first service advisor
- How to move to a four day work week without losing profit
- How to raise your labour rate without losing customers
- Why am I busy but not making any money?
- Why do I have to do everything myself?
Our clients are named auto repair shop owners, from automotive workshops and garages across five countries, on camera, telling you what changed.
More on this topic: all Culture & Meaning articles.
Whenever you're ready, here's how we can help.
- Free. Shop Talk, a 30 day reset for auto repair shop owners, and our free resources.
- Under $50,000 a month? Auto Superstars Academy, $997 one off, and Superstar Service Advisor at $197 if the counter is your bottleneck.
- Over $50,000 a month? The Engine Room, where Bek and Trent did this, with one on one coaching on demand from a business coach who is a current or former auto repair shop owner.
