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Professionalism Starts From WithinPosted 9/15/1998By Larry Moore, AAM At Larry's AutoWorks, we have been working on improving our shop's image and the image of the industry for many years. I believe changes must start from within and, therefore, our first move was to improve my personal image. Fifteen years ago - since I was no longer working on cars personally - I began wearing a suit to work several days a week. I would remove my coat and roll up my sleeves to work, but I still had a dress shirt and tie in plain view. This change in attire compelled me to act in a different way; it forced me to keep the office, customer area and shop very clean, unless I wanted to ruin a good suit. It also caused the customers to stop and think for a moment when they came into the shop and saw something they didn't expect, and it prompted them to treat me differently. As a result of our concern for the shop's image and subsequent cleaner environment, we had a very different appearance from most other shops in the industry. I believe this was a primary reason we gained a tremendous number of female professionals as customers; today they make up almost 70 percent of our customer base. Now the staff and I all wear polo shirts in the shop's colors, with our shop name monogrammed on them. We have won many environmental awards as a result of everyone in the shop having a new attitude about cleanliness and professionalism, but it did take several years to bring about that change in attitude. It shows up in our low turnover in employees and customers, as well as our very low comeback rate on repairs. I think pride in the company and what it is accomplishing is the difference. Four years ago, the employees took on the challenge of writing a mission statement for the company. After several months of study, and many meetings, they came up with the following: "Our team is committed to continuously improve the standards of excellence in automotive service. We achieve this through a partnership based on trust, integrity, communication, and concern for our environment." Another thing we implemented about 10 years ago was a wall of plaques showing the certificates from courses attended by the staff, my wife and me. Included, of course, are our Automotive Management Institute (AMI) diplomas! For the last two years, we have run a biweekly educational piece in the local newspaper designed to educate readers about aspects of the industry or their vehicles. They are of course "advertorials" for our shop, but we often get comments from customers that they enjoy reading the pieces and are surprised by how complicated today's cars have become. My wife, Laurie, and I have also attended local chamber of commerce and professional clubs for more than 10 years, where we regularly talk about the industry, the need for skilled workers, the increasing complexity of the automobile, etc. Since these groups are composed primarily of other business owners that are not in our industry, it has helped to spread the word about our profession. Laurie and I have served as board members and, in several cases, presidents of these organizations. This has helped to professionalize the image of our shop as well as the industry. A major goal of mine for the past 15 years has been to leave this industry as a professional when I finally retire, which for me means having the community acknowledge that owning, operating and working in an auto repair shop is a profession, not just a vocation. I have a few more good years ahead of me in which to fulfill that goal. I appreciate that the Automotive Service Association, through the Image-Network, is working in that same direction.
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