Blog

Eleven Tips for creating ‘Extreme Employee Loyalty’ It is not important that you love to come to work and enjoy what you do? With my ear to the ground as the aftermarket podcast guy, an enduring culture rings strong as one of the most important strategies of an extremely successful business. One critical component of that success, and the only way it works is with the support of your people; your team. So, are you doing the right things to help develop employee loyalty? Within the hundreds o...

The Power of Your Story I recently picked up a book that I was unable to put down. The book grabbed me, and while reading, I realized that this was the perfect read for any automotive aftermarket professional. The advice in the book resonated with me and I realized how wrong many of us have been as it relates to marketing our businesses. The book is Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller and should be required reading and kept on your desk for reference. Mr. Miller will motivate you to rethink t...

JASPER® Acquires Diesel USA Group, Inc JASPER Holdings, Inc., the parent company of Jasper Engines and Transmissions has acquired Diesel USA Group, Inc. headquartered in Louisville KY.  The Diesel USA Group will remain a separate company and brand as it becomes part of the JASPER ESOP.  From their locations in Louisville, KY; Cincinnati, OH; Columbus, OH; Indianapolis, IN; Fort Wayne, IN; Crown Point, IN; and Fontana, CA, Diesel USA Group is a distribution, service and repair company...

Do You Know the Enemy of Leadership? In my lifetime I can recall a few life lessons that continue to haunt me. I would bet, and surely win, if we had an honest one-on-one session and compared leadership blunders, my bet is that you micromanaged your way to become a leader and failed, just like me. It took me some time to realize my mistakes. One of my big breakthroughs was when my team finally confronted me and said, ‘You do it because we will never get it right in the world according to Carm....

The Extreme Value of Shop Tours I will never forget putting a call out to shop owners who wanted to tour of Frank European in Las Vegas in November 2018. I was doing a live broadcast for Town Hall Academy from Franks highlighting the value of shop tours. Thirty shop owners showed up to not only give their input live, but to partake in the tour. This was during industry week in Las Vegas meaning AAPEX was over and it was SEMA’s last day. Frank Scandura, owner of Franks European, was as excited...

JASPER offers the GM 3.6L LLT engine option, available with Direct Injection (GDI) fuel injectors, fuel rails, injector harnesses and a fuel rail pressure sensor pre-installed. Please click on following link for information about this option, this tech tip also explains how to install the fuel system components. https://youtu.be/fMDVTVzaoN8...

Ready for Your Next Shop? I am one of the luckiest people in the industry, I get a chance to pull together smart people who have a passion for sharing and helping others. In the Town Hall Academy podcast panel discussions we cover the relevant topics of the automotive aftermarket. One ongoing conversation in the podcast is consolidation. Now and even stronger in the future, competition with national and regional chains will grow. Can you compete? You betcha! Even with a single location you compe...

Customer Service at the Highest Level When someone asks you to think of a company in your town known for excellent customer service, most people have a hard time thinking of more than one. Sometimes none. Are you one of them? Can you be? The process of becoming world class in customer service is a difficult journey and requires much more than an occasional meeting, poster on the wall or slogan. It is a process, not an event. It requires commitment from the CEO that is practiced with every move a...

Seeding Our Future Technicians is Your Responsibility. I keep hearing about that greatest challenge in the aftermarket, a technician shortage. Recently instead of listening to the ‘woe is me’ story, I asked, ‘How are we going to fix it?’ and no surprise, there were great answers to this question. The top solutions to the tech shortage are not new, but they will require action and if we do nothing to close the gap we have no one to blame but ourselves. We are hurting on a few different fr...

In a recent forum with three shop owners we discussed comeback prevention, they all agreed that prevention starts at the front door.  There were some very common themes that resonated with this discussion and I want to share four of them with you. It is all About Communication.When you provide enough information to a technician, the better the tech can handle the diagnosis. Asking good customer questions and writing a detailed repair order for the technician is the perfect start to a qualit...