Hiring knowledgeable employees and providing quick parts delivery are two things Michael Doherty, owner of Wyan Parts & Service, Inc., does that makes his independent jobber business standout.
Surrounding himself with good employees is hard to do, but he looks for ambitious, goal-oriented people who have automotive knowledge. “ASE certification is definitely a plus,” he adds.
But how does he find these high-caliber people? Newspaper ads and a lot of interviewing. “A lot of times, we go out and scout the area to see who’s out there, who’s decent,” Doherty says. “We’re not beyond, let’s say, getting them from the competition.”
According to Doherty, he hasn’t had to “borrow” employees a lot. As a matter of fact, most of his employees have been with him for quite some time. He says turnover is extremely low, and he attributes this to hiring the right people from the start.
How do his hiring techniques differ from those of others? “We give them a pretty extensive written test on automobile knowledge,” says Doherty, who doesn’t think this is something most other business owners do. “As a matter of fact, I know that [some of my competition] doesn’t, for sure, because they’ll hire just about anybody.”
So do customers notice the difference between his employees and those of a competitor? According to Doherty, the proof is in the positive feedback he’s received. “My customers love the fact I have people who actually know about vehicles and who can help them,” he says. “My garage customers, well, they know, but as far as my retail customers, yes, we get comments on that all the time.”
These accolades come from, not only making sure customers get the right parts, but from helping them figure out what possibly could be wrong with their vehicles. “This whole industry is about service,” he says. And how does Doherty best service his customers? By having 20-minute delivery. “It’s pretty much a standard, everyday practice,” he says.
Doherty has provided quick delivery for as long as he can remember. “It’s hard to do at times,” he says. “It’s getting more and more difficult with the complexity of the cars and the parts proliferation aspect of our business, but worst-case scenario is same day.”
Now with only two Ohio locations, one in Tallmadge and one in Barberton, Wyan Parts & Service used to have six store locations and a warehouse. Doherty explains that he got out of warehousing in 1992, when he affiliated with NAPA.
Joining the NAPA program group helped Doherty downsize his business, because of the group’s extensive inventory and distribution system.
“NAPA is pretty strict on having another NAPA store in an area if there’s already one there,” he explains, “and when we went to NAPA, we had three locations that were in conflicting locations. We tried to run them separately for a couple years, but that didn’t work too well, so we sold those locations.”
With everything that’s going on in the parts world today, it was a good thing he downsized when he did, he says. “The benefits are not having to stock those warehouse-class items. And with the whole parts proliferation bull that’s going on, with everything being car specific now, instead of stocking 20 of the same part number, we can stock one or two and have it overnight if we run out.
“And we also have availability of the oddball, goofy stuff that we could never really get our hands on before. [NAPA] actually does the warehousing for us now,” says Doherty.
In addition to making it easier as far as warehouse parts inventory, cost and competition is concerned, Doherty says joining NAPA has also helped his bottom line, which is what it’s all about in business.
