For year, Al Duebber has made sure that every customer who walks out of his shop "gets the toaster."
Well, it might not really be a toaster, but the top customer service is given to the regular customers of Duebber’s Automotive in suburban Cincinnati. You see, more than 30 years ago, Duebber was at the bank to make a deposit. An older gentleman ahead of him in line received a toaster after making his deposit. But Duebber was told he did not qualify for a toaster because he already was an established customer.
“I went back to my shop and I said to my guys, ‘I want you to understand something. At Duebber’s Automotive, our regular customers always get the toasters,’” recalls the shop’s president. “And if you want to get a toaster, you have to earn that by becoming a regular customer of our company. And that’s a philosophy we carry through each and every day, and that was 30-some years ago.”
That philosophy is just one thing that puts Duebber’s among the best shops in the country in the fourth annual Motor Age Top Shops Contest. The shop started as a two-bay service station in 1973, but quickly grew to its eight-bay location just 10 years later.
To help grow the business, Duebber has established a well-working relationship with his shop’s suppliers. The shop's personnel has relationships with the district managers, retail managers, supervisors, counter personnel and parts drivers, which the owner says makes it more likely a counterperson will find parts for them and drivers will make them a first stop.
More than 80 percent of parts are ordered online today at Duebber’s, whose parts policy is if it is something a customer will choose to wait for or need in a pinch, they will stock it. If it’s not, then those parts will not enter the shop until someone submits an online order for it.
The shop utilizes eight computers and one laptop that operate with a network server. The Mitchell 1 Management System is set up for usage on all of the computers, as it is their first resource on every job.
Down to the Last Detail
And every one of those jobs includes a 75-point inspection copied on the back of all work orders. ASE certified technician Marty Paff developed the inspection following one of the shop’s regular monthly staff meetings.
“We found out that there was a difference in opinion in what the service advisors thought the bumper-to-bumper warranty covered and what the technical people were performing. So our of the technicians, Marty, decided on his own to develop a checklist,” Duebber explains. “The rule is that every car no matter how big the service is to be performed, it doesn’t go out of here without the 75-point vehicle inspection.”
While the inspection takes 15 or 20 minutes, it has been “a huge profit center for us, not only in customer service, but also it has been tremendous in generating work,” he adds.
Other methods the Ohio shop utilizes to garner more work are word-of-mouth testimonials, MechanicNet service reminder postcards and a rapidly growing e-mail reminder program. According to Duebber, the shop’s average response rate through the e-mail program is 17 percent, which is greater than many direct mail averages reported today.
Through the shop’s MechanicNet site, customers now have access to complete service histories on all of their vehicles. They can schedule appointments and take control of their preventive schedule with the “Maintaining My Vehicle” feature.
Tires also have been a good addition for the shop, according to Duebber, who cites statistics that 80 percent of people buy tires from the person who told them they need new tires. If you’re going to tell people they need them, why not offer the service?
And Duebber’s builds on the trust it has with customers by maintaining an open relationship with dealerships. “If it’s something that should be done at the manufacturer at no cost to the owners, we’ll take the vehicle to the dealership. If they prefer to have us do it, that’s always an option,” Duebber says.
“That open and honest approach is key to trust and our whole business,” he adds. “We tell it like it is, that way you never have to go back and backtrack on a story. We just don’t do that. We tell it like it is and that trust (is seen in) the relationship.”
A Home Office
The relationship the shop develops with customers extends to the community, too. On-site is a house for technicians to take advantage of. The company’s monthly meetings are conducted around a large table in its new community room.
In fact, meetings for other boards of community organizations go on here through the space Duebber’s offers as a community outreach of sorts. Duebber also adds the gym in the house’s basement is available to all employees 24 hours a day through keypad access, giving the employees opportunities to maintain their health.
The whole approach to taking care of employees ties back into the shop’s 30-plus year philosophy of taking care of the regular customers.
“We don’t fix cars, we fix people. You take care of the people’s need,” Duebber says. “You’re not selling the fact that you’re selling preventive maintenance on the car, you’re selling them that you’re selling security.
