I walked into a business today and there was a sign that
read, “I’M NOT BUSY BECAUSE I DID IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME”.
When I first read the sign I thought it was pretty funny,
like many of you I have seen the sign that says, “THERE IS NO TIME TO DO IT
RIGHT BUT ALWAYS TIME TO DO IT OVER” and thought his sign was just mocking this
sign.
Then I walked into the shop area, and I was amazed at what I
saw. It looked like a bee hive of activity. There were 20 bays (individual work
areas), 16 of the 20 bays had lifts and all 16 had cars in the air at various
stages of repair, several of the bays had a car under the raised car with the
hood up and repairs being made. I asked the shop manager how many cars they turn
a day, he said anywhere from 40 to 60.
As we talked the sign in the lobby kept coming back to mind,
“I’M NOT BUSY BECAUSE I DID IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME”. The manager asked me why
I was smiling, I mentioned the sign and we both started to laugh as we looked
at the flurry of activity going on around us.
He said to me that the sign was not only in the lobby, each
mechanic had a copy of it someplace in their work areas. He said that was the
way he wanted everyone to think every day. He continued to tell me about how
before he started the “DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME” program he would get as many
as 2 out of 10 cars back within 2 days with problems from the repair being
either done wrong or incomplete.
He told me about all the things he tried to get his guys to
not rush the repairs and stop the returns. First he would not pay the mechanic
for the time spent doing the second (or third) repair, when that didn’t help he
started charging the mechanic a “FINE” of $25.00 for every return that was
deemed their fault. He raised the fine to $50.00 and then started charging the
mechanic what the shop lost because of the time AND inability to repair another
car. He said that this could be anywhere from $100.00 to as much as $500.00
depending on the time it took to do the second repair.
He finished all of this explanation with, “AND NOTHING
WORKED”! Until he saw the sign in the lobby hanging at another shop owned by a
friend of his. He loved it and immediately had dozens of them made. He held a
meeting and told the mechanics that all the fines were eliminated. He told them
that doing the job right the first time was going to be the #1 priority and the
guys who did the best would be rewarded for it.
The first reward was money, he offered $1000.00 to the
mechanic with no returns for the month. NO ONE WON! He then offered gift
certificates to stores and restaurants worth hundreds of dollars each for the
next month, NO ONE WON! Finally he offered paid time off. The mechanic that had
no returns would get 3 days off and be paid what he averaged per day that
month. 3 MECHANICS WON! He said he kept the reward program going and the next
month 7 MECHANICS WON!
As we were talking he was getting more and more excited
about the story. He told me that the shop went from 20% returns to less than 2%
in 6 months. The shop also went from 25 to 40 cars per day to the 40 to 60 they
are doing now. He said the best thing of all is the attitude in the shop, the
mechanics have all changed their thinking from, “GET IT DONE” to “GET IT DONE
RIGHT!”
As sales rep we can all learn from this shop. As we go from
customer to customer or call to call we sometimes take the occasional SHORTCUT
to save time that day. The shortcut usually costs us twice as much time another
day.
We have the “GET IT DONE” mentality, we need the “GET IT
DONE ROGHT”! mentality.
A shortcut may get you to the store or a friend’s house a
little faster but it rarely will get you a lifelong customer.
Lorin
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