Out of the Crisis.Org

When Deming said, "Help comes from the outside," he did NOT say help was a person. Help is this forum, help is information, help is a university, help may also be a friend or a managemen ...

Where then does a person find the outside help that will point them in the proper direction? It still sounds to me that, you are saying, some one from outside the business or industry needs to come in ...

Louis,

You mentioned help has to come from the outside and by invitation. I think that many shops do this when they hire a consultant or sign up for a program. These people help lots of shops so th ...

Have you ever visited a struggling repair shop, or any business for that matter? Granted, as just a visitor we have a huge advantage of being on the outside looking in and simply having a different p ...

Keith,

I understand how you feel, as I am only about 1/2 a step further down the path. We want an instruction manual so we can do step one, two, three, etc.

I took one of the high dollar, reeng ...

Keith,

I understand how you feel, as I am only about 1/2 a step further down the path. We want an instruction manual so we can do step one, two, three, etc.

I took one of the high dollar, reeng ...

Just off the top of my head.

Offer more services, tool up so the shop can take care of more things that vehicles need.

When inspecting a vehicle let the customer know everything that is found. T ...

I once heard a fellow say that the busier a business is, the more they should advertise. The slower they are, the less they should advertise. His thoughts were that when you are busy, it means people ...

Keith,

As a tech, we want to fix the problem. As a manager, we need to make money to stay in business. I think you are going through a natural progression in moving from tech to manager/shop owner. ...

Our process starts at the front counter when the customer first calls. We set their expectations. We ask if the the problem is intermittent or happening all the time. If the problem is intermittent we ...

Well said!

Who’s responsibility is it to fix these issues? It is the leaders, because they are in leadership, or the peoples, because we elected them? Are the leaders simply responding to what we ...

People do not always buy car repairs, they buy piece of mind. In this case you sold piece of mind.

In the mid 80’s I had a customer come in wanting new spark plugs every 5000 miles. No amount of ...

I do not know about anyone else, but my policy is “the customer is always right.”

I would never, ever argue with a customer and try to convince them that ‘they are wrong, and I am right.’ ...

Not sure other than asking to reschedule the appointment. If the work being done was at a special price, offer to lock-in the price. But, most of what we do would be the same price no matter if the wo ...

Louis and Matt,

Thank you for this post. It has been thought provoking for me. I am still wrestling with it. I can see where ‘Bob’ is in most of us to one degree or another.

With any new ven ...

I think people that get into, and keep, positions of authority and power are not necessarily the best ones for the job. In fact, they may do very poorly.

But, they are good at getting into, and kee ...

I think that Joe should keep looking.

The senior employee had shown dedication by staying for 20 years. He has found his niche already. I think that moving to this new position would be hard on him ...

Louis,
Thanks for your thoughts. I would like to know more about your triage approach.

Here is the latest fish bone chart. Now that we know what things can cause problems we can start fixing them. ...

Greetings Joe,

You were doing ok until you asked for “good” advice. Any advice I could give is worth exactly what you pay for it. Smile

I would have a concern as to whether the family situatio ...

As to rules, I think they are okay but largely unnecessary. When I was young
A wise man, this father of yours. That is a great piece of advice!!

I think every normal person knows right from wron ...