Hiring Expert: How To Attract A-Level Repair Shop Staff | EP8 | The Shop Fix Academy Podcast

0:00How are you attracting all these A-level players? When I'm, when I'm sitting down interviewing with somebody, I have a set number of questions I like to get answered. I don't want it to just be like, can you sell? Can you turn wrenches? I'm really watching their body language. I'm watching what they do, how they move. She just walked out one morning. The, the manager did.

0:17Just left. Just left. She's like, I just can't do this no more. I looked at Patrick, I'm like, do you want the spot? He's like, yep, I want it. Let's go. And how long had he been there? A day. He broke every record that week that I was gone. What are the top like 3, 5 traits that you look for as as technicians go, I would say— hey everybody, welcome to the ShopFix Academy podcast.

0:39My name is Guy, this is Berg, and who are we talking to today, Berg? Good morning, we are talking to the one and only Ted Becker. Ted Becker, not the author. That's Ted Decker. Yeah, close. Ted Becker, different, different guy. How you doing, Ted? I'm doing fantastic, gentlemen. Looking good, sir. Thank you. So Ted, you have 3 bays, and where are you located?

0:59Uh, Springfield, Oregon. April, we did $235,000. $235,000 out of 3 bays. Yep. It's 2,400 square foot. What were you doing before you joined ShopFix? Like what revenue? In 2018, first was the first meeting I came to. Okay. We're doing $30,000 a month. $30,000 a month. I did a Fix My Shop with Aaron with a $30,000 P&L. And he told me, I would take 10 of these stores.

1:25And that's when I knew, It was something. Light bulb switched. So you got a coach, you are now doing over $230,000 a month. That's so awesome. Congratulations. Shops, really, the success revolves around people. And I feel like that's one of your specialties. The people just became the focal point of what you were after, and you've kind of mastered the hiring process and the people in the stores.

1:54Can you talk to us about that? What I learned was if you find people that not not necessarily like-minded, but driven the same way and value their time is what I've learned. People really like their time. Over the years, I've learned that if I can find what brings them to work every day to where they're happy, it's like when they come in the door, I don't want them to come in unhappy.

2:16So if they had a bad day, this may be the only place they can go to have a good day. When I'm sitting down interviewing with somebody, I'm really watching their body language. I'm watching what they do, how they move. You know, are they grabbing their face a lot? Are they rubbing their hair? Their beard, whatever they got. How do they articulate their words?

2:33What words do they use? I have a set number of questions that I like to— or a set amount of certain questions I like to get answered, but they generally open up more of a conversation. I don't want it to just be like, can you sell? Can you turn wrenches? Okay, cool, you're hired. No, I want to make sure they fit my culture, make sure they're going to complement, you know, what we're missing.

2:55My favorite question to ask a technician or even anybody in an interview is, what do you like to do for fun? And who do you like to do it with? That's one of my favorites. Then it's not about work, it's about what they enjoy in life. I will also— another one I like to ask is, is how do you deal with an employee that you don't, or a coworker that you don't like, or that you don't get along with?

3:17Um, that way, because that kind of gives me an insight on how they deal with confrontation. If there's a— if there's— if they're a bunch of guy technicians, there's going to be confrontation. There's going to be confrontation there. Someone's not going to like the music. You know, Bob's playing, or right, or whatnot. And so in the interview, how do you get them to tell you that they are willing to collaborate with other employees?

3:37That's just like a team player question, is like, how well do you work with the team? Um, are you afraid to— are you gonna, are you gonna dive down a rabbit hole for 2 hours on a car? Are you gonna go ask the guy next to you, hey, have you ran into this problem? I've checked X, Y, and Z. What do you do when you get stumped?

3:52What's your next step? You know, what tools and resources do they use? After they're done answering, I'll tell them the tools and resources that we provide as a, as a company to help them through those things. Because they've probably experienced that before. Absolutely. And maybe didn't have the resources to get the answer. Yeah. When they're talking about teamwork, you know, there's 3, you know, we have 3 techs.

4:13There's, there's 3 brains in there. There's 3 really smart brains. And when they ping off of each other, that's awesome. Because it just makes it so much smoother. So when I hear about that in the interview, that they're not afraid to ask for help, that's, I guess that would be humility. Yeah. So I look for humility in there. What I learned in interviewing is the first interview is never enough.

4:33Is there a number, like do you typically bring people in for more than one interview or? I've in the past probably 2 or 3 years started doing multiple interviews, about 2. Okay. 2 interviews. Usually it's a, Well, I guess it would be 3 because it would be a phone interview to start with, 10, 15 minutes. And I like to call them in the morning.

4:53I like to call them before business hours because we're an early start company. We start at 7:30. I'll call them sometimes at 6:45. Wow. I want to see how awake they are. Sure. You know? That's good. Because when we get to work, we start running. I mean, we move. We're moving a lot of cars through a very small facility. You know, we need that, that energy right away.

5:15What are the top like 3, 5 traits that you look for in people? As far as technicians go, I would say they generally don't interview very well. Okay. Which is okay. Yeah. You know, they're, they're a skilled trade. They're very, very intelligent. I was raised by a technician, and so I know cars extremely well, and I can generally weed out the, the baloney that they're bringing to the table if they just bring in honesty.

5:43And I can, I can feel integrity from them. They have goals. They tell me about their personal goals. They tell me goals they've accomplished. That's a really good trait. Service advisors or front of house employees, I look for, for clean-cut, dressed well, you know, they can articulate their words well, they can speak well. If I can get them to talk about how they interact with a customer, that's a really important fact.

6:05Like, I'll try to almost do like some role-playing with them in the, in the interview, like I'll act as the customer and I'll have them act as the advisor, and we'll role-play a couple situations. And I'll give them some tough ones, I'll give them some easy ones, and then just see how they kind of react to it. Because then I can kind of gauge how they're going to react with our customers.

6:23Our customers are used to a high level of communication, and so we, we communicate a lot with our customers to the point where sometimes it's almost overbearing. I think it makes it a little bit better experience when they feel like we do truly care and it's not just another number, you know. It's Mrs. Jones car. It's not repair order 325 or something like that.

6:45Yeah. So have you ever had a customer complain that you communicated too much? No, I have yet— no, I have yet to have that customer do that. Never had that. Never had that. I've had them tell me that like, hey, I'm not gonna be able to answer phone calls or something today, shoot me a text. But as far as overcommunication, absolutely not.

7:03Ever. I've had them say we don't communicate enough. Yeah. And so we communicate more. Always get that one. Yeah, we always get that one. Never had somebody complain that you over-communicated. And I think, uh, one thing you pointed out there is, especially with technicians, I think we get too zoned in at people who are really good in the interview. And really good in an interview means they're polished, you know what I mean?

7:25What that has spoke to me, and I don't know if this is true for you, was, um, this person interviews a lot. I was thinking, I was thinking that as you were saying that. I'm like Right. If they're really good at interviewing, how many jobs have they had? They've been in the industry 3 years. If they've had 9 jobs, yeah, they're probably not that great of an employee.

7:43Correct. Um, it's a good clue. Now, I will still— like, I, I hired one young man that was on suspension from his current job, and, and he lasted with us for a year or so, and we tried to get through some of the barriers that he had. It was an ego issue that we had had to deal with, and That was really tough.

8:04It was really tough. We were learning at the same time as we grew through that, but ego just doesn't live in an auto shop, just doesn't work. I mean, it's, it's, it's such an evil thing. Obviously you've learned how to do this. This is not how you started. So I ran the store for a very long time by myself, um, as the, as a writer manager.

8:23It really turned around probably about, I'd say probably somewhere around 2 or 3 years ago is when I really started to attract the higher talent, the higher level talent, um, I realized that there is more that we can do with our business than just fix cars. Yeah. And when I learned that, that was a game changer, that we can, we can really change people's lives.

8:45When a person comes in and they're like, they tell me their goals, because I ask them what their goals are in the, in the interview— I want to buy a house, I want to have, you know, 2, 3 kids, or they want a boat or something. Okay, well, let's figure out how to make these things happen. And I, you know, do my best to hold them to those goals and push them to get those, check in with them, you know, every few months.

9:06Hey, how's it going? Did you get that boat? So internally, you're looking at your employees, you're like, how do I bring my employees along with me? I need to hire the gaps that I have. That's right. How are you attracting all these A-level players? First and foremost, if it's technicians, a very full parking lot, very full, lots of cars. Most technicians, if they're a good technician or an A-level technician, They're looking at my Google reviews, right?

9:29They're looking at my Facebook. They're looking at everything we have. They're going to research where they're going to work. So as long as that stuff is looking good, they're going to be like, okay, cool, I'll go meet with this person. And when they meet with me in person— confidence. I think I have pretty good confidence when it comes to an interview. I used to be intimidated.

9:45I can think back of when I interviewed somebody that was higher level than I was, and I was very intimidated in that interview. I don't get intimidated in those interviews anymore at all. Because I know what we provide. And I— so I lay out what I bring to the table to the team. Training is huge for technicians. They love training. And when I tell them I got the best training available in the country, they want to know more about it.

10:06So like my number 2, um, his name is Patrick, and he came to me for 2 years asking me to hire him as a service advisor. 2 years? 2 years. So we had a full, full-on service rider manager at the time. She had requested a an assistant. So I hired my number 2, who's now my number 2, as an assistant junior service advisor, right?

10:30She left 2 days later and I left 1 day later to come to a ShopFix meeting. Brought him on. I'm like— and I looked at him because she just walked out one morning. The manager did, just walked out and just left. Just left. She's like, I just can't do this no more. Wow. Okay. 3 days before the conference. Wow. And then I looked at Patrick.

10:47I'm like, do you want the spot? You want the rider spot? He wasn't a manager at the time. He was just service rider. Sure. He's like, yep, I want it, let's go. And how long had he been there? A day. A day. A day. You got it. Brand new front counter. Brand new. You're in charge. I'm out. Going to Nashville. Here's how you answer the phone.

11:05This is the phone system. We only had 2 lines at the time. And oh my gosh, I think he— I think he sold $45 grand that week or something like that. Wow. It was— it was a— it was our best week. That was back when we only had 2 bays. He broke every record that week that I was gone. Wow. Wow. Just winged it and just nailed it.

11:22I think she left on a Wednesday and I left that weekend. So we, we worked together Thursday and Friday. I taught him my phone systems. We were still using Mitchell back at the time. I did have an extremely strong parts manager at the time that really helped him. And those 2 were the dream team. I mean, they were rock stars. The kid knew how to sell.

11:41People just bought from him. They just love him. He's very ethical. He doesn't sell things that don't need to be sold. But it was scary. It was very scary. I had all this money, you know, for this trip. It's a couple thousand bucks to leave and go, you know, hotel and flights. And like, oh man, do I cancel? 'Cause I never, when I buy plane tickets and hotels, I don't ever buy the one where you can cancel.

12:00I haven't missed a meeting since 2020, since I started. Oh, so you went to Hackers? I think it was Hackers. I think it was 2021 Hackers. Wow. That might've been the time that Aaron pulled me up in front of everybody. I remember the words he said to me. The only 2 words I remember he said to me was the funniest thing, 'cause it was a term from like the '90s.

12:16He told me, He said, Ted, it's time to nut up. And I'm like, I'm like, I'm looking at him. I'm like, what? What did you just say? Like, this is like, because I mean, he's only a couple years older than I am. Yeah. And, and that was, that was probably the biggest turning point in, in my life is, is at that Hackers.

12:35So speaking of Hackers, we are one week out from what could be your life-changing event, August 8th and 9th. You need to be there. You need to be in the room. We've got some incredible, incredible speakers. Who do we have, Berg? We have Tommy Mello, we have Gary Brecka, we got John Taffer, we have Willie Robertson. Willie Robertson. This is the number one conference for auto shop owners.

13:02Get your tickets now because they are going to run out. Life-changing events. Why did he pursue you for like 2 years? I don't know. He— I think he just loved what we were doing. Because I'm, I'm very open about the business and what we do. I mean, I've learned all of the stuff that I've learned here from ShopFix, and I, I teach that and tell that to all of the people that I talk to about what we're doing in the business, why we're doing it, how we're building people, how we're helping the community, how we're, you know, keeping people safe on their cars.

13:32And he just wanted to be a part of that. He's like, I just, I want— he wanted to be a service advisor really bad, and then he just really wanted to be a part of the organization. He really liked what we do, how, how we handle problems, you know, if we mess up, how we fix it. So he's your current number 2?

13:47He is my number 2. So how did that develop? How did you get him to that point? Lots of after-hours meetings. I mean, there's times that he'll call me on a Saturday or a Sunday and, and we'll just talk. So he's willing to work extra hours? He is just— he is all— he is completely bought into your mission, to your vision? 100%.

14:09He lives out the vision and the mission 100%. Everybody in the company knows the, the vision and the mission, and, and he now is the one that lifts that into the team. It's been really, really cool to watch him grow. It's just super awesome to watch him grow because he'll just bring a new idea in, and most of the time they're really good.

14:28You know, we have to tweak them a little bit to, you know, match the, the company policies and whatnot, but there's, there's a law of attraction out there And it sounds like you've mastered what that attraction is at your store. And that's why you have people pursuing you for 2 years, because they just want to be a part of that. Yeah. And that's a big deal when— because I've walked into shops and everything is negative.

14:54The manager, the owner, the GS, the master technician, they're all completely negative. They start attracting negative customers. Talk to us about the customers that are at your store. Are they generally happy too? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yep. I love our customers. They're just, they're super cool. They'll come in. We got customers and we've been there since '02. So I mean, we've had customers that, you know, for a very long time.

15:20We don't have a very big lobby. It's smaller than the room we're sitting in right now. We've had 9, 10 people in there. You know, if they got 5 kids and another person comes in with 4 or 5 kids and they're just running around having a good time. It's a party. It's a party. You know, sounds great. It's a good time. It's a good time.

15:36Um, I really, really enjoy it when the customers come in and they're happy. Granted, no one wants to take their car in because, no, they're going to have to spend money, right? Like, it sucks. It's not the greatest thing in the world. Sure. So when they come in and they're— they're— a little bit of that is relief. Yeah, they're going to be able to get it fixed.

15:52It's not going to be the end of the world. And, you know, taking off some of that stress off of their shoulders is just a— it's a beautiful thing. It really is. So tell us about a time when it was really hard to get an A-level player. A handful of years ago, probably 3, 4 years ago. When I was still kind of learning how to be a leader, how to be a true leader instead of just a boss.

16:12Service writer, manager, owner. That's— that was my position. When I realized that I need to grow myself, that's when things changed. And it, it was so hard because I'd be in these interviews and, and I'm just like, this guy's not going to come to work for me. This guy's not going to come to work for me. And so I would tell myself that in those interviews.

16:33And what I've realized is if I tell myself something enough, I'm going to start believing it. Sure. Your subconscious is leaking out. Absolutely. So I started telling myself the opposite. This guy might work for me. This guy's going to be really good. He's going to, he's going to start Monday. And so I tell myself that stuff and pump myself up and be confident and realize that, like, I do have a lot to offer.

16:53Our company has a lot to offer. My employees have a lot to offer. It's so key to envision your future self when you're in that interview because they're going to be attracted to somebody and it better be you. Or it's going to be another shop down the road. That's right, that's right. And I know what I can offer them. Yeah. And it is amazing what I can offer them.

17:13So that's what I continue to— it's great— tell myself. So tell us about attracting all these A-level players, how it's transformed your, your personal life and given you freedom, and with, with your family and, and all that. Having a team that I know is holding Our mission statement, our mission and our vision gives me the ability to grow my personal relationship with my wife and learn more how to be a better husband, how to lead as a husband at home and not have to lead at the shop as much in a day-to-day type of role.

17:52I don't have to be there every day. My team does that. Then I can be at home or with my wife and grow that relationship together. Ted, thanks for showing us what a culture can be like and, and how all the, the A-players in a shop can work together, but how to attract that. And thank you for, for your testimony on, on all this.

18:18I know there's a ton of shop owners out there, you're going to get a ton of value from your interview questions and, and how to attract people. Thanks so much for being on the podcast. Thank you, guys.