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<title>Professionals Enhance the Industry's Image Despite Negative Stereotypes
Mark Giammalvo</title>
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<h2><font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">Professionals
Enhance the Industry's Image Despite Negative Stereotypes </font></h2>
<font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt"><i>From September 1998 Auto
Inc. <br>
by Ken Roberts</i></font><br>
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<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">Automotive service
is a favorite whipping post for national television news magazines, such
as ABC's "20/20" and "Dateline NBC," as well as local television stations
with aggressive consumer advocate investigative reporters. Their goal: catch
the industry's bad guys, the incompetent mechanics and the purveyors of costly,
unneeded repairs. </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">The broadcast media's
hidden-camera and mechanically altered car sting operations have been played
out so many times on our televisions that there's no need to recount their
tactics here. We know them all too well. It is maddening to honest, well-trained
technicians and shop owners when this negative stereotype is further embedded
in the consumers' minds, reinforcing their belief that automotive repair
professionals are not to be trusted. </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">What's even more maddening
is when businesses and franchises within the automotive industry perpetuate
this stereotype through their advertising. Recall the Pep Boys commercial
which, until recently, was airing nationally. The commercial showed a car
sitting at a garage day after day, touched only when the "grease monkeys"
sat on it to eat pizza. "Three of my best men are on it right now," the owner
said in response to the customer's phone inquiry. He was telling the truth.
The mechanics were literally on the car. </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">Other commercials running
regionally portray auto repair professionals as thieves. In the Southeast,
Florida-based Tire Kingdom runs a commercial which shows a silhouetted tire
technician. In the shadows, the impact wrench he is carrying looks like
a pistol. "Every year, over 70,000 customers are robbed at gun point. Don't
let it happen to you," the commercial voice-over says. </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">Similarly, a chain
of brake shops, Brake Check, is running a commercial in Central and South
Texas. In it, a brake repairman comes out from behind the car and tells the
customer that her car needs a great deal of brake work. The repairman/robber
is wearing a stocking mask. The voice-over says, "Take your car to Brake
Check for honest repairs." </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">These and other similar
commercials running regionally throughout the nation are designed to generate
additional traffic into the advertisers' stores. While they may be successful
in that regard, they are also successful in perpetuating the stereotypes
that most in the industry are trying diligently to change. </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">What can be done to
combat the news media and industry colleagues seemingly bent on showing
the auto service profession as being comprised of bumbling incompetents
or crooks? Is it likely that such a deeply rooted stereotype can be changed?
Turning the Titanic before it hit the iceberg quite possibly could have
been a much easier undertaking. </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">Because people's perception
about the industry has been nurtured for years by the television news programs,
negative portrayals in commercials and their own encounters with inept mechanics,
the image cannot and will not be changed by rhetoric. As such, a national
advertising campaign touting the honesty and competency of auto service professionals
might prove fruitless. </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">If a national advertising
campaign is not the solution to improving the industry's image, what is?
Changing people's perceptions one person at a time. </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">This is accomplished
by having well-trained technicians providing quality service in a clean
environment and for a fair price; courteous and knowledgeable write-up personnel
working with the customers; and, when there is a problem, the willingness
to correct it quickly. </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">Consider your repeat
customers. They value your skills and those of your technicians because
they continue to bring their cars to your shop. As a repeat customer, their
image of you undoubtedly differs from that of the negative stereotype. </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">There will always be
customers who want to pay "Wal-Mart prices" for "Neiman-Marcus service."
Those individuals will always be with us and we'll just continue working
for them. Take an extra dose of patience when they walk in your shop because
nothing you say or do is likely to change them. </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">With most customers,
however, you can take strides to improve the industry's image. Every day,
shop owners and their employees are working to that end. Some in little
ways and others on a larger scale. </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">Mark Decareau of Asian
Auto Services Inc. in Plaistow, N.H., said that for eight years he was working
in a shop with a "4 foot by 2 foot" waiting room and "so much dust you couldn't
clean." He said, "I just moved into a new building to give my shop a clean
and well-run image. Now, there's so much room in my waiting area, I am lost."
</font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">Decareau believes in
maintaining contact with his customers through frequent communication. He
sends a "thank you" card after every service and he has a quarterly customer
newsletter. Additionally, Decareau mails handwritten oil change reminder
notices. </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt"> </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt"> </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">In Colorado, Donny
Seyfer of Seyfer Automotive Inc. hosts a radio call-in show, "The Auto Answer
Man," which airs Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Denver's largest talk
radio station. Through his participation in the radio broadcast, Seyfer said
he is able to reach many more people than he could otherwise and he is always
working to improve the listeners' impression of automotive service. </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">"We have had excellent
response from listeners. It has been my continuing effort to be sure that
each guest technician demonstrates a positive image to the listeners. I
think we are doing a really good job promoting ASA shops," Seyfer said.
</font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">Importantly, he is
careful not to degrade any individual, franchise or dealer in the industry.
That would be counter to any gains he has made in elevating the industry's
image, Seyfer added. </font></p>
<p> <b><font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">At Sam Giammalvo's
Auto Sales and Service Inc. in New Bedford, Mass., brothers Mark and Glenn
Giammalvo author newsletters and fliers designed to educate their customers
about common problems most motorists encounter with their cars. The correspondence
is also used as a vehicle to communicate to their customers that they are
knowledgeable, well-trained technicians. "We believe this instills confidence
in our customers that we are at the cutting edge," Mark said. </font></b></p>
<p> <b><font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">The brothers are
also active in the industry, writing technical articles for Motor Age magazine
and taking leadership roles in the local chapter of ASA. </font></b></p>
<p> <b><font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">Efforts to improve
their expertise demand the investment of countless hours, Mark said. "Generally,
at home each night, my brother and I are reading magazines, automotive service
text books, and the like, trying to further push our understanding of this
ever-changing industry. </font></b></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt"><b>"It also means putting
time aside to attend association meetings like our ASA chapter's general
meetings and board meeting." Mark said. "I don't mean attending one or two
meetings a year. I mean every single meeting, if possible. It's a total commitment
to the industry."</b> </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">Just as individual
shop owners, technicians, and service writers all have a role in improving
the auto service image, so do industry associations. Nancy Guzik, director
of consumer relations at the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence
(ASE), said they have implemented a number of public awareness activities
to enhance the industry image. One such program focuses on women motorists.
</font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">Responding to national
trends which show that women account for more than half of all service and
repair customers, ASE has concentrated its efforts in reaching and educating
women about car care, repair and maintenance issues by participating in
women's and consumer shows, Guzik said. </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">The consumer shows
cover a broad spectrum of subjects, from home design to financial planning.
"They give ASE the opportunity to reach thousands of female, and male, motorists."
</font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">ASE uses association
staff members and local certified technicians to man their booth at the
shows in which they participate. So far this year, they have been to shows
in Washington, Arizona and Texas. </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">"At the booth, not
only do we distribute 'Glove Box Tips,' ASE's consumer car care brochures,
but we have the chance to talk one-on-one with consumers about vehicle maintenance,
the auto repair experience, and, of course, ASE and what it means to them,"
Guzik said. </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">Members of ASA have
agreed to adhere to the association's Professional Code of Ethics. ASA encourages
its members to post the code in their customer waiting area as a method
of communicating their commitment to professionalism in automotive service.
</font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">ASA works to combat
negative representations of the industry through its electronic Image-Network.
Membership in the network is free. The only stipulation is that individuals
and shops who join must agree to assist ASA in its efforts to improve the
industry's image. </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">Subscribers to the
Image-Network receive periodic e-mail messages from ASA about industry news
and events - both positive and negative. The messages also include ways to
take action relative to the news and recommend steps to follow. Currently,
there are nearly 800 subscribers to this network. </font></p>
<p> <font color="#000000" face="Busorama Md Bt">Whether it's working
individually, interacting with customers one-on-one or collectively through
industry associations, there are innumerable opportunities to improve the
consumers' perception of automotive service. </font></p>
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