I
was lucky enough years ago when I moved to Phoenix to tour George Brazil’s amazing shop.
Even better was spending time talking to George about business.
Our
conversation over lunch focused on the need for powerful repeatable systems for
running a company. And we both agreed that the cornerstone is having written policies
and procedures.
Then
George leaned in and said, “Policies and procedures are great. But…don’t expect
what you’re unwilling to inspect.”
The
message was clear. If you want to think your team is performing the right way,
don’t check on them because you may not like what you see and hear.
But
any company that wants to get ahead and stay ahead of their competition knows
that getting out in the real world by doing ride-alongs is essential to assuring
the three main things any technician must do:
1.
Sales [also known as good communications]
2.
Operations
3.
Technical
My
old partner once told me, “I don’t have the time to do ride-alongs with the techs.”
To
which I responded, “Then, how will you find the time you need to fix all their
mistakes?”
I
continued, “And furthermore…every time you do a ride-along, the tech hears what
you know… they get better at sales, operations and technical performance. So,
what else could you be doing that’s more important than ride-alongs?”
He
was speechless. The sad fact is he always remained resistant to doing regular
ride-alongs. And I can assure you he’s not alone. In my consulting work over
the last eight years I encounter this resistance on a regular basis.
Here
are the Top 4 reasons you don’t ride along:
1.
You make the false assumption they’ll be on their best behavior when you do
ride along. But the truth is they may start out that way…but…they will slip
back to their true habits if you’re riding along long enough and often enough.
2.
It’s going to make the techs nervous. Yes, it will make them nervous but only if
you ride-along once in a blue moon. If your ride-alongs are done at least once
a month, they’ll relax and be more at ease.
3.
You know that you’ll take over the job and sell and/or do the work so they’ll
end up a glorified helper. And you’d be right unless you train yourself to step
back and make it clear that they’re in charge of running the call. Save your
coaching till you get back to the truck after the call is done or better yet,
do it after you get back to the shop but take notes so you won’t forget
4.
You also think you don’t have the time to do the ride-alongs. So, I’ll ask you
the same question: “When will you have time to fix all the mistakes or make up
the lost revenue going down the drain?” You have nothing more important to do.
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