When Chuck Herr opened his first NAPA Auto Parts Store in Escondido in 1981, he had no idea his business would be where it is today, said his son, Matt Herr. The elder Herr said he owns six NAPA stores in the North San Diego County area, plus one in Beaumont and one in Yucaipa.
“I grew up in the business, of course, but professionally I joined the company in 1995,” Herr told Parts & People in an interview at his 35,000-square-foot Oceanside location. “My dad is still involved in the company, but I handle all of the day-to-day business operations now.”
Herr said that 2008 was good for the NAPA Auto Parts Store Group of North San Diego County in terms of business. “We’re having a good 2009. Retail is up and wholesale is booming,” he said.
“And a lot of that growth is due to focusing on our core strength--we’re NAPA--and by providing more solutions for our customers and developing new strategies.
“It’s a new day at NAPA Group North San Diego County,” Herr said. “Our mantra is: We’ve got it; we’re fast; we’re NAPA. We’ve added a tremendous amount of inventory, to strategic locations--$6 million at this store--to offer our customers everything from A to Z; the advantages of all specialty warehouses in one location, with one call,” he said.
“We have 400,000 unique part numbers. If we think we’ll sell it in 10 years, it’s in stock.”
As for being fast, Herr said the group has really stepped up its delivery program by investing in the latest scanner technology, having 35 delivery drivers, multiple inside dispatchers and daily delivery analysis to manage delivery times.
“It’s working. We deliver the largest inventory in North San Diego County, and our speeds are incredibly fast,” he said. “I can get a part out the door in five minutes from the time we receive the phone call to the time the driver puts his foot on the gas.”
Herr said he knows that in this time of uncertain economy, his customers want brands and a supplier they can trust.
“Our company was built on trust, we’re very focused on our customers, and NAPA has meant the same thing for decades: Trusted quality, trusted warranties, trusted brands, excellent factory representation, and a network of supply distribution that is second to none,” he said.
“There are a lot of new name products on the market, but NAPA has earned its trusted name.
We’re nationally known but locally owned,” he said.
A large part of the success and growth of the company is due to the team pride that is promoted among the stores, Herr said.
“We’re doing several things in terms of training, both internally and externally. NAPA has a lot of coordinated training programs from counter selling skills to customer service skills to various product education things, to driver safety training,” he said.
NAPA offers a broad range of programs, and Herr said his group implements many of them. “It varies as to when we’re doing what; there are different waves at different moments. Currently our focus has been heavily on filter training.
“We sell to a broad range of customers from retail DIYers to a repair shop with light duty applications, to farmers in the strawberry fields, to military equipment at Camp Pendleton,” he said. “And our people need to be able to answer filter questions without having to look it up.
“We’ve also been focusing on the ASE P2 certification program. Many of our counter people are already certified, and we just had 21 more counter people pass the latest test,” Herr said.
“And a lot of that was due to the strength of our people and the strength of our management team,” he said. “We spent quite a bit of time getting them information to prepare for the test and allowing them time to focus on the test.
“We spend a lot of energy on team pride and recognizing and rewarding our employees. We put out a newsletter every other week that we staple to every employee’s check so we know they get it,” Herr said.
“It talks about selling skills and customer service skills such as selling air-conditioning kits instead of individual parts, or how to turn a frustrated customer into a positive experience for them, plus employee recognition issues, top sellers, spotlights on one or two people or groups of people, anniversaries, birthdays.
“Our counter people are on salary and commission; one third of their pay comes from commissions,” Herr said. “And we have what we call the ‘Quota Club’ where the top five employees who exceed their quota are taken to lunch.
“We also have Employee of the Day at each location, and that can be anyone from a counter person to a dispatcher to the person who empties the trash,” he said. “We know that there are ‘stars,’ but we’re very focused on team building. We win with our team.”
Herr said he and his employees want to give back to the community so they sponsor local charities. He said he recently partnered with other local NAPA Auto Parts Stores and NAPA AutoCare Repair Centers for the “Drive Out Hunger” program in which customers were asked to bring in nonperishable food items to any participating location for emergency food services and families in need.
“We got enough food to fill several five-gallon buckets, and each bucket held enough food to feed a family for three days,” he said.
