A third-generation repair shop owner, Parks and his wife, Amy, acquired Parks' Automotive from Parks' father, Joe, in March 2006. The senior Parks founded the business in 1982 as Parks' Automotive and Van Service.

"Dad grew up in the automotive business," Parks said. "He worked for my grandfather, who had a Standard station. When my grandfather retired and closed the business, my dad worked for several dealerships and at other places. He even worked over in Carbondale."

Carbondale is across the Mississippi from Cape Girardeau, in southern Illinois.
Parks said his father founded his repair shop to meet a need. In the early 1980s, vans of all types were popular, but not everyone wanted to work on them. Parks said his father saw the reluctance of other shops to work on vans as a business opportunity.

"We specialized in them," he said. "Nobody else wanted to work on vans. Even the dealers didn't want to work on them."
The senior Parks continues to work in the business as a technician, his son said. His father is not ready to retire, Parks said, but when he is, the transition to retirement will be easy because the details have been worked out ahead of time.

Parks also said that over the years, the shop's business expanded to include a comprehensive range of cars and light- and medium-duty trucks. To reflect the shop's expanded work, he said the reference to van service was dropped from the shop's name.

"We still do a lot of service work on vans," Parks said. "We don't do a lot of heavy-duty truck stuff, but we do a lot of medium-duty truck stuff, one-ton and three-quarter ton pickups, vehicles like that."

Today, his shop is "pretty much" a full-service facility, Parks added. His work covers the gamut from routine maintenance to diagnostics, and from air-conditioning work to suspension work. "We sell tires," he said. "We do brake work. The only thing we really don't do is alignments, and we don't have a tow truck."

Locally, his shop may be best known for its diagnostic work, Parks said. Both he and his father are ASE-certified technicians, as is Tony Meyer, the shop's third mechanic.

"Our specialty is diagnostics," he said. "I take great pride in our diagnostics."

Parks said many customers tell him they came to his business after having tried other repair shops. "They come in and tell my wife, 'Hey, I hear you're the guys who can fix it.'"

Amy Parks serves as the shop's office manager and service writer, Parks said.

Although his shop is successful with diagnostic work, and has done well at it, Parks said he is pressed sometimes to keep up with the latest technology, equipment, and training, and to educate his customers about the amount of work involved in successfully diagnosing problems in modern vehicles.

"That probably hurts us sometimes because the public wants to do more quick stuff rather than diagnostics," he said.

The issue of diagnostics also highlights two key concerns of Parks: education and efficiency. The former includes not only technical education for himself and his staff, but also customer education--helping his customers become more knowledgeable about their vehicles. The latter, he said, is an essential component in maintaining a healthy business.

"The last year and a half we've really pushed to become more efficient as a shop," Parks said. "We really track what we're doing and how we're doing as a shop. If we can become more efficient, that means more dollars."

He said he reviews his numbers on a weekly basis, comparing them to recent weeks or months, or even a year ago. Among other things, he looks for trends, he said.

For training, Parks said he turns to several sources. As a NAPA AutoCare Center and an ACDelco TSS shop, he said he has access to training through local NAPA and ACDelco vendors. As a member of AASP-MO, he said he also benefits from the training offered by that organization. He said he reads a lot, too.

"It's a great group," Parks said of AASP-MO. "Without them, you're on your own. And how as a shop owner would you stay up to speed without having somebody to follow?"

Parks said he talks with some of his AASP colleagues on an almost daily basis, often on the telephone. "It's all about communication," he said. "You use every avenue you can possibly find."

With his customers, he said the biggest issue is often "simply a lack of knowledge."
Parks said owners of heavy-duty diesel pickups and similar vehicles are one example. He said many don't understand the amount of service their vehicles require.

"Most heavy-duty-truck owners think that it's just a little Honda they can get in, start up, and drive away in," he said. "They think they don't have to do a lot of stuff to it. They're wrong, and it ends up costing them money down the road. They have problems with the injectors, they have problems with turbos, and they have problems with the glow plugs, for simple lack of maintenance. These are problems that could have been avoided had the truck been properly maintained from the beginning."

Parks said he and his wife go out of their way to stress the importance of maintenance to their customers.

"Amy is very good about making sure we do a 31-point inspection sheet on every vehicle that comes through here. We take fluid samples. We take digital photographs. We give the customers copies, and Amy goes through the maintenance schedules with them."

Parks said his shop also makes callbacks and sends out mailers to continue the conversation with its customers. "We try to do all of that," he said. "If we just wait for them to come in for an oil change, they're going to miss a lot. So we try, every time they come in, to educate them about whatever's coming up in their car or truck."

As a family operation, Parks said his wife's role is central to the business. While her role as office manager is essential to the smooth operation of the shop, her role as an effective service manager is crucial, especially because she has invaluable people skills, he said.

"She listens to what people say, and that's important, because good communication is always the first step," Parks said. "We have guys who have great training. We have great equipment. But without her knowledge of the business and her ability to deal with people, and knowing how to express to people what the problem is, we wouldn't be where we are."

In some ways, in our society, the service manager has replaced the bartender as the person to whom customers tell their troubles, Parks said, laughing.

"As a service manager, the first thing you learn about is how things are going at home--how the kids are doing, who's in the hospital, who's getting divorced, who just left for college," Parks said. "When people are finished telling you that, they tell you about their car. That's why listening is important. First you gain their trust, then you get their business."
And, he added, Amy is very good at that: "She has great compassion, and she can relate well to people."