Highland, Ill.--Once upon a time, the handwritten paper ticket and its carbon customer copy were a staple of the automotive-repair business. When a job was complete, the shop owner would itemize the repair work, calculate the cost, and write out the ticket for the customer, sometimes in a semi-legible hand. At the end of the day, the shop's copy of the ticket would be stuffed in a folder somewhere, and that, for the most part, was the end of the transaction.
Not so today, said Keith Frank, the owner of Keith's Automotive Center in Highland. In an age of stiff competition for customers, tight margins, and customer pressure to repair vehicles ASAP, the idea of a simple paper ticket belongs to the age of the Model T. It's as out of date as driving to the parts store to pick up the parts you need for a repair.
"I don't know how anyone can be writing paper tickets anymore," Frank said of running a modern repair shop.
Like many owners, Frank said he uses a shop-management system, not only to write tickets, but also to keep tabs on shop functions and issues, including "average R.O."
Frank said he probably doesn't take advantage of the full range of his R.O. Writer capabilities, but what he does use is beneficial.
"Just having the records at your fingertips is an asset," he said. "It's being able to look up what you did to the car last time. It's knowing what kind of oil filter you need, how to contact the customer. Timewise, it's a huge savings. It saves an ungodly amount of time."
As a boy and young man, Frank said he never intended to become a mechanic or shop owner. Instead, he said he set his sights on becoming a farmer, and with that aspiration in mind, he worked regularly on a neighbor's farm.
"Finally, I woke up one day and thought, 'This guy's got four boys. There's no way I'll be doing any of this someday.' I talked to my dad, and I started working with him after school."
Frank's father, Lawrence, owns--and still operates--a small repair shop in nearby Pierron. Today, it is a one-person operation.
"He's probably been in business 45 or 46 years," Frank said.
Frank said his own repair shop began life as Walter's Garage. In December 1984, he said he purchased the then 37-year-old business from its founders, Ray and Warren Walter. A few years later, he said he renamed it Keith's Performance Shop, then in October 2005, moved the business to its current 5,600-square-foot facility.
"We changed the name to Keith's Automotive Center because we weren't doing any performance work," Frank said. "We never did a lot of performance work. It was always just an interest. 'Keith's Automotive Center' is really much closer to what we actually do."
The new facility includes a modern reception area and waiting room for customers, a seven-bay shop, and a spacious office for Frank. Because the building served originally as a grocery store, there is also generous basement storage under part of the facility, he said.
"We enjoy the room," he said. "And our visibility is a little better. We were on a main drag before, but this is a better location. I know some people say location doesn't mean everything, but we picked up about 20 cars per month by moving here."
Keith's Automotive is also visible at another location, too: on the Internet. A Web site, keithsautomotive.com, introduces customers to the business and allows them to obtain estimates and make appointments.
Although he has had the Web site for several years, Frank said customer response to it has been, well, lukewarm. To improve traffic on the site, Frank said he hopes to build an e-mail list and initiate contacts with his customers through that list.
"We have the e-mail addresses," he said. "We just need to create the list."
Frank said his shop works on both foreign and domestic models. About 55 percent of his business is domestic, he said.
"We are a full-service repair facility. We can squeeze nine cars into the shop if we want to. We have four technicians, three of whom are ASE Master Techs, two maintenance people who work part-time, and three people in the office, including myself. We are a NAPA AutoCare Center, and we participate in ACDelco's TSS program."
Frank said many of the vehicles his technicians work on fall into the range of 7-10 years old."We see some 2007 models, but mostly for oil changes and things like that," he said. "We had a '39 coupe in here the other day to recharge the air-conditioner, but that's not normal."
To keep up with changes in the industry, Frank said he encourages his technicians to take advantage of as much training as possible. His company picks up the cost of the training, and if the training takes place during the workday, his technicians are paid as though they are at work, he said.
"We always go to ASA's Vision Training and Expo in Kansas City (Mo.) because it has some good training opportunities. I also try to go to the show at the Lake (AASP-MO's Excel Trade Show and Conference in Lake Ozark, Mo.). I always try to go to both, but sometimes it's hard to get my techs to attend both."
On a day-to-day basis, Frank said he and his technicians sometimes turn to iATN and Identifix when they're in need of troubleshooting help.
"We'll go to Identifix before we go to iATN, because you can search by year, model, or engine--all that stuff. You can also do that with iATN, but it's quicker with Identifix."
While much has changed in the repair business since he began working for his father, Frank said one lesson his father taught still applies: Be honest and up front with your customers, and go out of your way to fix their cars correctly.
"Treat the person like he was your mom or your dad," he said.
About four days after servicing a car, his shop will call the customer and "ask how we did," Frank said.
For many of his customers, "price remains a major consideration," he said. "But we're trying to win them over to quality."
Because the quality of modern cars has improved greatly in recent years, Frank said people often ignore the regular maintenance that prolongs the life of the vehicle and the investment the owner has made in it. To remind his customers about maintenance intervals, he said he uses eAutoClub.com to send service-reminder cards and updates.
"They pull the information directly from our shop-management records every night," Frank said. "It works about as well as anything I've tried. A lot of people come in and say, 'Hey, here is the card.'"
Frank said that encouraging people to think about quality and the value of regular maintenance are just two challenges today's shop owners face. As with technical training for technicians, management training for owners, or for young techs thinking about ownership, is essential if you want your business to succeed, he said.
"Try to get as much management training as possible," Frank said.
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