Shop Profile: Peak Automotive
by Jim Phillips

Each issue of WORLDPAC’s Industry News will feature a profile and interview with a WORLDPAC customer. These profiles will take an in depth look into successful shops and extract new and innovative ideas we can all implement to improve the image of the automotive aftermarket.

We’re very pleased to introduce you to Kim and Brian Walker, owners of Peak Automotive in the Raleigh, North Carolina metro area. Supporting your requests for marketing and best practice ideas, we believe we can all benefit from taking a look at this innovative Import automotive service center, the Walker’s philosophy on business and the successful customer focused marketing services that have earned them significant local and national recognition.

Shop Profile:

• Name – Peak Automotive
• Owner(s) – Kim and Brian Walker
• Location(s) – (2) Apex and Raleigh, NC.
• Size of the shop(s) - Apex is 10 bays / 20K sq’ and Raleigh is 2 bays / 4K sq’
• Vehicle Mix – 90% Import, 10% Domestic
• Specialization – Euro / Asian (Mercedes is #1 in volume)
• Average RO Value - $640
• Average Monthly ROs Written –360
• Labor Rate – Undisclosed
• Number of Associates – 12 (2 owners, 3 service writers and 7 techs between their 2 shops)
• Marketing Budget as a Percent of Sales – 3%
• Years in Business – 4 ½
• Customer Base – 2000 (1600 active)
• Website: www.peakautomotive.com

Peak Automotive History:

The cornerstone of success at Peak Automotive absolutely lies with their people. As with many successful businesses, the leadership and innovation found with Kim and Brian Walker (owners) is a model we should examine closely.

The Walker’s moved from Louisiana seven years ago. Brian worked for the local MBZ dealer (Leith Mercedes) for three years before opening his own import service center in Raleigh, NC. Brian is a factory trained Mercedes master technician, ASE master tech and a graduate from UTI in Houston. Kim has a Bachelors in Education and a Masters in Education / School Counseling. Brian runs the operations for Peak and Kim the marketing. They estimate 2006 sales will surpass $1.5 million for their primary location in Apex and see potential of $1 million for their new shop in Raleigh.

The staff at Peak Automotive is very active with the local community including their church, the chamber of commerce, local women’s organizations, as well as national women and children’s organizations. They also dedicate time to attend a whole host of technical and business training, and are members of numerous automotive and small business associations.

Interview with Kim and Brian Walker :

How do you use technology in your business? The shop is high speed connected and we have PCs for all our service writers and multiple PCs for the techs in the shop. We use Winworks for our SMS with integration to WORLDPAC’s speedDIAL program. We order about 95% of our parts on line, primarily from WORLDPAC. We also buy online from CARQUEST and AutoZone.

For our customers, we have a Website with e-mail capabilities, a car profile data sheet, referral program, helpful links and vehicle tips, a page to “meet the staff” including individual e-mail addresses and of course coupons and services offered. We have complementary high speed internet connected computers, as well as phone & work stations for our customers in our waiting rooms. Here in the research triangle area, we have a high percentage of customers who are very technology savvy.

What measurement tools do you use? As a member of the ATI training program, we utilize the ATI “Portal” to track key performance indicators (KPIs). We will run numbers monthly like; total sales, parts costs, labor billed, labor cost, parts sales, parts costs, average RO value, etc… On a weekly basis we also track the same KPIs on a spread sheet that we created ourselves. Additionally, our CPA generates reports for us on a monthly basis. Implementing this type of measurement, something we started a couple of years ago, has been one of the most important elements to our success.

You mentioned ATI. What other training do you attend? In addition to ATI, we have attended Management Success, AMA (automotive management) in Vegas during Industry Week, WORLDPAC WTI and CARQUEST CTI courses, and the local Chamber of Commerce offers training on Excel and other MS programs. We also attend courses at Wake Tech, a local Technical College, and they offer small business classes on marketing, accounting, etc…

What about technical training for the techs and service writers? We are a BSC shop and are required to go to the Bosch classes. We also attend WORLDPAC WTI classes, CARQUEST CTI classes, ASA training, and Industry Week training in Vegas. We are considering closing the shop this year and taking the entire shop to Vegas for Industry Week, there are so many great classes

What other investments do you make for the techs? All our techs are ASE certified. Brian is an ASE master tech and our Service Advisors are ASE certified. We have established a goal, and support financially, that all our techs reach the ASE master tech level. We are active with IATN and check the forums on most diagnostic problems to maximize tech productivity. We also make a significant investment in the necessary diagnostic tools to keep us current with our carlines.

How much money do you allocate for marketing and how do you split those dollars between new and existing customers? We allocate about 3% of sales toward marketing. Of that, we probably use 60% of those funds for keeping our existing customers and 40% for attracting new customers. What is hard to see in those numbers, is that we get most of our new customers from things we do for our existing customers.

Tell us about your marketing activities.

• We have referral program (see it on their webpage).
• We have all our techs provide free 40 point courtesy inspections on all vehicles. If they miss inspections one week (say 55% of the cars) the following week’s sales drop dramatically
• We attend BNI (Business Networking International) chapter meetings. This activity generates the most new customers, second only to customer referrals
• We market to large local businesses (employee business discounts) – IBM, Cisco, American Airlines, etc…
• We display at non-traditional trade shows like the “Southern Women’s Show” (businesses that cater to Women)
• We draft ads and car care awareness articles for the local community magazine (targeting the more affluent areas).
• Our magazine ads are not the traditional car type ad. We use pink, no pictures of cars, things that appeal to woman.
• By invitation, we have placed an ad in “the little black book” a list of businesses that cater to the needs of women.
• Although we have many marketing activities for women, we in no way make it uncomfortable for men. We recently had a booth at the local Harley dealership during a special Harley event.
• In our lobby we have a display of gift items from a friend’s gift shop boutique.
• We use time and mileage, vehicle specific, service reminders from CustomerLink.
• We send a monthly e-mail newsletter to all our customers
• About every month and a half, we create a flier for our entire customer base. The fliers typically have a theme, like a “Love your Car” valentines special, or “Royal Flush” offering a special on flushing all the vehicles fluids. Sometimes we do a donation special, where we would offer a $5.00 donation for each oil change during the month to the Susan B. Komen breast cancer foundation, and things like that. We will also run a promotion for a service at Peak Automotive and tie it in with something fun like a drawing for a dinner certificate at a new fancy restaurant.
• We also make an effort to attend local business events and business expos where we can display our materials.

On Average, how many new customers do you see per month? 60

How do you track new customers? We have a tracking sheet for all new customers that lists all our marketing activities and our service writers ask each new customer how they found us then make tallies in the respective box on the sheet. We also populate the “Marketing Source” field in Winworks, our SMS.

What percent of your customers are women? At our Raleigh shop, we see 50/50 men to women dropping off the car. At our larger Apex shop, maybe 70% of the buying decision is from the lady of the house.

What things do you do to help the female customer feel comfortable doing business with Peak Automotive? First and foremost, our shops are very clean and comfortable, and our service writers are very professional. Our service writers wear ties, they look professional they speak in a professional manner. We are careful to explain in detail what we are doing to their car. We are also very sensitive to the services needed by the busy female consumer.

Like what services? We offer a shuttle service. We have a kid friendly area with legos and children’s books. We have complementary snacks and a cappuccino service. We have magazines, not about cars but, about topics that interest women. We even have a massage chair in our lobby. We also have work areas with phones, computers with internet access, satellite TV and so on.

Recognition is also very important. We make an effort to thank the person who drops off our customers. Our service writers will walk out to the car of the friend dropping off our customers and thank them personally while handing them a coupon for a free oil change.

Despite all that we do to make everyone comfortable in the shop, our goal is always to help the customer get in and get out quickly. We have to recognize everyone is so busy.

How do you measure customer satisfaction (CSI)? Each week, we (Kim) calls every customer after service to be sure everything went as planned. About 50% of the calls will reach the customer directly and on the other calls we typically end up leaving a voice message. For new customers we will not leave a message. We will call until we reach the customer live. Also, for new customers, we will send a hand written thank you card after their first visit. We are exploring having a third party conduct CSI for the shop to verify our customers are comfortable sharing their true feeling about the service experience.

As you grow, how do you attract new techs? As the word has gotten out that we do good work, we have good techs stop by and drop off resumes. Fortunately for us, as you know, good people hang out with good people. Our techs are friends with other good techs and they all network and know each other so the word spreads when we’re looking for someone new.

Where do our see the future of Automotive repair? As you know, cars break less often. The future is really about maintenance. Because our customers drive highline vehicles, they understand that, but it’s our job to remind them and educate what needs to be done to keep their cars running properly.

You’re both fairly young, the business is only four years old; do you have an exit strategy? Yes and no. We purposely didn’t name the business “Walker Automotive”. In many cases our customers think our lead service writer is the owner. We are not the face of our business. Through things we have learned along the way, including information from ATI and Management Success, we know if we are the face of the business; the service writer, the technician, the one taking care of everything, and the customers know that, when it’s time to sell the business, our profit potential will be much lower knowing the shop will loose some customer trust and long-term relationships when we’re gone.

When we opened our new facility, we hired a great service writer. We’re not there very often and after only a couple of months, that new facility is already running smoothly and making a profit. We work on our business, not in our business.

If you were to buy an older shop where nothing new had been implemented in years, and sales were down, what would be the first few things you would do? First we would work on the business not in the business. Second, we would clean the shop until it was immaculate and modernized. Third we would make every effort to exceed our customer’s expectations to ensure that they are delighted with everything we do.

Our special thanks to Kim and Brian Walker for supporting WORLDPAC and the automotive aftermarket. If you would like to help to improve our industry by sharing your profile and best practices, please contact Jim Phillips at jimp@worldpac.com.

Jim Phillips - Director of Marketing