Lessons From a Car Mechanic
I dropped off our not-so-trusty Vue today at our local mechanic.
“I know something’s wrong,” I said. ”We’ll take a look at it,” was the reply.
Look, they did.
They did so much looking, they needed to look at it overnight. “FREE LOANER!” I celebrated silently to myself. (It’s the little things.)
This particular body shop has a deal with a car rental place down the street. I dropped off my keys with the front desk and waited as one of the staff came around the front with a shuttle van to take me to the rental place.
I hopped in the shuttle and we began to make small talk for the short, five-minute drive down the street. The drive was short, but the conversation with my driver, Wade, was long enough to give me pause.
“You guys are only open on weekdays, yeah?” I knew this already because of the sign that I had just seen hanging on the garage door, but decided to ask anyway.
“Yep,” Wade replied courteously. “We really value our time with our families.”
“Is that why you guys close at 5:30?” I asked.
“Yeah. At the end of the day, we want to get home and spend time with our kids.”
“Wow. That’s … awesome.” It was literally the only thing that I could think to say.
See, what I expected from Wade the garage tech was a ride from Point A to Point B with polite, slightly uncomfortable, car-and-driver-themed conversation. What I got was a reminder in what matters most.
We really value time with our families.
Those words still ring fresh in my ears. What makes this even better is that this particular body shop is absolutely booming in business. I had to make an appointment a week out. They take two whole days off a week and close at 5:30, everyday.
No extended hours.
No oil changes on Saturday and Sunday.
No one’s even there to take  your calls on the weekend.
Why?
Because they’re at home. With their families. Being husbands and wives; moms and dads; brothers and sisters. If you really want your car to be worked on by this shop (a lot of people do), you’ll find a way to get your car there when they’re open. It’s as simple as that.
It makes me wonder if this body shop has figured something out that the rest of us miss.
Hi Justin,
This is a great story – but not necessarily surprising to me as my auto mechanic does the exact same thing. His shop is open 8-6 M-F. That’s it. He opened just over a year ago and has already hired two other mechanics to handle the volume of work he gets. And his customers? They simply adjust to the schedule because they sure don’t want to take their vehicles anywhere else.
His motivation is the same – he and the staff have families and would like to spend weekends away from the shop. They work hard during the week so they can relax on weekends. Pretty old school, and pretty cool.
May old school needs to be the new new school? Yeah?
I love it when people have their priorities straight. I feel as though when priorities are straight productivity increases. I learned that Europeans take an extremely long vacation in comparison to us Americans. I dont have any conclusive data on this, but I would go out on a limb and say there is more productivity out of them.
Just me thinking.
D
Actually, there are studies that show what you’re picking up intuitively. One book that showcases the findings is “The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working” by Tony Scwartz. It’s the BOMB.
car rental service prices have risen this year. i am saving to buy my one car *’”