Automotive Repair News Today

Braxton Critcher [00:00:05]:
Thanks so much for downloading and listening to this episode of Automotive Repair News today. I'm Braxton Critcher. Is there a technician shortage, in your opinion, if you're in the automotive industry, whether you're a shop owner, a technician, somebody that has worked in a repair shop before, that question has got posed to you, and we're going to try and tackle that today. And with my limited experience, my limited knowledge in the automotive industry so far, that question has come up so many times about the technician shortage, whether it's true, bogus. And I've got an expert today, because Chris Cotton from autofix auto shop coaching has dealt with this many times, I'm sure. And so I'll pose the question to you first, Chris, what say you? What do you think? Chris? Is there a technician shortage right now?

Chris Cotton [00:00:54]:
So in my heart of hearts, I say no. Like everything I see in the industry, shops that take care of their employees and they have good processes and procedures, they have some sort of work life balance, and they have, you know, they show care and concern for their technicians, those shops don't seem to be having a shortage at all. Like, technicians are almost falling on their doorstep, wanting to work from them because they've heard from technicians already in the shop, hey, this is a great place to work. Or, you know, these types of shops that I'm talking about, they also have a great website, and the website has a recruiting page on it, it has videos. And so if somebody's looking to move into your area, well, they're gonna Facebook stalk you, they're gonna Instagram stalk you, they're going to website stalk you and learn as much as they can about you. And these people will show up at your doorstep saying, hey, I want to work for you. How do I do that? How do I make that happen? And so, you know, I say this. I at STX, at other things I've been to all the time, people think I'm nuts, but I'm like, sure, the industry doesn't have as many technicians as we.

Chris Cotton [00:02:12]:
As we need, but there's. There's not a shortage. I don't believe it. So one of the things I wanted to do to figure this out is I wanted to create a survey and ask technicians that are leaving the industry, not technicians that are still in, but technicians that have decided to make the move and leave the industry. Created the survey. I put it on YouTube. I did a YouTube, I did three YouTube shorts about it. And so far, since we've started, we've had over 100 people reply and that's great.

Chris Cotton [00:02:46]:
We're getting a lot of insights and some of the things that I've found, and we can go into it a little bit further. But the good news for our industry is independent auto repair shop owners is that there are people willing to leave the dealerships and come to us. That is, if the dealerships don't ruin it and completely wash them out of the industry altogether. So, again, I would tell you, you know, as a shop owner, as a technician, you have to be telling those people around you what a great shop you have and pull those people in. So one of the first things I noticed with the survey is it's been about 50 50, uh, dealership technicians and independent repair shop technicians that have said they're leaving. Now, out of the 50% of the dealership people, it's constant complaints about, I'm working on a team, but the team's not taking care of me and things like that. I will also say that less than 25% of the time, people are leaving because of pay. So 75% of the time, people are leaving for reasons other than pay.

Braxton Critcher [00:04:06]:
That's shocking.

Chris Cotton [00:04:07]:
Yeah. And it's not, it's not what I thought it would show, and it's not what the comments show, because if you, the comments are kind of comical if you go on there leave, because most of those are still technicians working in the industries. Yeah. And so it's very interesting from that fact. And, and when I say the dealership is running well, from the survey, I 100% believe that technicians are leaving the industry because the dealerships are just ruining. And a lot of the time, unfortunately, those dealerships have never worked in the independent repair shop. So what we have to look at is, why are they leaving? What's going on? For some reason, independent auto repair shop owners have not done a good enough job of going out to younger technicians and saying, hey, there is a better alternative. And most of the dealership programs have ways to pluck these people out of tech school and everything, but every shop owner out in the industry should be in a tech school actively working with these people and trying to pull them out.

Chris Cotton [00:05:23]:
But again, through the survey, what we've seen is technicians go to a dealership, they work for a couple years, they get frustrated, and they just quit and leave. And they, they don't go to an independent repair shop. So if we, if we also dig into that survey a little bit deeper, most of the people say that if somebody would have sat and talked to them and spend a little bit more time with them, they would have stayed in the industry. And the follow up question to that is, did anybody try to keep you in the industry? And the answer was no. So nobody really tried to convince them to stay, and, and nobody put out an effort saying, hey, hey, this is what you should do. We should, we really appreciate you. How do we keep you in it? But here's the thing. 90% of the people say if they would have had better owners, better managers, better leaderships or better leadership, they would have stayed in the position and stayed in their job.

Chris Cotton [00:06:28]:
So people, people put a lot of effort into the technical training, and they want to stay, but when they go to leave, if nobody tries to convince them to stay or nobody tries to keep them in, then they're like, why should, why should I be here if nobody wants me here?

Braxton Critcher [00:06:46]:
So you would say that there's a good shop shortage rather than a shortage?

Chris Cotton [00:06:52]:
100%. That's an excellent way of putting that. Braxton. Thank you. I 100% believe there's a good shop shortage. And, you know, if we, if we look at the shops that are, that are out there, and it's really confusing on numbers. You know, the, the numbers I hear is there's somewhere between 150 and 250,000 independent auto repair shops in the country, depending on how you classify them, and, you know what the structure is, 20% of that may be good shops. And, and so what, what are we doing as the other 80% to try to do, to, to stack our level to the next, you know, to raise our level and bring these people in and keep them? I'm a firm believer that everybody in an auto repair shop should either be making $100,000 a year or be on a path to making a hundred thousand dollars a year.

Braxton Critcher [00:07:47]:
Right.

Chris Cotton [00:07:48]:
And it's up to the owners and the ownership to figure out what that looks like for them and what they have to do from pricing and processes and procedures and things like that in order to make a 20% shop? Yeah.

Braxton Critcher [00:08:02]:
So when you speak to a shop owner who falls into whatever percentage of shops that you would say may not be ones that keep technicians around for a long time and not, not a bad shop.

Chris Cotton [00:08:20]:
Right.

Braxton Critcher [00:08:20]:
But just one that maybe, you know, needs some coaching in that way, what is, I don't know, one thing that you would say to them that, hey, if you can take this next step, you'll see your technicians want to stay.

Chris Cotton [00:08:37]:
I. Oh, gosh, one, one thing that's, that's pretty tough. I. The one thing I would say is owners have to change their mindset, like, um, we need to stop thinking about how we hired and how we paid ten years ago because it's in the past. Right, right. And, and what we're doing is trying to make our shop successful for, for in the day. And I've got shop owners that are losing good technicians over $2 an hour. And then, so when you work them through the math and you're like, hey, if you had a good technician in there, you could bill out 35, 40 hours in a week like that.

Chris Cotton [00:09:13]:
$2 an hour just cost you like $7,000 in labor or whatever. So it's a mindset shift more than anything, but also find something unique to your shop that you can offer that nobody else in your area is offering. Pay is one of it. But again, like I said, 25% of people are leaving because of pay. It's usually like benefits. We've also, we've also had more shop owners in the last 18 months to two years convert to a four day work schedule. And that's huge for recruiting. I would also tell shop owners, go out and ask your current technicians why they work there and they will write an ad for you.

Chris Cotton [00:09:54]:
Like, they'll give you all the reasons why they like working there. You just have to take it and put it into an ad. So you asked for one thing and I gave you like twelve.

Braxton Critcher [00:10:00]:
Sorry, but leave it up to a auto shop coach to. Can't stay on one point right there.

Chris Cotton [00:10:08]:
There's always more.

Braxton Critcher [00:10:09]:
Right?

Chris Cotton [00:10:10]:
Like there's all. It's like an onion in Shrek. There's so many layers you have to peel.

Braxton Critcher [00:10:14]:
Well, there is. I mean, this topic and most topics in automotive for, I mean, it's, it's not surface level. There's so many things behind the scenes that lead to where you get to. Right. The perception of the industry. This is 50 or 60 years to where, you know, we are now. So, I mean, it's going to take some time to peel that onion and get back to where, you know, the industry ought to be.

Chris Cotton [00:10:42]:
Right. And again, it's, it's a, it's a mindset change. Like, you have to, you can't get caught up in the, like, we've always done it this way. That's, that. That's never going to work for you.

Braxton Critcher [00:10:51]:
Yeah, yeah. Do you think real quick, just. Do you think facilities updating facilities, new technology, new equipment, tools, helps at all?

Chris Cotton [00:11:06]:
I think it does. I mean, it's the bright, shiny stuff.

Braxton Critcher [00:11:10]:
You know, like 1520 years ago, that. No way. But I think nowadays, especially with younger technicians, that might be a drawing, right?

Chris Cotton [00:11:19]:
I think it is. One of the, one of the things, though, that we're seeing now is you could have like a, like, let's say middle of the road shop. But, you know, we can argue climate change and whatever. Like, our climate is changing. I don't know what the heck's causing it, but more people now will move because the shop is air conditioned than it's not. Like, if you look at, if you look at the, the heat waves we had in the summer last year in Texas, Louisiana, it was just miserable. And then as we're having this, there's the headlines are heat dome over the east coast, and it's going to be 100 plus in Virginia this weekend. And I think you could have, like, a decent shop, but if you had air conditioning, you could pull a lot of people in, even if you only use the air conditioning, like, three months out of the year.

Chris Cotton [00:12:11]:
It's, it's a, um. Well, and it keeps your technicians fresh and productivity up, too, if they're not like, just.

Braxton Critcher [00:12:19]:
Yeah.

Chris Cotton [00:12:19]:
Miserable, dying. Yeah.

Braxton Critcher [00:12:20]:
Blazing hot.

Chris Cotton [00:12:21]:
Yeah.

Braxton Critcher [00:12:23]:
Well, thanks, Chris. I appreciate your perspective.

Chris Cotton [00:12:25]:
Ah, you're very, very welcome. Thanks for having me.

Braxton Critcher [00:12:32]:
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Braxton Critcher [00:12:58]:
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