Podcast: Setting Boundaries and Managing Customer Expectations (w/ Tonnika Haynes)

April 25, 2023

Tonnika Haynes, owner of Brown's Automotive in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, talks shop ownership, managing her customer's service expectations and a health scare that changed how she worked.

Chris Jones

In this episode, Tonnika Haynes of Brown's Automotive in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, discusses boundaries and expectations. Every shop needs to have a protocol on how to help customers who don't fully understand what shops can and cannot do within reason.

Tonnika discusses:

Being a second-generation shop owner
How she decided to get into the industry and taking over her father's shop
How she manages customer expectations
How she handles difficult customers
Helping customers understand the difference between the dealership service model and how independent shops work
How to set personal boundaries
How overwork put her in the hospital and why shop owners need to take time off
Why she loves shop ownership

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About the Author

Chris Jones | Editor

Chris Jones is Group Editorial Director for the Vehicle Repair Group at Endeavor Business Media. He’s a multiple-award-winning editor and journalist and a certified project manager now providing editorial leadership and brand strategy for the auto care industry's most trusted automotive repair publications—Ratchet+Wrench, Modern Tire Dealer, National Oil & Lube News, FenderBender, ABRN, Professional Distributor, PTEN, Motor Age, and Aftermarket Business World.