No one enters the repair industry thinking it will be an easy job.
Rightfully so, because it’s not. Repair is about fixing vehicles, but at its core, it is also about helping people. Cars are more than machines. They are part of our lives.
Shop owners across the country already know this to be true. It’s why they do what they do. But shops carry a huge responsibility because of this. Not only are you servicing a vehicle, but you are servicing the people as well.
Because every person is different, sometimes the approach needs to be different. This can be where issues begin to present themselves, and the gaps within the industry become clear.
For example, young people are not as interested in pursuing a career in the trades as they once were, women statistically feel less comfortable as repair shop patrons and some customers can’t afford to safely repair their vehicles and fear being ripped off.
Three shops are out to face each of these problems head-on, all while providing consistent and quality repair service. Operating a successful repair shop and contributing to the greater good is possible, and here’s how they did it.
Reaching the Next Generation
The Mission:
Get youth interested in automotive repair
The Industry Need:
The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics reported that 75,000 new technicians will need to be added to replace retired workers to meet demand by 2020. In other words, the industry needs more people interested.
Students aren’t often presented with the auto industry as a viable career path. High school shop classes are disappearing from the curriculum. Cary Car Care in Cary, N.C., gives high school students a chance to get involved early.
Not everyone wants to go to college, but Kelsey Lambdin, co-owner of Cary Car Care, says one of the biggest struggles is getting people to look past the perception of automotive work as lesser, or seeing technicians as nothing more than grease monkeys.
“We’re constantly trying to change that through our professionalism and our involvement in the community,” Lambdin says.
By talking to students while they’re still in school and offering them the opportunity to get directly involved, Cary Car Care is getting the younger generation excited about the automotive industry.
Next Level Commitment
Cary Car Care works with local internship programs to give students a chance to get involved in the industry directly through a job shadowing program for middle and high school students.
“Those who are interested come in for a few hours per week or a few hours per day,” Lambidin says. “They just come in and they work with us throughout the day, depending on what kind of projects we have here.”
The shop has two master ASE certified mechanics who work with the students, one of whom Lambdin says is a specifically great mentor and teacher.
“They come in, they help him, and they get to understand a little more about the operations of the vehicles while they’re doing some hands on experience,” she says.
Lambdin says that they advertise for their apprenticeship position through job boards in the area, as well as through their partnership with Wake Tech, the local community college. They accommodate one internship position each semester.
Hidden Talent
Cary Car Care also sponsors the high school robotics team, the Terror Bytes. BJ Lambdin, one of the shop’s owners, has even gone to see the team compete. The shop invests time in these kids, because Lambdin thinks there’s a relation between kids who are interested in robotics and those who might enjoy careers in the automotive industry.
“It was so intriguing, and the technology that goes into it is similar to how cars are evolving and the industry is changing and becoming more technological,” Lambdin says. “It was very relevant to the automotive industry and where we’re headed. It was something we certainly wanted to support and get behind.”
The Payoff
“We’ve seen some of our interns go on to engineering programs at four year universities, we’ve seen them pursue Master Tech status,” Lambdin says. “The most important aspect is helping them determine if this is their passion and then guiding them to make future career decisions.”
Making Women Feel Welcome
The Mission:
Create a safe, women-friendly atmosphere for auto repair
The Industry Need:
A survey from RepairPal found that 77 percent of people believe repair shops perform unnecessary repairs for women. Women technicians also aren’t taken as seriously working in the industry. According to reports from Catalyst, 65 percent of women in auto repair jobs report both being tasked with lower-level assignments compared to their peers, and unwanted sexual advances. They found that a quarter of women feel unsafe at work.
“When you go into your average repair shop...I’ve worked on cars my whole life and they make you feel stupid,” says Sara Rathsack, manager of JumpStart Auto Repair. “They belittle you for work you haven’t had done on your car because you didn’t have the money to do so.”
JumpStart Auto Repair in Neenah, Wis., is looking to turn that stigma around and create a safe place for women—both as customers and employees. JumpStart gives opportunities to female technicians and works to make female customers feel comfortable, but that’s only the beginning. The repair shop was created by two local non-profits, Harbor House and Christine Anne Homes, to help domestic abuse survivors regain their footing and start over.
From that initial concept, JumpStart grew into a full-blown shop that services everyone, not just domestic abuse survivors, but their mission remains to give survivors a safe space in auto repair.
A Welcoming Atmosphere
“When you walk into our shop, we don’t look like your average shop. We call it the Purple Carpet Experience,” Rathsack says. “When you come in here, there are comfortable couches—not old, ratty, full of duct tape or anything like that. We always have the TV on.”
Making the lobby a welcoming place is especially important for women coming into the shop with children. Rathsack says she always has a box of fruit snacks under her desk, as well as juice boxes and sodas and other refreshments at no cost so women and their kids can feel more relaxed.
“When you’re coming in here and you’re a survivor of domestic violence, a lot of times you bring your kids everywhere because you don’t know where they’re safe,” Rathsack says.
Anyone can bring their car in to be repaired, but regular customers can pay it forward for domestic abuse survivors. If they pay extra, that money goes into a fund for Harbor House or Christine Anne, and will be applied to a survivor’s bill.
Rathsack says that she holds her employees to high ethical standards. If parts don’t need to be replaced, the shop doesn’t replace them. Everything is explained in detail to the customers. The technicians will even take them underneath the car to show them the problem.
A Level Playing Field
A huge focus at JumpStart is giving women a chance in the industry, as well. One of their technicians is a woman who survived domestic violence and went on to train at the technical college.
Rathsack says that having a female technician is important in showing the women who come into the shop when they’re at a low point in their lives, they can see a strong woman. Her presence also challenges any gender-based stereotypes that customers of all kinds may already have in place.
The Payoff
The female technician at the shop has inspired even more female involvement at the shop, with exciting plans for the future. The shop intends to break ground to open four more bays, and in turn hire four more female technicians.
Eliminating the Barriers of Repair
The Mission:
Provide quality repairs to all customers, regardless of income status.
The Industry Need:
A study from AAA in 2017 found that 64 million American drivers—or one in three motorists—would not be able to pay for an unexpected repair without going into debt.
People need transportation to get to and from work, which means, many vehicles on the road are unsafe to drive because the drivers cannot afford to repair them.
For years, Jeff Smith had a desire to provide people of all income levels with honest repair work, without the fear of being overcharged. In 2019, Smith opened Good Vibes Garage in Laramie, Wy., to provide, in his words, “safe and reliable vehicles for all of our community members.”
Options For All
Good Vibes Garage provides a sliding scale discount program for some of its customers, based on customer-provided household size and income information.
From this, the shop is able to determine if the customer qualifies for a discounted payment or can be charged full price. Offering these options is important to Smith, both in helping others out and in making a profit to keep the shop running.
“Sometimes, we might provide a quote to somebody and we get the sense that they could potentially qualify for that discount program,” Smith explains. “At that point, we’ll mention that we have that available.”
These interactions are based on a groundwork of trust, as Good Vibes doesn’t require a paper trail.
“We’re honest with them,” Smith says. “And, so far it’s been true that, in turn, they’re honest with us.”
The shop has created a pricing scale that they use for reference in these situations. They take the income information and find a suitable price they can offer based purely upon these numbers. If the customer’s income level is low enough, they can qualify for the discount. High enough and they qualify for standard pricing.
The Buy-In
At a surface level, this approach may appear unfair to the customer. But Smith says that they have had no negative feedback from those who pay full price versus a discounted rate.
“There’s no hostility whatsoever,” he says.
The reason for this reaction is most likely tied into the fact that Smith uses a portion of the profit he makes from full price repairs and cycles it back into the shop to ensure that low income clients have the opportunity to get discounted repairs.
Since Good Vibes is a newer shop, this is a system about which they are still trying to educate their entire customer base. Part of their initiative for 2020 is relaying this information on a wider scale.
“We want to let people know that: A) we have the discount program in place for people,” Smith says. “But also, B) by coming to Good Vibes, not only are you getting A plus service, you’re also helping keep the community safe.”
Basically, when a customer comes in who can afford to pay the standard amount, they are not only getting a trustworthy repair according to Smith, but they are allowing the same for those less fortunate.
Customers who pay standard pricing rates allow Good Vibes to continue churning a profit. The portion of these proceeds that they put towards discounted repairs allows the discount program to exist.
While the program is still catching on, Smith is confident in its endurance. He projects that the annual revenue for Good Vibes Should nearly double in 2020 from $250,000 to $500,000.
The Payoff
Unfortunately, there will always be shops that don’t have the best intentions. Good Vibes Garage does its part in combating the existence of rip-off culture by offering an honest, accepting and accommodating environment.
Their work is being recognized. Other shops in the Laramie community refer lower-income customers to Good Vibes Garage, even though they are considered competition.
Betterment of transportation for community members is the main goal. People want a shop that’s trustworthy, because they rely on their cars to get them where they need to go. By eliminating the fear of being ripped off, Smith has created a shop that services people in more ways than one.
“I didn’t start the shop to make a lot of money,” Smith says. “I started the shop to help people.”
Luckily with Good Vibes, he gets to do both.
