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Stop Hiring in Panic Mode: Build a Recruiting Pipeline for Your Shop [RR 1094]
Stop Hiring in Panic Mode: Build a Recruiting Pipeline for Your Shop [RR 1094]
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About this episode
Scrambling to hire after turnover hits is framed as “fire alarm syndrome,” where stress leads to poor decisions and even “a warm body.” Instead, the episode argues for building a recruiting pipeline: a “deep bench,” passive recruiting, and consistent “culture ping” and “10-mile famous” social ads that keep your shop visible to future techs. It also covers retention drivers like respect, growth, and clear career roadmaps, plus practical systems and messaging to prevent “ghosting.”
Cars:
Ford Edge
Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS
Watch Full Video Episode
The best time to recruit a technician is before you need one. Shops that continuously market their culture, build relationships with local talent, and maintain a pipeline of qualified candidates are better positioned to grow, avoid staffing emergencies, and create a workplace where top technicians want to stay. Recruiting is no longer an occasional task. It is an ongoing business strategy. Chris Lawson, TechnicianFind.Com Love your shop? Stay, but stay ready. Auto techs join to level up, find good shops, and keep tabs on top indie jobs nationwide. Techs only. No BS. Independent Wrench Jobs: https://www.skool.com/independentwrenchjobs
Host Carm Capriotto welcomes Chris Lawson, founder of Technician Find, to discuss one of the biggest challenges facing independent auto repair shops today: finding and keeping great technicians.
Chris explains why many shop owners fall into what he calls "fire alarm syndrome," waiting until a technician leaves before starting the hiring process. That reactive approach often leads to rushed decisions, poor hires, and ongoing turnover. Instead, he advocates for an "Always Be Recruiting" mindset, where shops continuously build relationships with potential candidates long before they have an opening.
The conversation explores practical strategies for becoming a destination workplace, creating a recruiting pipeline, and building a culture that attracts top talent in a competitive market.
What You'll Learn- Why reactive hiring creates costly staffing problems
- How to build a bench of pre-qualified technicians before you need them
- Why becoming "10-mile famous" can help attract both technicians and customers
- How culture-focused marketing can outperform traditional help-wanted ads
- The three things technicians value most: respect, growth, and compensation
- Why sign-on bonuses often fail and how to structure them more effectively
- Practical ways to engage passive candidates who are not actively job hunting
- Resources available through Chris Lawson's free online community for shop owners
The best time to recruit a technician is before you need one. Shops that continuously market their culture, build relationships with local talent, and maintain a pipeline of qualified candidates are better positioned to grow, avoid staffing emergencies, and create a workplace where top technicians want to stay. Recruiting is no longer an occasional task. It is an ongoing business strategy. Chris Lawson, TechnicianFind.Com Love your shop? Stay, but stay ready. Auto techs join to level up, find good shops, and keep tabs on top indie jobs nationwide. Techs only. No BS. Independent Wrench Jobs: https://www.skool.com/independentwrenchjobs
Finding Technicians Part 1- Chris Lawson [RR 803]: https://remarkableresults.biz/remarkable-results-radio-podcast/e803/
Finding Technicians Part 2 – Chris Lawson [RR 816]: https://remarkableresults.biz/remarkable-results-radio-podcast/e816/
Technician Attraction Blueprint [RR 921]: https://remarkableresults.biz/remarkable-results-radio-podcast/e921/
Attract, Develop, and Retain Top Automotive Talent [CC 113]: https://remarkableresults.biz/remarkable-results-radio-podcast/cc113/
Beyond Babysitters: Developing Strong Managers and Financial Transparency [RR 1076]: https://remarkableresults.biz/remarkable-results-radio-podcast/e1076/
Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS
Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care
NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/
Connect with the Podcast:
Visit the Website: https://remarkableresults.biz/
Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriotto
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Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/ Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/ Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club: https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmasters Join Our Private Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976 Join our Insider List: https://remarkableresults.biz/insider All books mentioned on our podcasts: https://remarkableresults.biz/books Our Classroom page for personal or team learning: https://remarkableresults.biz/classroom Special episode collections: https://remarkableresults.biz/collections Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/ Remarkable Results Radio Podcast with Carm Capriotto: Advancing the Aftermarket by Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion. https://remarkableresults.biz/ Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z with Matt Fanslow: From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life. https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/ Business by the Numbers with Hunt Demarest: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest. https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/ The Auto Repair Marketing Podcast with Kim and Brian Walker: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level. https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/ The Weekly Blitz with Chris Cotton: Weekly Inspiration with Business Coach Chris Cotton from AutoFix - Auto Shop Coaching. https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Concept
fire alarm syndrome
"[223.8s] That's the question, right? [225.3s] I would say that it is the fire alarm syndrome. [228.5s] It is when a technician leaves [230.3s] or when one of their employees leaves, [231.9s] it sets off a fire alarm and everybody scrambles."
It means you only start hiring when something goes wrong—like losing a technician. Everyone panics and rushes, and that usually causes mistakes in who you hire.
“Fire alarm syndrome” is a hiring mindset where a shop reacts only after a technician leaves—like an alarm going off. Instead of planning ahead, the team scrambles, and that stress often leads to rushed, lower-quality hiring decisions.
Concept
poor hires
"[240.8s] But it's also a problem because when you're in stress, [244.3s] and I've talked to, I mean, [245.7s] hundreds of shop owners at this point and GMs, [248.5s] when you're in stress, you don't make the best decisions. [251.9s] That's when the poor hires happen."
“Poor hires” are people you hire who don’t work out—either they aren’t a good fit or they don’t do the job well. The host says panic and stress make this more likely.
“Poor hires” refers to recruiting decisions that don’t match the shop’s needs, resulting in underperformance or turnover. In the episode’s framing, stress-driven hiring increases the odds of poor hires.
Concept
hire a warm body
"[251.9s] That's when the poor hires happen. [254.1s] That's when you hire a warm body"
It means hiring someone just to fill the spot fast, not because they’re the right person. The host is warning that panic hiring leads to this kind of shortcut.
“Hire a warm body” is a phrase for filling a vacancy quickly with the least-considered option, rather than hiring for skills and fit. The episode implies this happens when shops react in panic instead of building a recruiting pipeline.
Car
Ford Edge
"...overage your customer counts on and a competitive edge you can't afford to overlook. Want to deliver eve..."
The Ford Edge is a mid-size SUV made for regular driving and carrying people and luggage. It’s designed to be practical, with a comfortable ride and enough space for everyday needs. That’s why it’s a common vehicle mentioned when people talk about choosing a family-friendly SUV.
The Ford Edge is a midsize crossover SUV built for everyday driving with room for passengers and cargo. It’s often discussed in the context of practical family use and mainstream appeal, which can make it a common reference point when talking about customer-focused value and “competitive edge” in the SUV market. In a podcast, it may come up as an example of a vehicle that balances comfort, usability, and affordability for a broad range of buyers.
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This is the Automotive Repair Podcast Network.
Hello, my friend, Karm Capriotto,
remarkable results, radio 11 years in,
having more fun than I ever, ever have.
We appreciate you being here.
You know, we're committed to delivering for you
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and helps you challenges that you have using every day.
And we know that there's an awful lot of top shops
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We spent a lot of time fine tuning
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Anyway, please do that.
Look, I'm with Chris Lawson,
the founder of Technician Find an Easy Bench.
And we are going to talk about
why the smartest shops never scramble to hire.
God, that's a problem that I seem to have
every minute of the day.
Yeah, you're right, hang out there.
We got some really cool stuff to talk about with Chris Lawson.
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Learn how to upgrade your service and grow your business.
Connect with your local Napa Rep today.
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Napa Tracks has made selecting
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We'll prove to you that Tracks
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Find Napa Tracks on the web at NAPATRACS.com.
Hey, welcome back.
Hello, Chris.
How are you, my friend?
Hey, I'm doing fantastic, Carm.
Always love hanging out with you.
Yeah, me too.
Hey, look, Chris has spent nearly eight years
helping independent auto repair shops
hire technician specialists.
Through hundreds of conversations,
God, I'd love to be a fly on the wall with that stuff
with shop owners and technician specialists.
He's identified a pattern.
Smart man.
He basically says the shops that never panic
when the tech leaves aren't doing anything complicated,
they're just doing something consistent.
And one of the things that we're gonna talk about here
in this episode is what's called Easy Bench.
It's something Chris just recently launched.
And I'm so excited to hear a whole lot more about it.
And so the listeners should walk away with our goal, Chris.
The difference between reactive hiring,
like a fire alarm approach and proactive bench building,
or as you call it, the heartbeat,
we're gonna talk about the three reasons
technicians leave shops.
A dead simple system any owner can start this week.
The concept of becoming 10 mile famous.
I love that.
I can't wait to hear about that.
And why the best technician specialists are not on indeed.
Ooh, so let's do this thing, my friend.
We've had hundreds of conversations
with shop owners about hiring.
What's the one pattern, Chris,
that you see over and over
that most owners don't realize they're stuck?
That's the question, right?
I would say that it is the fire alarm syndrome.
It is when a technician leaves
or when one of their employees leaves,
it sets off a fire alarm and everybody scrambles.
And that's a problem for a bunch of reasons.
I mean, stress aside, I mean, it's very stressful.
But it's also a problem because when you're in stress,
and I've talked to, I mean,
hundreds of shop owners at this point and GMs,
when you're in stress, you don't make the best decisions.
And that's when the poor hires happen.
That's when you hire a warm body
or somebody that can fog a mirror.
And then what ends up happening is,
if you're lucky, they'll stick for six months
and then you're in the same position all over again.
You said that the crisis isn't the tech who leaves.
What do you mean by that?
Yeah, it's not the technician that leaves.
It's having no one to call when they do.
I can tell you, when you've got a deep bench
and you've got half a dozen people that you can call,
if that happens, it completely changes
the whole perspective of that situation.
And not only does it change the perspective
if the technician leaves,
but it also changes the perspective
when you're fully staffed.
If you're fully staffed and then you've got a bench,
then what ends up happening is you're not worried
about being held hostage over raises
or people threatening to leave.
It puts you in a much more common, more confident position.
So there's shops that don't scramble at all.
That's right.
If you're treating it like we call it passive recruiting,
passive recruiting has been around forever.
Big Fortune 500 companies have known this for decades.
They do passive recruiting.
They do branding ads that just are out there all the time
to attract good employees.
But it's not something that's really embraced
with smaller businesses, with shops, with independence.
And we're trying to change that
because it puts you in a completely different position
when you actually have people to talk to.
And you can think about it.
I have this conversation a lot with my marketing buddies.
You can think about it like marketing.
If you're consistently marketing,
if you're consistently out there
and you're talking about your brand,
you're talking about what you do
and the results that you've received
and you're promoting your good reviews,
then customers see that and it's consistent.
And you don't wanna start marketing
when your car count is way down.
You wanna be marketing all the way through
so that you can have deep roots in the community
and you can have a consistent flow of business.
It's the exact same thing with employment.
You're marketing your shop to potential employees
that are maybe six months, maybe two years,
maybe five years down the road.
So this always be recruiting is, you know, ABR.
It's something that I think top shops really get and know.
And by the way, I love the word scramble.
It really does define I'm in some deep doo-doo
because I haven't planned ahead, right?
Wow.
That's exactly it.
You know, it's the old saying,
you repair your roof before it starts raining.
This is exactly the same situation.
And the best time is when you've got everything fully staffed,
you've got everybody in place
and then you can just do it very incrementally.
I think of this also like the train.
I mean, if you've ever seen a train start from a standstill,
one of these big, long trains,
it's a mile long and has coal and everything.
These really heavy trains and they've got six or seven engines.
It takes so much pull to get these things moving.
But once it gets moving, the momentum keeps going.
And it's the exact same thing.
If you can build that momentum while you're fully staffed,
then you're in a much better situation when someone leaves
because now you don't have to start from zero.
A perpetual wheel.
Yeah, a flywheel.
And I don't know if that flywheel should be named
recruitment or retention, but probably both.
The R&R wheel.
R&R, I love it.
Yeah.
The R&R perpetual wheel.
You can use that anytime.
I love it.
You have a story about a tech who watched
a shop's Facebook page for two years before they applied.
That's so interesting.
You know what, it's funny.
I've heard this story now several different times
from several different shop owners.
And I'll tell you what, the first time I heard it was
on April 27th, 2024, when we spoke together,
we had a panel and it was shop owner, Roy Nimi,
had mentioned that there was a technician
that watched his Facebook business page
for two years before he applied.
And I've heard different iterations of that.
And here's the deal.
The deal is they are watching you.
Your future employees are watching what you do.
And it's important to have culture pieces out there.
And what I mean by culture pieces is
show what a day in the life looks like.
Show when you recognize your technical specialists
for ASC certifications, take a picture of them,
recognize them, show what it looks like
when you go out as a group and do team outings.
Show what it looks like when you dress up the waiting room
for holidays and decorate.
Show what it's like to work on a regular basis.
And then it gives them an idea of, hey,
this is a shop that really cares about what goes on.
And I'll tell you extra bonus points is if you can show
how you are taking care of your employees' lives
inside and outside of the shop, you get extra bonus points.
That's something I can tell you right now
that big chains and dealers are not doing.
And that is one of the ways that you can really
differentiate yourself as an independent shop
against other larger shops in your area.
It's a point well taken.
And I think a lot of the marketers get that.
The culture that we have inside the shop,
that's indicative to being happy and excited,
come to work, happy, leave work happy.
And I'm not saying everything is peaches and cream
on a daily basis, but at least the attitude
should always be uplifting and to get that out
and in the face of not only a potential client,
but someone who may want to come to work for you.
You've talked to hundreds of technician specialists directly.
What do they actually want?
I think a lot of owners assume it's all about money.
That's the common thought for sure.
And how much of a sign on bonus do I have to offer?
I take a different perspective on that.
I never lead with a sign on bonus.
I think sometimes it's important to have
because it's just because of competition.
If you've got a bunch of shops in your area
that are offering sign on bonuses,
you've got to be competitive.
But by this point, technicians that I've talked to,
they understand that a $15,000 or $20,000 sign on bonus
is they're never going to see it.
They understand that that's just kind of a carrot
that's dangled in front of them.
And there's going to be so many hoops and strings attached
that it's just not believable.
But I would say that what they're really looking at
is it falls into three different categories.
And the first one is respect.
I can tell you of the conversations I've had,
what ends up pushing a technician over the edge
and getting them looking at other shops
is when they get disrespected.
Or they get disgusted with themselves
and the situation that they're in
and it just becomes too much to bear.
Because technicians, they have broad shoulders
and they take a lot of crap.
But there gets to be that one point in time
where it just gets pushed over the edge
and then it's done.
And it usually revolves around respect.
The second thing is growth.
Is it, are they able to grow?
Are they getting new training?
Are they getting new opportunities
to be enhancing their skills?
These are the things that also,
is there a pathway to growth?
Is there a roadmap to advancement?
I mean, are there opportunities for lead tech,
shop foreman, going up into management,
doing things like this shop ownership?
Are these pathways out there?
I actually created a GPT that helps map out
the career path of a technician
because that's a really, really effective retention
and a really effective attraction tool
is to say, hey, look, where do you wanna go?
Let's build you a plan.
Let's show you what your toolbox needs to look like
if you wanna get to this level.
Let's show you what ASE certifications you need to get to.
Let's plan this out.
Let's figure out what, let's map your growth.
So one respect, two growth, three money.
Notice how I put money's third.
Yeah, you talk about a mental culture shift
for a shop owner to think that the person sitting across
from me and all these people that I've hired
in my entire life, and since I started
turning wrenches at 25, this is important today.
And I love how you outlined it.
It is the, if you will, the most sophisticated way
to build a great team.
And I love your point.
I wrote a blog a few weeks ago
because I saw a TV ad for a local dealership.
Straight in everyone's face.
Hell, to housewives, and you name it,
whoever had a chance to watch that ad
during one of the sports games,
and it said best in class, pay and benefits.
It said cool in the summer, warm in the winter.
I'm reading this off my screen.
Pay training, plenty of repair orders,
all the tools you need to do the job right.
A laptop, modern, clean, comfortable facilities,
and state of the art equipment.
And that's what they said straight away
to the community population of Western New York
as they're looking to recruit new people.
And I am sure the wife could be saying,
you don't get that over at Bob's Place, do you?
Boy, you've always been complaining about that.
Look, if you go there, you're gonna get that.
And so, if we're paying attention
to what's going on in the real world,
and I know that there's an awful lot of upheaval going on
at the dealerships, they're losing people
to a big and high degree.
And I think it's segmented around the country
in certain areas.
But Chris, the perpetual wheel recruitment and retention,
and I love, but is some of this knowing change
that you continue to preach to shop owners,
this outreach, does it help them?
Absolutely, to your point,
one of the things that I started doing is every Saturday,
I post in my school community
an independent intelligence briefing.
And it's about the rollups, the PE activity,
that's happening in different areas.
And within Easy Bench, we talk about this a lot too.
There are specific things that you can do
to position yourself when a rollup firm comes into your area,
when a private equity behemoth comes in
and starts buying up independent shops,
because a lot of times it just destroys culture.
And it goes from an environment that's a family environment
or a nice team supportive environment
to a corporate environment
where there's three or four levels of management
between the technical specialist and a decision maker
where all of a sudden they become a number,
all of a sudden they are forced to compete
against their peers and they just lose their humanity.
And it's a prime opportunity
to start promoting what makes you different
as an independent and attract these folks
that it will be looking
because these corporate management teams are coming in.
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To get started, connect with your local Napa representative
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Let's talk about the school, the free school community
at school.com forward slash technician find, it's cool.
I mean, I love your posts, I'm there
and sometimes I just can't stop reading,
you do such a good job, tell us what it's for.
I started this community a few years back
and so I started actually technician find in 2017.
Carm, you know my story, but I really had to be
a quick study because I didn't know anything
about the industry, some very, very generous shop owners
took me under their wing, they taught me the industry
and invited me to join a board of directors
in the 20 group and what ended up happening
is we started working on what has now become technician find
and we did a lot of trial and error to figure out
what exactly attracts technicians, service advisors
and everything and part of the process, I found out
that 20% of the shops we work with,
they were getting really outstanding results,
they were hiring within two weeks,
they were doing everything right,
they had systems in place, they knew how to sell the dream
and communicate the opportunity,
they had their offers dialed in, everything was really great.
What I wanted to do is I wanted to share
those best practices with everybody else,
I wanted all of our clients to get results like that.
So that's why I started the school community
and what we do is we drop in all the best practices,
shop owners can talk with each other right now
we're at 486 members, all independent shop owners
and general managers and we have great conversations
and that's what it's all about is sharing what works,
interview questions, standard operating practices,
templates, GPTs that help you write ads
and do things like that.
I love the whole GPT thing and using that,
we're getting ready to do an episode with the great guy
who's very much into software technology, Chris Cludier
and he is all over AI.
I mean, we've done episodes on AI,
there's more different in our industry about AI,
good, AI, bad, where's it going, how's it getting there?
But I recently read a book, the AI thought,
and it just rocked my world as to how you can use it
and I think there's a benefit,
I also think that there's an awful lot of junk going on
about how bad unemployment is going to be
because AI is going to cripple our world,
I'm not worried about our industry.
We need people to work with their brains in their hands
and yes, can AI help us in some of that heavy diet?
Sure, it may be able to look over things so quick,
all these resources, but I don't wanna go backwards
in our discussion, but hey, the free school community,
school is skol.com, forward slash technician find.
We'll make sure we put that link in the show notes.
So, Chris, indeed, we're always going to back up
and move into, well, I gotta post an indeed, what was me?
Yeah, all roads seem to leave there
and they do some things very, very well.
I mean, the world's largest resume database,
I mean, there's hands down, there's no denying that
and they have a phenomenal interface,
it's very easy to use, but the problem is,
it's just a different pool, it's a job board.
If you're hunting a blue marlin,
you're hunting somebody that really is maybe
not particularly happy, but they're not looking for work,
they're not gonna be on a job board
if they're not looking for work
and if you're looking for someone that's experienced,
someone that has a good attitude, that wants to work,
you need to go somewhere else to find them.
That's the bottom line and that's what we built
technician find on is, hey, look,
we need to find technicians that are already working.
So we're not gonna do that where they're looking.
I have told, I'm sure it's a story I heard from you,
and by the way, Chris has been on the podcast nine times,
I just recently counted and I so appreciate you've been
on panels, you've been, you and I, one on one, so smart.
Go to my website, remarkableresults.biz
and just type in Lawson and any of the search features there
and catch some additional stuff from Chris.
You said something so big and so important
and that is the great quality people that aren't on Indeed,
that seem to be happy, but they're not,
seem to feel they have a great career, but they're not sure.
And I'm not talking about how to poach them,
but I'm saying there are some that are good, so good,
and they're stuck and they just need a really great owner
to bring them in and pull them up and show them,
bring that continuous education,
show them the right tools that we have,
show them that we have enough work orders
to make them fruitful every week.
That is, I believe, where you're going with all of this.
Absolutely, what's really vivid to me
is a conversation I had with a shop owner,
he said, I really wanna change the perception
of an independent shop.
And he said, what the perception is to a dealer technician
is it's some guy with a pot belly
and a cigar hanging out of his mouth
and a dirty rag in his back pocket.
And I thought that was a really vivid way of saying that.
And he said, it's not.
He says, look at my shop, I mean, he's immaculate.
Picked up his laptop and he pointed it to the base
and it was immaculate.
I mean, you could eat off the floor.
I mean, it was sparkling cleanings.
He's like, what do you think of this?
And I was like, wow, it's beautiful.
It doesn't have to be that way.
I know I hear you.
You said something really big there, perception.
And Gali, the word professionalism
kind of connects with that.
Everyone knows that I'm crazy
about this whole language shift in the industry
and how important that I know that it needs to be.
And yet we have too many people that just don't wanna
realize that the perception from the client looking in at us
is so critical in how we look and what we do
and what we say.
And so if we would just consider how we can grow
the professionalism of our business,
I know it's a heavy lift.
There's probably 30 things to pay attention and look at.
If you don't wanna be a strong strategic thinking
entrepreneur, then you're just gonna be a hobbyist.
But if you wanna get up and go and grow,
you need people like Chris and all of these great things.
We cover all this stuff on the podcast.
If you're listening, by the way, for the first time,
we've got your cover from A to Z over the last 11 years.
Okay, so let's talk about this 10-mile famous thing.
I love what it really in concept,
what it looks like in practice
of my shop owner listening right now.
What do I actually do to become 10-mile famous?
Yeah, 10-mile famous is something that I really coined
because it's an idea of getting what you're all about
out there and keeping it out there.
And it's not from the perspective of your customers,
it's from the perspective of potential employees.
And it's as simple as just putting five bucks a day
into a Facebook ad, but these aren't ads for hiring.
This is different.
And this is something that we found out the hard way.
A lot of, in the early days,
when we were trying to help shops build their bench,
what we would do is we would run employment ads
and then they would build their bench.
And what happens is when an employee sees an ad
and they apply for the ad and they find out
that you're just collecting resumes,
it creates a lot of bad blood, so you don't want to do that.
This is different.
What you're doing is you're doing culture ping ads
and the call to action isn't, hey, come and apply.
The call to action is, hey, raise your hand.
Tell me, comment, respect.
If you really believe that respect
is the most important thing in your shop.
Comment, growth.
If you think that having a pathway to growth
and becoming more in a better version of yourself
is important.
So it's just getting these conversations started
and then nurturing these conversations with adding value.
You don't want to be bugging people all the time.
And I see this done the wrong way all the time.
It's like, hey, when are you gonna come to our shop?
Hey, when are you gonna come to my shop?
No, you want to stay in touch with value.
And that's a big challenge that we had to come across
is how do you stay in front of somebody,
keep the conversation going,
keep adding value and not be a pest?
That's powerful.
Stay in touch with value.
Ooh. Absolutely.
Will these kinds of ads even help car count
and new clients?
Yes, as a matter of fact, fun you should ask.
Couple times a month when we are talking with our clients,
they'll say, you know, it's funny, Chris,
our car counts go up when we're running these employment ads.
And they say, why is that?
It's weird because I'm not running an oil change special
or anything that has a direct call to action
that's service related.
And I say, what it is, is they see
that the ad is so well written
and that you care so much about your employees
and they're showing what's going on inside of your culture.
They think, you know what?
If that shop takes care of their employees that well,
they're going to take care of my vehicle.
I'm going to say something.
Don't crush me for saying this.
Never.
But what you just said seems like a warmth.
And that's the word I just started to think about.
I'm going to go there because there's something really warm
going on between their people and their clients
and what they do and the value that they have.
So I don't know why the word warmth came to me.
Anyway, OK, because Carve is a kind of a guy
that I listen so intently to people and then all of a sudden
I form my own shape of what I just heard and key words.
And then I say, what does this mean?
And with the word anyway, let's jump into easy bench.
I love this.
I mean, where did this thing incubate from?
Yeah, you know, over the years, I've been asked over and over again.
Hey, Chris, we're fully staffed, but we really want to have a bench
so we don't have to start from zero.
Can you do that for us?
I tried. We did a lot with that, but it's like this.
And this is how I describe it now.
Let's say you wanted to get married.
You hire somebody to go on a bunch of dates for you and you say, you know what,
I'll show up when you're at the altar, I'll bring the ring.
You can't do it that way.
It doesn't work that way because you're building a relationship.
You're building a relationship with the technician.
You're building a relationship with the service advisor.
You're building a relationship over time,
and it has to be you building the relationship.
And so when I made that shift, it all changed.
What we do is we remove as much of the heavy lifting as possible.
We have pre-printed messages that you can grab and that are proven
that you can grab and you can send.
We have a dashboard that's set up so that you can keep track of all the individuals
and you can keep track of the last time you had a communication,
the next communication and what you should be saying.
And then we have weekly implementation workshops
where we troubleshoot, hey, what happened?
I got ghosted. What did you do?
And we troubleshoot and we figure out, OK, let's get through this issue.
What I call it is its staffing insurance
for independent automotive repair shops, staffing insurance.
Staffing insurance for automotive repair shops.
I thought of the word portal, a bench portal, a hiring bench portal.
Yep, we do.
It's actually a portal that you get to through the technician
find school community and there's a lot of resources in there.
There's swipe and deploy ads.
So the ads that we're talking about about becoming 10 mile famous,
you just come in, you grab the text, image,
you boost it and you're done.
You're good to go.
And the cadence is what's really important is continuing to do this.
And it only takes 20 minutes a week.
The idea is that you want to keep five to ten pre-qualified text warm on your bench
so that when that inevitable happens, you're not starting from zero.
So it's kind of like an easy button.
And some I'm thinking it's almost like a reliability thing.
I know I've got tools there and I sense I feel I'm going to grow.
I need somebody.
I sense I feel I have a problem in the shop and I need to do something about it.
And all of those particular feels that you have those moments of what do I do now?
You can go back and rely on the easy bench
because a lot of the tools that you need to start a drive for a new person is there.
Any success stories from someone that's been using this?
Yeah, absolutely.
The service is relatively new, but I'll tell you one that I mean, it was very dramatic.
What happened is we had a new shop owner join in during the launch.
I shouldn't say new shop owner.
He's been in the business for years.
He's got two stores.
He's an MSO.
He's got a third store on the way, was fully staffed when he joined.
But he said, you know what, this is really what I need
because I don't want to have to start from zero if I lose someone.
Seven days later, we hop on one of the first implementation clinic calls
and he lost three technicians in that seven days.
All for different reasons and quite frankly,
none of where he had any control over.
But he said, you know what, we were able from the first
implementation clinic to the second implementation clinic to add 17 names to our bench board.
We've hired three techs, so he ended up hiring one B
and I believe two A technicians based upon what he had.
The tools that he's used inside of the bench
and the fact that he had 17 technicians on his bench board within that first two weeks.
Man, wow, it had to excite the hell out of you.
It certainly did.
And I tell everybody, I say, you know what, this is what happens when you work it.
I mean, he went in and he got 17 technicians.
He did what we talked about in the meeting.
He had 17 techs on his bench board and then he worked with the tools
and his outreach was solid.
The big thing is a lot of shop owners ask me, hey,
how do I keep from getting ghosted?
And I say, that's all in the messaging.
You're saying the wrong things at the wrong time in the wrong way.
And once you have that dialed in, you don't get ghosted as often.
And your and your offers stick.
Ghosting. Oh.
So if someone's listening right now, hey, I need this.
What should they do next?
Join us over at the school community.
We you can see, get a feel really quickly what it's all about.
There's a lot of detail on it.
And you can also mix it up with all other shop owners in the community.
And you can sign up right through the Technician Find community.
There's a link right on the right hand side of the home page.
And it's very simple.
So it's SKOL dot com forward slash technician find or technician find
dot com and you've got links there.
I do. Yes, we have links directly from the main website.
So if you had all the clients that were in our listening
listening audience, what would you tell them to do next?
I would tell them to come check out the community.
I'm really proud of this community.
I'm proud of the shop owners that are participating in there.
And we've just putting some really good content there.
And there's so many.
What I love most and I think I'm like you in this respect,
Carm is I love it when people take my ideas and run with them and get results.
And I see that every day inside the community.
And it's just so amazing.
That's why I do what I do.
You're a giver just like me.
You're free flowing thoughts.
Enjoy them.
Do something with them.
OK, I love this episode.
Thank you so much.
I learned a lot, but I want to go one step further on something
you said about about 10 or 15 minutes ago.
Allow me to ask this question.
We were talking about sign on bonuses, OK?
And you were going with some crazy, crazy numbers.
Are there any hooks to a good sign on bonus that you know of?
Yeah, in a sense of putting teeth in them so that they don't get abused.
They're not outlandish that someone's well, 15, 20 grand, you know,
they just want to get me in a seat and interview me.
And if someone does have, say, a 5000 dollar sign on bonus,
but there's probably hooks to it, you know, we need to accomplish so many things.
Is it an immediate?
Is it a six month?
What do you hear about those kinds of things?
Between three and 5000 is really the spot.
It's believable.
It's achievable.
And then from there, most of the time when I'm talking with a shop owner,
what I'll say is what you want to do is you want to put some teeth into it
and you want to, if you have a probationary period,
have it correspond to your probationary period.
If you have a 30, 60 or 90 day window, you can do it that way.
I've seen shops that say, OK, we're going to pay out over a year,
you know, and you got to stay for a year.
I've seen tools, you know, that will give you tools and will forgive a certain,
you know, percentage of that, those tools over, you know, certain periods.
If you meet certain benchmarks, here's what you want to do, though.
You want to have it in writing and you want to have it up front.
Because people's memory gets fuzzy.
And I can tell you, I've seen this personally.
What ends up happening is the technician thinks that they're going to get this money
and you think that you're going to get this production or you think you're going to get,
you know, these benchmarks and the technician doesn't remember the benchmarks,
but they remember the money.
You always want to make sure that you have this in place and that you're monitoring it.
That's the other thing that I see is if you're not having regular meetings
and you're not monitoring the progress, then it's a problem
because it all goes out of existence.
And then remember, you had to do a certain amount of training.
Or remember, we needed you at this certain level
and be able to handle these specific skills or these specific jobs by yourself.
And you're not quite there yet.
So we can't release this portion of the, you know, of the bonus.
So it's however you want to structure it, put teeth in it.
Makes all kinds of sense, Chris.
Thank you for that.
And the thing I think about is you said it in writing.
It's got to be well thought out.
If say it was a six month payout in 90 days, you're ready to part ways.
But that individual says, hey, you owe me the rest of that money.
If it's not written and signed, then you probably will lose.
Everybody's memory gets fuzzy when it comes to that.
I know. That's what happens.
Hey, look, thanks for all the great things you're doing for the industry.
Thank you for being my friend and thank you for working so hard.
I love the easy bench concept.
I love the idea.
I think it's probably the next level in this whole recruitment thing
that we're doing in our industry.
And thank you so much.
Chris Lawson, the technician find and easy bench technician find.com.
Thanks for being here, my friend.
Thank you for everything you do for the industry.
Carm, really appreciate it.
Thank you, Chris.
Thanks for being on board to listen and learn
from the Premier Automotive Repair Business Podcast, Remarkable Results Radio.
Get your episodic education on the ARPN listening app
at automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com.
Also, enjoy the podcast on our Carm Capriato YouTube channel.
Carm is all for advancing the professional automotive service industry.
Until next time.
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