In episode 5 of Shopmonkey’s The Road To Success speaker series, University Auto & Tire owner Will Helton reveals the tremendous impact customer service has had in the success of his automotive shop. 

Will Helton purchased University Auto & Tire 2 years ago. In that short period of time, he’s developed a well-oiled machine that maximizes operational efficiency. More importantly, his business is building a reputation within the community for the way he and his team treat their customers — with urgency and empathy.

One of his core beliefs is that if he invests in his customers, then they’ll invest in their vehicles (he really is embodying the ‘Automotive Care Experience’ philosophy). And that is exactly what he is seeing take place with his customers.

Knowing that the sales funnel is really a customer journey, Will’s thoughtful approach of emphasizing urgency and empathy is leading to record sales and long-term customers who are eager to recommend University Auto & Tire and refer their friends. Will’s team will often include very detailed notes about each vehicle and make sure that any unique circumstances that the customer is experiencing are included in the repair order. In a way, he’s turning cars being worked on into people being cared for. 

Internally, Will mixes technology with culture to ensure that the relationship between his service writers and technicians is strong and trusting. His service writers are expected to hustle on behalf of the technician, so that they can maximize their pay for each week and each day. Because of this, he’s overcoming a lot of the traditional friction that exists between technicians and service writers.

The webinar features a candid conversation between Helton and Brett Kinsfather, who works in Strategic Partnerships for Shopmonkey. In the recorded session, they discuss a number of topics, including everything from Helton’s mission statement to his mastery of social media. Helton detailed the finer points of his customer-centric philosophy as well as his approach to marketing and processes to become a trusted community resource for automotive needs in his local community.

Customer Philosophy

Helton begins the conversation by describing how he took over ownership of University Auto & Tire—which was founded in 1973—in December of 2021. He was able to revitalize the business and lead it into the present decade largely on the strength of his vision and mission statement, which is focused on satisfying customers with excellent service. “The one key thing that I always see from successful shops is they have great customer service and people love doing business there,” Helton acknowledged. “It’s really just as simple as that.”

Helton’s philosophy for running University Auto & Tire focuses significantly on urgency and empathy—both of which are primarily directed toward customers. Oftentimes, other shops “don’t honor commitments on due times,” Helton admitted. “I saw that as a huge opportunity. We really beat that up on urgency and valuing the consumer’s time.” Consequently, Helton’s shop prioritizes a rapid turnaround for working on customers’ cars, combined with a genuine sense of “empathy for their situation,” as he put it—which sometimes involves giving them rides while their cars are worked on.

Marketing

The marketing segment of the conversation was particularly useful for other shops in attendance at the live event. Helton illustrated a funnel showing a multi-step process of getting customers to become advocates for his business and referring other customers to University Auto. What he termed “the conversion funnel” involves “brand awareness; you’ve got consideration that comes to you,” Helton explained. “You’ve got the conversion, then you’ve got loyalty, and then you create brand advocates.” Although a significant portion of his shop’s success was attributed to a series of interviews he and his employees did on local television, social media and online tools (such as those provided by Google) play an equally valuable role.

“Our customer reviews, we really, really make sure that is monitored and responded to instantly and that we’re driving that because usually, that’s the first time people will experience your brand—they’ll check your reviews on Google,” Helton commented.  Other marketing best practices he mentioned included running analytics on his website and social media content, owning his phone lines and analyzing responses to promotions via online tooling and traditional mail, and leveraging that analysis to influence staffing decisions, operational hours, and future marketing efforts.

Organization and Process

Keeping an organized shop with standardized processes is “the rocket fuel to ensure you can fix cars right the first time,” Helton remarked. The owner went on to note the utility of for this purpose, as well as that of keeping a stable of computers for running processes smoothly.

Consequently, “We know which car’s due next; we know which cars are going to be done today,” Helton said. “When a customer contacts us and says, ‘Hey, have you looked at our car,’ we don’t have to wonder or go run around the shop and ask three people. We know what’s going on and it really helps with our process.” Having the right software and technology in place enables the shop to service more cars and customers more efficiently. This capability is also impacted by investments in modern equipment like an autonomous tire mounting machine and more.

Here to Stay

Due in no small part to its focus on the entire customer experience, University Shop & Tire may very well turn out to be around for another 50 years. With all of the marketing and process insights Helton revealed, it would be easy to forget that these facets of the business are the means to achieve an end. The goal, of course, is delivering the best service in the most efficient time possible to keep customers returning—and bringing in their friends, too.