Communication – The Heart of Automotive Repair

When I look at all the issues that go wrong in the automotive repair industry, the majority of the time it relates back to communication errors. It usually starts out by someone assuming that they know what the other person is talking about and then it escalates from there.

The best one is when the customer says, “I need a tune up.” The repair shop then says, “OK.” Now what just went unsaid is that the customer is experiencing a poor running engine and the repair shop said that they will be replacing the spark plugs, air filter, and fuel filter.

So, the repair shop returns a “tuned up” (by the way I dislike the term “tune up”, more on this later) car to the customer and the customer gets a car that still runs the same way it did before spending money that they did not want to spend in the first place.

What should have happened when the car was dropped off? The customer could have said, “My car is not running the way it is supposed to when it ….” Regardless of what the customer said the repair shop should have said, “Is the tune up due to be done for maintenance or are you experiencing any problems with your engine?” And that is all it takes to start the dialog to get a properly repaired car instead of a technician saying, “Well I’ve got your car tuned up, would you like me to check into why the engine is running poorly too?”