Cooperation between shops needed for long-term success

Running an independent service shop in Toronto is always a high-stress endeavor. First there is all the paperwork you have to deal with, keeping track of inventory, customer information and vehicle history. Before, all that used to be done on paper. Today, we have management systems, like the two new Lankar systems I and my brother John use, one in our main service shop and Drive Clean centre, and the other in our next-door lube and tire shop.

But the biggest challenge facing us today is the often unnecessary tension between cooperation and competition. Today’s market is a tough one, with many shops competing not just against the dealerships offering front-to-end, full-service and maintenance packages for the vehicles, but also against their fellow independents for what often seems like an ever-shrinking market of car owners looking to maintain their vehicles.

However, I and my brother don’t believe that competition need necessarily lead to each service shop thinking the fellow down the street is only out to take business away from them. Instead, John and I have discovered that we can generate more business for our shop, and for everyone else in this industry, through cooperation and sharing of resources and knowledge.

When we started this business, we invested a lot of money into purchasing a wide range of OEM diagnostic equipment and other scan tools, allowing us to work on a range of vehicles from traditional North American vehicles, like Ford and GM, to foreign cars such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Not all shops can make the kind of investment we have made in such tools. But every shop today needs the kind of information that these tools can provide. What my brother and I do is offer to help those shops who don’t have access to such diagnostic equipment by offering them the chance to tap into our knowledge or to even have them send the car over to us for a quick diagnostic check.

This seems counter-intuitive to many. What we should be doing is selling on our diagnostic edge against the competition and taking that business for ourselves. However, by helping other shops with their business, we have found they are very happy to send business our way, all because we took the time to help them with their problems. And we know that if we get very busy in our shop our colleagues are eager to help us, just as we gladly step up to the plate and help them.

And this cooperation does not end there. Universal Auto actually grew out of a previous radiator business that my brother and I purchased. We still continue to operate that side of the business and becoming experts in radiator repair and maintenance. We stock a range of radiators, cooling parts and even fuel pumps and gas tanks; and we have become the first point of contact for many local shops looking to source a cooling part or fuel pump for a client or the place where they can send someone who needs a radiator or cooling repair which they cannot do. And we reciprocate by sending business back to them.

By working together, even while competing, we all benefit in this industry and grow together.