Ride Control Training and Tools

There is no doubt that many in the chronically conservative aftermarket view training efforts and new tools with scepticism. When it comes to ride control, all would be well advised to show this attitude to the door.

Few sectors of the aftermarket have been more plagued with bad press than the shock and strut market. Going back decades, in the U.S. anyway, it was the favourite of television news exposs on overselling. While the overselling problem was neither restricted to the ride control market nor as widespread as it was made out to be, it did spur ride control suppliers–and groups such as the Motorist Assurance Program–to create inspection and communication procedures that addressed consumer needs and gave technicians and service advisers a legitimized inspection process, making them more comfortable too.

Over the years these methods have been honed into multi-faceted training programs. Tenneco has been operating its Monroe Ride & Drive events around North America, featuring in-car and in-class experience, KYB introduced its Ride Control Solutions just over a year ago, and ArvinMeritor’s Gabriel brand is just preparing to roll out a new training program.

But, you might ask, do they really work?

Darryl Croft of O.K. Tire in Etobicoke, Ont. (just west of Toronto proper) certainly thinks so.

“It was something fresh and new,” he says of the Ride Control Solutions training offered by KYB. “It’s not often that a manufacturer goes out of its way to spend really practical time with the shop.

“It’s not a pump-and-dump type scenario. It talked a lot about the apprehension among consumers and it gave a positive method to address the concerns that consumers have in ride control.”

He took the course in July last year alongside the rest of the staff at the shop, including both the experienced techs and the service advisors.

“What it did was really explore the consumers’ perspective of ride control. It analyzed and gave fresh eyes to the customer and shop relationship.”

He says that the two components of the program, dealing with customers’ apprehensions and how to properly document and report inspection findings, helped all the staff understand the issues better and get past their own apprehensions.

“First of all, it seemed that overall shop awareness rose immediately. Our sales probably went up three to four times in the category. The overall recognition factor went up from really a non-issue in the shop–really just an emergency replacement–to a real awareness of this segment in the market.”

Dave Foreman of Foreman Auto Service in Langley, B.C. came into his first experience with the Monroe Ride & Drive program two years ago with a critical eye. He went on his own, leaving the rest of the staff at the shop, and was surprised at what he heard.

“It was very informative. Then they had the Ride & Drive and it just changed my opinion as to why you should sell people shock absorbers.”

It was, to him, an about-face.

“To me, I always had a person with an import car in mind; the customer has no complaints and tires aren’t wearing and the shocks aren’t leaking. How can I sell that man a shock?” So he didn’t.

“I went out there and jumped in an Accord [with worn parts], then jumped in one with new parts in it, and everybody noticed that the brakes worked better. Plus the car handled a little bit better.

“That was a huge surprise. When I thought about it, it makes sense. When you have a customer who has a braking problem, you should look at the shock absorbers. You sort of know about it, but you don’t remember.”

He says there were quite a few people in the meeting who noticed the same things. And with different vehicles, there were big differences. It was enough of an eye-opener that he brought the whole staff to a Ride & Drive day last year. They now have no problem comfortably selling shock absorbers, because they have seen the difference.

“I know our shock sales definitely went up. We sell a lot more shocks and struts than we used to. And the customer can see that I’m happy selling it. They see that this a standard process and there is some backing behind it.”

Information is a key tool for technicians when it comes to making a cogent argument for any component replacement, and having technology generate that information is arguably the most believable inspection of all.

While suspension testers have been a fixture in the European market for a decade, it was only last year that they went from test phase into genuine commercial availability in Canada. Currently the CVA machine is the only one known to be commercially available, a consequence of a business relationship that the Argentinean equipment supplier had with Tenneco.

One of the few units in place for long enough to generate some results and history is at the Canadian Tire outlet in Mississauga, Ont., which was one of the pilot sites selected for the equipment.

Desmond Chatura, general manager, has had the unit in place for more than two years and says, with some pride, that it was a very good move for his 21-bay operation.

“We were not doing so good in the shock and strut business. It was going down and down,” says Chatura, well aware that the vast majority of cars were going to the scrap yard with the same ride control units they rolled off the assembly line with.

“I am the Tiger Woods of Canadian Tire,” he says; the outlet has been number one or two in the Canadian Tire network five years running. “I want to be number one. If I’m not number one, I am not happy.”

The usual lack of visible evidence of strut failure was clearly a factor, he says. So the suspension tester was installed and the owners of all vehicles three years old or older and with more than 80,000 km on them were offered a free test.

“It takes about two minutes from the time it starts to the finish.” The results were, frankly, quite astounding. Chatura says that sales have easily risen 25%.

In one month alone, of the 695 customers offered the test, 436 agreed. Of those, 53 had ride control at front, rear, or all four corners that failed. And of these, more than 10% of the shocks that failed resulted in a sale, and more than 25% of the struts that failed resulted in a sale.

The net result: more than $1,300 in parts and more than $1,700 in labour sold.

“It’s a great, great tool. It gives you a printout that you can show to the customer and you can explain to the customer that it has failed. It is like show and tell.”

That has made the staff much more willing to have the conversation, but it’s not just about the machine.

“There was substantial training involved. They went so far as to how to sell the job, service advisor training, technician training.”

Even though a minority of those vehicles failing have work done, it is a step in the right direction, says Chatura.

“There are 14% not going out on the road with the same shocks. It’s a safety issue. It is one safety issue, but it becomes a cost issue for customers, too. It affects their ball joints and their brakes, and front end parts.” It is also, he admits, a way to assuage worries of being accused of overselling.

“I am telling you that you need shocks because we put it to the test. There is no way I can cheat it. I think that because we are such a big chain, it is a way to save our name. We are not overselling you, the customer. I am condemning your shocks and struts because they failed.”

And just as many consumers don’t understand the ride control realities, those in the automotive aftermarket aren’t always as informed as they might be with proper, specific training.

“It was kind of an eye-opening clinic,” says Paul Den Brook, Value Tire, Saskatoon, Sask., of the KYB Ride Control Solutions training he attended. “We’ve always been accustomed to replacing shocks and struts if they’re leaking or damaged, or if they have a really bad bounding condition. I never really looked at the other conditions, how much they can affec
t braking and handling.”

He says that he was very surprised to learn that 85% of vehicles going to the automotive graveyard still have their original ride control.

“It was an awakening, all right.” He says that the whole staff went through the program and the results of instituting a ride control checklist and test drive have been considerable.

“A quick test drive will show you a lot of problems that you couldn’t have picked up visually.”

It has resulted in an increase in sales, but also something else.

“A lot of customers have come back, and this surprised me. We have had a lot of people come back after replacing their shocks or struts, and they say that their car has never handled so well and it brakes better. They can actually see the benefits of putting the shocks and struts on and they are much happier.

“In a world where no news is good news, I wasn’t really expecting that kind of feedback. It really makes us feel that were doing the right thing. It’s a win-win situation.”

One factor that is unavoidable is that the best training, or the best tools, are only as good as the willingness of the recipients to put them to use.

Doug Arbuthnot, Arbuthnot Auto Repair Clinic, Winnipeg, Man., is a long-time street rod builder with a strong understanding of suspension dynamics, enough so that he’s been in the teaching role as often as not.

He says he could tell that many of the technicians attending the Tenneco Ride & Drive program did not have an open mind. And, he adds, too many don’t have a basic understanding on which to build the new information.

“I have been teaching customers and mechanics for years and I don’t find problems teaching anybody if they want to learn.” Sometimes, though, that’s not the case.

“We don’t have enough people who go the seminars who understand the basics.” He says that if you don’t know the basics, no technology will help you.

“A scanner will not tell you if the tire is chewing up the inside edge; it will not tell you if there is a broken spring.”

On the plus side, he says that the cost of any training can usually pay itself back in the first customer, if you’re paying attention.

“You don’t want to be ripping anybody off,” says Foreman. “If everyone in your town has been [to the training], they’re all telling the same story. We have to be supportive of one another and on the right train of thought.

“We’re learning every day in the trade,” he says. “We need to better serve and inform our customers correctly so that we end up with their trust.”

He adds, too, that it might be an idea to get the consumers exposed to the same training experience as the trade.

“They’d be lined up at the door.”