After taking the time to attract the top talent to your auto repair shop, you need to go the extra mile to get them collaborating on each project. You can create a more cohesive shop environment and help all your employees push their careers to great heights with that move. As they do that, your shop’s success will undoubtedly follow, letting everyone achieve their dreams of earning excellent revenues and enjoying a truly fulfilling career.
Collaboration Takes Cooperation to the Next Level
When tackling challenging tasks, most employees will at least cooperate to get the job done. Although that helps complete the assigned work, basic cooperation leaves a lot on the table. Instead, you want to inspire true collaboration to take their willingness to cooperate to the next level.
Wondering what the difference is? With collaboration, your employees want to work together and seek opportunities rather than just cooperating when necessary. In action, collaboration looks like a unified front against the problem at hand, ensuring that no job is too big or complex for your team to handle.
Ways to Encourage Collaboration at Your Auto Repair Shop
Although collaboration is pure magic in action, it doesn’t just happen on its own. You have to inspire your team to work together naturally by:
Promoting Teamwork
Your team cannot collaborate in good faith if you take an ‘every man for himself’ approach to your operations. Unfortunately, many auto shops do that by pitting techs against techs and service writers against service writers with constant metric competitions. Who’s the #1 tech? Which service writer sold the most work? Although that’s motivating at the individual level, it wreaks havoc on team spirit. While you can continue using individual metrics to gauge performance, don’t forget to celebrate team efforts.
Offering Group Rewards
Group rewards are perfect for when you want to spotlight team efforts that catch your attention. All you have to do is take note when your employees happily come together to go above and beyond for your customers. Then, simply provide incentives that show your appreciation of their efforts. Don’t just reward success, either. Celebrate all their noteworthy attempts at true collaboration.
Holding Special Events
Although money talks, it’s also wise to reward your team by holding special team-building events. Getting your team out of the shop and into a fun environment can help strengthen their bonds. Plus, it’s a great way to inspire collaboration on tasks outside work, improving how well they work together. So, plan to take them go-karting, tackle escape rooms, go on scavenger hunts, or any other fun activities available in your area quarterly.
Solving Problems Early
Resentment breeds significant problems in the team environment, so avoid it at all costs. The best way to do that is by keeping your ear to the ground and solving problems as soon as you notice them. The regular phone call and repair order audits can help, as can spending time on the floor with your team. While this could mean uncomfortable problem solving for you, like firing an employee who doesn’t pull their weight, it’s well worth the effort as it helps strengthen the team.
Above all else, communicate with your team that you’d like to see them collaborating regularly. Then, watch in awe as they rise to meet your expectations and start naturally collaborating on their projects.
Three Things Your Team Gets When Collaborating
When you go above and beyond inspiring collaboration across your team, your employees will benefit in astounding ways. Here are a few ways:
- Ample opportunities to learn something new
- Boost creativity through the synergy of new ideas
- Ability to forge stronger bonds with their teammates
As your team members benefit from collaboration, they’ll help you achieve your shop goals, including improving revenues, expanding your services, and even opening new shops. So, it always makes sense to take a team-first approach in all you do, knowing that your shop’s success is sure to follow.
Ready to Start Collaborating with Your Auto Shop Coach?
As you focus on promoting collaboration at the team level, don’t forget to reflect on all the other ways you can improve your shop dynamics and get great results every day. Not sure how to do that? Well, then it’s time to start collaborating with your auto shop coach, Chris Cotton.
With help from AutoFix Auto Shop Coaching, you can overhaul your processes, get accountability, and start achieving great success. To get started, all you have to do is schedule a call with your auto repair coach and get ready to hit the ground running.
