Speaker 1:
What’s your vision for AutoFix Auto Shop Coaching moving forward?

Chris Cotton:
I really want to inspire both our employees, our coaches, and the auto shop owners. I want people to wake up refreshed, I want them to be happy, I want them to enjoy what they do. And to date myself a little bit, if you go back to an old commercial that we had, there was like the Dunkin’ Donuts guy who woke up every morning at 3 AM and goes, “Oh, I got to make the donuts.” That’s what I don’t want. I don’t want the shops that we work with and I don’t want our employees to feel like they’re making donuts every day.

Speaker 1:
Does your process work?

Chris Cotton:
Absolutely, our process works 100%. But I’m going to put a side note in, it works if you work. If you don’t put in the time, if you don’t put in the effort, nothing’s going to work. People ask me all the time, “Will you guarantee that this will work for my business?” And the short answer is, “Yes, I’ll guarantee it if you’re going to put in the work.” There’s no silver bullet, there’s no magic formula, you can’t give me X amount of dollars and be like, “Oops, I’m fixed.” And move on from there. Hopefully, I can paint a better picture for you. What we have is tools, and we’re also a tool for you to use. In repair terms, you’ve got diagnostic tools, you’ve got alignment tools, tire machines. If you use all those day in and day out, you’ll make money, and you’ll progress and you’ll do things.

Chris Cotton:
What I want you to do is, I want you to think of AutoFix Auto Shop Coaching as a hammer. If you put your hammer in your toolbox and you never pull it out and use it, then it’s not going to be successful and it’s not going to be work. But if you pull that hammer out every day, and if you let us be the hammer for your business, we can drive that now home and make you tons of money.

Speaker 1:
What’s your mission?

Chris Cotton:
My mission and why I wake up every morning is, and I wake up inspired every morning. I want every shop owner in America that wants help to get help. And we’ll quit swimming, we’ll quit working hard when every shop owner that has asked for help has received help.

Speaker 1:
What is your process?

Chris Cotton:
During the discovery process, we like to meet with our clients and see where they’re at. If our client has four steps that down pat, and they don’t need to work on those, then we’re not going to of repeat those processes. We might tune them up a little bit, but we’re going to get into the meat of what the issues are and fix those. And then move on. We spend a lot of time building relationships with our clients and we pride ourselves on that.

Speaker 1:
What do auto repair shop owners need?

Chris Cotton:
Auto repair shop owners need a relationship and building that with a coaching company that they can trust. One thing we don’t do is we do not do any long term contracts that, as a former shop owner, one thing I hated was being tied into a long term contract that I couldn’t get out of if the vendor I was working with wasn’t performing. If you’re not getting what you need from us and, or you’re not happy, or if you think you’ve learned everything you think you… Hmm.

Chris Cotton:
Or if you think you’ve learned everything you need to know, then you can tell us to kick rocks and we’ll move on. There’s no long term commitment. We work month to month with you to make sure your business is moving forward. The good thing I would say about us is our average client engagement right now is about 39 months. And I have clients that I’ve had for eight years, and I’ve had clients that I’ve had for less and obviously we’re bringing in new people all the time.

Chris Cotton:
Shop owners also don’t want a one size fits all cookie cutter approach. They want somebody that’s adaptable and able to move with their business, move and flow with their business and as accountability partners, that’s what we provide. We provide somebody outside of the business, looking in, helping you move that business forward.

Speaker 1:
What should shop owners do now that they’ve watched this video?

Chris Cotton:
I’m glad you asked. Hopefully you’ve watched The Shawshank Redemption. If you don’t, go out and watch it, it’s one of my favorite movies. But in that movie, Andy talks to him and says, “If you’ve come this far, why won’t you come a little bit farther?” What can you do if you come a little bit farther? I you spent the time, you’ve put in the effort you’ve gotten to here, what’s it going to hurt to just move a little bit farther?