A story of motivation

[mikenixon]

A longtime Honda dealership that had fallen on hard times hired me as their new Service Manager. Things were bad. Their customer base of some 50 years had sadly all but withered away. I determined to get a feel for how things were in the shop, so I observed and analyzed for a couple weeks before acting on an ambitious reform plan. It didn't take long however to discover issues in this store ran very deep indeed, and most of them out of the scope of my position. The real problem was all the managers needed to be fired, from the GM on down, and eventually they were. Drug deals going on in the store, people everywhere angry and bitter, and brothers-in-law gorging on the overhead -- these were naturally all out of my purview. But what was my responsibility were mechanics spending much of their time on their cell phones, coming to work late, stoned, surly. I went through five service writers and replaced three of the five techs before things began to look even halfwway right in my department. One of the techs drew a swastika on a customer's fuel tank in retaliation for being fired.

But all of that is another story for another article. This story is about a Honda street bike. Sort of. One day I happened to spy a small displacement Honda in a corner of this shop's property. Being familiar with the model, I recognized it even under its tangled bed of weeds, and discovering it had been abandoned five years before, soon it was in the back of my truck. Shop records showed the bike was brought in by a coed from the local university for the problem of hard starting. The record also indicated the service writer had told the lady the vehicle was DOA; the service ticket said "needs engine rebuild.". In the face of that she made what was to her the only decision. She abandoned her 7-year-old entry-level Honda and stuck the shop with the estimate time. Years later there I was, cleaning house in this sevice department, when like a CSI investigator I came upon this scene of tragedy. By then I knew too well the abilities and ethics of those I was dealing with, so I didn't believe the service record. Not at all.

Events very soon proved that the day when the gal had brought her ride into the shop it had needed little more than a valve adjustment. What happened? Well, the answer is a little more complex than simple incompetence, because the whole store was in trouble. The point is this: people want to view their dealer's technical staff as the experts. The ones who know and can do. They have every right to those expectations. That is the duty people like myself sign up for, as service people in the powersports industry. But because a service writer couldn't get off his butt and away from his space heater for a few lousy minutes, a young college student threw away a perfectly serviceable motorcycle. Now not all dealers or repair shops are like this, obviously. But my daughter enjoyed that bike for years before going off to college herself.

[Greg]

That's a great story . I learned long time a go from the service manager on down have to rack hours by the time Friday rolls a round if they want a decent pay check at the end of the week and they care not how they do it. Along the same time on this old road of learning I am very thankful to have made friends that know a lot more than I do when it comes to all things mechanical. I also learned that a motor with bad compression is a motor that needs to belong to someone else other than me.

[salukispeed]

I am afraid there are more stories like this. When I was 17, I worked for the local Honda dealer and we too had the Party/Drug croud in the front office. It was the son of the owner and his party friends that took over. More Money changed hands illegally than thru the sales, Parts and service dept put together. When I started, there were various bikes and generators sitting in the corners and outside that were abandoned by there customers due to false/poor diagnosis and were all slated for chopping and parting out to a salvage yard that had a special deal with the front office. I knew the new owners that took the place over twenty years ago ( Good people ) and they never could completely shake the reputation and when the economy tanked in 2009 they didn't survive. I used to part time for them in the evening to help when there service department was backed up. Sad to see them go. They lost there buisnes and home. Your reputation is everything and it is so easy to destroy, and so hard to repair.