A Chris Collins YouTube Q&A episode where a caller (Josh, a Honda service manager in Colorado) asks about lube techs quitting. Hosts recommend creating explicit career progression ladders (example: nine rungs for express techs), reaching out to departed techs for candid feedback (lunch/dinner), and addressing workplace setup issues (e.g., quick-lube separated from main shop) as key retention strategies.
Chapters
Foreign.
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Hi, this is Josh. Long time listener, first time caller. I'm a service manager at a Honda store in Colorado, and I've recently had a run of lube techs quitting. What are you seeing out there that people are doing to keep these techs? Most of them tell me they don't want to do the job anymore. Thanks. Looking forward to your ideas.
It'll be okay, Josh.
We're sad.
We're gonna get through this together. At For Con. I love any call Josh needs a hug. Any call that starts with longtime caller, first time listener. Reminds me of radio shows from when we were kids. So that's funny. I like that he did that. I got a few thoughts. I don't know how long you want me to pontificate or if you have an initial thought, because one of the things I think that's the fix is something that you have seen me do before, but you're like, I don't understand why this works. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Maybe.
Go ahead.
So this actually originated from one of our clients in New Jersey. He's an elite member. And.
What he learned, because he was kind of having the same.
Issue that Josh is having, is that he would hire these lube techs, they'd work for him for a year, and then they would leave because they just didn't see. They didn't see any way out of it. So he spent hours and hours. I remember him sending me, like, revisions, and then I'd give him feedback, and he'd send me another revision, and then I'd give him more feedback. And he. He came up with this tech career progression plan with, like, nine rungs on a ladder for an express tech. Like, there was just so many things, and every time there was, like, a progression, you know, it reminds me a lot of martial arts. Like, I swear that 30 years ago, there was, like, there was like, a white belt, a yellow belt, like a blue, red, brown, black. Like, there was six belts. And now, you know, there's like, there's 12 or 13 belts in a lot of these cases where it's like, it's part white, part yellow. And they just keep adding runs to this to keep People in karate for longer. So it's the same thing with technicians in the lube, is that if you keep giving them reasons to stay, they keep trying to fight for the next, the next belt.
So that's the number one way, I think I've seen the service managers, like our high level service managers, keeping people is letting people or letting their technicians have a. See a path where they own a home, they have a really nice car, they can go out on the weekends in their boat. And like they. It's the lifestyle they imagined when they went to tech school in the first place.
So that's the number one thing I've seen about that. Chris probably has a couple other ideas, but I remember him, Chris Collins, looking at me the first time I presented this to him. He's like, what is this crap? Do you remember saying that? Or you're like, this is real.
I think, I think the, the part of it for me that was hard is like some of it is a participation trophy in the sense that you're getting a raise.
Even though you haven't really done anything to deserve a raise.
Yep.
So a lot of those little marks come with a raise. Even though it's a small one. It's a, it's a raise, but it works. So it doesn't matter what I think.
Yeah, it definitely isn't. They're not, they're not high reward raises.
Yeah, I'm a believer. No, I would say the other thing is if you've lost some quick loop text, call them and see, like, ask them if you can take them to lunch or dinner and talk to them and see why and get in their heads. But you know, it's funny to me, like, a lot of these manufacturers have paid McKenzie and these big consulting groups a lot of money to go call the people that quit and ask them why they quit.
Yeah, we could do that for free.
You don't need to pay millions of dollars to go right to the source and just ask them.
That's right.
And listen, ask with intention to learn not to be right.
Yeah. The only thing, I think it depends on who it is. But the one thing you won't get, I think is original, is the true feedback in some cases is that I would guess that some of those loop techs are leaving because of the management, but they won't tell the manager that takes them out to lunch that they were the reason they left.
They might though, if you listen, it'd be awesome. You do it. You can frame it up front, like, hey, if it's me, if it's whatever. I just want to know. I want to get better. So please be honest. But you got to be open to it.
So, Josh, that's probably a really good mindset for you, too, is if you do reach out to these people, I would invite that if it is you that you want to know, which is not really easy for you to take at first, but it's the only way you get better. Yeah.
But most of the time, quick lube techs are quitting because they don't see a career path. They don't see how they become successful and have the lifestyle that they want doing that. Because the quick lube is kind of designed to be a purgatory.
Yeah. Though I think the worst setup is when a dealership has the quick lube in another building away from the regular shop. That wasn't well thought out from just.
Having a quick lube. Really? Yeah. Awesome. Thanks, Josh. Remember the numbers 8000, 333 ask SDR and we'll see you next time on Service Drive Revolution.
Thanks for watching this week's Drive By. I hope we gave you something to think about over the weekend. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333 Ask SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8333 Ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins, and I'll see you in the next video.
