Raising Standards

TWO WARRINGTON UCCCs HELP DEVELOP A NEW ACCREDITATION SCHEME IN THE NORTH WEST.

Warrington District Council’s Trading Standards department chose seven motor traders in its area to pioneer the scheme — two franchised garages, two used car businesses and three independents including UCCCs T. Mullin Motor Repairs.

On May 25, representatives from all seven businesses received ‘recommended workshop’ certificates from the Mayor of Warrington, councillor Tom Swift, during a special presentation to launch the scheme which was attended by over 150 motor traders. Also present were Alan Shepherd, of the RMIF, and Rita Monty, from the office of Fair Trading, whose organisations have sponsored the growth of garage approval schemes across the UK.

The Warrington scheme, like others in the UK, is based on regular inspections by Trading Standards who examine all workshop and office procedures and make recommendations for improvements.

Trading Standards also submit — anonymously, of course — a ’doctored’ car for examination.

After 27 years in the trade, Terry Mullin welcomed the scheme, though he was keen to point out that Trading Standards in Warrington ‘recommend’ garages, unlike Cheshire which has an ‘approved’ scheme. Terry attended meetings last year run by Cheshire County Council which were reported in the Unipart Independent last August and he explained that having become interested he was surprised when Warrington decided to set up their own scheme.

‘It resulted in some delays but I think it will be very useful to any motor traders who are not as well run as Unipart Car Care Centres.’ Said Terry . ‘Certainly KiS and things like service schedules and the Nation — wide Guarantee are already helping our businesses meet the high standards demanded these days.’

QC Scheme

FOR VEHICLE SERVICE AND REPAIR WORKSHOPS

"Nobody likes having their car serviced, or repaired." That’s the opening statement from the RMI QC scheme booklet. This alone gives you the reason for joining a QC scheme, it tells you that when a customer brings in a car, he/she is not delighted to see you. In the case of a service they are praying for something they cannot see, and often cannot feel, because the car drives pretty much as it did before the service. The booklet then went on to say that your ultimate aim is to satisfy the customer, only when the customer is happy have you done your job properly.

That was a bit a an eye-opener for me, because I had always thought of a job well done, as a car running correctly, or a difficult repair successfully carried out. The QC scheme opened my eyes to a new way of thinking.

There was plenty more to come: "it is not possible to monitor or supervise every stage of customer contact, or to check each and every operation of the work being carried out. Each repair consists of a great number of individual operations, checks and procedures, many hidden from sight".

True, you can carry out random checks, but these can only be superficial in nature and ought to be regarded as not much more than a safety net. The answer is a QC scheme that brings about a strong determination by ALL staff to achieve customer satisfaction. This means involving everyone in the scheme and having clear methods of operating which everyone under-stands and agrees with.

This isn’t a one-way street. If you want full co-operation from the people actually doing the work, you have to ensure that they have both the training and the tools to get the job done. The QC scheme takes all this into account, as well as installing systems for following up on customer care. Not only are a sample number of cars checked, but also a similar number of customers are telephoned a short time after they collect their car to see if there were any problems or complaints. It’s a sad fact that if people are not happy with something they are often only too willing to tell everyone — except the person or service that they are complaining about.

Basically the QC scheme is all about raising standards of customer care. This starts with the first impressions, the reception area must be clean with toilet facilities for customers, workshops must be regularly cleaned and all staff dressed in some sort of uniform clothing — which may be nothing more than a badged set of overalls or lab coat. It need not cost the earth to confirm to the QC scheme standards and it will increase your workshop throughput. Terry Mullin started his own service and repair workshop 28 years ago and has been on his present site for 26 years. To begin with, Terry said it was "frightening" because he had previously always had a wage to look forward to at the end of the week. He was among the first of 250 garages to send off for the QC booklet and soon started to implement the system, as Terry said: "it’s all stuff you should be doing anyway and if you adopt the whole process it will help your business".

Most garages already use job cards and Terry found that with some modification it worked even better: "the QC scheme helped me get the system in order " it helped with workshop loading, planning and assessment of technicians. This isn’t a case of "big brother" keeping an eye on the staff; it helps to identify training needs and system changes to make life easier for everyone.

As a member of the QC scheme Terry gets six-monthly visits from the QC organisers as a check that he is keeping to the system, plus a review of how the system is working. Customer retention is a fairly good guide to business success and logging customer retention is another requirement of the scheme.

Having implemented the scheme very early on Terry has since become the first member to attain full ISO 9002. This was celebrated recently with a small presentation from IGA Director Hugh Roberts, Scheme Manager Bernard Anderson and QC Administrator Helen Barton. Terry told me that joining the scheme really made him think about his business and forced him to become more professional in his approach — he would recommend it to anyone looking to improve their business potential.

Scheme details can be had from Helen Barton, Product Manager at Caltec Communications on 0161 905 1767.