What’d You Say?

The first thing to know about Jonnie Wright is that he does his homework. When MWACA Magazine first spoke to him, he commented upon a certain writer’s Facebook photo.

“Homemade sunglasses and a David Bowie print? I love it!”

The second thing to know is this: he wants to help you. As the founder of The Buyosphere, a nationally recognized leadership and communication training company, Wright is a known quantity in the auto repair industry. For years, he’s been helping shops increase communication, intra-shop efficiency and revenue.

Wright, of course, is easy to speak with. He throws his head back and laughs early and often, and jumps from the personal to the professional and back again, a stone skipping across the surface of our conversation. One chat with Wright and it’s easy to imagine an Oz-esque character seated in his office studio—a neon-lit producer’s paradise from which he conjures weekly YouTube videos as part of his free toolbox—his body ablur, pulling levers, turning dials and pumping pedals, all in an attempt to produce the next great training tool. Unlike that fickle sorcerer, though, this is one man behind the curtain to pay attention to.

Communication is a Tool, Not a Task.

Communicating well is one of the most difficult and underrated aspects of any business. Whether you employ five or fifty, the ability of your team to understand the overall goals and work collectively to get there depends on one single cornerstone upon which all else is built—the ability to say what you mean and mean what you say.

“Communication with employees and coworkers is no less important or different than communicating with customers,” Wright says. And he would know—after 20 years in broadcasting and communication, he formed the Buyosphere in 2005 and has been helping people and companies communicate well ever since.

“There is a tendency to think employees will just figure it out. The truth is that coworkers need powerful tools to work through conflict, build collaboration and improve the culture.”

Wright often focuses on the advisor/technician dynamic. Making sure these two critical parts of your business are in sync is critical for quality repairs, no comebacks, high turnover and solid CSI scores.

“The first thing we train people to do is to ask questions. One of the most powerful questions to ask each other (service advisors and tech) is, ‘What is your process?’” Advisors may perceive the tech failing to do the inspection at the highest level. By taking a collaborative, thorough approach, it first answers, do we have a process? Can we articulate it? Is it the agreed-to process? That opens up everything.”

Wright knows that everything inside a shop is a compromise. By asking the simplest questions of each other, we can evaluate how our process makes us better, faster and more efficient.

“Techs and service advisors have to communicate at the highest level,” Wright says, “and that starts with questions. Actions versus blame is what we strive for.”

Build Trust and the Money Will Come.

All is in flux, all the time—the savvy owner knows the tornado isn’t so much approaching as already here, and the shop perpetually caught in its grasp. Communication is much the same—people come and people go, and the tech and tools of yesterday change and evolve as well.

Wright believes the days of the “behind the desk” service advisor are numbered. Tomorrow’s advisors need to be proactive, wear multiple hats within the shop, and function as well-oiled gears that keep the shop running, the technicians and manager/owner informed, and a source of knowledge—and more importantly, trust—for every customer that walks through the door.

Wright stresses that mobile technology and apps will continue to change the repair business, as they allow customers to schedule the service, schedule a pickup, provide the inspection results and the estimates, pay through text, and more.

“It’s Amazon for the service industry,” Wright says; “and it’s not coming—it’s here. What that does is eliminate human interaction. What will be at a premium and unavailable through our phones is the human interaction of the shop. Can tech help people be more efficient? Sure. But we’ll still work hardest for people we trust the most. You will not build that through apps, digital communication or anything else.

“Trust with coworkers is a face-to-face game, and it will put a premium on what matters the most. That’s what good communication can do—make you faster, better, more accountable. Making more money is just a happy side effect!”

Remove Arbitrary Barriers.

The only way to improve how your team interacts with one another is by deliberately evaluating and shaking up how your team communicates. Wright has a single plan to help you do so.

“Remove the supposed line between the ‘front’ and the ‘back’ of the shop,” he says.

“You are all on the same boat—it’s not two different boats. Shooting an oarsmen will not make the boat go faster! Praise achievement. Praise people for what they’re doing, and remember to ask these questions of your processes:

Is it kind?

Is it necessary?

Does it help?

Those three filters will inform how you communicate. What we say and how we say it will help people achieve at a higher level.”

You don’t need to be a great and powerful wizard to run a successful shop; you only need to learn how to communicate and build from there.