While working at Xpert Tune we were trying very hard to expand the company and I was in charge of Human Resources. Having been given the task of hiring and training new managers for new stores that we were opening we would usually run an ad and receive over 100 resumes to choose from. We went through a period where we opened eight stores in one year and it was a high-pressure time to get good employees hired and trained in the store by Grand Opening. I remember at the time Volkswagen had a commercial that said it’s not how fast you go but how well you go fast.  

So I took that and adapted that phrase to describe how we wanted to grow our company but we wanted to do it in a way that was sustainable. We were a small company but we were thinking like a large company and we did everything as if we were going to be a large company including learning how to improve our processes and to refine them.

Part of that process was when we created a curriculum for the manager training program. This curriculum was constantly being refined. We included training on how to answer the telephone, how to greet customers, how to motivate and speak with your employees, all of the functions such as inventory and cash control and how to deal with an upset customer, all things larger companies used as standard procedure. We would role-play these scenarios of being on the phone or dealing with an upset customer and trying to teach our managers a skill level that when they arrived in their new store for the first time they would appear to be a skilled, seasoned manager.

We developed training for our hourly employees as well creating a complete career path and one of the things that we really focused on being that we were in automotive quick lube and tune-up service business was how to train oil change technicians.

 I was daydreaming one day about how I could solve the problem of inexperienced oil change technicians stripping the threads on the drain bolt of an engine which would result in the oil coming out and the engine burning up. We were having a problem with this happening several times a year and it was costing us thousands of dollars to pay for these engines, to say nothing of the inconvenience and hassle for our customers. So what I did was I talked with a Regional service manager with Nissan motors and he told me how many foot pounds of Torque should be put on a drain bolt to make it tight without stripping it.

So what I did was to go to a junkyard and purchased some drain pans off of wrecked cars, all different makes and models of cars, we had Chevrolet, Toyota, Dodge, Chrysler, Nissan, etc. and I had them stripped and cleaned with parts cleaner stripped them down to the bare metal and painted them and then we bought some plywood and we flipped them upside down and bolted them to the plywood just like a train set. Then we laid the proper wrench next to each oil pan, and then each technician would take that wrench and loosen the drain bolt and then tighten it back up and we would check it until four times in a row it was at the right amount of torque. I got this idea thinking of how a baby who has just learned to walk will try to grab a door knob and try to open it. They first grab it, eventually turning it, and then turning it while pushing it forward all this is muscle memory.

The result of this was spectacular as the rate of stripped drain bolts dropped drastically, almost to zero and our quality and our speed of service went up and it was such an easy thing to accomplish but it was a matter of focusing on quality in our training so that we could provide quality in our service.

I repeated this logic later at another national company for drain cleaning and plumbing. We built a one room house with all the fixtures so that we could train our new employee’s hands on. We even used it for sales training. I recently found out that it is no longer in use and that there is a lot of turnover in that branch. Makes you wonder. Good training never goes out of style and never loses it’s value.

The reason I talk about this is because you cannot grow a company fast unless you have quality training so that when people hit the street and deliver your service you haven’t wasted a huge investment on advertising trying to get the business in the door or to get the phones to ring. Only to give your new customers a bad expeirence.

You have to refine your recruiting process and your hiring process. These are only as good as the person who reviews the resumes or the applications because if you have an inexperienced person or someone who really doesn’t care deciding who gets a shot and who doesn’t, for an interview then you are throwing away golden opportunities for highly talented people.

 So I hope you understand from my point here is that it’s not a matter of just throwing money at expansion, building a building and running advertising in the paper and standing there waiting for the business to come in you have to have a quality recruiting process and hiring process and the training process so that when you get the service or the customers that you are trying to get that you haven’t wasted your investment.

Cash flow is king, and many companies have gone out of business during an expansion program because they spent the cash flow but put a lackluster effort into being prepared for the business so if you want to grow fast well then you’ll have to make the investment for planning and implementing good training, good hiring and building your business with good employees.

 I want to throw in a thought here that I may repeat again but when they train an elephant for the circus, they start out by putting a huge chain around his leg that is attached to a large metal stake in the ground. As time goes by they change it to a rope, and then a string and eventually the elephant just assumes he is chained and quits resisting. Managing employees is similar in that at first they will test you, and if you have an immediate and strong response they will get the message, over time they will retest you and you respond again, eventually they become convinced that you see all and will always respond and they quit testing you and focus on doing their job.

 You must set out clearly to the employees that you are intent on growing the business and it will require more discipline and effort on everyone’s part. They must buy in to what you are doing so get the word out clearly and positively.