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Episode 245

Bryan Kauffeld

Ulmer's Auto Care Center

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Bryan Kauffeld is a second-generation operator at Ulmer’s Auto Care Center, a family-owned automotive repair business with 11 locations across Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. His father purchased the original two-bay service station in 1981.

Kauffeld joined the company after studying finance and management at Purdue University. He spent about 18 years at the counter in Anderson Township before moving into broader leadership. His experience growing an auto repair business now covers site selection, team development, and customer service across multiple locations.

In this episode…

Most shop operators begin a location search by looking for the busiest road. Ulmer’s starts with the number of households surrounding a property. Bryan Kauffeld looks for locations within walking or short driving distance of roughly 15,000 to 20,000 single-family homes.

Proximity makes auto repair more convenient, customers avoid fighting traffic, and each Ulmer’s location gains access to the car count already living nearby.

Convenience brings customers through the door, but service earns the return visit. Kauffeld focuses on memorable first and second visits because neighbors share their experiences and follow recommendations from people they trust.

Growing an auto repair business also requires leaders who can protect the customer experience without the owner at the counter. Ulmer’s managers and service advisors receive the authority to solve problems, keeping service consistent as the company adds locations.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[01:49] How a two-bay shop became the family business

[03:40] Why Bryan joined Ulmer’s and opened a second location

[06:43] How stepping away from the counter unlocked growth

[10:19] Why rooftops matter more than road traffic

[13:57] How memorable service creates neighborhood referrals

[17:46] Why employee support and autonomy reduce turnover

[23:36] Making “do the right thing” an operating principle

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments:

“We like to be in the middle of a neighborhood.”
“Neighbors tend to talk.”
“We do what I think is an exceptional job of wowing customers, especially on their first and second visit.”
“It doesn’t matter what that decision cost us.”
“There’s plenty of room to grow here.”

Action Steps:

Transfer one owner-held decision. Choose a recurring front-counter decision and assign it to a manager tomorrow. Review the outcome without taking the authority back.
Give advisors customer-recovery authority. Write down the default: take care of the customer. Treat later reviews as coaching conversations rather than approval checkpoints.
Audit the first two visits. Review 10 recent new-customer repair orders. Identify where communication, transportation, or personal attention fell short, then correct one step this week.
Create a neighborhood location scorecard. Measure each prospective site by nearby single-family homes, neighborhood access, and customer convenience. Give passing traffic a supporting role rather than making it the entire strategy.
Protect front-counter continuity. Growing an auto repair business requires customers to trust more than the owner. Identify the advisor who already carries strong customer relationships and schedule a focused conversation about the support needed to keep that person.

Transcript

00:00
People don’t go to the restaurant the second time, or not go to the the auto repair, not go back to Almers the second time because they had a horrible experience. They might not go back a second time because they didn’t have an exceptional experience, a memorable experience. So that’s what we’re trying to create.

00:17
Welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast, the official podcast for tire business, I am Mike Edge, your host, and I have the great privilege of connecting the industry by interviewing the best people who work in tires and auto repair. This episode is powered by Tread Partners, the leader in paid search marketing, which includes Google Ads and LSAs for multi-location tire and auto repair shops. To learn more about Tread Partners, visit treadpartners.com. All right, folks. I’m here with Brian Caulfield with Almers Auto Care Center in Cincinnati. Welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast, Brian. Glad to be here. Thanks for having me. No, I feel like you got a little strong armed into this from Neil, but that’s okay. I mean, y’all go way back. He said maybe 20 plus years. We do, we do, and and yes, I did get strong arm into this. Well, he’s listen. I don’t know if you realize this, and this is full disclosure to our audience, but you are a client of our parent company, Tread Partners, and you’re you’re like considered the the marquee of how how to run a shop. So I don’t know if you know that, but in our in our, I don’t know

01:24
that, but yeah, just a little more pressure.

01:26
No, but so you guys are at what 10 stores now? 11, yeah. We just

01:30
opened the 11th store two months ago. Fantastic! Congratulations, thank you again. We’re in the Cincinnati market now. Do you have some over in Northern Kentucky as well? We do. Yeah, two in Northern Kentucky, one in Florence, as far south as Florence, and then one in Southgate Fort Thomas area, just across the river. And

01:46
then, how far north do you go, and how

01:49
we are as far north as Blue Ash, so they’re all relatively Cincinnati market, basically. Absolutely, yes. So tell us a little bit. Everybody likes to know how how somebody got started, were you second generation or third generation, or you first generation in this business? How did you get into it? All right, well, I am Almers. I don’t care. The reason the name is Almers is there was two generation Almers original location, our flagship location today in Anderson Township, opened in 1936. So, two generation Almers in 1981. My dad bought it from his boss, Bruce Almer. Just a single repair shop, two bay service station, Almers BP at the time. So your dad worked there. My dad worked there. Fantastic. That’s a that’s another story in and of itself. But Bruce came in one day and said, “Greg, today is my last day to either you know buy it or I guess you’re going to have to go find a job. And he said, “Well, I don’t want to go find a job, and I also don’t quite, you know. I was just born at the time, and he just bought a house, and he said, “I don’t really know how I’m going to come up with the money to buy it. And you know, Bruce, that’s an unusual

03:13
situation. Yes, Bruce and either Bobby Otter, Luke Jack.

03:16
They went into to the office that has been remodeled since, obviously a couple times, but they went into the office and worked out a a plan, and Bruce went off, and the rest is history. My dad took

03:30
over. Very cool story. So you went to from a two base shop to tell us a little bit about your growth. So yeah.

03:37
So anyway,

03:37
were you automatically pulled in like a lot of? I was not. I was

03:40
not, so it was really not. I worked there through high school a little bit. Went off to college, went to to Purdue University in West Lafayette, and was a finance and management major there. Coming into my senior year, I expected the, you know, I was going to go work in Chicago. You know, my dream job. Go, you know, hang out in Chicago for a few years with all my buddies. And my dad called me one morning and said, “Hey, my mom and your mom and I are going to come up this weekend and make some dinner reservations for Saturday, and I thought they were just-he used to come up, you know, on occasion, and we’d all go out and have a great time. You know, he’d buy all our beers, and it was, you know, just a great weekend and a free weekend for me and all my friends. You’re like, okay, all right, here, yeah, come on up. So anyway, we went out to dinner, and he had he brought a a job offer with, and I really didn’t wasn’t really expecting it. So so

04:49
he put a little formality to this. Oh yeah,

04:51
yeah, that’s awesome. Yep, and so anyway, he presented it to me, and I thought about it. Not very long. I, I said, you know, how can I say no to this? And that’s what I decided to do. And I mean, it still goes down. At the time, did I think it was going to be the best decision in my life? No, but now it was undoubtedly the best decision you know I ever made. So a funny story about that is I I graduated our grad my my graduation business school’s graduation was on a Sunday, and I still had to get all my stuff you know out of out of my fraternity house and so I told my dad right before graduation I said I you know I’m going to take a week so I’m going to start I’ll see you know start next Monday I’m going to get all the stuff out, get moved into my apartment in Cincinnati, and I’ll be ready to go next Monday. And he looked right at me. He said, “I’ll see you tomorrow morning at seven a.m.. And I thought, “Oh shit, this is how this is going to go. So, wait a minute. Yeah,

05:55
can I get that paper? Exactly.

05:57
So anyway, but no, it was great. I I I was there the next morning at seven a.m. and and it and it all started there and yeah so and part of the deal of that job offer was that we would open another location within a year, so that we weren’t under the the same roof. Yeah. So that’s what we did. Let’s see, February of 2003, we opened our second location, and my dad went there, and I stayed at the the flagship location, the original location at Anderson. And truly, I mean, we were we were two two shop operation for Until 2020.

06:42
Oh wow! So

06:43
yeah, 2000. You really had a lot of accelerated growth after absolutely yeah. For since 2020. So I worked the counter. I was the you know whatever you want to call it the the manager the count the counter guy for I guess 18 years there in Anderson and and then yeah, 2020 came. I I finally hired some really really good people. And was it hard for you to pull yourself back off the counter? It was because I’m sure people got to know you so well they like dealing with you. Oh yeah, it was that was that was very difficult. But I will say that it it was more difficult because of all the outside noise. All everybody in my peer group saying, you know, as soon as you leave the counter, you need to leave the counter. But when you do, you need to be prepared for a 20 or 30% drop because you are the face of the business. And so I, it was it was a slow roll, and I had hired and trained some really really good people. They’re still with us today. Steve Braun, our manager at that Anderson location, you know, just he is a people person through and through. He’s a celebrity in Anderson. Truthfully, everybody knows him, and he took the reins. And it’s nice to find somebody like that in it. Yeah, absolutely. And and we we didn’t we didn’t go back 20 or 30% We actually just started a steady rise. And

08:18
so you really felt good about. We did. I really felt good

08:21
about it. Then you know Steve and Wesley were running the show there at the time, and then we had Alex, who’s our director of operations now, was was running the Milford location, and truly things were were going really really well. And you know then we had COVID, and I mean, during COVID, I drove the shuttle at our Anderson location. It was just, it was, I, I was getting a little bored. Not to say that that this business doesn’t keep us on our toes, but we had great people in place. Things were going really, really well, and I said, “Well, it’s either you know sit here and stare at these walls in this office and drive a shuttle the rest of my life, or let’s grow this thing. And that’s when we decided to grow. So, is your dad still involved? He, I mean, he he’s retired. My dad retired about four years ago. Okay, but he still. We talked. My dad and we had one of the best business relationships that you could definitely that I could ever ask for. Very few family businesses, I think, have the working relationship my dad and I have. We talk every morning, no matter where we are in the world, at 630 a.m.

09:37
You’re you’re a blessed you’re a blessed guy

09:39
for that. It is it. I I cherish. it every day, but he’s kind of my sounding board. So he always leaves with, “Well, if you need any opinions today, just let me know, you know. And that’s that’s kind of our joke. But so no, he he does he does still come to leadership team meetings. You know. When he’s in town, or when he’s when he’s available, but from a day to day operation standpoint, or or any of that, he’s he’s been retired for four years.

10:10
Good for him. Yeah, good for him. Well, where do you guys see yourselves going? I mean, is continued growth is that what you’re hoping for in the Cincinnati market? Are you looking at other markets? How’s this? Where do you guys think? There’s plenty

10:19
of room to grow in this market. Obviously, like any other market, PE is is making its way in here, and they’ve started to buy, you know, single rooftop locations. So that you know that’s that’s going to be a challenge going forward. But I think there’s plenty of growth here in the Cincinnati market. All of our locations now are are really fairly centralized, other than the the Northern Kentucky side. You know, you can get to you can make your way to all of them. The farthest away is is probably about 16 miles. We’ve got we’ve got four of them that are you know within four miles of each other. So there’s plenty of room to grow here. Our current vision is 17 locations, 35 million 2,032. Okay, we’re it seems definitely doable. Oh yeah, yeah, we’re we’re far outpacing the revenue side of things, and we’ll just have to to wait for the next right location to come about. Do you have locations already identified, and are you already in conversations with people that may or may not want to retire? I guess how’s that work? Yeah, I would say. I mean, you put fillers out. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and I just had one the other day that was brought to me from one of our suppliers. We went out and took a look at it, and it just doesn’t fit our specific model. Our model is more. We look for you know we like to be in the middle of a neighborhood. We like to be a lot of rooftops, you know, in the very close vicinity. We don’t have many locations on on you know main thoroughfares and that kind of thing, just being in the middle of neighborhood, being within walking distance or short driving distance of, you know, 15 20,000 single family homes makes you know bringing that car count to you just in in my opinion that much easier, especially once we’re able to build that reputation without giving up your secret sauce or anything. What do you guys feel like attributes to your success in that model? Like, and you know, obviously, you’re not going. Yeah, I mean, I’m talking about that traditional demographic of, you know, someone wanting to locate a store somewhere, whether it’s in this industry or not. But you’re talking about like a major thoroughfare. They’re looking for car count, but you’re looking for house tops, and you’re looking for you know that consistency, right? I’m just playing this out in my head with with that those neighbors in a sense, but how do you build that relationship? You know, so we’re driving cars, and and the customer experience that we’re able to provide is something that they take that they that they talk about. We do what I think is an exceptional job of wowing customers, especially on their first and second visit. There’s not a whole lot of there are there are many others in our industry, no question, but not not many that that are able to take care of the customer and provide the customer experience that we do, and so

13:49
you’re really your goal then is to wow them in a situation where hey, it’s already negative today. They don’t want to really be there,

13:57
but you’re lifting it higher, making it a positive experience. However, you know we maybe we can get into some of those examples, but basically, you’re elevating the game. They stay with you. You’re sitting in their neighborhood. Why would they go anywhere else? Absolutely, and we’re convenient. They don’t have to get out there and fight traffic to get to us. Yeah, it makes a big, big difference. You know, Neil and I actually talked about this many years ago. Neighbors tend to talk. Neighbors tend to, you know, do what what their friends and and and family do. And when you when you provide them with a great experience, they’re going to talk about it, and they’re going to be. It’s been car count has come very naturally that way. We talked about in the recent peer group of mine, and something that was actually surprising to me when I heard it. Now that I’ve now that you think about it, it’s not. But people don’t not go to the restaurant the second time, or not go to the the auto repair. You know, not to go back to Almers the second time because they had a horrible experience. They might not go back a second time because they didn’t have an exceptional experience, a memorable experience. So that’s what we’re trying to create. Yeah, and and and we do that. I think you know very well through getting to know our customers, building that rapport, building the relationship at the counter, and then we can provide them with you know we’ve got and it’s not you know secret. A lot of people do it, but being able to you know have a dedicated shuttle at every location to get them around that’s huge company wide. I think we have over 80 loaner cars now, so we can get them in a loaner car. We just we’re able to you know take care of the the those inconveniences and make it as convenient as possible, but also just get to know them, get to know you know what they what their families are like and and that kind of thing. I think it’s a very important the way you state the exceptional experience because you know I think it’s obvious today that service service is still as important as it’s always been. It’s more so in in the sense that people aren’t used to good service. We accept bad service today in in a lot of ways. So when you see it, it’s interesting because I almost feel like I have to say something about it. Like I I give you an example.

16:30
It was a restaurant a couple weeks ago. Young girl waited on us, but she did an exceptional job. Not overbearing, not always checking on us. You know where they just constantly can we talk? You know, not like that, but just on top of her game, you know. And I had to tell her, and I felt obligated to tip her well because I, I wanted her to know that you’re good. You’re really good at what you do. Like, and and it translated to me, like whether she stays in this job or she goes into, she’s going to do well because she just she’s got the I care attitude,

17:04
and you want to go back to that restaurant because of her, not necessarily almost like you know. I’ll eat here. Fuck yeah! Absolutely, absolutely, right? Yeah,

17:12
and I think and I think about that for our industry when and and I’m I’m giving my own personal experiences here, but when someone does the extra and and you know face it I’m a human being everybody likes to be asked about whatever maybe the previous conversation was and you remembered or you remembered something about my son

17:33
or

17:33
daughter or family member whatever and you say hey and what what happened with that and you know it’s kind of cool you know I mean you guys are doing that and you allow your managers to do that in a sense. Absolutely, that they’re they become friends in the neighborhood. Basically, there’s

17:46
no question. And and and to that point, the only way you execute that execute that long term is that you take care of these employees and and your team members, and that we have consistency at the front counter all the time, very low turnover. How

18:05
do you do that at the front counter? Because I know people are listening. Which do you do you have anything specific that you you do there? I think we

18:12
give we give them a significant amount of support.

18:16
You give them a lot of latitude and decisions.

18:17
Absolutely, and they are able to take care of a customer, they can do that at all costs. Now they have the ability to make the decision. We are not. It doesn’t matter what that decision cost us. Now, with that being said, most of the time they make the right decision and and and we move on. If the decision that they made was something that you know maybe we would have thought about it a little bit differently. We will certainly discuss that, but no one’s ever, you know, gets gets reprimanded or or written up for for making a decision to take care of a customer. That’s what I was going to say. So your default is just take care of the customer. Take care of the customer. Yeah,

19:00
whatever they need, right?

19:01
Absolutely,

19:01
because you know there’s a lot of good PE groups out there, but they still have to run by that bottom line. They’re they’re and you know you’re talking about your competition. They don’t get that latitude, right? I mean, there there’s just too many protocols and everything set in place that you know they can’t just. I think that’s a huge advantage for you guys being family owned, and then, and I like the fact that you guys, your strategy is, you know, your market. You’re in the Cincinnati market. You’re dominating the Cincinnati. It’s not like you’re thinking about, hey, I’m going to Cleveland now. Right. You’re basically structuring yourself to be the game in town.

19:38
Yeah. And I would say, as as we’ve grown over the last, you know, couple years at least. I mean, we have we have other great independent competitors, good friends of mine in the market. They do a great job, but we have, especially in this eastern side of Cincinnati, northern Kentucky. And then just moving north up into that blue ash market. I mean, we have definitely built a brand that is extremely recognizable and carries a lot of weight. So we’re proud of that. That’s awesome.

20:16
On a personal level, this just gives people a little idea about who you are outside of automotive or whatever? What’s your favorite food?

20:26
I got a lot of favorite foods. All right, let me see. Let me phrase it like this:

20:29
You’re you’re going to be stuck on an island for one year. There’s no repercussions of gaining weight. Yeah, but you get an unlimited supply of whatever it is that you want to eat. What would it be? Now you don’t get a lot. I mean, you you gotta get one type of food. What would it be? Be

20:45
a Cincinnati favorite. I’d have to go with Skyline Chili. If you, any of you out there, if you’ve had it, you either love it or you hate it. A lot of people not from Cincinnati say, you know, I just don’t get it. But yeah, when when you’re born and raised in Cincinnati, you you grew up on it’s mama’s

21:03
milk to you. Yeah,

21:04
absolutely. You grow up you grow up with Skyline Chili, and it just I mean nothing’s better.

21:09
So I think we were joking about this, but you you’ve eaten it your whole life. Yeah, and at one point you were eating it three to oh yeah three to four times a week

21:18
at least at least, especially when my son was younger, he loved Skyline, and you

21:23
loved it that he loved,

21:24
and I loved it that he loved it. So every time it was like, all right, we’re going to Skyline, got to help her boy. Yeah, we’re going to Skyline. So, but yes, as as as I’ve gotten older, it doesn’t Skyline doesn’t doesn’t rest with me. So some replications now, the way it used to. So we’ve we’ve cut down on the skyline. It’s like once a month now, probably. So you still get it. Valia, absolutely. You got that’s quite got to take that. You got to you you you got to be willing to take the pain to enjoy it at least once a month. Absolutely. It

21:54
just cracks me up. Is there the other because full disclosure here, whatever we got Neil in the room. Listen to this or anything. Anything you want to say about Neil?

22:03
Yeah, no,

22:05
because he made you do this.

22:06
Nah, he’s all he’s all good. I met Neil. Yeah, it’s been I guess 20 years ago. He was working for a mentor of mine at the time, James Allen, at Auto Protocol and Chapel Hill, and went down there and visited and met Neil, and then when he went out on his own, we’ve really worked with him, you know, on the digital marketing side ever since. So it’s been a great relationship. That’s long. Always taking a really, really good care of us. You know, there’s a lot of he has a lot of competitors in that space, and we’ve never really, you know, never entertained the the thought. I mean, he’s always taking care, always taking my phone calls. So that’s why I figured I better do this podcast because if I needed if I needed any advice or some help, he was always willing to do that, and it’s something we really appreciated. And they take, like I said, take good care of us. Our parking lots are full of cars, and Tread Partners and Neil have a lot to do with that. That’s awesome. Yes, I’ve got another question for you because I do like to ask this, and when I think about it, do you have a favorite quote? Something maybe your dad gave you, or anything that stands out to you? Because I’m looking up on your wall. I like do the right thing. So that’s what I was going to say. My dad always said, you know, if I ever had an issue or whatever, he said, you know what, just do the right thing. If you do the right thing, everything will work itself out.

23:36
Yeah,

23:36
and that became one of our core values, and that goes back to what we tell our advisors and our managers when they have to make a decision to take care. Here’s your default. Yep. Yeah. Absolutely. And if you do the right thing, it will work itself out. Yeah. So I’ve said this before, and

23:55
the audience probably, I probably I get paid to say this from Jasper Engines, but have you ever been to their facility? I have not. My dad went there many years ago, but I have not. When you go in the main door, they’ve got their mission statement, and it says it right on the wall. And you know, sometimes there’s companies that just overthink their mission statement. Like it’s it’s just too long. Hell, I get tired reading it, you know. And then I’m thinking about you know we’re overthinking it. There’s this real simple. It says do it right. Dot dot dot. Have fun. Yeah. And I always think about you know, and this is years ago. I’m going back 20 plus years, but I remember asking the guy, you know, where’d you guys come up with that? He goes, well, ultimately, you got to have a default position of you know what everybody can ask themselves. What do I do in this circumstance? Just do it right. Yep. And by the way, have fun while you’re doing it, you know. Let’s work together well. And I always felt like after that, I’ve never found in in yours appear just do the right thing is similar. It’s just do the right. Yeah, that’s all. Absolutely. You got a question about what to do? Yeah, what’s the right thing to do? Yeah,

24:55
absolutely. That and then obviously our tagline, which we talk about all the time, and it’s there. Everywhere, providing service beyond compare. So you know that that goes a long way as well. Well, Brian, I can’t thank you enough. Appreciate you being on the Gain Traction podcast. Finally, hey, thanks for having me. And it was it was a lot a lot easier than what I had anticipated. So, well, I will tell you this. I think you’re the first person we’ve actually gone to their office and done one. We’ve done them live like this, you know, recording in person at conferences. But I believe this might be the first

25:30
one I’ve done. So appreciate you doing that. Yeah, the palatial corporate headquarters of Almost Ado Care here in Cincinnati. You heard it here, guys. Thanks for being part of the show. Hey, folks. Mike Edge here with the Gain Traction podcast. Real quick, we get a lot of people ask us. They know Gain Traction, but who who’s Tread Partners? Well, Tread Partners is our parent company, and they’re a marketing agency dedicated strictly to tire and automotive repair shops, anywhere from five locations all the way up to hundreds of locations. And primarily, one field that is always a pain for most people is paid search or PPC or Google Ads. We see enormous amount of waste in it, and we see inefficient spend in it. If you want to know if you’re doing well or not, give us a call. We’ll help you. We’ll audit your account. We’ll look under the hood and tell you if you’re doing things the right way or the wrong way, and help you optimize that spend. You can reach me, and I’ll direct you in the right direction at [email protected], or feel free to go to treadpartners.com the website. To all our listeners, thank you for being part of Gain Traction. If you’d like to find more podcasts like this, visit gaintractionpodcast.com. If you’d like to make a guest recommendation, please email me at [email protected]. This episode has been powered by Tread Partners, the leader in paid search marketing such as Google Ads and LSAs for multi-location tire and auto repair shops. To learn more about Tread Partners, visit treadpartners.com. Don’t forget to like and subscribe. We will see you here next time on the Gain Traction Podcast.

Contents hide

1 In this episode…

2 Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

3 Resources mentioned in this episode:

4 Quotable Moments:

5 Action Steps: