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Steven Stamey is Operations Manager at Maxi Auto Service, which has eight locations in the Chattanooga, TN, area. He started his career at a Chevrolet dealer in 1999. Steven is a former college-level instructor with ASE L1, L2, and L3 Master Certification.
In this episode…
What motivates your staff? Is it strictly financial compensation, or are there other, less tangible factors? Do your employees stick around for decades, or are they here and gone tomorrow? If you own a tire and auto repair shop and these are some questions you find yourself wrestling with, this episode of Gain Traction is for you!
Making employees feel involved and essential through communication and teamwork can be just as effective as wages when motivating and generating loyalty. According to Steven Stamey, Operations Manager at Maxi Auto Service Centers, “once you get everybody singing the same song, the same tune – and they’re interested in winning – it’s amazing what they can accomplish when they just find belief.”
In this episode of Gain Traction, Mike Edge welcomes Steven to discuss how building from within can benefit your tire and auto repair shop. He talks about the gains Maxi Auto Service has made from expanding its existing stores rather than adding new stores. Steven shares how he gets his employees involved through consistent communication and training. Don’t miss this conversation!
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Steven Stamey discusses how he broke into the automotive industry in his childhood
- How teaching at a local community college helped put Steven in his current role
- Why expanding the size of its current locations has proven more valuable for Maxi Auto Service than adding more locations
- How Maxi Auto Service avoids falling into complacency
- Why learning to enjoy the journey will help you get to where you want to go
- What Maxi Auto Service does to elicit long-term loyalty from its employees
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Transcript
Announcer:
Welcome to the Gain Traction podcast, where we feature top automotive entrepreneurs and experts and share their inspiring stories. Now let’s get started with the show.
Mike Edge:
Welcome to the Gain Traction podcast. I’m Mike Edge, the host of Gain Traction, where I talk with top tire and auto repair shop executives, owners, and managers, and other industry business leaders about their personal journey and experiences in the tire and auto repair industry. I’d like to give a shout-out to a good friend of mine, Chan Patel, Vice President of autotext.me, providing incredible time-saving workflow communications seamlessly. They save shops thousands of dollars and give customers timely communication for a better customer experience. Check them out at autotext.me.
This episode is brought to you by Tread Partners and the ReTread program. Tread Partners has designed a product called ReTread that is a full-court press re-engagement program to win back your best-lost customers. It is a one-time, 90-day program that generates a guaranteed 10-1 return from your old customers. That’s correct. It’s a 10-1 guaranteed ROI, no tricks or gimmicks. Hey, they’re your customers. We just get them back in your bays. Most of the time, you don’t know why a customer didn’t come back. Many times, it’s not for a bad reason, but rather they got distracted, took another offer, et cetera. So let’s get these qualified customers back inexpensively. So what are you waiting for? Email Tread Partners at [email protected] or learn more and visit treadpartners.com.
Today’s guest is Steven Stamey, Operations Manager for Maxi Auto Service Centers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, area with eight locations. Steven is a former college-level instructor with a master’s L1, L2, L3 ASE certification. His career started in 1999 at a Chevrolet dealer. He’s from Chattanooga, lived a little short time in Houston, Texas, and we’re glad to have him on the podcast. Steven, welcome to the podcast.
Steven Stamey:
Thank you for having me, Mike.
Mike:
Man, after talking to you, I’m excited about this interview, and let’s let the audience know a little bit. How’d you get started in the industry?
Steven:
Well, I tell you, to describe how I got started in the industry, you got to learn a little bit about my childhood, and I guarantee you some people listening to this will relate. My dad owned a roofing company, so when I was growing up as a young man, we didn’t have those summer breaks, summer vacations. We went to work, as we being myself and my cousin. We’re both about the same age. My daddy paid; it’s fair. So I learned at an early age what hot was and what cold was. So that prepared me for later on in life in the automotive industry.
Fast forward to high school. I decided to go to a vocational school my senior year, and I was always interested in automobiles and cars. I was always tinkering and stuff, taking stuff apart, not necessarily going back together with it, but taking it apart. So I took automotive in high school, loved it. And I asked my dad, I said, “Dad, will you pay for me to go to a community college and take auto mechanics?” He said, “I’ll make you a deal.” Well, the deal was, I had to work for him for solid year, Mike. And he said, “If you still want to do it after a year of working with me, I’ll pay.” That sounds fair enough, right?
So I worked a solid year, and not that I was marking it on the calendar every day, but I was pretty much counting down. Well, the day came and I said, “Hey, it’s been a year. You told me.” He said, “I figured you’d be making so much money with me doing this that you wouldn’t want to get into cars.”Well, he was dead wrong, but I’m thankful the opportunity and work ethic that he gave me because now I can fully say I’ve been hotter, and I’ve been colder than some of these automotive repair shops get that I’ve been in through the year.
Graduated community college, left there with two ASE certifications [inaudible 00:04:08]. Put in two applications at local dealers. One of them was a Ford dealer, one of them was a Chevrolet dealer. It so happened, Chevrolet dealer’s the one that [inaudible 00:04:16]. December 27th, 1999, never will forget the day. They gave me the opportunity to change oil in their lovely service bay.
Mike:
There you go.
Steven:
And that’s right. We all get started changing oil or doing tires, same in nature. But I was thankful [inaudible 00:04:33] because I knew it wasn’t going to stop there. Worked there for two years in what they called quick service or junk, wind noises, squeaks, rattles, electric fuel pumps was a big deal. And I remember it was $7 an hour, but hey, I had my eyes on bigger things. I just knew this is where I had to start.
Well a couple years go by, like I said, and wanted to go back to school, wanted to go to engine building school this time. So drove down to Texas, applied right into this school, started learning machine work, how to hone cylinders, line board, do all this stuff. Having dreams of being on a pit crew or an engine building team with somebody in North Carolina.
Well about a year later, I decided, man, I want to go back home. So came back to Tennessee, ended up going back to the same dealer that I’d left a little bit earlier and got my first taste of automotive management. There was a gentleman by the name of Ron Delaney who believed in me, knew I could do it, and gave me an opportunity to be assistant shop foreman at that dealership.
Mike:
Awesome.
Steven:
Yep, and we started training and going to work on a lot of things on that training format, because that was right in the area, those early 2000s where General Motors was really cracking down on dealerships and renovations and making all those guys jump through hoops. And they had actually pinned the allocation of the Z06 Corvette to if you had proper training or not in your dealers. So after a lot of work, a lot of effort, a lot of testing, a lot of coaching, training, and mentoring, out of 1,187 dealers, our little dealer right here in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was number one in southeast route.
Mike:
Wow.
Steven:
Yeah, so very proud of that accomplishment. And then the call came, “Steven, how do you feel about being an automotive instructor at a local community college?” “Man, what do you want me to teach?” “High performance engine building.” So there you go. Now I’m an instructor. The great thing about this part of the story is I got to teach from the same podium and look at the seat where I sat as a student. It was the same classroom. Yeah, same table. So you want to talk about full circle? It was a very personable experience, and we get better by teaching, right? So having to teach different personalities, different age groups, different things in nature, that really sharpened my saw for later on in life when I’m responsible for 35 to 40 technicians and store managers and things like that. So that’s a little bit about how I got started.
Mike:
That’s pretty cool. So then that transition to while you were teaching that, you had some folks in your class that got you where you’re at now, right?
Steven:
You’re exactly right, exactly right. So I’m the guy that teaches the night classes. It’s automotive, he knows it. Well there was a gentleman who’s my current owner at Maxi Auto Service. Owns the entire company. He bought the business from his partner in 2008, and he had great guys, great loyal people that were great at mufflers and great at exhaust and brake, but he wanted to take the business full serve. The issue with that is, he didn’t have any full service guys. All he had was muffler and brake guys. So he had the vision to call Chattanooga State, the community college where I was teaching, and say, “Hey, do you have anybody that teaches night classes?” “Yeah, we’ve got a guy. His name is Steven Stamey.” Put me in touch with him, we talked about it, and I met with some of his store managers at the time and discussed their needs and what their areas of opportunity were, what they wanted to get better at.
We put a class together, 50 credit hours, through the state of Tennessee, and we went to work teaching these guys electricity, drivability, theory and operation, and getting them where they needed to be to [inaudible 00:08:34] business in 2008, 2009. Little bit later, it’s “Hey, what do you do full time?” “Prep for classes, and I build engines.” “What do you do during the day?” “Well, just pretty much prep for classes and engines.” “Oh, so you’re not working somewhere else. Well what would it take to get you full time?”
This is good story because I thought long and hard, and I came up with a number. We’ve all done this, right? So what number? I don’t want to hit him too hard. I don’t want to short sell myself. So thought about it, and I came up with number. I hit with him with it, and he said, “Oh, okay.” At that point I knew that I had short sold myself. There was a lot more room and I left it there. But hey, once you throw the offer out there on yourself, it is what it is, right? So fast forward about nine and a half years. We’ve grown quite a bit. When I first came in and we started training, we had one master technician. We built that to 13.
Mike:
That’s fabulous.
Steven:
Yeah, we were the only service provider in the area with the Blue Seal of Excellence from ASC. Takes a lot of work to do that with 75 [inaudible 00:09:50].
Mike:
I bet.
Steven:
Certified in the areas that you [inaudible 00:09:53] in. So that’s where we’re at, that’s what we’re doing now. And one thing I can say about the company I work for and I lead is, we’ve been open, this our 42nd year, and we’re setting records. Last year was a record year for us, so complacency, Mike, has not got us yet. Fine human nature there.
Mike:
That’s awesome. So I take it, Steven, did that number change yet?
Steven:
Yes, it has, it has. Great question. I learned a lot about my owner’s character in a sense of, he’s not greedy, and he saw enough value in not only me, but what I was capable of and our entire team, because it’s one guy. The greatest architect in the world can draw the prettiest picture, but he’s not going to hammer the first nail, right? So he’s definitely taking care of me, and we’re going to continue to grow and look forward to more opportunities down the road.
Mike:
Well, I think that’s awesome. And you had mentioned, you guys have done more in-store growth than expansion.
Steven:
Absolutely, 100%.
Mike:
For our listeners out there and other shop owners, where did you find the value in that versus putting up more brick and mortar?
Steven:
Great question, great question. Well we started looking at what our efficiency was like inside the building. So if we were doing a top line sales number of this, when I really started looking at it, we were probably operating at about 40 to 45% efficiency, meaning if I looked at the real estate in the bays, I treat every bay like it’s $1,000 a day. So if I’ve got six bays, it’s $6,000 minimum for me to keep that facility running, right? Well why are we doing three? Well, because we’re human and parts deliveries and delays and all these different things. So I’ve got a famous saying. It’s let’s do our absolute best to control the control. If it’s controllable, I’m going to do my best to manage it. If it’s not controllable, I’m going to react, and I’m going to make the best decision for our business.
So we started going to work on not only more training, we do all of our training in house, from phone training… I’ll put a phone training class together and have guys excited to go do it. We’ll have sales, we’ll have technical. I just got through with the electrical theory class for some of our new guys. So it’s about being really tuned in and have your finger on the pulse of your business on what areas do you have that you need to work on a touch, because I’m going to tell you. It’s the 101 little things, in my opinion, that build up to… It’s the difference between winning and losing. So once we started really isolating what our root cause or our breakdowns of communication was, things of the nature, we went to work on fixing them. Once I got this part fixed, let’s buy a new set of Nikes but make sure we’ve got our foot sewed on first, right?
Mike:
No, I was going to compliment you. You seem to have the… You’re not stagnant. You’re aggressive. You want to keep advancing, but you’re patient about it, in the sense that, “Hey, let’s go tackle one thing at a time, and we’ll just knock this off,” almost like a doctor has to do with triage. Just pick up and…
Steven:
Absolutely, exactly right. Well a lot of people listening may know a lot about diagnostic strategy or critical thinking and things of the nature, so when I look at it, I understand if I put the work in now, if we plant seed for a tree, it’s not an overnight sensation. We’re talking about the delayed gratification. Well I have to put in all the work today to have me ready for this winter. I have to put in all the work in the winter to have me ready for the spring and summer of 2023. So it’s about going to work on today what I need to be able to advance in in the future. Right now, do we still have areas of opportunity? Absolutely, just like everybody else. But what we are not is complacent, and it’s easy to get there. It’s really easy to get there [inaudible 00:13:57].
Mike:
Especially once you’ve broken a record.
Steven:
Absolutely.
Mike:
You think, “Hey, pat myself on the back.”
Steven:
What I can tell you is we set a record the year before that.
Mike:
Yeah.
Steven:
And we set this record, but what you’re able to do is, you’re able to show people, your employees, your teammates, what’s possible. And it’s what they never thought they could do.
Mike:
Well my brother worked for Toyota. It’s similar to the Kaizen method where it’s constant improvement, and if you involve everybody, then everybody keeps figuring out, “Well, I could shave this off, or I could do that, or I…”
Steven:
That’s the key. That’s the key, total team involvement. So we talk about that a lot in meetings and in emails and things of the nature. But I’ll go to a store and I’ll ask a store manager, “What’s your goal?” And that store manager will pop up and he knows. Well I’ll go out and ask the guy who’s busting tires and doing oil changes if he knows what it is. If you don’t know what it is, you’ve got a break down of communication. That guy that’s changing oil and doing tires out there in the bay, working hard, he is more now to me. He doesn’t know the goal, I’m going to say, “Come on, Greg, or come here, David, and we’re going to get you involved. Hey man, you think you could find me another set of tires before 5:00?” “Oh, I know I can. They’ve been coming in with nails in them all day.” Once you get everybody singing the same song, same tune, and they’re interested in winning, it’s amazing what they can accomplish when they just claim the lead.
Mike:
Oh yeah, yep.
Steven:
Everybody’s got a sign on them that says, “Care about me.” I don’t care if you’re 40, 80, 90, or 22, you want to be appreciated.
Mike:
That’s right.
Steven:
So today it’s more than just earning a paycheck. It’s are we doing something? Are we successful? Are we kicking tail and taking names? You hear how passionate I am, right?
Mike:
Oh yeah.
Steven:
I hope the listeners can, too. I love what I’m doing. Are there hard days? Absolutely. But when you’re leading that operation, you’ve got be the guy that insists on the level of energy that your customers are going to see every day in your business. That’s the most [inaudible 00:16:07].
Mike:
Well that’s awesome. I saw something on LinkedIn the other day. Somebody posted a video of a coach, and I want to say they were at Duke. I want to say it was some female coach and it was a female sport. And I can’t remember what it was, but all I remember her saying is, “Let’s learn how to do hard better,” because she said, “Life is going to throw… It’s going to constantly harder.” She goes, “Quit thinking that you’re going to get to a certain point and it’s up. If I get to this point, it’s just going to be easier. Nope. It’s going to be harder because you’re going to know more and you’re capable of more.” And she said, “So what we want to do is learn how to handle harder better and then enjoy it.”
And that’s the thing I think about life in general. We always look for the destination, and I’m guilty of it, too, right? But I got to learn to enjoy and which I do. The older I’ve gotten, the better I’ve gotten at is, enjoy the journey. Enjoy the grind, because if you do like the grind, you’re going to get where you want to go. You’re more at peace about it, too, and people can read you on that. They can feel it in your voice.
Steven:
Absolutely they can. Absolutely they can.
Mike:
They think, “This guy really likes this stuff.”
Steven:
Yeah, and enjoys pain and suffering in depth. But we’ve all got things that make us tick, right?
Mike:
Yeah.
Steven:
And you’re exactly right. Life is the one thing that it will knock you down and keep you there only if you let it.
Mike:
Amen.
Steven:
Only if you let it. So just like, hey, we got a certain number we want to hit. Sure we do, sure we do. But here’s the great news. Sometimes if we don’t hit that number, I’m more excited because now I get to go to that location and say, “How can I help? How can I help?” And it’s amazing when you ask somebody, “How can I help,” they’re going to tell you what they need to be successful. And it may be a pep talk. It may be redirection. It may be setting the tone energy wise. It may be talking to David over there about getting to work on time. It may be whatever. But two things, you cared enough to stop and ask that individual, that employee, because we don’t hire numbers. We hire an employee and their families.
Mike:
Yes.
Steven:
Because we know those dinner table talks. They’re taking that home with them and talking to wife or the girlfriend, and guess what ends up happening? If it’s derogatory enough, self-protection mode goes in, and the wife says, “You know what? Just quit.”
Mike:
Yeah, “You need out of there,” yeah. “I’m tired of you coming home being miserable.”
Steven:
You’re exactly right. But if they go home and they’re always talking about, “You’re not going to believe this, but the operations manager, he come by and just asked me how my day was going today, and asked me if I needed anything.” Once you have those type of conversations at home, maybe Brenda or Pamela or whoever might say, “Well, have you talked to Steven about how you feel instead of jumping to a conclusion?” So there’s so much work that goes in to investing. There’s a saying that a mentor of mine gave me, and it’s huge. I don’t say I live by it, but I definitely go to business by it. We have to make deposits in people before we can ever make a withdrawal. So if I go…
Mike:
Say that again. We have to make deposits…
Steven:
We have to make deposits in people before we can make a withdrawal. So if I’ve not invested time and effort in training and coaching and mentoring in an employee, trying to make them more successful in business, in life, and all those things, when I have to have a tough conversation with, or make a withdrawal out, “Man, you did this or you need to do this,” or whatever the tough conversation may be, if I’ve already invested in that person through conversation and mentoring, the conversation’s easier. They don’t take it as personal. It’s not a brow beating. Simply coach. Everybody’s going to tell you the best coaches that have ever existed.
Mike:
Oh, the ones that wrote them hard, yeah.
Steven:
Road them hard, right?
Mike:
And were honest all the time with them.
Steven:
Exactly right.
Mike:
If they’re going to reward them, they did it, they followed through with it. And if they said, “Hey, if you don’t do it, I’m going to do this.” And they were clear about the… Yeah.
Steven:
Set the expectation and then the follow up. You’re exactly right. But this is about getting people be successful. If our people are successful, everybody’s going to [inaudible 00:20:24].
Mike:
Amen to that.
Steven:
It’s not always about money. It’s…
Mike:
No, well your turnover rate, I suspect it’s very good. You’re very low [inaudible 00:20:34].
Steven:
It’s very low, yeah. We’ve got a lot of tenure. We’ve got multiple guys that have been with us 25, 30 years.
Mike:
Man, that is fantastic.
Steven:
Loyalty’s a big deal. But our younger groups, our younger folks that are coming in, you got to make them feel that, because it’s a different generation that respects a different dynamic all together. So I’d be lying if it’s not gotten a little difficult, but the same rules apply.
Mike:
Yep, no, I hear you. Well you’re not going to believe this, but our time has come to an end here. But I do want to ask you… I don’t know. You brought up mentor, so I’m going to go with another one, which I do like to ask a lot of people. What’s your favorite… And you can give me three because nobody seems to narrow it down to one, but what’s your favorite movie of all time?
Steven:
Oh man, I can narrow it down one easy.
Mike:
Oh really?
Steven:
Yeah, Oliver Stone’s JFK.
Mike:
Really?
Steven:
Had Kevin Costner in it. I’m a big history guy, fascinated with history, and he did a great job in that movie. That’s my all time favorite [inaudible 00:21:41].
Mike:
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that one. So who do you think did it?
Steven:
Gosh, that’s a whole different podcast. A whole different podcast.
Mike:
Yeah, here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to leave you with an answer, and we’ll come back and do the podcast.
Steven:
Okay, who do I think did it? I hate to say, but Lee Harvey Oswald fired a shot, but not the last one, not the last. The last one come from an assault rifle in the limousine behind him. I think a secret service agent raised a rifle, a sweep up to the building up there, the Texas Book Depository, and the gun off accident. That’s why the huge cover up, because you can never let it get out that that’s actually…
Mike:
Interesting. Okay, we’ll leave on that one, man. Well listen, I’m very excited that you came on. I appreciate it. You’ve been a great interview. It’s been a pleasure and hope you’ll come back sometime.
Steven:
Oh, I’d love to, man. Thank you for having me, Mike. I really enjoyed it.
Mike:
To all our listeners, thank you for being part of the podcast. If you’d like to recommend a guest to us, please email me at [email protected]. Till next time, have a great day.
Announcer:
Thanks for listening to the Gain Traction podcast. We’ll see you again next time, and be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes.
Transcript
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