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‍Standing on the grid of the Indy 500 with 250,000 people around you and 33 cars on the grid—there’s nothing like it.

At the age of 13 I was working on semi-trucks. And when I turned 18, I opened up my first shop in the U.K. It was mobile; just me and a set of tools. 

In 1996, I got a call from Newport Beach, California that said “we need you to be a crew chief for the Indy Lights Team.” 

With no hesitation, I said yes. I was the crew chief for a two-car team for about a year. 

After moving from the U.K. to the U.S., I hopped around a bit. I lived in Oregon, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. I went from being a crew chief to replacing rear tires and fixing exotics. 

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In 1999, I worked my first Indy 500 race. And let me tell you: standing on the grid of the Indy 500 with 250,000 people around you and 33 cars on the grid—there’s nothing like it. 

As you’re waiting for the car to drive up, your adrenaline will start pumping. Everyone is in their position, and you’re in charge of changing the outside rear tire.

Formula One guys can do it in 2 to 2.5 seconds because they have a group of 20 individuals, but when you’re the only one on a tire, and everyone’s counting on you, you do it in 5 to 7 seconds.

I remember they put a heart rate monitor on me when I was changing tires at the Long Beach Grand Prix. My heart rate went from 180 to 230 during that wheel change. 

Judi Haglin runs Haglin Automotive alongside her husband, Dana.

And whether they’re in the shop or out of the shop, they’re always looking for ways they can give back.

One of their favorite efforts is volunteering with Pilots N Paws®, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that rescues puppies by flying them to be adopted.

Over the years, they've saved over 200 puppies.

Judi: Dana got his private pilot license when he was in school.

And after we got married, we were looking at buying a second house. We decided to build our home in the hangar, and eventually Dana got his airplane.

Giving back to the community is extremely important to us. Through the years, we’ve donated several vehicles to Justice High School for the highest achiever, and each Spring have sponsored an Erie High School student to participate in the Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Camp.

Naturally, Dana started to look for additional volunteer opportunities. 

Tekmetric is a huge improvement over a traditional paper process for sure. Estimates are easy to draft, orders are easy to create, and work flows easily through the platform as cars move through your shop.

That's because there’s always a better way! Canned jobs in Tekmetric are particularly powerful, saving service writers time by simplifying the process of building job estimates. Less clicks means more time to focus on the customer and offer amazing service while selling even more amazing BG Products.

When you have the right tool that helps simplify your work, why not use them? You wouldn’t use an open-ended wrench when a ratcheting socket wrench cuts the time in half and saves your knuckles.

In our effort to keep growing Tekmetric so running your shop is even easier, our latest update to canned jobs now includes even more canned jobs for BG Products and services right in Tekmetric. Just enable the canned jobs you want to use, and start selling even more BG services right away! 

What are canned jobs?

Canned jobs are pre-saved job templates in Tekmetric that include labor and parts associated with common repair work done.

Instead of recreating jobs you perform on a regular basis, shops can create as many canned-jobs as they like to build estimates in just seconds. Just apply the right canned job and you're ready to send for approval.

In fact, shops find canned jobs so helpful, one shop running on Tekmetric has created over 2,000 customer canned jobs, and even uses at least one canned job per RO. 

The value of canned jobs is clear: making it easier for repair teams to provide customers with the best of the best. 

Simple, efficient, and reliable processes lead to more completed work and happier customers. And as we know, happier customers leads to even more customer retention, and better customer retention increases shop profitability.

In essence, canned jobs can even help you pay for Tekmetric. The profit generated from saving time, closing more repair orders and selling better service can cover the cost of the platform, and then some. 

Just why are canned jobs so powerful for your shop? That's easy:

• Make your jobs easier by simplifying your workflows for common repair orders into just a few clicks
• Shorten the time it takes to operate, get estimates built and approved sooner and move cars faster.
• BG Canned Jobs, using BG products in particular, enable your shop to offer more specialized service options for improved vehicle performance

A lot of shop owners, and business owners in general, get so busy with running their business. If we’re not careful, I think we can tend to forget our staff and our team members without even realizing it.

I have a routine where, every single day when I get to the shop, I walk around, and I talk with every single technician.

I don't care how busy I am, or if my phone is ringing, I make the time to talk with every single technician before I even set my stuff down.

I take care of my employees first, and then I take care of our customers.

The reason I put it in that order is because I believe if you take care of your employees and help them love where they work, then they will naturally take care of your customers; you cherish your employees to carry your customers.

When I first started my shop,  I was turning wrenches with my team, selling at the front counter, and running the place. But, no matter how busy I was, I would always walk around the counter and sit on the couch next to our customers. I would talk with them, not only about their cars, but I would also find out what’s going on in their lives.

I did this because I care about the customers just as much as I care about their safety when they’re driving on the road. And I teach my team to genuinely care, too.

When it’s time for them to present an estimate, and a customer is sitting over on a couch, they don’t call that customer over to the counter. Instead, they walk around and go over to that customer.

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Doing the presentation side-by-side creates a bond and a level of being equal.

The biggest secret that I have for shop owners is to hire a coaching company. I wish I could go back in time and do this earlier, but I hired a coaching company back in 2017.

There are so many coaching companies that are out there, and they really push that customers are numbers. But I wanted to find a coach that values their employees and customers the way I do, someone who builds a relationship with people, because me building a relationship is what got me where I'm at.

My passion for auto repair started off in my garage. It was the coolest garage in the neighborhood. I had pull-down air-hoses, and it was kind of like a little dream shop. All I did was have car hobbies and help friends work on their vehicles.

There were so many of my friends that went and talked to my wife and said, "He's got to open up a real shop one day, and you've got to encourage him to do it.”  

Before joining the auto repair industry, I was in the restaurant industry, but I always worked on cars as a hobby in my spare time. Being in the restaurant industry was very time consuming. I was working more than 100 hours a week.

I thoroughly enjoyed the restaurant industry when I had the time for it, but then my son was born. When my son was 6 months old, I was kissing him goodbye when he was in his crib, and I realized I hadn't seen him while he was awake in almost 6 months.

Eventually my wife said to me, and I’ll never forget this, she said, “Mike, you need to open up a shop. You have the passion for it. Working on cars is what you love, and I can tell you’re happy doing it.”

So I did it. I opened up my own auto repair shop. It wasn’t easy though. I worked more than I had ever worked before. That was 22 years ago now.  

When my husband Dana and I started Haglin Automotive, our loyal customers found us from The Yellow Pages.

Things have drastically changed since then thanks to all the technology advancements. Online reviews and Google play a big part in whether a customer will set foot in your shop or return for future repairs. 

At Haglin Auto, we always adjust to meet customers, and whether they’re a return customer or a new customer, we prioritize how they feel.

It’s important to meet your customers where they are. We even offer customers free vehicle pick-up and delivery service, free shuttle services, and free loaner vehicles.

But, more importantly, we make sure they understand their repairs and can see everything that’s going on with their cars.

Build Trust with Digital Vehicle Inspections (DVIs)

Haglin Auto has been around for 41 years in the Boulder area, and twice a year 30,000 people come in and out because of Boulder University of Colorado, so we’ve always had an influx of students.

And in order to cater to our college students, we started implementing DVIs. 

The reason we made the change in the first place was because our service writers would call a local college student and say, “You car is doing this, this, and that,” and a lot of the times a student would respond with, “I don’t understand,” “I’m not the one paying,” or “Let me call my mom or dad.”

From there, the student would make a phone call home, they would ask questions, and then the student would call back with questions. 

Traditionally, there are four pillars to an auto repair shop that all support one another: the shop owner, technicians, customers, and service advisors.

The integrity of the shop depends on each of these pillars in different ways. The shop owner needs to make the right calls and put the right systems in place for technicians and service advisors to do their jobs. Technicians must stay focused on repairs. And loyal customers keep the lights on.

By effectively leading your team, service advisors can support the other three pillars of the shop—and in turn, achieve balance and improve the quality of your job. Getting started in your Service Advisor career, or looking for some tips? Here’s how to lead your team with intention.

Haglin Automotive Owner Judi Haglin is committed to the auto repair industry. Not only has she helped out locally with Colorado’s Automotive Service Association (ASA), but she’s currently on the board for ASA National.

‍Judi took some time with us to outline her vision, discuss her experience as a woman-owned shop, and paint a picture of the future of the auto repair industry.

I believe that we should make the world a better place by leaving it better than how we found it. 

Growing up, my dad would always say to me, “If you borrow your neighbor's shovel, make sure that it's clean and in better condition when you give it back.” That’s always stuck with me. 

I take that same mindset and apply it to the automotive industry. If I’m asked to join an organization, I will leave it in a better position than when I got there. I can take organizations that are struggling and figure out how to make them more profitable. 

‍“I believe that we should make the world a better place by leaving it better than how we found it.” 

When I was asked to assist with ASA Colorado, the first thing I did was look at the training events, schools, instructors, and students.

I looked at what was working and what wasn’t. Once I shed light on the benefits of working with vendors and getting the word out to local independent auto repair businesses, we ended up having 600 people attend a training event we put on. I was able to help put ASA Colorado on the map. 

Shop owner Judi Haglin runs Haglin Automotive by strategically monitoring her shop’s automotive metrics.

I have an Elementary Education degree from the University of Colorado Boulder (CU), and my husband, Dana, has a Saxophone Performance degree. I know, random combination, right? Well, once my husband and I graduated and we got married, I worked at a kitchen in a retirement home. After that, I got a job for a few years managing a McDonald’s.

Both of those jobs really taught me about policies and procedures, but they also helped me a ton when it comes to numbers. They helped me gain the ability to put all of that together and learn how to run my own business.  

I operate Haglin Automotive by the numbers. Knowing how the business is doing on a daily basis is great. And it’s amazing when you share the things that you gain. I share my knowledge of numbers with other shops through 20 Groups so they can run their business by the numbers, too. I believe that when you get to a point and you're successful at one thing, whatever that one thing is that you do really well, share it. Share it with the world. 

8 Metrics and Reports That Judi Haglin Uses To Run Her Shop  

I could go on and on about how metrics and reports have helped me run our business. I could also go on and on about which specific reports have helped us get to where we are. But there are a select few that I will make a point to check weekly, if not daily. 

1. Effective Labor Rate from Tekmetric’s End of Day Report 

2. Labor Hour Inventory   

3. Gross Profit from Tekmetric’s Profit Details Report  

4. Realtime Service Writer Report

5. Customer Lead Source

6. Lifetime Visits from Tekmetric’s Customer List Report 

7. One Time Visit Ratio

And finally…

‍8. The “Closing The Back Door” Report

We have a policy in our shop called “Closing The Back Door.”

Here’s how it works: if you have 500 new customers that have come into your shop and you’ve serviced 1,000 repeat customers, in reality you should have serviced a total of 1,500 customers for that year.

But a lot of the time it’s not 1,500 because a lot of your previous customers didn’t come back. 

At Haglin Automotive, we’ve picked up new ideas and found new ways of doing things over the years. We’re always looking, we’re always helping, we’re always training, and we’re always learning. We’re lifelong learners.

‍“You want your team to be a family. You have to be there for each other.”

We pay for lunch every Friday for our team meeting. Sometimes we have a meeting, but sometimes we just eat together and have a good time.

It’s important to always treat your employees like family. You want to get to know them on a personal level, listen to what their goals are, and help them reach their dreams.

We want to give each of our employees a career path. Whether they want a house, kids, retirement, anything, you can always ask yourself how you can help them get there. You want your team to be a family. You have to be there for each other.

Over the fall I planted a few pumpkin seeds and was expecting only a handful of pumpkins. But, to my surprise, we ended up with a whole pumpkin patch.

There were at least 60 pumpkins in our yard. So what we ended up doing was inviting our team over to do a pumpkin patch event. It was really fun.

Our team brought their kids and we did a pumpkin carving contest. It was a blast, and we all got to talk and get to know one another on a more meaningful level.   

‍“We want to give our team a clear path.” 

We find people who are interested in learning auto repair and we teach them the trade.

Not everyone who walks through the door needs 30 years of auto repair experience. We focus on bringing our team up. 

And as they climb the ladder, we train them on our shop’s values, our shop’s culture, who we all are as a team, and who I am as a business owner. 

We also teach them The Haglin Way:

‍Honesty and Integrity

Do the right thing in every action we take. Build on the foundation of being honest.

Do What Is Right—Every Time

All services recommended will be in the best interest of the customer, the vehicle, and the company.

Family 

Treat our employees and clients as our family. Strive to understand their situations and needs, and to exceed their expectations.

Everything Speaks

Lead by example and show your excellence. Everything has your signature. Sign in bold ink.

Bring It—Every Day

Approach every task with energy, focus, purpose and enthusiasm. 

Personal Growth

Empower each individual to grow and change, creating synergy and excitement while enriching their lives and realizing their own personal potential.

Technology and Industry

We work in an industry of constant change. The better and faster we are at adapting to change, the stronger and more successful we become as individuals and as a company.

Tekmerchant now includes the industry’s first “buy now, pay later” feature, allowing customers to complete vehicle repairs and pay over time with no risk to your shop!

The Tekmerchant platform offers flexible, forward thinking solutions that allow shops to save time and effort when managing funds and customer payments.

Shop owners can share invoices and accept payments via text and email, enabling the customer to pay directly from their smartphone and pick up the vehicle when it is convenient for them.

Additionally, customers can leverage Tekmerchant’s “buy now, pay later” feature using Affirm and Klarna. This is an industry-first solution that is familiar to customers who use it in other industries. 

Concurrently, Tekmerchant improves shop owner accounting processes by automatically integrating all partial and complete payments into the point-of-sale.

This feature, added by popular request from shop owners, integrates with Tekmetric’s existing payments reports for real-time tracking and reporting.