Wow, we are well into the new year and a new decade at that! Where does the time go? As a shop owner and someone who believes in Kaizen (continuous improvement), I’m constantly making changes to my shop and its processes. But, when is a good time to implement change and adopt technology in your shop? I believe there are two seasons, the off-season and summer. (Let me state that this applies to most shops in the Mid and Southern US and does not apply to shops in Canada).
The off-season, which is anytime but summer, is a good time to make major operational changes with software. For instance, if you’re going to move from a paper inspection to a digital inspection or switch shop management systems (both are BIG changes), I would schedule those types of changes for beginning or end of year adoption. This gives your team plenty of time to curse you (this they will do) and change their habits to accept the new way of doing business before the summer hits and things get busy. And, if your technicians don’t have tablets in the bays yet, buy them tablets now. I explain why here: Yes, You Need Tablets in Your Shop – 3 Reasons Why.
Many marketing changes and adoptions can be done over the summer and should be. You want to make sure you’re spending your marketing dollars in the busy time as well as in the slow. Picking up customer retention software or a lead generation tool can be adopted in the summer. “But Chris, I thought you just said to make operational software changes before summer, but now you are saying make software changes in the summer?!?!” Correct, I am. I believe you CAN make changes to your business during the summer, and, you should. These would be non-disruptive operational changes that don’t affect day-to-day operations. Building a new website or getting a marketing company to improve your social standing can also be done with minimal pain to your summer operations.
I understand some shops are busy year-round (good for you). I just want to present the idea that shop owners need to look at their cycles and understand when they can get the most out of change along with minimal cursing from their people!
