The Best Auto Repair Shop Owners Understand the Lag

by Rick White, President 180BIZ                                                      (Estimated Read Time 5 minutes)

Lag. Let's talk about what that is. It's the gap between doing something and getting something. Lag is a normal, natural occurrence. There's no way you can get it at the same time. That just never happens. That's why when you get slow in the shop and you do reactive marketing, it doesn't work because you don't allow for the lag. You don't allow for the nurturing. You don't allow for the planting. You want to plant the seed and reap the harvest on the very same day. That is super hard to do. So instead, what I want to talk to you about is the concept of lag. The gap is normal. The gap is natural. The gap is going to tell us a lot of different things.

1. Communication as an indicator of the health of the relationship. Think about this in terms of a relationship. Let's say you have an employee who has a problem. That employee does something wrong and you don't deal with it right away. You’re waiting for the perfect moment to address it.  But there's no such thing as the perfect moment. The perfect moment is dealing with it immediately, as soon as you can do it without emotion so that you're attacking the behavior, not the person.
   
   The gap is an indicator. Listen to this carefully. This is at work or at home with someone. If there is an issue and there's a long gap, a lag between the action and the conversation, that is an indicator that something is wrong in the relationship. It could mean there's a lack of trust. It could mean that there's a lot of stress between the two of you. It will give you the pulse of the business when it comes to personal relationships.
   
   Your goal is to make that lag as short as possible. The healthier the relationship is, the safer that relationship is, the shorter the lag. And what I would like to challenge you with is creating an environment, creating the relationship, creating the safety and trust so that there is very little lag. So, as you go through your week, be aware of how soon after something happens you deal with it. What is the lag?
   
   The other problem lag causes is this. Let’s say an employee does something wrong.  You stew about it and stew about it and stew about it. Three weeks later, you finally decide to address it.  Now for you, it's been all-consuming. It's all you've thought about. But for your employee, for your team member, it is not anything. It's not even on their radar anymore. The lag is a good health metric. It will measure the time between when you have the issue and when you have the conversation.
2. Now let’s talk about the lag in business. Measure the progress. Use the goal as a ruler to measure how well you’re progressing. At times, we put ourselves in a situation where we set a goal and then we constantly beat ourselves up because we're not hitting it. But understand that in business, there's a lag between effort and result.  I might have a goal of 3.5 hours a ticket. And that's a great goal. But I can chase that goal until hell freezes over. It's not going to make a difference. But if I step back and I go in and I say, “Okay, I'm going to concentrate on what I'm doing.”  
   
   I want you to start measuring your success on your effort. You measure your success based on the consistency and the massiveness of your effort. If you're doing it and getting better, then you've just got to give it time. But you realize that once you stop chasing the goal you simply use it to measure how well you are performing.  Now everything has changed.

So, there are things called indicators.  And we have lagging indicators, which are your hours per RO. But then we have leading indicators. So let me give you an example. A lagging indicator would be hours per RO. How many hours per RO of labor did you bill? A leading indicator is the hours you present. See, that's something I can work on. If I work on my hours presented, it will have an impact on the result. I must focus on the actions so that I can get the result. You must work on your effort. Here's another one. You have car count, which is potential. Those are the cars you have on your lot today. And then you have invoice count. The invoice count is the work that's been done.

The key here is shortening the gap when it comes to communications and appreciating the gap when it comes to achievement between doing it and getting it. You have to focus on what you can control, which are those inputs, your actions rather than the outcome or the goal. And then build patience into this as you get better and better. Start thinking about the lag. Focus on your efforts, and shorten the lag in your relationships.

Please share this video.  We have our Shop Owner’s Round Table, on the second Thursday of every month, 7 p.m. Eastern, and we would love you and your friends to drop by. Shop owners only. And then we have our upcoming Pocket Business Genius webinar on the second Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern time. 

God bless. stay safe, have some fun, and go make some money.  Take care.

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