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Shop Talk Her Way is where former shop owner and coach JeanAnn Saint Grace opens up the books on what it really takes to run a profitable, sustainable, and well-balanced auto repair business.
With decades of experience in bookkeeping, operations, and leadership, JeanAnn brings an honest, no-fluff approach to shop management — all from a woman’s perspective. From financial systems and staffing to communication and culture, she shares insights that help shop owners (and especially women in the industry) take control, build better businesses, and enjoy the ride.
Whether you’re turning wrenches, balancing the books, or scaling to your next location, you’ll find encouragement, strategy, and a healthy dose of “you’ve got this” in every episode.
Shop Talk Her Way is an AutoFix Auto Shop Coaching production — helping shops thrive, her way.
Thanks to WorldPac and the WorldPac Training Institute (WTI) for sponsoring Shop Talk Her Way. Visit worldpac.com for the latest in auto parts distribution and wtitraining.com to explore training programs that can take your career to the next level.
Ep.28 Audio
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[00:00:00] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Don't be afraid to be exuberant in slow time, to be grateful that it's a time for the team to kind of dial down, get some R&R, have some play time, and go- then go- be ready to go back to work when the r- phones start ringing again. If we create an energy of, "Oh, it's so slow. Oh, it's so bad," that becomes pervasive, right?
[00:00:24] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And we don't want them thinking like that. You wanna be their cheerleader. It's gonna come back. It's just a slow time. It's all gonna be okay, we've got you.
[00:00:40] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Have you ever been handed a pile of lemons and wondered what kind of lemonade you could make out of them? Hi, this is JeanAnn SaintGrace, and I'm here today to talk to you about the challenges that sometimes we face and the silver linings or the lemons that we can make lemonade out of, however you wanna think about that, the opportunities that lie in those challenges.
[00:01:04] JeanAnn SaintGrace: So we've all been there, right? We've all, as shop owners and managers and people in the automotive business, there's no shortage of lemons, right? There's no short of... shortage of opportunities where we feel challenged. One that I have found to be especially challenging is what if the phone's not ringing, right?
[00:01:26] JeanAnn SaintGrace: What if we don't have people coming through the door? And sometimes despite our best efforts with, um, reminder emails and follow-up phone calls and, um, exit scheduling, everything that we're doing to help that flow stay, sometimes it just peters out on us, right? Um, for example, if you're in a small town and it's fair time, right?
[00:01:52] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Everybody's focus is on the community, going to the fair, doing the fair things. That's how it was for me when I was a kid. Um, S- August and September are notoriously tough with back to school, whether, um, your kids are grade school, high school, or if you have a college. Um, you know, that time when school starts, that's a challenge also.
[00:02:15] JeanAnn SaintGrace: So what can we do to mitigate some of those challenges? Well, the first thing to do is to look at them as opportunities. So say it's slow, right? What opportunities do we have? Well, it's a great opportunity for training. If you have training that you pay for, or there's tons of free training out there that's online, if you can start pulling technicians off the line, or your service advisors for that matter, and putting them in front of a computer for an hour at a time and having them learn some stuff, right?
[00:02:52] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Expanding their knowledge base. Um, it's a great time to do that when it's slow. Uh, some other things we can do obviously is deep clean the shop, like get everybody involved in doing a really solid deep clean on the equipment, on the floors, behind the toolboxes. It's a great time to do a cleaning, um, expedition.
[00:03:13] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Something else that you can look at as far as training goes would be something like reinvigorating your digital vehicle inspection process or your courtesy check process, how- what- whatever you're using for that, and pulling some cars in that you do have and having each member of the team go over and compare notes.
[00:03:30] JeanAnn SaintGrace: What are we seeing? What have we missed? Um, you know, it's a great time also to maybe do some education on maintenance. Why do we recommend cooling system service? Why do we, um- service transmission fluid? When do we service transmission fluid? When do we rotate tires? You know, this is a great opportunity to, to give our team some support and some, um some refreshing in their training.
[00:03:59] JeanAnn SaintGrace: It's also a great time where your te- your advisors can reach out. They can s- go back in the history of your database and see, you know, what customers have we not seen for six months? What customers have we, um, you know, had recommended some work and they said, "No, not now, but maybe later." Maybe it's a great time to reach out in person and do that.
[00:04:22] JeanAnn SaintGrace: You know, I know a lot of people have their customer retention system set up to send emails or to send text messages, but there's nothing better personally, I think, than that, that special touch of having a person call and say, "Hey, Mr. Jones, we haven't seen you in six months. I just wanted to call and check in and see if everything was okay.
[00:04:42] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Wanted to let you know, you know, we're still here for you if you need anything. Is there anything I can help you with?" It doesn't have to be a sales call. It can very simply be, like, a wellness check and be like, "Hey, how you doing?" Sometimes out of those calls will come things that we weren't aware of, right?
[00:04:59] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Maybe the last time they were in, they had a bad experience, and now, now that the emotion of it has subsided, they'll be a- they'll say something like, "Oh, well, you know, the last time I was in there, uh, there were some fingerprints left on my hood, and I didn't appreciate it." "Well, you know, Mr. Jones, I'm really sorry that that happened.
[00:05:16] JeanAnn SaintGrace: I wish you'd let us know, because we would've come back and, and gotten that taken care of for you. We would've assessed that. You know, our techs always do their best to not do that, but, you know, sometimes it happens. So how about, uh, next oil change is on me or, um, you know, bring it by and we'll get you a, a car wash coupon or something like that."
[00:05:39] JeanAnn SaintGrace: You know, something to reignite the relationship and show that we care. Um, you know, those things have happened, and sometimes people will, rather than going away mad, will just go away, right? Because of some small thing that happened or some perceived thing that happened. So, so putting a person on the other end of that phone rather than a text or an email is a great thing to do for your service advisors when it's slow.
[00:06:06] JeanAnn SaintGrace: F- as an owner, it's a great time for you to really dial down on some one-on-ones. You know, if it's been a while since you've met with your team individually, if you don't have that on the schedule, and if you don't, you should. Um, but hey, maybe you haven't had a chance. Maybe it's just been crazy and you've got some other project going and it hasn't happened.
[00:06:26] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Now is a good time. You know, pull each one of your team members in and see how they're doing. Check on them. Um, get a training plan put in place for them. Assess their skills again and say, "Hey, how are you? Where are, where are you at? How's that thing going on at home that we talked about before?" You know, there's There's great things that can come out of slow time.
[00:06:46] JeanAnn SaintGrace: It can be fertile ground. We can, like I said, open up training. We can open up relationship. We can do a deep dive on the shop. We can get all the team together and have a meeting and be like, "Okay, what, what in the shop can we change? Can we rearrange something to make it, um, better, more efficient? Um, what are you guys' ideas?"
[00:07:08] JeanAnn SaintGrace: It's a time where you can deep dive in and, and get some things done that, that maybe in through the course of things you're too busy, right? And we wanna be careful, too. You know, we might have to rotate through and let a team member have the day off or something like that to, to lower our, our expenses in the face of slow time.
[00:07:29] JeanAnn SaintGrace: You know, some people can absorb that and some people can't. So I do recommend that we have like a rainy day fund, that if we've got people that, that really can't afford to take a day off, that we, we make sure that we give them something meaningful to do in the slow times and keep them paid. So, so we don't need to let a slow time kind of melt down into the darkness, right?
[00:07:58] JeanAnn SaintGrace: We can be like, "Hey, this is a great opportunity to do this. Do you guys need, uh, to reorganize your toolboxes?" Maybe somebody's never organized their toolbox and they're working from a pile of tools on their cart. Maybe that's a great time to, to put, to put them in the direction of, "Hey, you know, um, y- get your tools organized.
[00:08:19] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Get, get reset so that when, when things pick back up we'll h- we'll be ready to roll." It's a great time to address some of the things that otherwise you don't have, quote unquote, "time for," right? And as the owner, as... or if you're the leader of the shop, whether you're s- the owner or manager, second in command, even the service advisors or even the rest of the team, we don't want to get down in the dumps and be like, "Oh man, you know, it's so slow," et cetera, et cetera.
[00:08:48] JeanAnn SaintGrace: That's why I want you guys to look at this as opportunity, right? Because the, the customers are gonna come back. The lull is there for a reason. And, you know, I'm not always crazy about calling other shops and seeing what's going on there, but if you call other shops and you hear, "Hey, you know, we're dead too," there's something else going on.
[00:09:08] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And, and your, your parts drivers all know what's going on too, so you can always ask them, right? The, the, uh, the train of information flows the parts delivery truck, right? So, so don't be afraid to talk to other people. And this is, again, a great time to do that. You know, "Hey Bob, how's things? How's, how's it been?"
[00:09:30] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And don't be afraid to look into your history. If you historically look back on July or August and those months are your lowest sales months of the year Then well, there you have it, right? Something's going on. Something's going on that's consistently causing this to be a slower time. So, so don't panic is what I'm getting at, and don't bring, don't bring doom and gloom and fear into the shop because fear and doom and gloom spread like wire- wildfire.
[00:10:04] JeanAnn SaintGrace: You know, it could be a great time to, you know, ask people, "Hey, would you like to take your vacation during our, our historic slow time?" Maybe they've got kids that show animals at the county fair, and it's a perfect time for them to take off, but they're afraid to because it's the height of the summer or because, you know, they're-- they don't, they don't register that that would be a good time for them to take off because the shop is actually slow at that time.
[00:10:31] JeanAnn SaintGrace: So maybe be proactive on your vacation scheduling and say, "Hey, you know, the first weeks of August are usually pretty slow. Who, is anybody interested in taking a summer vacation?" Um, you know, it doesn't hurt to be proactive. You know, most unfortunately, a lot of, a lot of people when their, when their team members come to them saying, "Hey, I need vacation," it's like, "Oh man, here we go.
[00:10:55] JeanAnn SaintGrace: We're gonna be short-handed. It's gonna be a pain," et cetera, et cetera. So if you with a joyful heart ask them, "Hey, would you like to take your vacation during the slow time?" That way, I mean, they're, they may be getting paid for vacation, but at least they're getting paid and they're not sitting around the shop.
[00:11:11] JeanAnn SaintGrace: They're actually going out and doing something that they enjoy. So, so again, we can make lemons out of lemonade. We don't need to look at these down times and look at them as challenges. We can look at them as opportunities. And, and at the same time, yes, do I recommend that you have an exit scheduling plan?
[00:11:32] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Do I recommend all of these things? But sometimes there are things that are just outside of your control But knowing that and managing both your expectations and the team's expectations are things that can make this time go much, much better and much, much smoother. You know, and it might seem counterintuitive to buy them lunch or to get them donuts or to do something special for the team, but why not?
[00:12:00] JeanAnn SaintGrace: If-- I mean, think about it. If it's slow and there's nothing going on, why not do a team building? Get 'em, you know, get 'em all clustered up, get a movie, put 'em in front of the TV, get 'em some snacks and popcorn. Why not? The building of the culture, the fact that nobody's panicking, and that you can do something good for your team, what's it gonna cost you?
[00:12:26] JeanAnn SaintGrace: You know, 50 bucks, 100 bucks, depending on how big your team is for snacks and drinks. You know, why not? Why not spoil them a little bit? Why not take that opportunity to give them a little extra that maybe other times you are too busy to do? And the, the beauty of all of that is that what could be, like, a morale killer turns into something positive.
[00:12:52] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Um, it gives them hope. It gives them something exciting to look forward to. Um, maybe you call, call work early during those days. Maybe you stagger them leaving, you know, at three or four o'clock, whenever, you know, an hour or two before regular close, so they can go and have some extra time off during the week to get some, um, errands done or something like that, or go get their hair cut or something that they might otherwise have to schedule off work for So don't be afraid to, to be a little m- more giving during a slow time to keep the morale up, to keep them moving, to keep them from getting caught up in, "Oh man, is it gonna be slow forever?"
[00:13:33] JeanAnn SaintGrace: 'Cause we know it's not going to be, right? It always comes back. It always picks back up. The phone will start to ring again. And so we can't afford to, to let our morale get down. We, we need to be the cheerleader, right? This goes back to the service leader who is always willing to cheerlead for their team, to pick them up, to help them pull up by their bootstraps and be like, "Hey guys, this is all gonna be okay.
[00:13:59] JeanAnn SaintGrace: We got this. And in the meantime, we're gonna have a little fun," right? Maybe there's other things that you can do to, um, you know, lighten the mood, to give them some, quote-unquote, "playtime in the shop." You know? Um, there's all kinds of things we can do if we just get creative. Maybe w- if you guys, if you like cornhole, maybe we start a cornhole tournament again.
[00:14:23] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Maybe we run one through the week just to keep everybody moving and keep them busy and keep them excited to be at work even when it's slow. So, so use your imaginations. Get your team together. Get your, your, uh... Even ask chat, like chat's good for some things, right? They might... Chat might come up with a great idea for cool activities for, for summer when it's slow.
[00:14:48] JeanAnn SaintGrace: And like I said, there's ways to try to, to w- plan for this not to happen. Um, but sometimes it just doesn't work, right? Sometimes you just go through a slow thing, whether it's politics or co- community events or the time of the year. Whatever it might be, you know, look at your history, look at your sales, and go back several years and find out when are your slow times, and then plan accordingly.
[00:15:19] JeanAnn SaintGrace: You don't have to get caught off guard every year that for us it was fair time. You know, the fair in our area ran for two solid weeks, and so people, you know, they had top name performers. People spend a bunch of money going to the fair, going to concerts, buying beer, right? Let's face it, adult beverages were involved.
[00:15:37] JeanAnn SaintGrace: You know, they're not focused on their cars at that time. They're focused on going and having fun and, and being part of the community and doing things like that. So, so plan ahead. Don't get caught flat-footed. You know, if you've got a plan and you've got it dialed in, you know, even go so far as maybe buy them fair tickets and send them off one day at a time.
[00:16:01] JeanAnn SaintGrace: "Hey, you're gonna take Monday, you're gonna take Tuesday," and just ship them off to the fair and give them a paid day at the fair. Like, we can afford Hopefully we can afford, let me rephrase that. Hopefully our profit base is at the point that we can afford to do some, some cool things for our team, even in a slow time.
[00:16:23] JeanAnn SaintGrace: Maybe we have an emergency fund. Maybe we take all the tips that you've collected through the, the, the year and it goes in a kitty, and then this is where you spend the kitty. Um, don't be afraid to be exuberant in slow time, to be grateful that it's a time for the team to kind of dial down, get some R&R, have some playtime, and go- then go, be ready to go back to work when the ri- phones start ringing again.
[00:16:52] JeanAnn SaintGrace: If we create an energy of, "Oh, it's so slow. Oh, it's so bad," that becomes pervasive, right? And we don't want them thinking like that. You wanna be their cheerleader. It's gonna come back. It's just a slow time. It's all gonna be okay. We've got you, right? Um, it, it, it behooves you to have this be part of your culture.
[00:17:16] JeanAnn SaintGrace: So, as I said, while there's things that we can do to try to keep this from happening, if it's a historic thing, if it happens every year, prepare for it. Don't get caught flat-footed. Have a little money held back for your payroll that week. Have a little money held back for, you know, some, some fun or special things to do for the team that week.
[00:17:36] JeanAnn SaintGrace: It doesn't have to be expensive. It just has to be thoughtful. It has to be something that's cool for the whole team, you know? Um, whatever that looks like for you guys, let's make it that. So, um, this is gonna be a little bit shorter episode. I just wanted to kind of come out. There's a lot of people going through slow times right now or challenges with, with, um, team members and, um, I always try to have on deck for you guys kind of what's going on out there.
[00:18:07] JeanAnn SaintGrace: So, you know, it's inevitable we're gonna see challenges, but it's important that as the leader in the team, we make our teams lemonade. Okay? So our current sponsor for the podcast is AutoFix Auto Shop Coaching And we are a small but mighty coaching company, and our core, our core belief is that you should have the coaching that you need at the time that you need it.
[00:18:34] JeanAnn SaintGrace: So we don't have any agenda. We don't have any contracts. It's simply an agreement of this is how much coaching you want, this is how much coaching you're gonna get, and every week we show up and give you our full attention and focus on exactly what you need. We can plan a roadmap. We can move through any special challenge that you're working on, but it is really dialed into your coaching your way.
[00:19:00] JeanAnn SaintGrace: So I wanna thank, um, AutoFix Auto Shop Coaching for being the sponsor, and I am one of the coaches, so, uh, I, I'm here to work with you if you need, um, our services. So if you, um, if you'd like to even just do a discovery call, all the contacts are in the show notes, and you can get ahold of one of us on the team.
[00:19:20] JeanAnn SaintGrace: You can even direct message me. We'll set up a time for a discovery call and see what we can work out. So as always, thank you so much for spending time with me. This is JeanAnn SaintGrace with Shop Talk Her Way. Go out, love your people till it's weird, and build your shop your way. Thank you so much.