A team that knows the value of a customer, puts them ahead and ensures they are what’s important to the business is invaluable when you’re an automotive repair shop.
That’s why Motorcade Industries St. Catharine’s branch is the 2024 Jobber of the Year Award winner.
The customer-centric approach is key for branch manager Shannon Black. She has set a standard for what automotive parts distribution can and should be.
Running a successful automotive parts business is about more than just selling parts, Black explained. It’s about putting the customer first and fostering a family-like atmosphere where employees and customers alike feel valued and respected.
“The big picture is the same: Your customer is the most important part of your day,” she said. “Getting them the parts they need affects their business. And they’re more than just your customer.”
The store has expanded to 15,000 square feet to house the plethora of automotive parts shops need — and drivers make two trips every day to Toronto to get anything else their customers need.
And to stay focused on their key customers, they don’t accept any retail requests — everything is wholesale.
“Our customer base is on-hoist orders for automotive shops and we don’t really deal with retail at all,” Black explained. “We have a few people we may have dealt with a long, long time ago that might have been at a shop at one time, and maybe they have their own business. But besides that, it’s just professional and wholesale.”
Black’s team of 30 inside staff, seven company drivers and 27 broker drivers serve the entire Niagara region, a large geographical footprint with Lake Ontario to the north and Lake Erie to the south. Being able to serve a diverse group of clients with a large variety of needs means the store has to be able to accommodate all sorts of requests.
And those requests often are fulfilled in six minutes. But they also have to manage expectations.
“I teach these guys to under-promise, over-deliver, but I also teach these guys that and they have rapport,” Black explained. “I’ve probably been talking to a lot of these customers for 30 years, so and I have people on the desk that have the same amount of experience.”
This long-standing relationship with customers is a point of pride for Black, who sees them as more than just clients.
“My main business philosophy is that that person on the other side of the phone is your best friend,” she said. “They are the person that pays your paycheck. They take care of us. We need to take care of them.”
That’s just a preview of the full story — the November issue of Jobber News will soon be released and you can see the full story and read all about what makes Motorcade St. Catharines stand out from the crowd.
Image: Shannon Black, centre, is flanked by sales reps Dan Kovacs, left, and Mario Torelli, right
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