What is the best way to create a culture that drives growth in your shop? In episode 107 of Maximum Octane, Jason Patel, Geoff Berman, and ATI Collision Division Vice President Keith Manich learn from Fred Gestwicki Jr. of Fix It With Fred about the power of clear communication and transparency.
Fix It With Fred is an AutoTechIQ certified, technology-equipped shop in Canton, Ohio, committed to customer satisfaction for more than 13 years. Fred shares his insights on building a positive culture, why someone must love the numbers, how different pay plans can motivate employees, why training pays, and how owners can prepare for a mindset change.
What You Will Learn
- A bit about Fred’s background and Fix It With Fred’s mission
- Why it is crucial to have someone who loves “handling numbers”
- Fred shares his thoughts on the benefit of including different pay plans
- Why proper training can help you make more money
- How to get ready for a mindset change as auto repair shop owners
Fred’s Background and Mission
Fred opens with his background and the mission behind Fix It With Fred. His shop invests in technology and training, and that commitment supports both customer satisfaction and employee growth.
A clear mission does more than hang on the wall. It gives every person in the shop a filter for daily decisions: whether to take on a rushed job, how to talk to a frustrated customer, or which training class is worth the time away from the bays. When a shop commits to technology and training the way Fix It With Fred does, the mission becomes visible in the equipment on the floor, the certifications on the wall, and the way advisors explain recommendations. Customers notice that consistency, and so do job candidates who are comparing one shop to another.
Someone Has to Love the Numbers
Around the 8 minute mark, Fred explains why it is crucial to have someone who loves handling numbers. Many shop owners are more comfortable with cars than with spreadsheets. But financial clarity drives good decisions about pricing, staffing, and growth. If the owner is not that person, someone on the team should be.
ATI’s Your Checkbook Is Balanced, but How Are Your KPIs? highlights which numbers matter most, and Ken Martin makes the case for sharing them in A Thousand and One Reasons to Share Metrics.
Loving the numbers does not mean living in a spreadsheet all day. It means someone in the business is curious about why gross profit dipped last month, why car count is up but average repair order is down, or why one technician’s efficiency is slipping. That curiosity turns raw data into questions, and questions into decisions. Without it, owners tend to react to the bank balance instead of the trends that drive it.
A common mistake is assigning the numbers to whoever has spare time rather than whoever has genuine interest and skill. A bookkeeper who only records transactions is not the same as a person who reviews key performance indicators weekly and brings concerns to the owner. Shops that get this right usually set a fixed time each week to review the same handful of measures, so patterns become obvious and nothing slips through for months.
Using Different Pay Plans
Fred shares his thoughts on offering different pay plans, such as progressive flat rate, hourly pay, and profit sharing. Different employees are motivated by different structures. A progressive flat rate rewards productivity. Hourly pay offers stability. Profit sharing aligns everyone with the shop’s success.
Fred’s key point is that no pay plan works without clear communication, transparency, and accountability. Employees need to understand how they are paid, how their work affects the shop, and what is expected of them.
Considerations when designing pay plans:
- Does the plan reward the behaviors you want, including quality?
- Can every employee explain how their pay is calculated?
- Are results tracked and shared transparently?
- Does the plan fit the role and the person?
Before changing a pay plan, it helps to understand what each person on the team actually values. One technician may be driven by the chance to earn more on a busy week. Another may be supporting a family and care most about a predictable paycheck. A third may want to feel like a partner in the shop’s success. Offering more than one structure, where it makes sense for the role, lets an owner meet people where they are without lowering expectations.
Pay plan changes also need careful rollout. Announcing a new structure without explanation can create fear, even when the plan is better for most people. Shops that handle it well walk each employee through examples using their own recent production, answer questions privately, and set a review date. Paying close attention to quality alongside productivity matters too, since any plan that rewards speed alone can quietly increase comebacks.
Training Helps You Make More Money
Around the 22 minute mark, Fred explains why proper training helps shops make more money. Well-trained technicians diagnose faster and more accurately. Well-trained advisors communicate better and close more work. Training is an investment that shows up in productivity, customer satisfaction, and profit.
Chuck Lafferty explains why development is the best investment in Transparency and Development, the GPS of Business Growth.
The return on training often shows up in places owners do not immediately connect to the classroom. A technician who completes diagnostic training may cut the time spent chasing an intermittent electrical problem, which frees up hours for other paying work. An advisor who learns how to present an inspection clearly may see more customers approve needed repairs on the first visit. Those gains add up over a year, even if they are hard to see on a single repair order.
The biggest training mistake is treating it as a reward or an occasional event rather than a planned part of every role. A simple annual training plan, built around each person’s goals and the shop’s needs, keeps development from getting pushed aside during busy seasons.
Preparing for a Mindset Change
Fred closes with how owners can prepare for a mindset change. Growth often requires letting go of old beliefs about control, money, and how a shop should operate. Owners who are open to change, and willing to learn from coaches and peers, are better positioned to grow.
Mindset change is often uncomfortable because it asks owners to question habits that once helped them survive. The owner who did everything personally in the early years may now be the bottleneck. The owner who kept financials private may need to share them to build trust. Recognizing that what got the shop here may not get it to the next level is a first step.
Practical ways to prepare include spending time with peers who have already made similar changes, reading or listening to business content regularly, and asking the team for honest feedback about what the owner could do differently. Small experiments, such as sharing one metric with the team for a month, build confidence for bigger shifts.
Common Culture Mistakes to Avoid
Even owners with good intentions can undermine the culture they are trying to build. One frequent mistake is sharing numbers without context. Posting a gross profit figure on the break room wall means little if the team does not understand what drives it or how their work affects it. Transparency works best when it comes with explanation and a clear connection to each person’s role.
Another mistake is inconsistency. If the owner holds one technician accountable for comebacks but lets another slide because he is fast, the team notices quickly. Culture is shaped far more by what leaders tolerate than by what they say in meetings.
- Changing pay plans without walking each person through the impact.
- Cutting training first whenever cash gets tight.
- Expecting accountability from the team that the owner does not model.
- Holding culture meetings but never following up on what was discussed.
Measuring Whether Your Culture Is Improving
Culture can feel hard to measure, but there are signals every owner can watch. Turnover and the reasons people give for leaving are the most obvious. Others include how often employees bring problems and ideas forward, how many job applicants come through employee referrals, and whether comebacks and customer complaints are trending up or down.
A simple approach is to check a few of these indicators each quarter and compare them over time. Short, anonymous team surveys with two or three questions can also reveal how people feel about communication, fairness, and growth opportunities. The goal is not a perfect score but steady improvement, along with enough information to act before small frustrations turn into resignations.
Culture Building Steps
- Share key performance numbers with your team regularly.
- Review your pay plans for transparency and fairness.
- Assign someone to own financial reporting if it is not your strength.
- Budget for training every employee this year.
Matt Barnes shows how empowered teams drive revenue in How Empowering Internal Customers Can Increase Revenue.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I build a positive culture in my auto repair shop?
Start with clear communication and consistent expectations. Explain how the shop is doing, how each role contributes, and what good performance looks like. Hold everyone to the same standards, including yourself. Invest in training so people can grow, and recognize good work publicly. Culture improves when employees trust that leadership is fair, honest, and interested in their success, so focus on behaviors you repeat every week rather than one-time events.
Should I share financial numbers with my shop employees?
Many successful shops share key performance indicators such as car count, average repair order, technician efficiency, and gross profit percentage. Sharing helps employees understand how their work affects the business and supports accountability. You do not need to share every detail of your finances. Choose measures your team can influence, explain what they mean, and review them regularly so the numbers become part of normal conversation rather than a source of anxiety.
What is the best pay plan for auto technicians?
There is no single best plan. Flat rate and progressive flat rate reward productivity, hourly pay provides stability, and profit sharing or bonuses can align the whole team with shop goals. The right choice depends on the role, the person, and your shop’s workflow. Whatever you choose, make sure every employee can explain how their pay is calculated, that quality is rewarded alongside speed, and that results are tracked transparently.
Is paying for technician training worth it for a small shop?
For most shops, yes. Well-trained technicians diagnose faster and more accurately, which reduces wasted time and comebacks. Trained advisors communicate recommendations more clearly, which helps customers approve needed work. Training also supports retention because employees see a path to grow. Build a yearly plan for each person, connect it to their goals and the shop’s needs, and protect that budget even during slower months.
Who should handle the numbers in an auto repair shop if the owner does not like finances?
If the owner is not naturally drawn to financial details, assign the responsibility to someone who is, such as an office manager, a trusted service manager, or an outside bookkeeper or accountant with industry experience. The owner should still review key reports regularly and understand what they mean. The goal is to make sure someone is watching trends weekly and raising concerns early, not just recording transactions after the fact.
