PRICE TALK The phone rings, “How much is a valve job on a pair of early 350 heads?” Sound familiar? These are generally the first words you hear from a customer and seem to reflect the fact that your prospective customer’s first concern is COST. Should you quote a...

HANDLING UNHAPPY CUSTOMERS You can tell the customer interaction will be a tough one in the first few seconds. The caller’s tone of voice, accusatory language and high volume all say, “I’m going to let you have it”. How you react in these first few seconds will set...

CORN IN THE GASTANK I left my 2007 Harley Davidson sitting in storage with a half of a tank of gasoline, without an additive to combat the effects of Ethanol fuel. With all the press releases and articles warning about the corrosive effects of condensation and...

LET’S GET VISUAL ”Visuals” not only help eliminate waste, but can have additional positive impact on a shop’s operation, safety and cost. *Safety glasses (with side shields) should be mandatory in all shop areas; not just machining, grinding, welding, etc.. This can...

Ohio Makes a ‘Max’ Investment in Our Future If you’re looking for a new shop employee, Cleveland, OH may just be the city with the answer for you. Up until now it may have seemed that all the good employees either had jobs or had retired. Here is what Cleveland did to...

MEASURING TOOL MAINTENANCE I was once in a shop where the Sunnen dial bore gauge setting standards were so worn on their Sunnen CF1126 that it messed up every job in the boring department and no one noticed. The ends of the changeable standards had divots worn in them...