Need a new career advice/suggestions wanted

[BlackIceLSC]

Many who frequent the forums know I love to write....hell, it's part of my current "job description" = SERVICE WRITER.
But I am in fact a SERVICE MANAGER by actual title.

I deal with people/customers/vendors/employees day in and day out. I've had it.
In today's world, there is a general lack of CUSTOMER SERVICE pretty much anywhere you go. Yet I strive to provide the best service possible. It's just in my DNA.
The problem is, many folks out there are not used to receiving such quality care. You'd think they'd appreciate good service, a warm friendly smile, and a general "I care about your needs" attitude from my company, yet they almost don't recognize it. They want good service, and remind you constantly "how bad the other shops are" yet when we provide the very service they complain is missing, they don't recognize it. But you can bet they'll call you on it the instant it isn't provided!

I'm tired of the lack of the "accountability" from my employees. I am fed up with the fact that it all ends up back on me.
The tech's are good...VERY good. They are well-paid and know it. My flat-rate techs make more at our $1.3M annual shop than they ever did at the dealership level. They shop is clean, with quality equipment, convenient location, excellent hours and benefits. They tell me how much they love their job, so it's not like their environment is to blame.

I work 50+ hours a week, am a salaried employee with benefits and a decent commission/bonus program on top of my salary. I do not "sell stuff they dont need in order to make a buck". My bonuses are based on profit margins and staff efficiency, not "sales sales sales".

I swore in 1997 when I walked away from a service writer position that I'd never do it again but when I was laid off and looking for work in 2012 I found this job. Hired on the spot as a Service Manager, things seemed rough from the start. The last clown left a mess for me to clean up and I did just that. We increased business every year from $800k /yr in sales to last year's $1.35M. Not too bad for a small mom and pop auto repair shop in a small town.

We are booked 3-5 days in advance, and are a full service shop. We write 10-25 repair orders daily...some are simple oil changes/tire rotaions while others are complete engine replacement and major interval services (like 60k/90k/120k, etc).

Folks seem to have no problem spending money to keep their cars on the road but being the front man who has to take all the blame or deal with a repair that didn't go well (parts failure, added repairs needed, etc), it gets old.
Folks out there don't realize a CHECK ENGINE light can come on for almost a hundred reasons. Fix one of them, explain there are other reasons it can come back on in the future, yet I still deal with "I paid you $340 to turn off my CEL, and it came on 2 weeks later. I feel ripped off"
Fixed an evap code on a Chevy Silverado, and a week later the CEL is back on for misfire code...I can explain it in great detail, yet their ignorance yields to dissatisfaction. It isn't common, but a punch is a punch....get hit in the same spot enough times, and it starts to hurt.

I'm tired of people. I am tired of dealing with the public. I am at my wits end. They pay is good, the commute is tolerable, the atmosphere is great and the "personalities" of my employees is fine...I generally LIKE the folks I work with and work for. But it is being over-shadowed by the BAD.

My advice to others was always "when the bad outweighs the good, it's time to move on"

Looking to those who read my words, for advice....

Looking for a career change. Need a certain amount of income to meet my current budget and lifestyle but most of all....I need my inner-happiness back.

I don't like SALES....to me that is defined by "talk other people in to spending money and based on their decision, I might make some too"
Convincing other people to open their wallet or go further in to debt is not what I want to do for a living. especially since I generally do not like the public.
I am not good with strangers, I am more of a homebody/recluse. How I wake up every day and go to work where I am the FRONT MAN who smiles and greets strangers daily, and then has to talk them in to trusting what I say, and get them to BUY in to what I tell them is BEYOND ME.
They trust me until someone else makes a mistake or their car acts up again, and then I am to blame. Not what I call A CAREER any more.

I'd like to write....research products or cars/vehicles and then write about them. I've sent in works to publishing companies, yet without a degree from a 4 year school, I am just a dreamer...some of my TECH TIPS have been published by car magazines but there's no bankable income in that.
They'd rather hire a journalist who can write about a car rather than a car enthusiast who can type.

Any words of advice out there? They say "it's not what you know, but WHO you know" and right now I'm hoping for someone who might be able to get me "in" somewhere.

What do you folks do for a living? Does anyone here really LOVE THEIR JOB? You know...they always say "if you love your job it isn't work".

I'll check back from time to time....maybe someone will suggest something that I haven't thought would be my cup of tea.
Until then, thanks for letting my words enter your minds...

 

[Jamesvinar]

You can look into what im doing. Firefighter/EMT.
Firefighter the max age to join is 35 but and you would have to do both the paramedic and FF job as well, you get full benefits, good pay, and only work 2 days a week. Training can be hard for some, you need alot of physical ability for this.
EMT is a little broader, only thing is you need to be 18 and the pay is a little less, but easier to get hired on with private ambulances. Be prepared to see some messed up stuff too.
This has been my choice but ive been personal with some of the people ive met, one 911 call wont change domestic abuse suicide, etc. Ive stayed wity them, grown with them so they can be happy and safe

 

[BlackIceLSC]

thanks for taking the time to respond. 15 years ago, this would have been something I might have considered. I just turned 48. (little late to start thinking of a life-change, I know...mid-life crisis I suppose)

in Jan 2012 my wife had a heart attack at 2:45am...long story is, she'd been having some issues her doctor put down as digestive problems.
when she woke me up to call 9-1-1- I knew it was bad. The EMT's came (private ambulance) and to keep it short, the "director" whose name was Steve became a very good customer at my shop. I couldn't do what they do...the hours, the stuff they see and have to deal with, etc. But some folks were put on this earth to save lives...I have great respect for the men and women who sign up for that messy job. Kudos to you pal.

 

[tixer]

That's a tough one. Particularly when the people you work with are generally good.

The standard advice here is to simply "desensitize" yourself to the rants of the customers, but it's tough to do that when you actually do care that they understand what's been done, and want them to be satisfied with the work. Kudos to you for that.

My best thought on this would be to "go bigger." Find a larger organization where additional layers present, or the cost to the customer is less of a burden. Someplace that deals with fleet maintenance, perhaps? When you are dealing with companies, instead of "people," the contacts you do have will really appreciate what you are able to do to make their own lives more efficient.

 

[HOTLNC]

If you don't mind going to school for a couple of years, I would suggest becoming a Cancer registrar. These guys do NOT work with patients. They are the guys that collect the facts you hear on studies that such and such area has this high of this type of cancer. My wife is about to retire as a registry manager and she was constantly looking for people to work for her. Typically you would work for cancer treatment department for hospitals. Some registrars would work out of their home -- anywhere there is an internet connection. My wife had one registrar that worked out of her home, in Oklahoma, for JPS hospital in Fort Worth Texas. She came into FW typically once a month or so. There are some that are "hired guns" -- they work for an agency and travel between hospitals that need cancer coding support. They "clean up that registry" and then move on to another.

What this job entails is reading doctors, pathology and radiation reports and code the cancer type. The caner registry is a specialized offshoot of a normal hospital's coding department. Any illness or injury has to be coded -- this code is used in many ways. Mostly my insurance companies.

 

[steve]

You only said you like to write, so keep looking for something in that field.
Some people earn a living by doing blogging and YouTube reviews. But you need to be good a social media and get a large following.
Other options maybe a warehouse manager, you don't deal with the public just the operations and workers.
Or go to truck driving school.

 

[chris2523]

Or go to truck driving school.

 

[Lvnmarks]

Sounds allot like what I do, except I work with pilots and aircraft vs cars and civilians.

I'm constantly battling pilots on correct procedures while directing A&Ps on what needs to be done. It's hard because only the people in my office see the big picture and we control and oversee airline operations. Some days it gets to be too much but things have to go on and bills need to be paid.

As far as career advice it's all how you can sell your resume, get stuff on there that will get you closer to what you enjoy. I hope to leave this line of work in a few years and go back to school for robotics engineering. It's been my dream to work on the next Mars Rover.

 

[Ford nut]

As I get older I become less patient with people, sounds like your about in the same spot.

I deal mostly with machines which for the most part do what you tell them to do, I have been a machinist since I was nineteen which was more years ago then I would like but cant complain about the work, the people on the other hand.... anyhow a close friend I worked with for 30 years decided he had enough of the owners kids that now call the shop their own and left.

Now he drives cement trucks and loves it, the pay is close to what he made benefits are excellent, little interaction with people and a pension which is pretty much unheard of nowadays....maybe drive?

 

[BlackIceLSC]

I cant thank you all enough for your input...the vast variety of suggestions and thoughts is exactly what I was hoping for. Sometimes its hard to know what you WANT to do when you can't come up with options.
I like the thought of driving a bigass truck full of mix to deliver on schedule to some site...except california roads and traffic is enough to make one want to NOT hit the brakes in a fully loaded cement truck.

last application was for a fleet manager for the county...the pay was phenomenal, the hours, holidays, expense budget and company car option was what I wanted...I made it to the second round of selections, but then was passed over.

we have several "fleet" accounts, and I excel when working with them. I receive gifts from them from time to time for making their jobs easier, and there is very little in the way of "come backs" as they are not the end users...they are "middle-men"...the workers bring the vehicles in with their list of issues, I write them up, my techs inspect and request repairs/parts, I call with estimate, dispatch the work, order the parts, finalize the repair order and send for payment, their workers come to get their vehicles....only a few "prissy snot-nosed workers" ever complain that their 15 year old 4x4 still isn't perfect, so it's a nice branch of what I do.

But yesterday a 60+ yr old man walked in and began to ask for estimates for a lot of work on his 2005 Duramax diesel 4x4 dually with body damage from bow to stern, and then nit picked every penny on the estimate...as he was speaking I was looking him in the eye hearing his voice I thought to myself "this man needs to get out of my face as I cannot stand this situation any longer. it's 4:00pm on a friday before a 4 day weekend and he wants to talk about the difference in ride quality of a mono-tube shock vs a standard oem replacement on a truck that looks like its ready for the wrecking yard"

I hate people

 

[driller]

I like the thought of driving a bigass truck full of mix to deliver on schedule to some site...except california roads and traffic is enough to make one want to NOT hit the brakes in a fully loaded cement truck.

I used to love driving trucks... but honestly when they started CDL's I was relieved. I didn't want to drive the rigs anymore and simply never signed up.

Now, there is NO WAY I would want to drive any type of big rig on the road for a living.

 

[soclose]

I DEFINITELY agree with driller. After spending over 20 years driving OTR, I can tell you it's not much fun; especially these days with folks spending more time on their phones while driving. Too many regulations for big rig drivers and not enough education for the idiots in cars. The only way I survived a lot of times was playing 'stupid driver' games in my head. Consisted of guessing what stupid move other drivers were going to make around me. I won most of the time. I knew it was time to retire when I was too tempted to run over drivers for their inconsiderate or just plain dumb moves on the road. Only good thing about it was not having to listen to their voices. I feel for your situation. Working with the public is a form of mental suicide if you expect any sensibilities from them---very few exceptions.

 

[BlackIceLSC]

Working with the public is a form of mental suicide if you expect any sensibilities from them---very few exceptions.

AMEN

Yea, when I said I'd love to drive a bigass truck full of redi-mix, I meant it more along the lines of how much destruction I could wreak with one of them!

My technicians tell me they prefer their end of our industry because they dont have to deal with people(the customers). They constantly tell me they dont know how I do it, or how I do my job every day. I like working on cars but the main reason I couldn't do it is today's modern vehicles have changed so much that it isnt so much turning wrenches and punching steel as it is technology and specialty skills/tools. Plus being prisoner to the fact that your income is based solely on whether or not everything goes right, including the parts are correct, and not defective the first time, and the car actually cooperates with you while you work on it.
It isn't just the public....it's me, and my lack of interest in pleasing others anymore.
any of the folks in this community know I used to be a very giving person...the numb-nuts of the world took that away from me and I resent most people because of it.
even some folks who I used to volunteer my time and skills to fix their Mark VIIIs took advantage of my kindness and screwed me over in the end...I used to set up "shop days" years ago and let my fellow VIII owners bring in their cars and I'd work on them FOR FREE. They'd bring the parts, WE would do the work(so they'd claim) and then later I'd hardly get a "thank you" or something else would break and they'd call me asking if I screwed it up.
Those days are over, and that is just a prime example of people taking advantage of others(me).

keep the suggestions/share your career info with me folks...like I said, it's hard to know what is out there for me when my imagination doesn't even know a lot of the options...I appreciate it more than you know.

 

[Ford nut]

The community has changed the good guys are few and far between, I suppose with the age of the cars most of them have filtered down to beater status, owners are poor and its a poor car for a daily driver.

 

[tixer]

Good story about your "Duramax Guy." Those people are inevitable, as you well know. The best you can do is avoid, and/or "disconnect." Back when I was doing computer service and consulting, there were some folks I just had to let go.

As an aside, I find myself wondering if you just need a break. When was the last time you got out of town? Maybe take a week and head up the coast, or out to Yellowstone. Craters of the Moon (just west of Yellowstone) is like nothing you've ever seen. Unless you've seen it, of course..


Even though I never attended one, thanks for doing those "Wrenching days." It sounds like you single handedly kept quite a number of these cars on the road. Feel good about that, even if the owners didn't realize the value of what you were offering.

 

[BlackIceLSC]

Mike, here's an update:
I took 4 days off over Independence day...left the shop Friday 6/30 with NOTHING hanging...no jobs half-way complete...no cars stored for the weekend waiting for customers to pick up the next week (July 5th, when we re-opened).

It was an amazing feeling of freedom.....then back to work for a short week (7/5-7/7)

By the time Friday morning rolled around and I had 6 customers all in my face waiting for their turn to drop off their cars, It was like I never left.
It's the simple things: we schedule appointments for DROP OFF so that people don't have to "wait their turn" just to drop off their car, get written up/sign the agreement forms, etc...details of their car's reason for being there, what time they need it back, any symptoms/concerns they forgot to tell us about when they made their appointment, etc....well, none of the knuckle-headed people pay attention to their "appointment"...they just show up when they want, and then get all antsy that they have to "wait to drop off their keys"....comments like "I'm just getting an oil change, I am late for work, can I just hand you my keys and you call me?"

NO......damnit....this is why we make APPOINTMENTS!!!! some rube out there will come in later to pick up their car and either bitch that we didn't do something they wanted, or that they "didn't know it would cost that much, had I known I would have gone elsewhere". we spread out the drop-off appointments to avoid this "traffic"....I'm the only one their until 8:30, so for a solid hour, every day, this is what I face...people who show up EARLY and expect NO WAIT. I want one of those red "deli-ticket" dispensers where you 'take a number'...seriously.
I get their at 6:30am so I can open up, get organized and try to get a head start on the day...now the people see I'm there and pull in an hour before we open with the keys in their extended hand "I have to drop it off now, my ride is here to take me to work, call me"...although we're not OPEN...I'm there, the bay doors are up, so in theory, it should be ok, right? IT'S NOT....I'm not there at 6:30 for their convenience...I'm there to try to make my job easier. They just take advantage of my presence. I can't be a DICK and say "no, you have to wait an hour, staring at me, watching me do my work and THEN I'll take you in"...

the constant struggle to extract common sense out of today's society is enough to make one want to just tell people "go away. You're fired. I refuse to work with you"

But....I cant.

as for "taking a break"....no such thing. I pretty much do all the customer-service work ( I am the service manager) since the owners only hired a female to help who after 8 years STILL doesn't know what a BALL JOINT is, and doesn't even care to learn. But she's a friend of the owners so it's not like I can force her out. when I try to take a vacation, all they do is call me/email me/text me with questions about the jobs I brought in.....my days are numbered. I'll either start firing people left and right or snapping at a customer which will ruin the shops reputation and that is unheard of.

You see, we're in a small town. only 2 other shops and THEY are known as low-quality shops. therefore we get pretty much 90% of all business in that town. My bosses (husband and wife) live there and know EVERYBODY...their kids went to school there, they are heavily involved in local charities and boosters, etc. Many accounts are their very close friends....I live 30 miles away(thank God)....so you see...it's done a certain way...there's really not much in the way of "changing things" other than removing myself from the whole equation.