Manny Marfield of Marfield Management looks over an IWD display on the first day of the convention. Marfield Management is an IWD member with a warehouse facility in Long Beach, CA.

By Brian Cruickshank, AAP

PALM DESERT, CA -- All shops have challenges, but it’s how well those challenges are addressed that really separates the great shops from the rest.

National program group Independent Warehouse Distributors (IWD), which goes to market under the Auto Pride and Truck Pride names, calls these great repair businesses “Tier One” shops, and much of the group’s recent annual convention held in Palm Desert, CA, focused on how to evolve the good (and not-so-good) shops into great ones.

For the IWD membership, the successful evolution of Tier Two and Tier Three repair shops into bona-fide Tier One shops directly impacts distributor and store success. Tier One shops, by definition, are better customers. They return less product, participate more often in training, help improve the overall image of the aftermarket and, perhaps most importantly, pay their bills on time. More Tier One shops necessarily equals better business for distributors and a better image for the industry as a whole.

Of course, considering the range of issues repairers face on a daily basis, joining the Tier One ranks often cannot be done in a vacuum. It takes the kind of assistance and tools that national program groups like IWD are tailor-made to offer. During the annual convention, IWD staff presented some of these tools that its members can use to help make their professional customers better and more efficient at the business of repairing vehicles.

For example, on the first day of the convention, IWD staff outlined some of the programs the group offers service dealers, via its WD members and stores. Successful service dealers then spoke about the benefits these tools and programs provide their businesses, adding some tips on how to best integrate these programs into a member’s service area. These programs and tools are necessary in an increasingly competitive market, as they allow both jobbers and service dealers to compete on an even footing with larger chains and dealerships. As an example, IWD unveiled its new Enterprise Rental Program through which shops can provide rental cars to customers, allowing independent shops the ability offer loaner vehicles that dealerships typically provide.

Besides these tools, warehouses can help move their Tier Two and Three shops to the next level through some focused training and business assistance. After all, it’s in a store or warehouse’s best interest to do so.

Many of these suggestions came from the multiple roundtable sessions hosted during the three-day event. IWD asked a corps of its very best Service Dealer Experts to attend the convention, allowing them to serve as sounding boards for ideas and questions posed by member WDs, Auto Pride stores and IWD vendors in attendance. The result was lively and engaging discussions over the course of the conference.

These Service Dealer Experts — each one a Tier One shop — stressed that they just didn’t open their doors and experience immediate success. At one time, they too needed help and assistance from their servicing jobbers, WD and program group. Ideally, distributors would reach out to those customers with the potential and desire to achieve a higher level of success. Through training and promotion of various IWD tools, many of these shops can reap the rewards of becoming a top shop.

Groups such as IWD are well suited to provide this sort of guidance to its members and service dealers. The independent nature of IWD allows members to choose those programs that work best for them. The fact that each IWD member is fiercely independent allows the group to bring a wide variety of business practices, experiences and philosophies to the members.