30-Second Snapshot:

It is never ok to change the tech number on a repair order. That is fraud and will result in a chargeback in a factory audit. Always make sure your tech is certified for the repair before they begin.

We recommend the following:

• Check the manufacturer's training site for certifications every Monday. Make sure everyone is aware of your findings.

• Hold everyone accountable for their own certification. If they’re not certified, they will not get the work.

• If you cannot get into a needed class, call your rep; be proactive. They can often help you.

• Keep your dispatcher informed and enforce consequences if the wrong technician gets the wrong job, such as affected employees will not be paid until the certified technician has performed or inspected the vehicle.

Bear with me here, would you want a podiatrist to perform your heart surgery? The answer is of course not.

Yet when the manufacturer tells dealers, “We want a certified trained technician on a brake job,” some think it is ok to just change the tech number to a certified tech no matter if they were qualified or not.

So what if the hospital did that? Well, if the surgery went well and no one found out, then you would probably never know, right? But that doesn’t make it right or even safe and at some point, something is going to go wrong and someone is either going to get hurt or sued.

The same thing applies to your dealership. If you change the tech number, eventually you will get found out by either someone getting hurt or an audit where you will have to pay back boo-coo bucks.

The manufacturer is paying you to do the repair the way they want it done by technicians they trained to repair the vehicles.

I get it though, in your shop the certified tech may be off, too busy, or they just quit. You don’t want to turn business away and you know that George the steering guy is great on brakes but just not certified, so you have him fix the car and get it back on the road.

What if the hospital did that? I know that I would not want to go to that hospital. Instead, they schedule so that you get a heart doctor for your heart, not a foot doctor.

So how do you make sure that your dealership stays current on training and that work gets distributed to the proper technician for the job?

• Put someone in charge of checking the manufacturer's training site. Put it on the calendar to check certifications every Monday, print it, pass it out, hang it up, and make sure everyone has a copy of who is certified for what.

• Hold everyone accountable for their own certification. If they do not get certified, then they will not get that work. Period.

• If you cannot get into a needed class, call your rep and be proactive. They can often give you latitude or help you get into a class.

• Make sure that whoever assigns the work to the technician has the proper information and that there will be consequences if the wrong technician gets the wrong job, such as:
   
  • The car will need to come back into the shop and they will need to call the customer.
  • The job will either need to be reperformed or inspected by a certified tech and documented with time punches and comments.
  • The employees will not be paid until the proper certified technician has performed or inspected the vehicle.

• If working in teams or with an apprentice, make sure certified tech is punched on the job.

• If a certified tech is overseeing the job he must be punched on the job.

• Before you “write off” the job if a mistake is made, ask the manufacturer if you can bring the vehicle back to have the job inspected and certified.
  

Simply writing off a ticket because it rejected does not help your customer. He is still out there driving a vehicle that someone fixed that was not certified to do the repair.

If your surgery was done by someone unqualified you would want them to give you another look over.

Our vehicles are no different. We spend more time in our vehicle than on our legs so let's keep them safe with accurate repairs performed by qualified people.