C1 Oct Cover - Chapel Hill Tire

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FEATURE
36 October 2012 | TireReview
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JIM SMITH
Editor
Much as they did with their headquarters location (above), second-gen owners
Marc (left) and Britt (along with sister Neill) have reworked Chapel Hill Tire from
the ground up, making them worthy of the 2012 Top Shop Award.
C
back on building long-lasting relationships with customers.
Chapel Hill Tire’s history isn’t unfamiliar; it was a Top Shop Award Finalist
in 2007, the very first year of the program and the only other time the company even entered the contest. It was
founded in 1953 by Sion Jennings, who
started in the tire and repair business in
an old Studebaker dealership on West
Franklin Street, which remains Chapel
Hill Tire’s headquarters today.
Jennings sold the business to Al
Pons in 1964, and over 30 years he built
it up to four stores that created opportunities for sons Britt and Marc and
daughter Neill to graduate from college
and attend graduate school. Britt worked side-by-side with his father, while
Marc opted for a career with Chase in
New York City and Neill became a
wife, mother and successful executive
with a company in Richmond, Va.
With the recession of the early 1990s,
Al downsized, selling off three of the
stores. He bought back one – Chapel
hapel Hill Tire Car Care Center
is not a puzzle in either the literal or figurative sense. It is not
confusing or an enigma, and the entire
operation moves harmoniously and unconfusingly forward.
But it is the dealership’s almost magical ability to put often-divergent pieces
together to deliver something beyond
“world-class customer service” – and
do so one customer at a time – that
helps make it the winner of the 2012
TIRE REVIEW Top Shop Award sponsored by Ammco/Coats.
The nearly 60-year-old fixture in the
college town of Chapel Hill, N.C., is not
one-dimensional; it also is a leader in
community involvement, training and
expertise, branding and, most of all, environmental friendliness and sustainability. What is unique is how hard the
management and employees work constantly to focus all of those elements
Hill Tire’s Carrboro location – just before he died in December 1996 from
complications from knee replacement
surgery. His unexpected death was a
dramatic turning point for both the
business and the Pons siblings.
All of 26 at the time, Marc, who didn’t want to work at the dealership and
be pegged as “the boss’ son,” came
home to help keep both the business
and his father’s memory alive by taking
the reins of the dealership. Today, the
siblings remain equal owners in the
business; Marc has assumed the leadership role, and relies on Britt and Neill
for advice and counsel. Britt heads up
Chapel Hill Tire’s extraordinary customer service efforts and is heavily involved in community and promotion
efforts. A cadre of outside advisors, including some who worked with
their father, often are consulted
for input or to serve as sounding boards.
While Britt easily
blended into the business,
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■ TOP SHOP:
WINNER
Raymond Mann, lead service tech and resident BMW expert, is one of dozens of
long-time employees. He is closing out his 30-plus year career with Chapel Hill
Tire this year.
Marc had a tougher time earning respect and, more importantly, learning
to coach (not manage) others. He understood the black-and-white business
side, but struggled to relate to employees who were loyal to his father and
mourned his passing as much as the
family.
The transition was hard, but those
tough times laid a solid foundation for
what was to come, both internally and
externally.
Tracking Customers
The easiest thing to understand – because it is the most obvious – is that
from the top down and in either direction, no one at Chapel Hill Tire takes a
customer for granted. Not a first-timer,
and never a long-time client.
It doesn’t help that Chapel Hill Tire
is in a tough, ever-shifting market covering Carrboro and Chatham Counties.
Chapel Hill is home to the University of
North Carolina – and is one of the three
points in the Research Triangle region
of the state. Sided by nearby Raleigh,
with North Carolina State University, and Durham, with
Duke University, the Triangle is
home to dozens upon dozens of
top-flight corporations, research
firms, medical centers and,
well, top universities.
It is very much an uppermiddle/upper income area that
also hosts tens of thousands of college
38 October 2012 | TireReview
students for nine months of the year;
Chapel Hill itself has a permanent population of around 35,000, which tops
60,000 when UNC is in session. So what
you have is a continuing group of highincome, demanding regular consumers
mixed with a transient low/no-income
group that still needs vehicle service
and tires.
Marc says readily that college students are not their target audience, and
UNC makes it difficult for local companies to reach out to professors, support
staff and administrators, so strong
word-of-mouth is about the only way
in at the school. No such restrictions
exist in the rest of the world, and Chapel Hill Tire aggressively pursues
through the usual promotional channels, as well as approaching local companies with special offers for their
employees.
The front end of the process of
reaching possible customers is comparatively easy; the effort to maintain and
nurture them is quite akin to gardening.
Customer service to Chapel Hill Tire
starts with creating a “great place to
work because we respect our employees, treat them like family and provide
them opportunities to learn, grow and
prosper;” being honest with “customers
and ourselves;” admitting “mistakes
and doing our level best to fix them
promptly;” and getting better each and
every day.
“We want to build long-lasting relationships with our customers,” says
Marc. Words like ‘honest,’ ‘trustworthy,’ ‘convenient,’ ‘professional’ and
‘friendly’ show up consistently when
you read our reviews and testimonials.”
Those reviews and testimonials are
really the key driver for Chapel Hill
Tire’s customer service system. Because
you can’t fix what you can’t see, the
dealership is “relentless and passionate” about getting honest feedback
from all customers.
New customers get a personal
phone call from Britt, who does a quick
survey with them, collects input and
thanks them for coming to Chapel
Hill Tire. If the customer expresses a concern, the store manager is called and the situation
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■ TOP SHOP:
WINNER
Past Top Shop Winners
2007
2008
Winner
Gatto’s Tires & Auto Service
Melbourne, Fla.
gattos.com
Winner
Atlantic Tire & Service
Cary, N.C.
atlantictireonline.com
Finalists
Community Tire
Phoenix
communitytireaz.com
Finalists
Lex Brodie’s Tire,
Wheel & Brake
Honolulu
lexbrodies.com
Chapel Hill Tire
Car Care Center
Chapel Hill, N.C.
chapelhilltire.com
Direct Tire & Auto Service
Watertown, Mass.
directtire.com
Redwood General Tire
Redwood City, Calif.
redwoodgeneral.com
Pneus R. Guay
Jonquiere, Que.
pneusrguay.ca
2009
2010
Winner
Enger Tire & Auto
Cleveland, Ohio
enger-tire.com
Winner
Tires, Tires, Tires
Sioux City, Iowa
tires3.com
Finalists
Curry’s Auto Service
Chantilly, Va.
currysauto.com
Finalists
Community Tire & Auto
Service
Phoenix
communitytireaz.com
Griffin Brothers Tires, Wheels
& Auto Service
Charlotte, N.C.
griffinbrothers.com
Jack Williams Tire &
Auto Center
Moosic, Pa.
jackwilliams.com
Robertson Tire Co.
Tulsa, Okla.
robertson-tire.com
Waukegan Tire & Supply Co.
Waukegan, Ill.
waukegantire.net
2011
Winner
Virginia Tire & Auto
Fairfax, Va.
vatire.com
Finalists
Hay Tire Co.
Charleston, S.C.
haytire.net
Family Tire & Auto
New Bern, N.C.
familytirenc.net
Tate Boys Tires & Service
Bartlesville, Okla.
tateboys.com
40 October 2012 | TireReview
discussed. Regular customers get an e-mail “thank
you” follow-up and short survey. If their e-mail addresses isn’t in the database, they get a call from Britt.
Chapel Hill Tire works very hard to gather feedback and contact information from each and every
customer. It enjoys a high success rate of capturing email addresses by offering a free VIP newsletter with
coupons and important vehicle care information.
All of the feedback – whether by phone, through
post-visit surveys or off of Chapel Hill Tire’s website
(chapelhilltire.com) – is compiled and analyzed. While
trends are important, Marc says, even the slightest
hint of a problem is addressed quickly. One main outcome of all of this is to be “sticky” for all customers.
“We want them to continue to come to Chapel Hill
Tire and we want them to promote us to their friends
and families,” says Britt.
Constantly tracking customer service grades allows
the dealership to stay ahead of problems and see why,
when and how grades improved or fell. Scores are
shared with store managers and service advisors to
“reinforce the desired behavior and result,” Marc says.
Chapel Hill Tire utilizes the Net Promoter Scoring
(NPS) system to “measure our effectiveness at building customer loyalty.” Customers who specifically say
they would recommend Chapel Hill Tire to others are
considered as “promoters.” The metric weighs that
group against those deemed as “detractors.”
“A score of 50% is considered excellent,” Marc says.
“Our net promoter scores average 70% across our four
locations. The key is to ‘deserve’ recommendations –
to earn ‘promoters’ – instead of expecting recommendations as function of business.”
Scores and comments are posted at each store “so
that our employees can see how we are doing and to
let them share in the satisfaction that we are executing
well,” Marc says. “Service advisors receive regular positive feedback via the NPS system. Managers go out of
their way to praise advisors for jobs well done so that
we are positively reinforcing the right behaviors.”
“The NPS does a great job galvanizing everyone
into a culture of ‘Yes’ in meeting customer needs and
desires,” he says.
Constant Quality
Chapel Hill Tire also builds great value by standing
behind its products and services. The four stores offer
Michelin, Uniroyal, Capitol and Negotiator brand
tires, and customers receive free lifetime flat repairs,
rotations and balancing. Service parts are backed by a
two-year/24,000-mile warranty.
“Even if the parts manufacturer will no longer warranty the part, we will stand behind it,” he says. “It’s
our job to pick the best parts we can, not the customers’.”
Each store has its own Quality Control Committee,
led by the service manager and including a service advisor, senior tech and a general tech. Each week the
QCC team meets to review any rechecks from the
week before, and looks for ideas “to implement and
improve the quality of our products and services.”
Monthly, the QCC teams from all the stores gather to
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■ TOP SHOP:
share successes, challenges and the new initiatives they are
working on.
Weekly store manager meetings and monthly gatherings of managers and service advisors provide another
level of knowledge sharing and intelligence, and allow the
company to move quickly and efficiently to implement
change. For instance, a few years ago hybrid cars started
popping up all over the city, primarily Toyota Prius and
Honda Civic models. Not wanting to cede service work to
car dealers, Chapel Hill Tire started sending key techs to
hybrid service training programs and invested in necessary equipment.
“Last year we achieved the first hybrid service certification in the Triangle area from the Auto Career Development Center,” Marc says, “the most rigorous hybrid
training available. Eight of our technicians have achieved
certified status through ACDC.”
ASE certification also is a must,
and each location has at least one
ASE Master Certified Technician. All
service techs have at least three ASE
certifications, and take advantage of
after-hours training put on by Advance, O’Reilly’s, NAPA and Carquest.
Service advisors also get extensive training on Michelin and
Uniroyal products, and stay up to
date on the latest industry trends.
“We also work with CAI, a local
training and HR assistance company,
for service advisor and management
training,” Marc says. “And later this
year we will work with R.L. O’Connor with their online webinars for
service advisors.”
WINNER
complete reversal. “We wanted to
set ourselves up for sustainability,
and the tire side has too many
ups and downs,” he says.
The stores themselves carry
very little inventory, focusing
on key sizes based on customer demand and research.
With a market area that is
“too varied, with a lot of
unusual sizes,” the dealership relies on American Tire Distributors (85%) with twice-daily
deliveries, as well as the local TCI
warehouse (15%).
Besides the original West
Franklin St. store, Chapel Hill Tire
has one in Carrboro (the one they
owned, sold and bought back),
another in a converted grocery store that opened in 1999,
and its crown jewel, a purpose-built tire store that opened
this past December.
Until the last few years, the five service bays at the original store had only a roof and one wall, leaving the techs
exposed to the elements. Now the well-kept and clean
store has proper walls and bay doors. Just across the street
is a second building, an extension of the West Franklin St.
store that provides four more bays and much needed customer parking in a squeezed downtown area.
Down the road, the Carrboro store, built around 1905,
sits on an oddly shaped and hilly lot, making maneuvering a bit of a trick. But the 8-bay location is also an eye
(and sun) catcher, with a beautiful front-facing garden and
a roof full of solar panels.
The garden is a huge hit with customers and local residents, many of whom drop in to ask about it. Profession-
Solid Foundations
In the past, 80% of Chapel Hill
Tire’s revenue came off retail tire
sales. In more recent times, the Pons
family has shifted the emphasis to
vehicle service, making an almost
Rapid Response: 800-928-1184 ext. 43041
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The new Woodcroft store features a rooftop garden with 38 varieties of plants,
which provide both insulation and beauty all year round.
ally tended, the garden features
planters made of used steel car wheels
that have been cut and welded together, benches with legs of halved
wheels, and a privacy screen/trellis assembled from wheel bits that encourages plants to help block the view of an
air conditioner. The store also collects
rain, used to water the expansive garden.
The solar panels not only provide 15
kilowatts of juice for the store, they
allow Chapel Hill Tire to realize a modest $400 profit from selling excess electricity back to the local generator.
The Cole Park Plaza location, a rehabbed grocery store, is large by tire
store standards, but the strip mall location gives Chapel Hill Tire excellent exposure. It, too, has eight bays with
above ground lifts and the latest mounting, balancing, alignment and diagnostics equipment.
Opened this past December, the
Woodcroft store is one of the only tire
shops in North America with a garden
for a roof. The company’s only purpose-built store, it features eight spacious service bays and a living roof that
provides beauty and insulation, and
makes a clear statement about Chapel
Hill Tire’s green aspirations.
Designed and installed by local firm
Spring Brand Landscapes, the roof was
created to look good all year, even as
plants bloom and change color through
the seasons. The green roof system is
pretty much self-sufficient, Marc says,
Rapid Response: 800-928-1184 ext. 43042
42 October 2012 | TireReview
and the 38 unique plants add to the architecture of the building.
And it attracts the attention of passers-by and locals, who often stop in to
comment about the rooftop arrangement and ask questions about the
plants. Because the service advisors are
really good at cars but not at horticulture, Chapel Hill Tire created a handout
that talks about the roof garden and
lists each of the varieties on the roof.
The stores are open Monday-Friday
from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday
hours were ended a few years ago
to allow the company’s 45 employees time for their families
and communities. Free shuttle
service at each store comes from
a fleet of well-branded hybrid
minivans and friendly drivers that
will take customers to work or back
home while their vehicles are being
worked on.
Welcoming Environment
To walk into a Chapel Hill Tire
store, one wouldn’t think they were
in a tire shop. There are no displays
at all. No tires, no wheels. About the
only hint of tires is a glimpse of Bibendum on a wiper blade display.
Instead, the showrooms are wellbranded, and that label clearly says:
‘Chapel Hill Tire Car Care Center.’ Wall
posters talk about the dealership – either through framed historic
photos of Chapel Hill Tire or
modern outlines of the com-
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WINNER
‘Green’ Leader
The rooftop garden takes more than a little tending, so Chapel Hill Tire relies on
local help to keep the Woodcroft store green and growing – on top.
pany’s customer-first philosophy, service and maintenance offerings, warranties and guarantees.
If customers want to see the tires,
we’ll bring them out, says Britt. Otherwise, tire options are shown on-screen
at one of the multiple neat-as-a-pin
service advisor stations at each store.
Not having tire and wheel displays
makes life simpler, Marc says. Nothing
to dust and clean, no missing tire centers or center caps, no taking up valuable floor space from comfortable, cozy
open space. Each store has a pleasant,
but not over-done waiting area
with up-to-date magazines,
comfy chairs, a TV, free coffee
and free WiFi. The smaller showrooms give the stores a more intimate, friendly feel, while the
uncluttered front counters have
a high-tech professional look.
The company’s muted yellow and
44 October 2012 | TireReview
blue color scheme is somewhat derived
from its former life as a died-in-thewool Goodyear dealer. About seven
years ago, explains Marc, the dealership
decided to move away from Goodyear.
“We freelanced brands for a while,”
he says, pulling product from Pirelli,
Kumho, Continental and others. A few
years ago, they settled on Michelin and
Uniroyal as their primary brands.
“They fit our market and where we
wanted to be,” he says.
Chapel Hills Tire’s main auto service
competition is the local car dealers
(“They are doing better with tires, too,”
he reminds.) and a handful of independent service shops. On the tire side,
there are three Bridgestone Americas
stores, a Walmart, a handful of other independent dealers, a Merchant’s Tire &
Auto Center location, Midas and Precision Tune stores and seven Discount
Tire stores.
The hybrid-driving brothers are very
proud of the business’ green footprint
in Chapel Hill. The gardens, roof, rainwater collection and recycled wheels,
coupled with product offerings of environmentally-friendly oil changes using
100% re-refined motor oil and fuel-saving nitrogen tire inflation, helped
Chapel Hill Tire become the first Green
Plus-certified tire and auto repair business in the country. Green Plus is an education and certification non-profit
organization operating in 15 states that
provides a platform for small and midsized businesses seeking best practices
and certification on green and sustainable practices.
As TIRE REVIEW was in town gathering information for this story, Chapel
Hill Tire was named “For Profit Business Leader of the Year” in the TRIANGLE
BUSINESS JOURNAL’s 2012 Clean & Green
Awards, honoring local companies for
their leadership employing and demonstrating effective green strategies.
“We’re the first auto repair facility in
the Triangle area – maybe in the country – to make carbon offset donations
on behalf of customers,” Marc says. “To
date we’ve mitigated more than 800,000
pounds of carbon for our customers –
the equivalent of planting more than
60,000 trees!
“And we were the first independent
tire facility in the Triangle to voluntarily stop using lead wheel weights,
and the first hybrid-service certified independent repair shop
in the Triangle.”
That green strategy envelops everything: from dual
flush toilets, skylights and high efficiency fluorescent shop lighting to motion sensor lighting, hand dryers in
bathrooms and reused building materials, Chapel Hill Tire is a model of
green.
And the company proudly posts
its environmental scorecard on its
website.
Sense of Pride
As Chapel Hill natives, Britt and
Marc are very proud of their roots and
are active in the community. They share
duties with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro
Chamber of Commerce, The Foundation for a Sustainable Community,
Green Plus, the East Chapel Hill
Rotary, Garage Owners of
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■ TOP SHOP:
Marc Pons accepts the “Clean & Green Award,” on behalf of Chapel Hill Tire, from
TRIANGLE BUSINESS JOURNAL publisher Bryan Michael Hamilton.
North Carolina, and the Association for
Corporate Growth.
Over the past two years, Chapel Hill
Tire has donated some $100,000 to local
charities and non-profits, most focused
on children like the Michelin soccer ball
program, and local arts and youth
sports programs. The dealership also
partnered with the Cora Food Pantry to
help kick start the Porch Pick-up Program, a neighborhood program where
an email is sent out outlining needed
WINNER
food items and pick-up days.
All of those customer service, training, environmental, marketing and
community outreach efforts have
added up. Chapel Hill Tire was
named 2010 Citizen of the Year by
the Chapel Hill Carrboro Chamber of Commerce; earned 2011
and 2012 CHAPEL HILL NEWS Rose
Awards for Best Auto Repair Facility; 2011 and 2012 INDY magazine
readers choice awards for Best Auto
Mechanic; 2011 CHAPEL HILL magazine
readers choice award for Best Auto Repair; 2010 Green Plus Champion at the
North American Sustainable Enterprise
Awards; and, of course, being selected
as a 2007 finalist in TIRE REVIEW magazine’s Top Shop Award.
When asked why Chapel Hill Tire
didn’t enter when it became eligible
again in 2010, Marc says, “We knew we
weren’t ready. Being a Finalist in 2007
was great, but we knew to win we had
a lot of work to do.”
Those diligent efforts truly did pay
off. One customer at a time. ■
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