Front vs. back drama is killing more than morale—it’s chasing off your best techs and bleeding your bottom line. One of the first questions I ask shop owners during onboarding calls is simple: "Does the front of the house get along with the back of the house?" You'd be shocked how many pause before answering. Here's what dozens of technicians have told me over the years - they're SICK of the drama. The miscommunications. The blame games. The front counter promising impossible deadlines. The back shop feeling disrespected. Good techs - the ones you need - have options. And when they sense that toxic front/back divide during interviews or their first week? They're gone. Sometimes without even telling you why. The 2025 Ratchet+Wrench Industry Survey found 20% of shops reported $2,000+ in average opportunities per vehicle. But 22% don't even measure opportunities. You know what that really means? Your front and back aren't talking. Which means money's walking out the door AND quality techs won't walk in. Here are the proven drama-killers that actually work (backed by shops with 100% close ratios and $1,650-1,800 average repair orders): 1. Morning Team Huddles - But Done RIGHT Not just "what's on the schedule." American Pride Automotive runs daily meetings where EVERY job gets discussed - parts status, roadblocks, customer communication. Their average opportunity per vehicle in 2024? $2,100. 2. Digital Communication Channels - Legendary Auto uses Google Chats. Others use Slack. The point? Techs and advisors communicate WITHOUT the constant interruptions that create friction. "If it's not written, it didn't happen." 3. Cross-Training That Builds Empathy - Force your advisors to shadow techs. Make techs shadow advisors. As one training officer put it: "You can't support your teammates if you don't know what your teammates are doing." 4. Let Techs Own Their Workflow - Shops seeing the least drama, they let techs pick their own jobs (within reason). No designated dispatcher playing favorites. Respect = retention.

During a recent onboarding call, I was plowing through our usual 100+ questions with a shop owner when she mentioned something that stopped me in my tracks. "Oh, and we have Christmas and Vacation Clubs for our employees. We match their contributions dollar-for-dollar up to a threshold, then pay it out when they need it." I've heard hundreds of benefits over the years. But this one? This was different. Here's what hit me: This shop isn't just thinking about work hours and paychecks. They're thinking about their techs' kids opening presents on Christmas morning. About that family vacation to Disney. About life OUTSIDE the shop. That's when great techs and other top performers stop seeing you as "another shop" and start seeing you as a place they could retire from. Check out Indeed if you haven't done so recently. Most shops lead with the same tired benefits everyone else offers. But the shops that attract and KEEP top talent? They inventory EVERYTHING they do - especially the unique stuff that shows they give a hoot about their team members as humans, not just wrench-turners or employees. ACTION: Time for brutal honesty. Can you list 20+ unique things your shop offers? Not just health insurance and vacation days - the REAL stuff that makes you different? Here's your homework: - Interview your best tech about why they stay - Walk through a typical month and document EVERY way you support your team - Ask yourself: "What do we do that shows we care about our people's families?" Stop trying to compete on salary alone. Start communicating your COMPLETE value proposition. Btw... When we onboard new shops at Technician Find, those 100+ questions aren't just busy work. They're how we uncover the hidden gems that make techs choose YOU over the dealer down the street. Most shops are sitting on gold mines of unique culture and benefits - they just never learned how to mine them. Ready to discover what makes your shop special? Do the homework above.

On our "Wrench Way" (Our shops URL at the bottom as a link) account last months poll we posted, yielded some interesting incite. This site is a "potential employee" form that highlights the shop and its culture to people in our industry. It works very well when combined with the "Technician find" family. It is for augmenting Technician Find services. Chris team funnels leads to us then we let potential techs "look us over" before calling us. You probbly already know that any potential employee is researching you. Back the the question we asked the form. We post monthly poll questions and last month we asked "what is feeling valued mean to you at work" The options were: 1. To be acknowledged openly, at work for a job well done. (This received 21% of the vote) 2. Earned meals for goal reached as a team. (This received 0% of the vote) 3. Tool bonus when a team shop goal is achieved (This received 0% of the vote) 4. 1-3 (This received 79% of the vote). I ran this question and response through Gemini and the take away teaches us that feeling valued is not going to be one thing, but instead a "holistic approach" (Read the AI response below) AI, Gemini, This result provides a very clear, powerful, and actionable message about how your employees want to be valued. Here is a detailed breakdown of what the poll results likely mean: 1. The Overwhelming Majority Want "All of the Above" (79%) The most significant finding is the 79% vote for the option "1-3". - Interpretation: In a typical single-choice poll, this option was almost certainly intended to mean "All of the Above" (options 1, 2, and 3). The fact that nearly four out of five respondents chose it means your team believes that feeling valued is not one single thing, but a combination of different kinds of recognition and rewards. - The Message: Your employees value a holistic approach that includes: 2. Acknowledgment is Important, but Not Enough Alone (21%) The option "To be acknowledged openly, at work for a job well done" received 21% of the vote.

A common concern came up with the shop owners at the shop visits in Baltimore and Boston last week about why techs ask for training but when they line it up, nobody wants to go. So I asked my Automotive Technician AI Avatar Jason Perkins why techs always ask for training but don't do it when the shop sets everything up and even pays for it. Here's what 'he' said: Short answer? Most “no thanks” isn’t about the class—it’s about trust, timing, and ROI from the tech’s side of the bay. Here’s how it feels from my stool: Training that costs me money (or time with my family) is a hard pass. If it’s after hours, on a Saturday, or I’ll lose flag time to attend, I’m doing the math and it doesn’t pencil. Techs value work-life balance and steady income more than abstract “development.” Pay us to learn and don’t ding our hours. We’ve been burned by big promises. Lots of shops say “we invest in people,” then play favorites or never change workflow/tools. Invitations to training sound like more empty slogans if the daily reality doesn’t match. If there’s no clear payoff, it’s optional homework. Techs want to learn, but we want a visible ladder: cert ⇒ new type of work ⇒ higher rate/bonus. Otherwise it’s just another night in a classroom. We respond when growth and pay are transparent. Relevance matters. Slide decks from vendors that don’t solve what’s in our bays (diag/ADAS/hybrid), or that we can’t apply with the tools we actually have, feel like a waste. Techs are looking for variety + diagnostics and modern gear—show that alignment and we’re in. Psychological safety is a thing. In shops with micromanagement or drama, nobody wants to “raise a hand” and look behind the curve in front of the crew. Fix the culture first; training uptake follows. We’re tired. Labor is tight; bays are slammed; overtime stacks up. Even good classes get skipped when everyone’s buried. (The shortage and wage pressure are real, which keeps the schedule packed.) If you want techs to actually show up, make training irresistible and friction-free:

I know how techs feel. Not because I'm empathetic. Not because I've read studies. Not because they've told me (but they have, repeatedly). I know because I've been processed through the same machine that's crushing them. A couple of years ago, I extracted myself from a multi-location corporate MSO contract. They had dozens of stores and four layers of centralized management we had to deal with. Seven-day approval cycles for a simple Facebook ad. Every decision gutted and reconstructed by someone who hadn't touched a wrench or written copy in a decade. By week three, me and my team were just another vendor number. My expertise – built over years of filling bays with great techs – meant nothing. Data meant nothing. Results meant nothing. The only thing that mattered was not disturbing the bureaucracy. One Tuesday, after the fourth strategy pivot in two weeks, I sat in my car and had a revelation that changed everything: This suffocating, soul-crushing experience wasn't just frustrating me. It was giving me insider intelligence your competitors will never have. **I now know EXACTLY how your techs feel in dealers and corporate chains.** Not theoretically. Viscerally. That senior tech with 20 years' experience whose workflow suggestion disappears into the regional management void? I've been him. That young tech who spots an upsell opportunity but can't get anyone with decision authority to listen? I've been him. That A-player who's slowly dying inside because their expertise has been reduced to an employee ID number? I've been him. Here's what that corporate MSO taught me that changes everything for you: **Large organizations aren't accidentally soul-crushing. They're STRUCTURALLY soul-crushing.** When I finally told that MSO what wasn't working, you know what they said? "That's just how large organizations work. It's the price of scale." They were right. And they handed you a weapon they can never defend against. You see, as an independent shop owner, you possess something chains can never replicate, no matter how much they pay: