New counter guy, fumbles, struggles to find my part, he's new and only gets it figured out with some help.

Back 1 month later, he waits on me again and I think oh great I get the clueless guy, but no! Apparently he is a fast learner and gets what I need quickly.

Back in another month... same guy... He calls me by my full name and ask how I'm doing... even before I get all the way in the door! How? I never gave him my name but sure he could have read it from my account... A MONTH ago.

Friendly efficient service. I hope they are paying him enough to keep him.

So what's my deal?
I wish I could remember names like that! I do well to remember my own sometimes!

Do you happen to have a unique name?

Maybe you're his first customer.
When I worked sales at a car dealership, they told me you never forget the name of your first sale.

I was "the new guy" at a NAPA store back in the 70's.

Lasted 3 weeks,
The days of microfish feesh fiche .

Don't know how I got the job,
I was clueless .

Be nice if you were to share these observations / impressions with store management.

And speaking of amazing memory...

My Uncle was an Allis Chalmers, Papec, New Holland, and Khun equipment dealer.
It was amazing how many part numbers he had memorized along with their aisle and bin location number in the warehouse.

I can't count the times I have seen someone come in and set a part on the counter and instead of one of the counter guys having to look it up my uncle would rattle off the number and location. Out of hundreds of parts. Strange, he always never priced something from memory.

I do well to remember my phone number!

quote:

Originally posted by bald1:
Be nice if you were to share these observations / impressions with store management.

You know, I will try to do just that next time I go in if the manager is there!

They have been pretty good overall. Never question a return or warrantee claim.

Once I happened to mention I was doing a parts and labor both charity job for a disabled friend of my wife's family who couldn't afford a badly needed brake job on her car... without me even asking they volunteered to give me a 20% discount on the parts.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
And speaking of amazing memory...

My Uncle was an Allis Chalmers, Papec, New Holland, and Khun equipment dealer.
It was amazing how many part numbers he had memorized along with their aisle and bin location number in the warehouse.

I can't count the times I have seen someone come in and set a part on the counter and instead of one of the counter guys having to look it up my uncle would rattle off the number and location. Out of hundreds of parts. Strange, he always never priced something from memory.

I do well to remember my phone number!

My dad worked for Datsun/Nissan & still remembers part numbers.
He hates having to go into an auto parts store.

Short story:
We have a 1987 Suburban at our ranch, been down there on permanent ranch duty wince about 2005.
Converted to an external, frame mounted, fuel pump for ease of maintenance.
Went to the local small town auto parts store & told the counter guy he needed an external fuel pump.

Parts guy: What's it for
Dad: Doesn't mater, just need an external fuel pump
Parts Guy:
Dad: It's for an 87 Suburban. Parts guy starts to look that up, followed by my dad telling his that it's going to say the fuel pump is in the tank.
Parts Guy: Pump is in the tank

I think some 80s Dodge was the winner to get us the pump we needed.
Not a large parts store, so not a ton to remember what's back there.

If they can't find it in the computer, it doesn't exist.

Well from the GM side I’ll cut the newer parts guys some slack.

Back when I started in GM parts, 1970 we had what GM called groups that parts were classified in. Kind of a Dewey Decimal System for auto parts. For example, if you wanted a fuel pump for any GM vehicle you went to (paper) catalog Group 3.900. Well almost, GMC pre 1973 had their own grouping system that never made any sense to me but again I started on the Chevy-Buick-Olds-Pontiac-Cadillac side of things. We also used to group our parts by group sequence, that helped if you needed for example a plastic clip for a door handle rod that was maybe part of the rod. So you could go to that group in your parts bin to find something that would work and maybe save your customer a few bucks in the process, well that’s how we did it in the good old days.

Todays catalogs are all the electronic ones, or what are called EPC. Specific Make, model and year or plug in the VIN. Not the old days when you would pick up a catalog for a 76 Chevy and see all of most all the parts listed, they started creating car line specific paper catalogs, later microfiche and today EPC’s for individual sub models, separate catalog for Camaro, one for Trax, etc. Not as easy to figure out what might work for a particular problem, aka a two dollar clip instead of a fifty dollar handle, etc.

Us old guys still had figured out a few ways to get around the new systems but finding new people that had the mindset and a willingness to think outside of the box is getting harder all the time. Combine that with in many cases of todays management and the mantra of “Anybody can do that job with todays EPC’s”, well most of us know better. I had a manager who actually said that of course he didn’t practice what he preached so anytime he tried to get into a parts catalog he miserably failed, this despite him being in the business since sometime in the 70’s.

Also it helps for the counterman to have some idea of how things work. Case in point, customer came to the counter complaining of a wet carpet on the passenger side. Previously mentioned manager decided he was going to show off all his “knowledge” and telling the customer that he needed a evaporator drain hose, it had “probably” fallen off. After manager couldn’t find it in the catalog he came to me for help. I doubted that the hose had fallen off due to how they were generally oriented, of course he told me I was wrong and to order and sell the customer a hose.I thought “something else wrong here but not my circus.” I had an idea or two but I’m all done here.

Couple days goes by, customer picks up part. Day later customer brings new hose back for refund along with the original hose with a piece of the evap case drain nipple. Seems someone sometime in the past had worked on the HVAC system, broke the nipple off and glued it into place. Cracked case was one of my original ideas but I wasn’t going to tell Mr.Know it all that the way the hose was oriented and the “s” shape of it would make it pretty difficult to just fall off but…..

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:

I wish I could remember names like that! I do well to remember my own sometimes!

I couldn't remember your name, but I'd tell you "Oh, you drive the black 1972 Monte Carlo with the xyz... and you wanted this, this and this. " and remember what you were wearing.

I'm HORRIBLE with names.

That’s exactly the kind of experience I would take the time and effort to share with their management. I actually just did that with a technical support person for the wireless fans in my home. He spent 53 minutes on the phone with me trying to fix the problem, unsuccessfully. He then brought up that my fans were all still under warranty, which I had no idea, and got me all brand new units with updated technology. I sent his supervisor a lengthy email which I’m sure he appreciated.

My cousin retired from a Toyota parts dept .
25 years.

Names ,faces, cars, years
AND
Superseded parts numbers to boot.
Were his super human power.

Other cities would call him for help.

Stopped by a Ford dealer, "need a vacuum cannister and check valve for a E450 RV."

"We don't carry RV parts."

"It's for the Ford part of the RV for the AC."

"We don't carry RV parts."

My wife is a retired Manager . If somebody really stands out she will find their supervisor and let them know .

Had a call call me and ask if I had a battery for a Road King. Sure come on down, guy pulls up on a big Kawasaki Vulcan and asked if I could put it in, thought you needed one for a Road King?? Well the salesman said it was just like a Road King. Ugh!

Working in a Harley dealership on Sundays when the local Kawasaki/Yamaha is closed is always an adventure. I could count on at least one call for parts and about half of those wouldn’t take no for an answer. “Can you try to match it up?”is their usual retort.

There was a place down the road that sold imported no-name Chinese ATV’s, pocket motorcycles and some small displacement street bikes. That junk would either not start or break down and when the owner could not get satisfaction going to the seller guess where he ended up next. “No buddy, I don’t have parts for them, we won’t work on them and I don’t know what you’re going to do”.

Don’t miss that a bit….

Worked in Auto Parts during high school, started at the downtown store, learned a lot, took a while for the seasoned guys to let me get into the books, yeah, we still had the books.

Fun time mixing up gallons of paint for body shops, that stuff will mess up your brain quickly, this was pre mask days... Probably explains a lot..

Worked in the main parts warehouse that distributed to all the stores, that was fun, pulling parts off a list and boxing them up for orders to the stores.

We'd send the new guy down the KD tool aisle looking for left handed wrenches and Box Spreaders when the shipping box got full..

Good times, first time I dipped Skoal was in the warehouse, doing that in the summer in 90 degree heat inside a hot warehouse was not a great idea....

One of the lost arts of business especially in sales and even more so at retail is remembering a customer name.
Make the customer feel special - not just be there to "process" a sale.

Something that seems to be fading away.
When I am out and about in a retail or otherwise business setting it is something or someone that I notice, not that I am seeking it out but certainly appreciative for good business conduct.

I'm awful with names. I have a buddy that owned a gun shop years ago that seemed to remember the name of anybody that had ever walked into his shop. It truly is a gift.

I can remember phone numbers, part numbers, addresses. I really wish I had the skill of remembering names like some people though.