ACtion Magazine - January/February 2013 - (Page 10)

Expansion Valve F Jim Taylor It’s all in the details Web Operations manager for ASA, the Automotive Service Association. You should learn a lot from her—she is detail familiar with website design, on-line advertising, e-publishing, social media and Internet marketing. You’ll want to hit a “+1” button every time you read her column—she’ll tell you what that means later, too. As we were assembling this issue, I noticed a subtle theme emerging from many of the articles: attention to detail. It’s apparent in our “If I ever build a shop” feature; each shop owner we talked to noted the need to plan and execute everything in excruciating detail. As their stories reveal, if you’re not paying attention to everything from drainage to doorknobs, work bays to waiting rooms, and permits to petroleum hoses you will not get the shop you want. What you don’t think about will come back to bite you. Every single time. Schrader International’s timely and informative article reinforces the theme, and introduces the new valves and materials that will be used in R- 1234yf systems. They note that something as simple as the core of a service valve can cause a lot of heartache in your shop if the incorrect one is installed. (Given the anticipated cost of the new refrigerant, you really don’t want to “eat” too many recharges.) Again, paying attention to the details will save time and money. Interestingly, this is also reflected in the recent MACS survey detailed in Elvis’s “Last Watch” column. Shops that reported increased business in 2012 credited attention to items within their control, “including advertising, better marketing and changes in the shop designed to promote efficiency.” They noticed details and acted to alter them. Is it time to sit down with your staff and review some details that might need changing or improving? The details of what’s going on in Europe continue to emerge and for us on this side it’s a fascinating story. Although the new refrigerant is just barely introduced here, many U.S. equipment suppliers have spent years and dollars investing in developing and certifying all the necessary tools and gear to handle the gas. If other carmakers choose to follow Daimler and renounce R-1234yf—a possibility but one viewed as unlikely by many observers—the service tool and machine manufacturers could be left with sunk costs and unsalable merchandise. We may know more by the time our Training Event kicks off in February. As an aside, here’s a big tip o’ the MACS hat to our industry for its reaction to the storm named Sandy. At the end of October, the thousand mile-wide storm spread havoc from the Outer Banks of the Carolinas through upper New England. Months later, the cleanup and rebuilding continues and some have neither home nor business to return to. OEMs quickly contributed millions directly to the Red Cross, GM and others donated vans and SUVs to the rescue and evacuation efforts, and Fisker opened its huge manufacturing facility in Delaware for use as a staging area for electric repair crews and rescue teams. In the local areas shop owners have pitched in to help each other by sharing equipment or donating use of an empty bay. Regional suppliers, distributors and vendors have led or participated in fundraising, food drives and community assistance programs. A big “well done” to everybody; none of us is as strong as all of us. ❆ You can reach Jim at jt@macsw.org irst, please welcome our new contributor Angie Kilbourne who will be providing our “Virtual View” column and teaching all of us how to make the most from the brave new world of social media. She knows her way through this thicket the way you know your scan tool—inside out and backwards. She holds both AAM (management) and AMI (instructor) certification from the Automotive Management Institute and is the senior partner and co-founder of ManicMedia LLC. Angie is an accomplished writer with career credits that include being managing editor of MotorAge and Hot Auto Products magazines, plus a stint as 10 Reader Reply No.16 ACTION • January / February 2013 http://www.justthebestmarketing.com/action http://www.macsw.org/MACS/Publications/ACtion_Reader_Reply/MACS/Publications/ACTION/ACtion_Reader_Reply.aspx?hkey=ac24bddb-c045-442a-813c-cbf05f88ac4d

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ACtion Magazine - January/February 2013

ACtion Magazine - January/February 2013
Table of Contents
Outlook
In Bin
Expansion Valve
Technically RELAY-ted
Under The Southern Cross
Leonard’s Law
MACS Letter to Europe
News & Updates
“if I Ever Build a Shop…”
Valves: Oils, Refrigerants – What to Use?
2012 Pioneer Award Honorees
Virtual View
Association News
New Products & Services
Last Watch

ACtion Magazine - January/February 2013