Moore Tires has been in business for more than 30 years. The dealership’s owners, Jeff and Angie Moore, started with a two-bay store in Rock Falls, Ill., in 1991.
The company is now in five towns and has 144 employees. A sixth store is set to open in Dixon, Ill., next month.
Adding brick-and-mortar locations is one way for the dealership to grow. Another avenue is to become more proficient with auto service, including brake work.
With that in mind, in November 2021, Jeff hired Jason Friedrich to be the dealership’s director of corporate sales.
Friedrich is focused on developing the company’s processes, especially when it comes to auto service.
Right now, Moore Tires’ overall work is skewed about 80% in favor of tires and 20% toward automotive service.
He is working to grow the auto service number. “We are trying to get a higher mix,” notes Friedrich.
“Right now, we are focusing on inspections, instead of just getting the vehicle in and doing what (customers) are asking (us) to do.
“Sometimes we aren’t capturing everything that is on the vehicle,” he admits.
“But if they are coming in for tires, we are already going to have the tires off, so we are looking at the brakes” and other items.
“It is an easier sell to say, ‘Hey, we noticed this while we have your tires off.’”
It’s also important to give customers more financing options, says Friedrich.
“We just launched an enhancement to our credit card, so we are trying to get a customer base that can say yes more often,”
This, in turn, “will allow me to start wrapping (other) promotions into our tire promotions throughout the year,” he explains. “Now we are going to give them the ability with the card to get six months of no interest. It makes everything work together a little bit better.”
Before Moore Tires, Friedrich worked for 10 years in tire distribution and about four years at a Firestone Complete Auto Care store.
“I have been in that grind” of working directly with customers, says Friedrich.
“I know where Moore Tires is trying to get to. I know how to get there. I know what it looks like. Some companies take baby steps in their growth. We are basically wanting to get in the elevator and go to the boss’ office. That is how I look at our trajectory right now.”
Employee education is key to that, he notes. “Do we know what we are selling? Do we know what it does?”
Moore Tires uses a universal vehicle inspection sheet at all of its locations “to get a better path from the shop to the salesperson.
“If we don’t get all the information from the vehicle up to the salesperson, we can’t sell” a service, says Friedrich.
His technicians look at “brakes, struts, tie rods, ball joints — that kind of stuff.”
The goal is to have “more conversations with a customer. That way we can sell the inspection or we can say we noticed some things and we would like to look further.”
Friedrich says it’s important to balance positive and negative news. “If we are only having negative conversations — meaning we are trying to sell something or something is always wrong with a vehicle— that can be a deterrent.”
Teaching the process
Everybody in the shop needs to be on the same page, says Friedrich. “You could have an amazing plan put in place, but if your (techs) don’t accept the information as quickly as you give it to them” or intake information “in an environment that is too much for them,” it could cost time and money.
Moore Tires tries to keep things simple.
“That is why we put in the inspection form. We try to elevate the things that are important, so that it’s uniform across all of our stores. That way, if (techs) have seen one inspection form, they have seen all (of our) inspection forms.”
Finding employees has not been a major problem for the dealership.
Despite some turnover, “we have been fortunate,” says Friedrich.
“We are going to be staffed adequately enough as we open that (sixth) store that we are not going to take away any service from any of our other stores.And we have had some success bringing new people on on-board. Most of these people are from outside the industry, which we prefer.”
Moore Tires uses an in-house recruiter, Michelle Holcomb, who has been with the company for nearly a decade.
Over the years, her role has shifted to become even more focused on finding new talent.
“Her ability to get people in and get them set up for interviews and to have everything set up for our managers when they come into those locations for interviews has been really helpful.Our stores are rural.
“We don’t have a huge population to pull from. So we do a lot of training internally.”
Sourcing parts
Parts availability can have a big impact on brake service recommendations, says Friedrich.
Moore Tires is more than two hours away from Chicago, Ill. Due to this, the dealership works with limited options. But the company offers what it can to customers. “It isn’t like we are sitting in Chicago, where you can call 10 people and you have 10 different prices,” he says. “Right now, we are basically (selling) more of the economy line.”
