Magazine for the professional tire industry
Issue link: https://mtd.epubxp.com/i/762675
MTD December 2016 O n a busy street in Elkhart, Ind., sits a neat and tidy tire and automotive ser- vice shop known as Carter Tire Sales & Service. e waiting room is an aractive mix of comfortable chairs, fresh popcorn and hot coffee. Inspirational sayings decorate the walls. It wasn't always this way. Pai Piscione is the owner of the business, which she purchased from her parents. Her father worked for Montgomery Ward as a tire buster and when it closed, he started his own tire business. His focus was the commercial side and his customers loved the personalized service he offered. Traffic was good and his business was successful. At that time Piscione was already out of school and launching a successful corporate career at a staffing company. While it was never her aspiration to own the shop, when her father decided to retire, she wanted to keep his legacy going so she purchased the business. And, it was never her intention to actually run the shop. However, aer five years of absentee ownership, without her father's personal touch, she could see her investment dwindling. So she opted out of her corporate career and became immersed in the business as a shop owner. Piscione immediately saw opportunity in expanding the retail side of the business and capitalizing on her father's good will and strong name in the market. First impressions She recalls when she first walked into the business. "We had just one building, the waiting area and service counter was one big room, filled to the brim with racks of tires. "e front of the dealership featured two steel garage doors which were not very aractive or efficient. e customer waiting area did have a water cooler — with a dead moth floating on top. A rack with dirty uniforms was in the corner and a couch was available for customer comfort... when our guys were not sleeping on it during lunch time. Coffee behind the service desk was stale and it was a generally messy area. Finally, an ash tray on the table in the waiting room was overflowing. "I was disheartened, to say the least." Continuing, Piscione says, "e amazing thing was that we had a Mercedes SUV in the lot waiting for service. So evidently, the condition of the shop didn't offend high-end customers. I saw hope in that." One step at a time Once Piscione was acclimated to the tire business flow, she began to make improvements. e overhead steel doors were the first to go. en, she renovated the waiting room into the comfortable environment one sees today. ey had a significant commercial business, but geing trucks in and out of the parking lot and bay areas was difficult. So she purchased a laundromat next door to consolidate all of the commercial business into that building. at move also helped with traffic flow for the big trucks. With the physical layout of the business improved, Piscione still had to learn about tires and how to run a tire shop. "ere was definitely something missing," she recalls. "I knew I needed to find a source for information. And then I heard about the 20 Group from Joe Feller of Heinold & Feller in Valparaiso, Ind. He encouraged me to aend a meeting." ree years ago Piscione visited a Dealer Strategic Plan- ning (DSP) 20 Group meeting hosted by Chris Tolleson of 49 Tire in Richland, Miss., and discovered that everything she didn't know about the tire business could be learned by linking up with a peer group of experienced dealers. Piscione's reaction was prey common. "I was blown away by the expertise in the room. And, even though the members of this group had much more experience in the business, they still had questions to discuss with each other. Selling tires and service is a constantly evolving business. It is so helpful to have a cadre of knowledgeable friends to help me with everyday challenges." Early on, Piscione learned that slim margins on tires were a constant battle for tire dealers and her group immediately recommended that she start expanding the service side of her business. e group helped her identify the correct equipment to offer alignments, brakes, shocks, Business insight Keeping the faith at Carter Tire Weathering the economic storm with peer advice and prayer By Pat Brown Dealership owner Patti Piscione credits her dedicated crew with being responsible for a large part of the suc- cess of Carter Tire Sales & Service in Elkhart, Ind. 54