“If I had to pick a key defining moment, I think it would be bringing our parts and service departments together. There used to be a wall between the two. It was like two separate unions and they were fighting separate battles. I brought them together to and now everybody is fighting for the same thing — the extra sale and customer satisfaction — compared to when it was the shop guys vs. the parts guys.

“The biggest thing in uniting the departments was putting together an incentive plan that grouped them all together. So, the shop guys had to sell parts and the parts guys had to sell service.

“No one fought it, but at first they all thought it’s just the flavor of the month. You’re just trying something different; you probably went to a class and came back with some wild idea that will last a week. But, we stuck it out and we still have a combined incentive program. They all know what we’re striving for.

“I had a lot of meetings with them to explain why we were doing it. Then each month when there’s either a reward or no reward, we have a meeting and I explain why there is or isn’t so they know.

“I’d ultimately like to do the same thing with each of our stores — get them all working for the same things, just like departments working together. The different stores are competing against each other it seems. They know why we’re doing it, but it’s always an us against them kind of thing. That’s a goal of mine.”