Tony Cristello knows there are ways for retailers, WDs, jobbers and the rest of the aftermarket to restake their claim to the industry, and pull it away from the OE dealers.

Video Transcription

I think the biggest challenge is the OE dealers, they continue to get more and more aggressive on repairing cars and leadings with service and telematics and finding ways to get the consumer back into their facility for repair. When you think about that if I am a retailer from a distributor, who ever I am if my model is not conducive to that it is going to put me out of competitive disadvantage. I am going to lose business. I think if they are losing money on every car they sell if you are GMC or Ford or Chrysler and you need to find a way to offset that service margins are better, what you are going to do a better job and the more I can get that customer to repeat. The more the on board computer tells me it is time for my oil, it is time for breaks, it is time to check your steering. I need to go back to the dealer. What the after market needs to do is to find a way to have the specs, the right to repair, act very important for the professional install in the after market. The opportunity to continue to educate and have good diagnostics and good repairs and build that element of trust, the more successful it will be. Learn about the foreign vehicle because it is going to be a big opportunity. I think the big opportunity certainly is to build on the momentum that the after market has right now. Do not make any missteps, continue to strive to out perform, continue to have a very good competitive product that allows the consumer to make alternative choices to the OE’s because at the end of the day, if you can provide a good level of service. And provide the customer with a feeling that they got a good value they are going to become a repeat customer and you will keep that customer until you make a mistake. I think education and I think that making sure that you are aware of what the customer wants and listen is very important. I think there is a very big opportunity to continue to build upon the customer service levels and continue to game share.