Fix Auto Owner Learned from His Father to Treat Everyone Like Family
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Fix Auto Owner Learned from His Father to Treat Everyone Like Family

June 20, 2022 // Franchising.com // CHARLOTTE - Peter Hong’s father, who is in his 80s, still stops by his two Fix Auto facilities in Southern California a few times a week, just to make sure his son is carrying on his legacy.

With Father’s Day here, Hong shared his learnings from his father and mother, and the approach he has developed to running a successful operation and delivering the highest-quality collision repairs with excellent customer service.

“I took over my first location in 2006 after my father had a bypass,” said Hong, owner of Fix Auto Downtown El Monte and Fix Auto Temple City, which he opened in 2020. “Given the circumstances, my mom had to step in to run the facility without any knowledge about the industry. Right after I graduated college, I stepped in to help out temporarily and I never left. This industry has done so much for us as a family and I wanted to continue what my family had built.”

Hong pointed to several key factors in his success, including:

  • Keep an open mind
  • Always work to change and learn
  • Set your goals annually but keep a quarterly focus and move with the targets
  • Treat your team members and customers like family
  • Do every job in the shop
  • Study and have knowledge on every job position in the shop

“One of the first things I did was to break down the numbers and understand all the factors involved in each metric,” noted Hong, who has a business and finance major. “From there, I spent time thinking outside the box on how we could improve our performance against each one. I process things differently, so I applied that thought process to this business and shook up the whole shop from top to bottom. We cleaned up the facility and deployed a kaizen approach to focus on continuous improvement. The team at Fix Auto was tremendous in helping me elevate the finances and update our processes.”

Hong also focused on his team members, many of whom are his friends from high school.

“I’ve really worked on retaining our staff, and some of them have been here for more than 20 years,” he said. “When I took over the shop, I evaluated who was good at what and moved folks around to fully leverage their skills. We added bonuses for productivity, offered raises with increased experience and sent our team members to training programs like I-CAR and Tesla. Another important factor in building rapport and retaining leadership to our team members is leading by example by being very hands on. I’m never going to ask someone to do something that I’m not willing to do.”

Original equipment manufacturer certifications have been a priority for Hong, and he has worked with his partners at Fix Auto as well as Akzo Nobel, his paint partner, to determine processes and standards and gather data for the right certifications to pursue for his market.

“I obsess over quality, process and procedure,” Hong said. “We want to match the certifications we earn with the vehicle mix in Southern California. We’ve already gotten our Honda, Subaru, and Tesla certifications, and we’re continuing our I-CAR training to support this. We want to be the best repair partner for our selected manufacturers.”

This laser focus has served Hong well, as he is seeing revenue as close to $1 million per month. In addition, his second location in Temple City is performing very well and exceeding revenue goals, but he is never too busy to give back to the community.

“We sponsor the kids’ teams for soccer and softball, we’re active in the Lions and we support clubs like Boys and Girls Clubs,” Hong added. “We’re proud to serve those in need at Thanksgiving and help the community year-round.”

Hong always carries with him the lessons he learned from his father of the importance of hard work, honesty, and treating people like family.

“I believe in karma,” Hong said. “If you are honest with people, believe in giving them an opportunity, recognize their talents, work hard, deliver quality and good customer service, then people will be good to you and support your business.”

SOURCE Fix Auto USA

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