Recently I got my normal early morning start…up early, some computer work, wrote a couple of articles, and headed to the gym. After the gym, I had a couple of errands to run but felt a little hungry after lifting all those heavy weights.

Because I’m conscious of eating healthy, I decide to zip through Taco Bell and grab something with some nourishing protein in it.

I pull up to the menu board and can’t find any of their breakfast food on the menu. About that time a little voice says, “Welcome to Taco Bell, order when ready.”

I’m still trying to find breakfast on the menu. Finally, I speak back into the little box and say, “Hey, I can’t find the breakfast menu.” Crickets.

I’m thinking, ok they must be busy, so I’ll just pull around to the window and order. I pull up to the window and the worker opened the window. I say, “Hey, what’s for breakfast?” She says, “We’re not open.”

I say, “What time do you open?” She says, “8:00.” Oh, ok…I pull up to the exit driveway and look at the clock on my phone. It’s 7:59.

I wonder, would she have been fired if she had said, we don’t open until 8, but it’s only one minute early so I’ll take your order. Or, I guess she could have said, drive around the building and you will be on time.

This reminds me of when I was a new car dealer. Back in those days, we opened the service department at 7:30 am. There would be customers lined up outside the service doors waiting for the doors to open. The service writers would be inside standing at their podium getting ready for the day and staring back at the customers.

“It’s 7:25, hey we’ve got customers, let’s open the door and get them on their way,” said no one ever.

Of course, you can imagine when Tommy hit the building, he’s screaming, “Open the door and take care of our customers.”

Now, what do you think the pushback was when I chatted with the service director later in the day about this hot topic?

“Boss, if we do that, we are training the customers to show up earlier and earlier.”

OMG, what a horrible thing that we train the customers that they can count on us to exceed their expectations and get them on their way lickety-split.

Does one-minute matter?

Maybe not to you and the Taco Bell bunch, but it matters to me and your customers. That’s all I’m gonna say. Tommy Gibbs.

I want to speak to those of you that are in charge of the hiring and struggle to find that superstar used car manager. The used car manager you need may very well be right under your own roof, and you’re walking right by him or her a dozen times a day. For whatever misconceived reason, when you need a used car manager, the first thing you want to do is find a used car guru that works someplace else and lure them away. I don’t have to tell you the challenges of hiring from the outside. I don’t have to, but I will. 1. The person you hire isn’t going to have the same culture that you’ve been working so hard to develop. 2. Their thinking about the used car business isn’t going to necessarily align with yours. That doesn’t mean either of you has it right or wrong. It just means it’s going to be frustrating and more than likely expensive. 3. If you’re running an ad in Automotive News, most of the respondents are going to be from outside your area. I’m not even going to attempt to list all the issues tied to bringing someone in from afar. If you don’t understand those issues then you’ve got a lot more problems than I can help you with. 4. When you hire from the outside you are looking for a miracle worker to fix the mess left from the last miracle worker. Most likely the mess will get bigger. All you’re doing is rinse and repeat. 5. You’re doing nothing to encourage people to want to grow and develop within your organization when you keep going to the outside. You need to promote from within. The real answer is that you don’t need someone from the outside with a bunch of experience. What you need is to commit to giving someone from within a chance and a whole bunch of your personal time and energy. What you need is: 1. Someone that’s a young “thinker.” 2. Someone that has high energy. 3. Someone that believes in your culture and store. 4. Someone that’s coachable. 5. Someone that has common sense. 6. Someone that understands technology. 7. Someone that has integrity. 8. Someone that has a strong work ethic. 9. Someone that has good communication skills. 10. Someone that’s hungry. If you don’t have someone or multiple someones like this in your organization then you need to rethink your organization. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs