We’ll Fix Anything: How Kleyn Mobile Repair Grew…and Grew…and Grew

Hey there, Fullbay friends and family! We’re back with another Shop Owner Roundtable recap. In this episode, Fullbay’s Chief Customer Officer John Whittet and Peter Cooper of Ascend Consulting sat down with Joe Kleyn, owner of Kleyn Mobile Repair, LLC in Jenison, Michigan, and Josh Miller, his general manager. 

The quartet hit on some interesting topics, starting with Joe’s background (he’s from Tasmania!) and how Kleyn Mobile Repair grew from fixing cars in his barn into a three-location operation that services just about everything, including fire trucks. They also covered some of the technology Joe has implemented in the shop and how they’ve retained staff as they grew. 

Personally, we think you should watch the entire episode, but if you’ve only got a few minutes and want to know what we found coolest, keep reading.

THE KLEYN ORIGIN STORY

Joe’s story begins in Tasmania, where he was one of 13 children growing up on a dairy farm. He apprenticed with Caterpillar in Australia, mostly working on mining equipment. 

In 2001, his parents immigrated to the United States, and Joe went with them. He spent several years as a mobile mechanic for another company, and recalled being quite happy there — until he broke his ankle. “I was off work for six weeks … and decided I’d always had a dream to start my own place, and the timing just worked while I was off.” 

He set up an LLC, bought a truck, and started repairing vehicles in a barn on his property. He outgrew the barn within a couple of years, and went on to rent a proper shop. The operation kept growing, so he built a shop. And so the growth continued, with Josh eventually joining the business as a tech, then being promoted to service advisor, and finally to general manager.

“Joe wore too many hats,” Josh said. “We were seeing some issues because we grew so big — we didn’t have a lot of structure in place.” He’d run the auto division quite smoothly for about 10 years, and Joe knew he needed help in the truck division.

“It was going to be temporary at first,” Joe laughed. “And then I was like, ‘No.’” 

Josh became the GM. 

Now, not every shop is going to need a GM, but understanding the thought that went into the role may help other shop owners explore their own options if and when the time comes. The catalyst for the role, Joe said, was “not being able to keep up with what was going on.”

He was completely tied to the shop. Decisions did not get made without him. Worst of all, “If I want to take a vacation, I need someone there who could make those decisions, depending on which shop it was.” 

GETTING INTO THE FIRE BUSINESS

We can all agree that fire trucks are really, really cool, and that working on them must be even cooler.

How the Kleyn crew got into the business of maintaining and repairing fire apparatuses and trucks for the local departments is simple: Josh’s brother and his lead road tech were volunteer firefighters and began nudging Joe towards the fire business. It helped that he also knew some folks in the local department who were also asking if he’d be willing to take on fire vehicles. 

It took a couple years for him to bite the bullet, as the equipment required for fire apparatus work is a significant investment. After he had it, though, a number of doors opened. “Once I got the pump test trailer, we actually went after other departments and grew that,” he said. 

He admitted that while he weighed the pros and cons of such an investment — again, that equipment isn’t cheap — he eventually jumped in based on gut feeling. 

“It seemed like a good idea,” he added. “I kind of took a leap of faith on it.” 

“WE’LL FIX ANYTHING” 

So…how do you go from fixing cars in your garage to running a three-location operation with almost 40 employees?

The answer, Joe told us, is simple: “We’ll fix anything.”

If your people have the skill set for it, then absolutely go after the stuff no one else will touch. “If it was anything mechanical, we would do maintenance and repair on it,” he said. This included working on pallet lines, forklifts, and more.

Lots of shop owners want to go after the big fish. Hey, we get it: big fleets can bring big money and a sense of prestige. But big fleets aren’t the only path to growth. Sometimes working on boats and lawnmowers can do the trick.

(Yes, they’ve worked on lawnmowers. Not often, but they take the “fix anything” motto very seriously.) 

SOFTWARE & CUSTOMER EDUCATION

Somewhere along the line, Kleyn Mobile Repair began investing in Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) software and tools. This was an expensive undertaking, but it’s proven fruitful: shops in the area will often send customers to Kleyn for diag work, programming, and even alignment. 

Sometimes these one-off customers end up sticking around as regular customers. 

But in the words of Spider-Man’s uncle, Ben Parker, “With technological advancements comes software changes.”

Okay, that’s not what he said. But he might have said it, if he were a diesel technician trying to explain to customers that yes, we have to use software for something, and yes, there’s a fee for that.

The long and short of it is, a lot of customers don’t appreciate how complicated it is to fix a modern truck.

“Everybody thinks they can do it themselves and figure out the problem within five seconds,” Josh said. Except on this more modern equipment, you often need software to make an accurate diagnosis, or at least confirm suspicions. This software is often expensive. 

You can see where we’re going with this: customers end up getting charged for use of the software, and they often do not like it. 

Ditching the software probably isn’t the answer (sorry). Shops can get ahead of the questions and complaints by educating truck owners (or fleet managers, or whoever’s footing the bill) on exactly what they’re doing. Explain everything to the customer and make sure it’s all documented. “We put it on paper so they can see it,” Josh said. “We had to run all these tests.” 

TECH RETENTION TACTICS

Hiring techs is only the first step — keeping them is often a much more complicated process. Kleyn Mobile Repair has split its crew into two different teams, and every tech has every other Friday off. The entire shop then takes Saturday off.

“The guys love it,” Joe said. “They get every other Friday off with their family — and we’re still open!”

Joe and Josh also described some of the more familiar retention tactics: taking the crew out to dinner, cooking for them, going boating. He’s also taken them go-karting.

(NO WONDER THEY WERE THE GO-KART CHAMPIONS AT DIESEL CONNECT!) 

They’ve also worked out a way to bring their people to big events like AAPEX, SEMA, and yes, Diesel Connect. 

Whoa, Fullbay, you’re probably saying, that’s expensive…how did they do it?

In the words of many an internet junkie, “They did the math.”

“I said to the guys, ‘If we hit this profit margin, I’ll take you,’” Joe told us. 

That was it. 

They hit the profit margin. Joe realized he couldn’t shut down the entire shop for a week, so he brought half the team one year and the other half the following year.

So, shop owners, if you want to bring your team somewhere nice (like Diesel Connect — we still have tickets available!), figure out how much it will cost to bring them and have them out of the shop for a bit. Turn those numbers into benchmarks they can work towards.

Where would you take your crew? 

WHY NOT WATCH THE WEBINAR?

We are, as usual, just scratching the surface of what the quartet covered. They also got into: 

• How they manage a remote workforce (the road techs).
• How they find OEM and other training for techs — and how they reward them for getting trained.
• How they set goals for technicians to meet.
• How many hats Joe is actually wearing. 

So go ahead! Behold the webinar! It’s free, it’s inspirational, and it’s great fun. What more can you ask for?

Editor’s Note: Dude, they could ask for a lot. Don’t even give them the opportunity.

Okay! It’s free, it’s inspirational, and it’s great fun. You can’t ask for anything more! (Except maybe you want to demo Fullbay. You know, just to see what it can do for you. It’s also free and fun!)