Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeffrey Klima.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Where I am today can all be traced back to my mother and the fact she never put herself ahead of her children. We started out fairly well off but through a number of bad decisions by my father, we ended up being one of the poorest in our hometown of Lancaster, Ohio. Parents divorced and I supported myself starting at around 11 and started also supporting my mother, brother and sister around the age of 16. At 21 I relocated to Cincinnati to be head of operations for a Donato’s Pizza franchise (no college yet). The franchise was struggling to make money and I was on the shortlist of individuals who could help them turn it around. Six months after I started they were back on track and I was in the planning stages of opening the next store for them.
In October 1994, Eight months after I moved, I had saved barely enough to buy a home and move my mother, brother and sister to Cincinnati to share the home as our family home. For the next 10 years any money earned by any of us went into one bank account and nobody went to a concert, bought clothes etc. without the group agreeing we could afford it. This is how we dug ourselves out of poverty.
In 2000 I graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a BA in Economics with High Honors, my brother was still working on his advanced degree (he ended up achieving his dream of becoming a PhD Chemist) and my sister graduated about 6 months later with her BA in Economics. I worked a number of jobs in various capacities with my primarily focus, and skill set, on processes, procedures, automation and efficiency. I was always laser focused on the next promotion because my mother’s health was very poor and the only solution was more money.
I spent the next 12 years working in finance, operations, logistics, IT, contract administration, supply chain, aviation and fleet management. The underlying theme, again, was always processes, procedures and systems. I’ve served as Head of Operations (Donato’s franchise), Operations Manager (DHL), Sr. Contract Analyst (DHL), Finance Manager (DHL), Materials Manager (Allegiant Airlines), Purchasing Manager (Allegiant Airlines), Director of Fleet Management, Operations Research and Charter Brokerage (Flexjet). I always had the entrepreneurial bug but never felt I could pursue it because I couldn’t afford to put my family’s welfare at risk. It wasn’t until the strain and stress of our predicament tore the family apart that I decided I had had enough of working for others and wanted to own my own business.
In 2013 Flexjet and I both decided that after one year we weren’t a good fit for one another and parted ways. It was at that point I decided I was going to make my move and began searching for a business to purchase. I narrowed my search down to auto repair and restaurants but focused more on auto repair because restaurants are much riskier. I came across an Eagle Transmission for sale in NW Dallas and met with the broker to discuss it. About an hour into the conversation the broker told me they also had a location in Houston for sale. He informed me the location had been closed for about 7 months because the franchise had 2-3 bad owners and decided to shut it down until they could find someone they wanted to work with. The broker felt I might be that person so I agreed to a meeting with the franchise president and a month later I was moving to Houston.
I re-opened Eagle Transmission Friendswood in December 2013 and haven’t looked back. We achieved $560K in sales in 2014, $760K in 2015 and $906K in 2016. We’ve turned the reputation of this location around and are now known as a very trustworthy and ethical business.
Eagle Transmission Friendswood prides itself on being different. We put people first and foremost at all times. We don’t follow the industry standards on a lot of things especially the practice of selling RDI’s (Remove, Disassemble and Inspect). RDI’s are used by the industry to trap customers. An RDI normally runs about $500-$900 and involves dismantling the vehicle. So, if the customer doesn’t like the final price, they owe several hundred dollars and get their car back in pieces.
Eagle Transmission diagnoses vehicles at no charge and if it is a transmission issue we provide our customers with a price range upfront that we never exceed. That way they haven’t spent a penny before knowing what it will actually cost. Sure, we lose more customers that way because they decide they don’t want to fix it and aren’t on the hook for anything but we believe that’s the only honest, ethical way to do it. We won’t be the biggest the fastest but we will be around long term.
In the middle of all the years outlined above I did also manage to go back and get my MBA in Change Management with a minor in Finance. Unfortunately though, all of the efforts weren’t enough to catch up with my mother’s failing health. We ended up losing her on June 28, 2014…3 weeks to the day before my wedding.
Has it been a smooth road?
Owning my own business has been a fairly large struggle. The transmission industry has one of the worst reputations out there and it is very difficult to change. Nearly all of the managers and technicians who are qualified and experienced have a lot of bad habits that are nearly impossible to break. Finding good honest, ethical people who care first about doing what is right has been extremely difficult. And, this business is highly technical and there aren’t very many new people going into it so that makes it even more challenging.
I have spent a lot of time weeding out the bad apples and have finally found a crew I can truly and fully trust not to sell customers things they don’t need. I still have some work to do in the areas of VIP service and attention to the details but we’re getting there.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Eagle Transmission Friendswood story. Tell us more about the business.
Eagle Transmission Friendswood specializes in the repair of automatic and manual transmissions, clutches, transfer cases and differentials. As a franchise owner I am able to choose to do general auto repair as well but have elected not to because the things we specialize in are too technical and we want to be the best. We do all of our repairs in house.
We are developing a strong reputation for being ethical and trustworthy and we’re very proud of that, especially given the industry we’re in!
I am most proud of the fact that we’ve been able to push back so hard against the industry and slowly change things by focusing on how we want to do business. It isn’t always easy to tell a customer they don’t have a transmission problem when you have $50,000/month in bills and there are no jobs in sight at the time.
We take great pride in the fact that we turn away over 30% of the customers who come to us thinking they have a major transmission issue. We actually feel bad when a customer does end up having a transmission problem and it’s an odd feeling to deal with given we’re also in business to make money.
We strive to deliver VIP customer service by offering 1.) A clean environment 2.) Free rides with nearly unlimited mileage 3.) Cold bottles of water while you’re being checked in 4.) Pulling repaired cars up front with AC or heat on and driver’s side door facing the building for customer convenience 5.) Always treating customers like family and with the utmost respect.
We use a texting system to keep our customers informed of the status of their vehicle at all times.
We actually tell customers if they have an extended warranty or a recall on their car. For example, we’ve sent a dozen or more Nissan owners to Nissan to get a FREE transmission because their cars have a CVT transmission and Nissan doubled the warranty to 10 years 120,000 miles due to the problems. This means we make $0 but the feeling of helping someone to that extent feels great!
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
There is a slowly growing trend toward changing the entire part instead of repairing or rebuilding it. Now keep in mind that all transmissions, except the one in a brand new car, are rebuilt so there’s no such thing as new. But, the trend is to just take yours out and put another one back in.
The problem with this trend is that it replaces more than what is needed. It would be very similar to replacing your engine because the water pump went out. For example, we had a 2006 BMW 760Li come to our shop from a local BMW dealer. The woman who owned it wanted us to take a look and had it towed to us. BMW had quoted her $8500 to replace the whole unit. We ended up fixing just the minor problem with it for $630 (and that included $220 in special BMW transmission fluid).
People don’t realize that dealers and auto repair shops don’t repair transmissions and don’t even know that much about them. So, customers often get sold a lot more than they need.
As the area developer for Eagle Transmission in the Houston market, I hope to start changing the trends by reaching more people through more locations. People need somewhere they can trust to be honest with them even if it’s not in the businesses best interest and I think we can accomplish that.
Contact Info:
- Address: 4542 FM 2351 Rd Friendswood, Texas 77546
- Website: http://southhoustontransmissionshop.com/
- Phone: 281-992-6699
- Email: JKlima@eagletransmission.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Eagle-Transmission-Houston-345830545493063/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/eagle-transmission-houston-friendswood
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