Episode 172: People Over Price With Tim Winkeler

The PR Maven Podcast

In this episode, Nancy talks with Tim Winkeler, president and CEO of VIP Tires & Service about PR, marketing and sponsorships. Tim describes his career and how VIP Tires & Service has grown since he started working there in 2010, with a focus on people rather than price. Nancy and Tim also discuss how they met after Nancy left a bad review about her experience at VIP. Nancy and Tim also talk about sponsorships and how VIP sponsors events their employees are involved in.

00:00 Introduction to the PR Maven Podcast

01:32 Introducing Guest: Tim Winkeler

03:07 Tim Winkeler’s Career in the Auto Parts Industry

05:07 About VIP Tires & Service

06:40 How Nancy and Tim Met

13:11 VIP’s Management Process

15:34 VIP Tires & Service’s PR Strategy

18:52 Investing in People

26:39 VIP’s Sponsorship of The Trek Across Maine in 2022

29:17 Sponsorships in VIP’s Marketing Plan

33:06 Helpful Resources

Links

Competitive Edge - https://competitiveedge.tv/premiere-episode/

Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) Certification - https://www.ase.com/

“Extreme Ownership” by Jocko Willink - https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs/dp/1250067057

Origin USA - https://originmaine.com/

Related Episodes

Episode 259: How To Attract and Retain Employees in Today’s Labor Market

Episode 213: 2022 Golden Microphone Award Celebration With Tim Winkeler

Episode 217: Changing Customer Perceptions in the Automotive Repair Industry With PR and Marketing, Featuring Lynn Campbell, Director of Marketing, Advertising and CRM at VIP Tires & Service

Episode 61: Sean Riley, President and CEO of Maine Course Hospitality Group

About Tim

Tim is an accomplished people-focused leader with a track record of building high-performance teams that exceed expectations. Always focused on customer needs and feedback, he builds core competencies around making money by serving customers in different and better ways. Tim is a teacher at heart and learns every day by reading great books and meeting great people.

Bonus Q&A

VIP has a program they call “five-for-five.” Explain what that means and how you implement it at your stores.

Five-for-five is all about focusing on the customer experience. We’ve identified the five key moments in a customer’s visit to VIP where we take the extra step to build a relationship with the customer and to make sure their experience at VIP is memorable. The five-for-five customer engagement process is all about taking the extra time to build a relationship with the customer.

VIP has big plans for 2024. Tell us about where you are expanding.

For 2024, we will be opening some new locations and expanding some existing ones. We will be entering Connecticut for the first time with the acquisition of a shop in Waterbury. We will be opening our 9th shop in Massachusetts when we open our new shop in Brockton, and we will be expanding our operations in Maine in both our Yarmouth and Augusta shops. In addition, we have several more growth projects that I’m confident will be completed in the back half of the year.

What makes you the proudest of everything you have accomplished during your tenure at VIP?

What I enjoy most about being a member of the VIP team is interacting with our team members and getting to know them. The people-first culture that we’ve all worked to establish makes VIP a great place to work every day, and I’m proud to wear the "VIP Blues" and do my part to support our mission to "Earn Automotive Customers for Life.”