If you’ve been in the office, you’ve probably noticed the printouts sitting on the counter. You may have been handed a copy of the New Customer Orientation as the service writer went to get the VIN, license, and other data from your car. Or you may have asked if you should buy a hybrid and been handed a copy of Lute’s “Hybrid Take”.
BEFORE THE INTERNET THERE WERE “STORIES”
Long before there was an artsautomotive.com, there were Art’s “stories”. That’s what Art used to call his handouts that explained things that commonly needed explaining. The Timing Belt Story, the Tune-up Story, and the Clutch Story to name a few.
He’d type up some information (on a typewriter) and stick pictures and blocks of text a sheet of paper with tape or a glue stick and then photocopy the resulting 8 1/2 X 11 sheet to make a “master”. He’d run off some copies on the Xerox machine and then store the original in a plastic sleeve to make more when our supply ran out.
Our website mimicked the stories
Our original website was made up of “stories” as well. It seemed natural to title every page, “The _______ story”. Eventually, all of the explanatory material migrated to our website, and Art’s original stories were removed from the counter. Fast forward 15 years and printouts on the counter became a thing again.
The stories made a comeback
The first to appear was the new customer orientation. When a new car comes in, we need to go out and get information from it. In an attempt to occupy our new customer while she’s waiting and indoctrinate her to the Art’s Automotive method, we hand her a copy of New Customer Orientation. Others followed because Lute prefers writing in Word to writing in WordPress.
Anyway, if there was something wanted to read again, here are the handouts we have sitting on the counter.