Nothing more frustrating than going into an auto repair shop and getting your car fixed, only to find out the next day that the problem still lingers.  Misdiagnosis happens more often than we’d like to believe. There are thousands of excuses for it – my least favorite being “Part X made component Y go bad”. Seriously? You want me to believe that? Then why didn’t you do both when you were in there?! It is important to build an honest relationship with the customer in order to retain business with them and part of that honesty is Fixed Right First Time. We suggest often in class that customer trust is composed of an Exceptional Service Experience plus Fixed Right First Time. Why then does FRFT go wrong so often? It’s the process. You need to start with your service counter process and ensure the right information is being gathered. Use a Customer Problem Analysis Sheet to gather important symptom and timing information. From there the dispatch process must ensure “right tech, right job”. Not everyone in the shop should be performing all diagnosis work – even if they think they should be! At the very least, diagnosis work done by less experienced technicians needs to be supervised. The FRFT process then continues with quality work followed by a Quality Control process. Technicians and service advisors should both be signing off that the work was done, and done properly, and now the vehicle is performing as intended. When these steps are in place there will be fewer instances of failed diagnosis and higher levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty in your shop!