Joshua Mills is focusing on making customers and employees happy as service director at Sears Imported Autos, the Minnetonka-based Mercedes-Benz dealership.
Mills, 32, who is believed to be one of the youngest auto dealership service directors in the country, was promoted to the position earlier this year.
Mills oversees about 45 employees and said he has secured raises for those who were underpaid and improved staffing. He gives gift cards to reward extra effort and honors requests for time off for family activities.
"If you take care of your employees and they're happy, they're going to take care of the customer," Mills said.
Customer satisfaction reached the highest level possible in the quarter after Mills' promotion to service director, he said, and referrals have doubled.
Mills joined the Sears dealership as a Mercedes-Benz master technician in 2007 and, in a rare promotion in the industry, was named a service adviser in 2010. He previously worked for three years at Mercedes-Benz of Chicago.
Sears last year named Mills manager of its commercial vehicle department, which he launched as the dealership began selling Sprinter and Metris vans.
Mills, who grew up in Eagan, said his college-educated parents "about lost their minds" when he decided to become a mechanic. He enrolled at WyoTech and was hired by Mercedes-Benz of Chicago three months before he finished the nine-month associate degree program.
Mills was in high school when he began getting interested in cars. He had friends who raced cars at Elko Speedway and he began working at an oil-change shop.
Q: How do you approach your job differently than others?
A: We make sure the customer knows that we care. I try to look at them as people, like friends of ours who have a vehicle they spent a lot of money on and want fixed right. It's not like I've come in here with a magic wand. I'm giving customers what they should have been given from the get-go.
Q: How is your experience as a technician and adviser there helping you now as service director?
A: I've done all sides of the service side of the business. I know our strengths and our weaknesses. I'm trying to build things up and fix processes where we've been breaking down.
Q: What are your goals in the next few years?
A: People make a joke, "You're a technician, you're an adviser, you're service director — what, now you're going to be a [general manager] somewhere?" Maybe someday. Twenty years down the road that's where I'd like to be, a GM of a dealer. I'm happy right where I am right now. My goal right now is to grow this place. I want to grow this department.
