The auto parts marketer then launched Advanced Professional, driven by Carquest, in January 2015 as its commercial branding, which includes both the TECHNET and Carquest Technical Institute programs. Mr. Hanighen emphasized that both programs are important components of the company's commercial branding.
Beginnings
“TECHNET actually started as a technician's network — a telephone diagnostic hotline to help shops through problems that they couldn't fix on their own,” Mr. Lesniak said, noting early on, as an auto parts' reseller, it “had to help our customers grow their businesses. We had to help them any way we could so they could stay in business.”
As the program grew, it became clear that TECHNET could assist its customers not just with diagnostics support, he said, but with training, marketing as well as a variety of programs to help them save money and grow their businesses.
“That's basically how TECHNET has grown over the years, by adding the different elements to help our TECHNET members grow their business,” Mr. Lesniak noted.
Messrs. Lesniak and Hanighen credit TECHNET's success to the support it offers customers, mainly through the company's commercial account managers (CAMs).
“Our CAMs are absolutely second-to-none in the industry,” Mr. Lesniak claimed, “and the way they work with their customers and their understanding of their business is just absolutely amazing. And that's really what sets TECHNET apart.”
There are several components to the TECHNET program that help it stand out, Mr. Hanighen continued. However, he agreed that a dealership staff's ability to understand its customers' business and ask the right questions so they use the tools in the TECHNET program efficiently is important.