N.Y. tire shop owner sees profits in empowering customers

FLUSHING, N.Y. — Audra Fordin learned her trade as a kid working under the hood of a car.

She's the fourth generation to operate Great Bear Auto Repair & Auto Body in Flushing. And she's a proponent of passing that knowledge on to anyone who wants to learn, even creating the Women Auto Know and Drivers Auto Know websites.

Ultimately, she said, she believes a smarter customer is better for business.

And in 28 years in the tire industry, she only knows of one good way to find "the right" technician.

"You make 'em," she said. "You make 'em yourself, ... and you take care of them."

Ms. Fordin has owned and operated Great Bear Auto since taking it over from her father Bill Fordin in 1998.

In 1933, her great-grandfather Oscar opened the location she runs today. Her grandfather Larry then took over, followed by her father and her. At one point, Oscar Fordin and his three brothers — and their sons — in total operated 78 Great Bear stores.

Ms. Fordin's is the last one.

Her early memories of the shop include learning how to do a wheel alignment and the little things that help solve unique problems on each vehicle.

"We used to have a wheel-alignment pit that you'd walk down to instead of using a lift, and we'd have 'quickies' gauges. You'd put these gauges on the tire, and it was like reading a thermometer to find the line," she recalled, "and we used string!

"Some of my earliest memories are of walking into the pit with quickies gauges and string."

She called fixing a vehicle "empowering."

"Some kids would go outside or to the beach to play, and I went to the shop to play," she said. "I loved it. I picked it up very quickly, and I grew into it ... and I had a huge incentive because my dad was always working, and it was a way to see him.

"On the weekends, I would wake up all by myself, very happy to go into work."

She also felt satisfaction in fixing cars — accomplishing something that others may not be able to do.

Of all the things to really get her hooked in the auto service field, it was the advent of the "check engine" light. Ms. Fordin became obsessed with figuring out what the light meant for each vehicle. She said that when the light first appeared, the joke was just to put some black tape over it.

But she attended trade school at a point when automobile engines were transitioning to fuel injection from carburetors. At the time, she said, some older techs weren't willing to pursue education on the new technology. The timing worked out well for her, though, and when she returned to the shop, she brought new skills that the shop needed.

"I was at the top of my game," she said.

Today, she said there is obvious similarities of what she went through and the recent start of a transition to electric motors from fuel-injected internal-combustion engines.

Ms. Fordin said she has seen the bad side of being a woman in the shop — and heard all the comments. When she was a teenager she was somewhat insulated because she often would be surrounded by her father, grandfather and uncles.

Still, when she took over the shop, the pin-up calendars and bikini posters went in the trash.

"It's different (the way men treat women) this year, especially, than it was five years ago, which was better than five years before," she said.

Today, she said things are much different. Most of the customers who come in are women, she said, and they like seeing women working at the shop.

Two of Great Bear's six employees are female. Ms. Fordin said when looking for a new technician — or "the right tech" as she calls it — she really looks for someone with the right mindset. Because, even new techs coming into the field from trade schools still need to be molded to understand how you want things done, she said.

"You make 'em, you make 'em yourself," she said.

"That's been one avenue, for sure. I go to the schools, looking for the right person. You start from square one with a kid who graduated," she continued. "I want the person with the right mindset, with passion, who is eager to learn every day."

The best thing young technicians can do is practice, Ms. Fordin said. That's how you pay back the knowledge you've been given; absorb what you're taught and put it to use.

The COVID-19 pandemic initially was devastating, Ms. Fordin said, but she reached into her own pocket and "bit the bullet" to keep her team whole.

"We just kept going, and eventually it turned out to be very rewarding for my relationship with my team," she said, "because they didn't miss a beat in their lives."

She said finding good workers is hard to do, and she was going to make sure she held on to them.

"I am very thankful that I have a great team of talented professionals who like to fix cars, who like to keep people safe," she said, adding that it's a shared mentality that works into the overall philosophy of the garage. "That's why we work well together, and why we're really busy."

She said she learned to "tread water" in the industry growing up. Customers were aggressive, she said, and there was a lot of stress built into this industry. But that has changed over the years, and more customers today really don't know much about their vehicles.

"During the Recession, I realized everyone was scared and (customers) weren't angry at me, they were scared because they didn't know what they didn't know."

A new shop philosophy based on education was born during the Great Recession, she said.

The shop's four-part philosophy includes: educate not intimidate; show and tell; tell not sell; and service not sales. Not only did it aim to better educate the customer, but it took a lot of stress off of the staff.

"Customers appreciate the education," she said. "Communication is the answer. ... That's not a secret."

During the Recession, she also started hosting free classes for women to teach them basic car knowledge and vehicle maintenance.

"My business mind said, 'I'm gonna show you how to do the little stuff, and then you're going to come to me for the big stuff,'" she said. "I don't want to do your light bulb, I want to do your water pump."

She started Women Auto Know, womenautoknow.com, a website to educate female customers and technicians. This site offers links to educational videos, help finding a service station and more.

"Once I realized people need that education, and when they had that information, they felt empowered, it took on a life of its own."

Soon after, she started Drivers Auto Know, driversautoknow.com, a vehicle education website aimed at all people.

Since 2010, Ms. Fordin has appeared as a guest on shows like "Good Morning America," the "Today Show," and the "Rachael Ray Show."

Her father still helps out from time-to-time. She said when she took over the shop, she could tell he was just burned out. Now, when she calls him with a unique vehicle question, he gets excited to help her solve the problem, she said.

Along with plenty of her new clients, she said there are generations of people in the community who still come to Great Bear.

"The kids who grew up with me are now bringing in their kids and grandkids," she said. "It's wonderful."