40 Under 40

Carmen Hinton is the hands-on, action-oriented service manager for CMA's Valley Subaru in Staunton, Va. She supervises seven veteran, flat-rate technicians and three service writers, plus another service writer and three technicians dedicated to express service.

"I like to be the cheerleader," for team members, she said. CMA stands for Carter Myers Automotive, based in nearby Charlottesville, Va.

Hinton's management style includes what business books call "management by walking around." Instead of a daily morning meeting with the whole group, for instance, she mostly checks in one-on-one with team members throughout the day — often at their workstations.

"I like to be the support system on the sideline if they need anything," Hinton said.

She has been the dealership's service manager since 2017, joining CMA's Valley Subaru in 2014 from another dealership in the group.

Hinton said she doesn't mind getting out from behind her desk to help out anywhere she's needed. Once in a while, that's to hold a tire, say, for a technician who needs another set of hands for a second. Or, she may go grab a part for someone if it helps.

She wasn't always so outgoing. Hinton said she found it difficult to interact with potentially unhappy customers when she was first assigned to be a service writer in 2011 at the Honda store. Previously, she was a receptionist and also had worked in the accounting department.

"One thing is, I was really young. And I thought the perfect job was sitting at a desk and typing. So they put me on the service desk," she said.

But Hinton discovered she liked interacting with customers. She pushed herself out of her comfort zone and learned to be herself, she said.

"I got to know after a while what type of vehicle they had, why they had purchased it, why they take care of it," she said. "Maybe they saved up to buy this car or it was their father's car. You learn to build relationships."

As service manager, Hinton said her initiatives include beefing up the service department's capacity for express service with more dedicated technicians and a dedicated service writer.

"We never had a dedicated service writer for express. There didn't used to be enough express techs — we had just one — and we were not looking over the multipoint inspections," she said.

Hinton said she also does what she can to hire and support women. Her department includes the dealership's first female technician— a relatively recent hire — plus two female service writers.

In March 2022, Hinton won the NADA Show's fifth annual Women Driving Auto Retail Video Contest, in which female dealership employees submit a three-minute video to talk about their experience in auto retail and promote it as a career for women.

"The men I work with want to help you learn," she said after winning the contest. "They ... tell you not to be afraid to take on roles."

Ultimately, Hinton said, her ambition is to be a general manager within the group.

— Jim Henry