Christian Brothers consistently bests competition on customer satisfaction

Christian Brothers Automotive is upfront about a primary requirement to become one of its franchisees. The company name says it all.

"For our franchisees, we do ask them to be aligned that Jesus Christ is your personal savior. We think that is very important," said Donnie Carr, CEO of the chain of independent automotive service and parts repair facilities.

While that is not the sole criterion, it does provide the basis for a corporate culture that has garnered consistent customer satisfaction awards and repeat business while many franchised dealerships have struggled with both.

Christian Brothers has topped the J.D. Power Aftermarket Service Index Satisfaction Study for four consecutive years, including 2023. The overall aftermarket average score declined 7 points to 789 this year. Christian Brothers' score improved 9 points to 834.

Christian Brothers executives, franchisees and staff are driving the repeat top ranking, said Leonard Martin, director of U.S. automotive retail at J.D. Power.

"It is amazing," said Martin. "That level of performance, at least in automotive, is definitely uncommon."

He said the way the company selects its franchisees plays a role in the consistency.

"The criteria is right for them," Martin said.

The repair chain stresses the concept of "love thy neighbor as thyself" and espouses four core values: neighborliness, joy, excellence and transparency. That extends to franchisees, employees, vendors and customers.

"We ask [our franchisees] to understand that your neighbor is everyone," Carr said. "There is no part of the Bible that talks about who your neighbor isn't."

Christian Brothers Automotive was founded in Houston in 1982 by Mark Carr, Donnie's father. It has 277 locations in 30 states with about 3,800 employees.

The chain is adding around 25 locations a year, and "we are a long way from saturating our demographic opportunity," Donnie Carr said. He said he believes "around 800" franchises is a "very reasonable" number.

The aftermarket service providers market trajectory supports that assumption. It has grown to a $124.5 billion industry in 2022 from $104.7 billion in 2018, according to the Auto Care Association, a market research and advocacy organization.

While his franchisees should be Christian, they needn't belong to any specific denomination, Carr said. Other employees can be of any faith, he said. Carr said he rarely experiences pushback on the Christian requirement for franchisees.

"We have a lot of team members, both at our home office and in our locations, that are not professing believers, which we are great with," he said. "There's a lot of amazing people out there that are great at serving our guests, and they don't have to be a believer in order to do that.

"At the very top at our franchise level, we want to make sure that we're aligned in [the Christian faith] just as an organization."

Christian Brothers finds franchisees through referrals and advertisements, Carr said. It also grows its own through its Future Franchise Leadership Academy, a two-year program for service managers and technicians who apply after being recommended by a franchisee.

"You have helped us a lot; we want to help you," Carr said, referring to the technicians and service managers.

Prospective franchisees travel several times a year to Christian Brothers' Houston headquarters for free academy classes. There are currently two active classes with 26 students total.

The academy, Carr said, aims to "help you understand what it is to lead and own a business."

While religious belief plays a central role in the franchisee selection process, more familiar business traits also are important.

And the company has a well-honed and always evolving training and support structure to ensure franchisees succeed.

The vast majority of Christian Brothers' franchisees don't come from an automotive background, but most have "led and influenced" in their other careers, Carr said.

Most franchisees have management experience and have spent some of their career in sales, he said.

For operational knowledge and skills, Christian Brothers relies on an extensive training and support structure it continually refines.

"We feel we can teach you to be good in our franchise," Carr said.

The training for a new franchisee begins with 60 hours online. That is followed by eight weeks of in-person training — two weeks at the Houston headquarters, four weeks at a store that is a Certified Training Location and two weeks at a different location owned by a Certified Field Trainer.

Training used to be one week at the Houston headquarters and one in a store, but seven years ago it "evolved" into the eight weeks, Carr said.

The training continues once franchisees are operating their own stores, said John Carlson, owner with his wife, Danielle, of a Christian Brothers franchise in Scottsdale, Ariz.

There are monthly coaching calls, an annual home office meeting and a "really robust" online training platform called The Flywheel. It offers courses for both management and team members, who can earn certifications up to and including ASE Master Technician, Carlson said.

Carlson, a former professional football player, was initially drawn to the chain after being "wowed" by the customer service at a Christian Brothers store he and his wife visited. He was surprised to learn it was a franchise.

"The location near me felt like it was family-owned," Carlson said.

Carlson was looking for a career that would allow him to work with a team again as well as serve the community, and he found that at Christian Brothers, he said.

"I was used to playing a team sport where you all have a job to do but you are a team," Carlson said. "It is very similar here. I had a lot of support."

The Christian belief aspect also was important to him and his wife.

"We wanted to be part of a brand and industry where we thought we could talk openly about our faith," he said.

Carlson needed plenty of support when his store opened in June 2020 during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It was not a smooth startup for me," he said.

From marketing to hiring employees and building a team, the Christian Brothers system came through for him. He worked with a coach at the company headquarters and called his mentor, Al Crawford, owner of a franchise in Texas, "almost every night," Carlson said.

He learned how to recruit staff, how to cast a vision and how to build a culture.

"The game plan was there, but I had to get my team to buy into the plan," he said.

Christian Brothers assigns each franchisee a performance coach who works with the franchisee throughout the life of the store.

Sterling Woody has worked with at least four different coaches during his 11 years with Christian Brothers. Woody and his wife, Leigh, have a store and an annex with additional repair bays near Waco, Texas.

He was initially drawn to the company because it was faith-based, said Woody, who previously owned or worked for small import businesses — including an importer of Mickey Mouse watches to the U.S. Both his sons work with him at his franchise.

Most Christian Brothers franchisees are in a peer group composed of about a dozen owners. Woody called the group an invaluable resource.

Franchisees were initially assigned to a peer group after a year in operation. That was recently shortened to almost immediately after becoming a franchisee. The peer groups meet throughout the year via Zoom and in person.

"In the very beginning, I lived and breathed with that peer group," Woody said.

His store has an employee lunch every Friday to reinforce the company culture. Woody describes it as "all about the customer."

Woody emphasizes to his staff that "the customer pays you."

"Anybody who walks in that door," he said, "let's take care of them."