Podcast: Setting Boundaries and Managing Customer Expectations (w/ Tonnika Haynes)

Tonnika Haynes, owner of Brown's Automotive in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, talks shop ownership, managing her customer's service expectations and a health scare that changed how she worked.
April 25, 2023
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In this episode, Tonnika Haynes of Brown's Automotive in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, discusses boundaries and expectations. Every shop needs to have a protocol on how to help customers who don't fully understand what shops can and cannot do within reason. 

Tonnika discusses:

  • Being a second-generation shop owner
  • How she decided to get into the industry and taking over her father's shop
  • How she manages customer expectations
  • How she handles difficult customers
  • Helping customers understand the difference between the dealership service model and how independent shops work
  • How to set personal boundaries
  • How overwork put her in the hospital and why shop owners need to take time off
  • Why she loves shop ownership

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About the Author

Chris Jones
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Chris Jones

Group Editorial Director

Chris Jones is Group Editorial Director for the Vehicle Repair Group at Endeavor Business Media. He’s a multiple-award-winning editor and journalist and a certified project manager now providing editorial leadership and brand strategy for the auto care industry's most trusted automotive repair publications—Ratchet+Wrench, Modern Tire Dealer, National Oil & Lube News, FenderBender, ABRN, Professional Distributor, PTEN, Motor Age, and Aftermarket Business World.

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