A Real Win-Win
Mitchell 1 welcomes ‘Shift Into High Gear’ sweepstakes winner to workshop in San Diego!
Here is Demetrios Rizos with Instructors Tim McDonnell (left) and John Dwulet (right)!
Demetrios Rizos entered the “Shift Into High Gear” sweepstakes on his birthday, never expecting to win. Several weeks later, when he got the call notifying him that he had won, he was almost speechless. He had never won anything like this before and was shocked. “When I called my wife to tell her, I forgot all the details except that it was a trip to San Diego. She was like, ‘No way did you really win a trip to San Diego.’”
But he really did – and last week he and his wife, Gina, flew to San Diego to attend the Mitchell 1 Manager SE auto shop management Workshop as our guests. The Shift Into High Gear sweepstakes ran on the Mitchell 1 Facebook page Feb. 19 to March 16, offering an all-expense paid trip to San Diego to attend the Shop Management Workshop as the grand prize.
Demetrios and his father, Adam, are co-owners of Chicago Auto Center in Chicago, Ill – in the Greektown area of the city. Adam has owned the business for over 25 years and Demetrios has worked in the shop since he was a teenager. In 2006, he joined his dad full-time and they run the business together. Demetrios is lead technician, and also does service writing and handles marketing and social media for the shop. Adam manages the business side and does sales and service writing. They also have two additional technicians on staff.
Their 6,000-square-foot shop has five lifts and room for about 10 cars on the shop floor. They service all makes and models, but specialize in European makes. One big competitive advantage for their shop is their “No appointment needed” policy. Demetrios explained that all of their business is on a drop-in basis— “We never say no and we never turn anyone away.” It means they work long days, but the hard work has paid off in a very successful business and excellent customer loyalty.
Demetrios & Gina in San Diego
They have been using Mitchell 1 software for over 20 years — including auto repair information and the shop management system. Even as a long-time user of the Manager SE system, Demetrios still learned new things at the workshop. He said the highlight for him was getting to preview the new features and enhancements coming in the 7.4 version of the software that is expected to be released at the end May. “It gave me a great jump start to see it before it’s released,” he said. He also noted that he picked up some valuable tips for handling inventory, canned jobs and parts kits.
On the shop floor, Demetrios and the technicians use ProDemand as their sole repair information resource. He mentioned that the new 1Search Plus feature “works great and is lot easier to navigate. It saves me a lot of time.”
While in San Diego, Demetrios and Gina enjoyed some sightseeing in their free time and got to visit with friends they haven’t seen in over two years. It was their first time in San Diego and the first time they have been away from their two young children. But with their two-year-old daughter and nine-month-old son safely in the care of grandparents, they were excited to have a long weekend on their own – before their third child arrives in October.
Congrats again to Demetrios & Gina – the Mitchell 1 team is delighted you could join us to gain value shop management tips for your business AND some well-deserved downtime in San Diego. That is a real win-win!
