EVEN AFTER 41 YEARS IN THE INDUSTRY, MARK SILVERMAN, FIXED OPERATIONS MANAGER AT YONGE STEELES FORD LINCOLN IN THORNHILL, ONTARIO HAS NO INTENTION OF SLOWING DOWN.
Story by SARAH PERKINS
There isn’t much that Mark Silverman, fixed operations manager at Yonge Steeles Ford Lincoln in Thornhill, Ontario hasn’t seen in the past 41 years in the industry. Always sporting a neat ponytail, Mark, at 71, has no intention of slowing down—and as the head of one of the Greater Toronto Area’s leading dealership and repair facilities, Mark oversees a collision department that is never idle.
Since starting his own mechanic shop in the late 1970s in midtown Toronto, Mark has seen the automotive industry evolve through countless changes in repair methods, insurance relations and public perception. But for Mark, the key to success has never changed: it’s all about customer experience, and more specifically, about maintaining a work culture of honesty, transparency and empathy fit to turn any team into a family and to ensure those in need of service feel right at home.
Silverman first began his career in the industry as an independent service centre before transitioning to working at a dealership. “We were originally a Gulf station and then we ended up becoming a Petrol Canada station,” Mark said. “I had four mechanical repairers at the time. I was a mechanic myself back in the 70s, having written my license in 1974, and then I became the proprietor of the station. One of the partners wanted out and wanted to retire and they approached me to see if I wanted to buy into the business.”
As Mark puts it, from here, he “never looked back.” This venture lasted for about 12 years until the business was closed by the petrol company, seeing Mark turn his sights to working in a dealership.
“From there, I’ve been a fixed operations manager for 37 years,” Mark continued. “I’m still working at it. I don’t golf or play tennis, so I’d rather come to work than stay at home,” he joked. “I’ve gotten an extensive amount of experience in all facets of the industry. I’ve gotten experience that you can’t read in a book or buy in a store. You have to live it.” And, in living and thriving in the industry, Mark has experienced everything from the traditional to the innovative.
In addition to traversing the traditional channels to become a mechanic, in the early 2000s, Mark regularly featured on a popular radio call-in show for the GTA, “Dave’s Corner Garage.” Hosted by Dave Redinger and Alan Gelman, the show focused on helping the public solve issues related to their vehicles. “The show was on for many years, and I would be on two to three times a month. Dave and Alan were good buddies of mine, and the show was also a great business opportunity. Every time I was on the air, business would show up the next day.”
Mark also did something that the Ford Motor Company had, at the time, never seen before and opened up a service centre in the Scarborough Town Centre. Opened under the name “Quick Lane,” the service centre offered customers the opportunity to stop in for a quick oil change and other mechanical help—or, as Mark puts it, and as was the slogan for the shop, the opportunity to “drop, shop and roll.”
“I was the only dealer at the time allowed to take the trade name Quick Lane and I had to lobby with Ford to use the name. I had the shop for two years before internal issues within the mall forced me to stop.”
“But I’ve always been that kind of guy,” Mark told Collision Repair when asked about his capacity to innovate. “I’ve always been the kind of guy that wants to be involved and innovate within the industry.”
As a result, today, Mark oversees 92 employees across all services, including a small bodyshop. While the collision centre at Yonge Steeles Ford Lincoln is on the smaller side, it is an integral part of Mark’s overall plan for providing top notch customer service. “We don’t have the largest collision repair facility in the area, but it’s certainly one of the best. We are obviously Ford certified and our customer base has been organically grown from our dealership. I kept the collision centre going because I wanted to be a one-stop shop for customers. I wanted customers to be able to buy the car here, get parts for the car here, get it serviced here and of course, if the unfortunate were to happen and a customer was in a collision, get your vehicle repaired here.”
As the largest Ford dealership in Canada, Yonge-Steeles Ford regularly services 200 cars a day.
“When it comes to the collision side of the shop, I don’t go looking for business,” Mark stressed. “Of course, if business comes my way, I take it. I also haven’t partnered with any insurance companies or banners. I think that they’re good programs, but I leave that side of things alone for the standalone guys who depend on that business to survive.” “Ultimately,” Mark commented, “we’re not a big shop, but a healthy shop.”
In maintaining the health of the business, at its foundation is both an awareness of continually building work and customer culture as well as staying up to date with the latest technology.
“The industry, like any other industry, is evolving into something that’s totally different from when I started in the 70s, but there has always been an emphasis on looking after your customers—or as Ford calls them, guests. The other aspect of maintaining a business is upholding a culture of honesty, integrity and transparency. When I first started in the business, customers had less of an ability to fact check without the internet and so everything was word of mouth.
It was important to make sure that you were doing everything you could to make everyone feel welcome, and I still stand by that today.”
When asked what it takes to develop a community culture, Mark was quick to answer: “you work hard and you pay your employees what they deserve to be paid. You become a team and you work hard to have it become as close of a team and a family as you can.” With the ongoing talent and labour shortage continuing to affect the industry, Mark further noted that “if you get a good bodyshop technician, you have to keep them.”
“When you have a happy team, this also translates to the customer. I’m the kind of manager that doesn’t make schedules. I let my advisors and team come up with schedules that work well for everyone. I trust my team; collision repair is full of skilled people and it’s an art.”
“If and when mistakes happen, I believe it’s important to keep a mindset of, ‘let’s take this as an opportunity to learn and then move onwards and upwards.’”
Moreover, when asked what Mark’s biggest challenge in the industry has been so far, he noted that it’s consistently been “keeping up with technology.”
However, with decades worth of experience in the industry, despite the consistent changes, Mark continues to stay versed in all the tools and tech that a modern bodyshop requires. Equipped with a dedicated aluminum room, a state-of-the-art paint booth and a team of seasoned professionals, the facility has seen $80,000 in recent upgrades.
And, while Mark jokingly feels that his biggest achievement in the industry has been successfully getting up in the morning, in rising for the day, he also continues to rise to the challenges that the industry brings. “I’ve gotten to the top and have developed my knowledge base. At the end of the day, it’s not all about the dollars and cents, it’s about having empathy. If you do everything correctly, the dollars and cents will follow. When you’re up to date with what you have to offer, you’ll get a whole variety of people and if you’re traditional, you’ll only get traditional people.”
“Even at my age and my experience, there’s still things to learn every day about how to run a business and how to evolve and keep up with your customers’ expectations. If you start to slow down, then they’re not going to keep coming back.”
When asked about plans for the future, Mark says that he is content to maintain the success that he has built and the community connections that he has made. “The best advice I can offer collision centres is to partner with somebody. Vehicles are only going to become more technologically advanced as the years progress and so collision repair shops are going to increasingly need someone capable of handling the electronics in modern vehicles.” As such, while Mark Silverman may have a decades long resume, with a diverse team that he loves and strong business foundations, he has no plans of retiring any time soon. “I may be 71,” he concluded, “but I love my job and it keeps me young.”
