How Advanced Automotive of Redding went from surviving to thriving

Cody Morelock was 9 years old when his father opened Advanced Automotive of Redding in 1993, 12 when he started working in the repair shop. Naturally he aspired to follow in his dad’s footsteps as a mechanic and manager, for Tim Morelock had a solid reputation in this area of northern California as a guy who could get things done, with a strong emphasis on service.

“I watched customers flock to him and the business he started, feeling pride and admiration. I wanted to be the guy with that business, providing a valuable service to the community,” Cody states on the company’s website.

That was his dream. But then a financial crisis in 2009 forced Morelock to pursue this goal way sooner than he planned.

“At 24 years old, it was kind of forced upon me, sink or swim,” he relates. “It was at a point where I had to step in or Advanced Auto would be no more. May 1, 2009, I basically bought Dad out with what money I had to my name and what I could get a loan on. Two weeks later I had to make payroll for six employees with basically no money in the bank. It was overwhelming.”

To ensure his father’s creation would continue, Morelock threw everything he had into the shop. “I began learning from the school of hard knocks,” he notes. “The years 2009 to late 2014 were just about surviving. Our average repair orders weren’t great, our production wasn’t great, our gross sales obviously weren’t great. I knew how to work on vehicles, how to talk to people, but I didn’t particularly know the ins and outs of the business.”

For quite a while he worked the front counter selling service. “I was my own worst enemy,” Morelock observes. “I’m thinking I can help out here and there, but what the customers are paying for is my time and knowledge. So I replaced myself with an advisor on the front counter, letting her know my standards. Basically I’ve delegated or duplicated myself in every area of the shop.

“I wouldn’t wish this on anybody,” declares Morelock, “but this made me appreciate everything I have and everything I’ve built from there going forward. I don’t take anything for granted anymore, and I’ve got a big stake in it now. I’ve more than doubled our sales in 11 years, and this year alone we’ll probably have 25% growth.”

Another yardstick Morelock can proudly point to is the fact that Advanced Automotive won

the AAA Top Shop Award for the Northwestern Mountain Region in 2019. “I believe that covers about 500 shops, and I think we were in the top 20,” he muses. “We’ve qualified before, but we never got this close to winning it.

“We’ve been AAA-approved pretty much since we opened in ’93,” he continues. “AAA scores us on several different things. There’s a certain image that they like to portray: a clean shop, a certain level of certified technicians, things like that. They do client satisfaction surveys, with their own follow ups via emails, texts or phone calls. And if you don’t meet these criteria, you potentially get put on the chopping block.”

The seed for this turnaround was planted around 2014, when Morelock was referred to a new accountant. “(He) really started changing my mind on things. I began looking at business through a different lens than just fixing cars.” 

That lens ultimately helped him focus on DRIVE, an online automotive marketing and consulting service. “My dad had done some stuff earlier in his career with DRIVE, back when it was known as Management Success,” Morelock recalls.

“After I got hooked up with them around 2015, I really started applying policies and procedures,” he notes. “Each client has a business advisor, so I’ve got someone I can call who’s familiar with my shop and operation. If I have a problem, issue, or idea, I can run it by through their knowledge base, because they have a game plan for virtually any scenario.

“The consulting program I purchased through DRIVE encompasses a lot of things: they take care of my Google advertising, all of that stuff; everything from the website, which they developed for me, to maintaining my Facebook and social media stuff.

Morelock admits to having turned a blind eye to the Internet. “Frankly I think I was born 50 years too late, even though I just turned 36,” he laughs. "We get a lot of traction off of Facebook for sure, and I find that’s actually through organic content that we do, not just stock posts. We get a lot of draw whenever we spotlight one of our guys or do in-shop videos. But one of the things I’ve actually fallen in love with is playing with the Google AdWords, keywords for search engine stuff—a huge, massive draw for us; we get an incredible return on that.”

Also included in Morelock’s agreement with DRIVE is unlimited training for up to five employees. “That’s a big reason why I signed with them, because there’s continual training not only for my team but for myself. We utilize the heck out of that.”

They also utilize the heck out of ozone generators, to help sterilize vehicle interiors before working on them. 

“When the Corona virus first kicked off, just like any business you’re worried about the uncertainty of everything,” Morelock reports. “We have 16 ambulances that we work on, so imagine my employees’ anxiety about working around these vehicles. We’ve taken every precaution necessary, like using a couple of ozone generators for vehicle cleaning. We actually have two technicians that are certified to use them. Basically there’s a procedure you go through, running it in the vehicle for a certain period of time under certain conditions, and basically the ozone scrubs any bacteria or virus. If used improperly it can cause extreme sickness, and kill pets and plant life. We’re the only shop in town that has one, at least one with an ozone remediation certified technician.

“Every business, every person, has to have a guiding principal that keeps them on track and focused on what matters,” states Morelock. “Having access to a knowledge base with ongoing training is just invaluable. I’m a fiend for content, and I’m always looking to do better; DRIVE provides that. And once you get policies and procedures in place to create standards, you’ve achieved a balance.

“It’s like taking the training wheels off a bike and pushing it and letting it go. It will stand on its own momentum.”