One on One: Tim Hare – CEO of Harbro Auto Sales & Service

Sunday
Jan 7, 2018 at 6:00 AM

Harbro Auto Sales & Service, founded in 1973 by CEO Tim Hare and his brother Dave, who retired 17 years ago, has recently hit an ethical milestone in being recognized by DealerRater.com as Massachusetts’ most recommended used car dealership. They are considered “100% Recommended” with 1,200 personal positive reviews and have awarded them 4.9 stars out of 5.0 stars. Since their founding in 1973, Harbro has striven to go above and beyond the code of ethics, achieving numerous awards and an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. Harbro has two locations, the main location in Northbridge and one in Webster. Mr. Hare has been exceptionally pleased with the direction his business has taken, the efforts of his 24 employees, and the trust Harbro has garnered among the community.

What do you offer to your customers to make Harbro stand out from other used car dealers?

“We have 45 years worth of customers. We have people who bought cars from us 40 years ago and are still buying from us. Their financial situation has changed, so they might want a $30,000 to $40,000 used car, but they also have children and grandchildren that want an $8,000 or $10,000 used car, so we have to try to have a wide variety of product to satisfy that customer base. We do a lot of special orders, so we’ll locate what our customers are looking for throughout the country and bring them in to meet that need. We give everyone a 30-day buyback promise – if they’re not satisfied, we’ll buy it back, so we have to make sure it’s what they want. Our mission statement is, “To change the way people feel about used cars and used car dealers, by treating others the way we want to be treated,” and that’s what we’ve tried to carry on throughout 45 years.

What does this recognition DealerRater.com mean to you as a business owner?

“DealerRater is the No. 1 site for reviews on auto dealers on the internet. Their reviews are all read, and they don’t allow any false reviews to get through. There are 40 or so dealers in Mass. that have ‘100% Recommendation’ with one or two or 10 reviews, so that’s not difficult to maintain. We have 1,225 reviews – there are only two other dealers in New England that have more than us. To get it to that high level and maintain ‘100% Recommendation’ means you need an awful lot of positive reviews, and we only have five negative reviews out of 1,225. It’s really not an award, it’s an accomplishment and an achievement that we’ve been watching because this ‘100% Recommendation’ is nearly impossible to get with that many reviews. There are a lot of car dealers that are at 98 percent and we were at 99 percent for a long time before we finally got 100 percent, so it’s an accomplishment, and that’s harder to get than an award.

How has Harbro worked to reach this milestone of "100% Recommendation" and maintain this ethical standard?

We’re always seeking perfection – we’re always trying to get five stars. It’s the consumer that rates us, the website compiles it, and tells what the consumer is saying about the dealer. More and more, online reputation is becoming so critically important to people’s decisions, so our goal is always five stars from every customer, which means you have to take care of them. Specifically, we have a process we put every car through – a 180-point checklist, and we fix everything that we find wrong. We don’t cut any corners, we make sure everything is done right with every car every time, and that doesn’t mean that people won’t have any problems, but we try to eliminate any problems that they might have while buying a car. Again, we have our 30-day buyback promise, which drives the whole company to do the right things every day. Treat the people right, treat the customer right, don’t overcharge the service department, because the 30-day buyback promise isn’t just if the car is a problem – it’s if the people aren’t satisfied for any reason. I put that in 26 years ago. I happen to be a fan of L.L. Bean, whose original statement says, “The sale is not complete until the goods are worn out and the customer is still satisfied,” and I thought why couldn’t we do that with a car business?

Used car dealers are typically labeled as shady and swindling – what are your thoughts on dealers that adhere to that method of business?

There’s no reason that someone should go to a car dealer, or any other business, and be taken advantage of just because they don’t understand everything about what they’re doing. I feel that it’s our responsibility to use our experience and our knowledge to help them make a good decision for their future, because a car purchase is the second largest purchase in anybody’s life, behind a house. Why should they make a decision that can affect the next five or six years of their life based on false information or half-truths? Just give them as much information as you can to help them make a good decision and then give them 30 days to really analyze that and ask, “was this the right decision?” When I put that 30-day buyback promise in place, my hope was that it would change the whole industry. That people would start to demand it from dealers because the consumer drives everything. There are now some dealers who are giving three-day, five-day buybacks, which I’m glad to see because for them to do, they’re going to have to do things right also, and that levels the playing field for dealers who want to operate the right way, and there’s a lot of good dealers out there. Like any industry, there are some who give it a terrible reputation.

How do you try and combat that image?

We can’t control what other dealers will do, and we don’t try to, but if we take care of our customers and treat them how we want to be treated, then they become our advocates, and they help us and bring people to us. Early in the business, I learned that trust is everything – if a person trusts you, they don’t have any problem recommending their friends to you. I don’t know why other dealers feel that they have to do it other ways. I don’t, but that’s their decision. My decision is to do it fair and right and honest and sometimes it’s an upstream swim, but that’s OK – it’s the way it should be done.

— Compiled by Correspondent Erin Bassler

 

 

Sunday
Jan 7, 2018 at 6:00 AM

Harbro Auto Sales & Service, founded in 1973 by CEO Tim Hare and his brother Dave, who retired 17 years ago, has recently hit an ethical milestone in being recognized by DealerRater.com as Massachusetts’ most recommended used car dealership. They are considered “100% Recommended” with 1,200 personal positive reviews and have awarded them 4.9 stars out of 5.0 stars. Since their founding in 1973, Harbro has striven to go above and beyond the code of ethics, achieving numerous awards and an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. Harbro has two locations, the main location in Northbridge and one in Webster. Mr. Hare has been exceptionally pleased with the direction his business has taken, the efforts of his 24 employees, and the trust Harbro has garnered among the community.

What do you offer to your customers to make Harbro stand out from other used car dealers?

“We have 45 years worth of customers. We have people who bought cars from us 40 years ago and are still buying from us. Their financial situation has changed, so they might want a $30,000 to $40,000 used car, but they also have children and grandchildren that want an $8,000 or $10,000 used car, so we have to try to have a wide variety of product to satisfy that customer base. We do a lot of special orders, so we’ll locate what our customers are looking for throughout the country and bring them in to meet that need. We give everyone a 30-day buyback promise – if they’re not satisfied, we’ll buy it back, so we have to make sure it’s what they want. Our mission statement is, “To change the way people feel about used cars and used car dealers, by treating others the way we want to be treated,” and that’s what we’ve tried to carry on throughout 45 years.

What does this recognition DealerRater.com mean to you as a business owner?

“DealerRater is the No. 1 site for reviews on auto dealers on the internet. Their reviews are all read, and they don’t allow any false reviews to get through. There are 40 or so dealers in Mass. that have ‘100% Recommendation’ with one or two or 10 reviews, so that’s not difficult to maintain. We have 1,225 reviews – there are only two other dealers in New England that have more than us. To get it to that high level and maintain ‘100% Recommendation’ means you need an awful lot of positive reviews, and we only have five negative reviews out of 1,225. It’s really not an award, it’s an accomplishment and an achievement that we’ve been watching because this ‘100% Recommendation’ is nearly impossible to get with that many reviews. There are a lot of car dealers that are at 98 percent and we were at 99 percent for a long time before we finally got 100 percent, so it’s an accomplishment, and that’s harder to get than an award.

How has Harbro worked to reach this milestone of "100% Recommendation" and maintain this ethical standard?

We’re always seeking perfection – we’re always trying to get five stars. It’s the consumer that rates us, the website compiles it, and tells what the consumer is saying about the dealer. More and more, online reputation is becoming so critically important to people’s decisions, so our goal is always five stars from every customer, which means you have to take care of them. Specifically, we have a process we put every car through – a 180-point checklist, and we fix everything that we find wrong. We don’t cut any corners, we make sure everything is done right with every car every time, and that doesn’t mean that people won’t have any problems, but we try to eliminate any problems that they might have while buying a car. Again, we have our 30-day buyback promise, which drives the whole company to do the right things every day. Treat the people right, treat the customer right, don’t overcharge the service department, because the 30-day buyback promise isn’t just if the car is a problem – it’s if the people aren’t satisfied for any reason. I put that in 26 years ago. I happen to be a fan of L.L. Bean, whose original statement says, “The sale is not complete until the goods are worn out and the customer is still satisfied,” and I thought why couldn’t we do that with a car business?

Used car dealers are typically labeled as shady and swindling – what are your thoughts on dealers that adhere to that method of business?

There’s no reason that someone should go to a car dealer, or any other business, and be taken advantage of just because they don’t understand everything about what they’re doing. I feel that it’s our responsibility to use our experience and our knowledge to help them make a good decision for their future, because a car purchase is the second largest purchase in anybody’s life, behind a house. Why should they make a decision that can affect the next five or six years of their life based on false information or half-truths? Just give them as much information as you can to help them make a good decision and then give them 30 days to really analyze that and ask, “was this the right decision?” When I put that 30-day buyback promise in place, my hope was that it would change the whole industry. That people would start to demand it from dealers because the consumer drives everything. There are now some dealers who are giving three-day, five-day buybacks, which I’m glad to see because for them to do, they’re going to have to do things right also, and that levels the playing field for dealers who want to operate the right way, and there’s a lot of good dealers out there. Like any industry, there are some who give it a terrible reputation.

How do you try and combat that image?

We can’t control what other dealers will do, and we don’t try to, but if we take care of our customers and treat them how we want to be treated, then they become our advocates, and they help us and bring people to us. Early in the business, I learned that trust is everything – if a person trusts you, they don’t have any problem recommending their friends to you. I don’t know why other dealers feel that they have to do it other ways. I don’t, but that’s their decision. My decision is to do it fair and right and honest and sometimes it’s an upstream swim, but that’s OK – it’s the way it should be done.

— Compiled by Correspondent Erin Bassler

 

 

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