One of the real pleasures of my job is the opportunity to get to know people like Aaron Clements, AAM, owner of C&C Automotive in Augusta, Ga. Aaron is the immediate- past chairman of ASA and recently served as the chairman of the 2008 CARS event that ASA hosts as part of Automotive Service and Repair Week (ASRW) in Las Vegas.

At this year’s event, Aaron was honored with the Motor Age magazine “Top Shop” award. Aaron, ever the humble, self-effacing kind of guy, said: “There are many ‘Top Shops’ out there, and we are very fortunate to be recognized.” He added, “The reason I know they are out there is because many of these shop leaders are my friends and have had a very positive influence on my business and personal life.”

I agree with Aaron, and when I reviewed the list of the 10 Top Shops that Motor Age honored this year, I was pleased — but not surprised — that seven of the 10 were ASA members. This is an awesome testament to the value of association membership, and the “positive influence” that Aaron referenced in his remarks.

One of the highlights of ASRW this year was the launch of ShopMeter, a project that Mitchell 1 and ASA commissioned well over a year ago to provide ASA members with a performance benchmarking tool. ShopMeter collects key performance indicators and presents them in an easy-to-use format that allows members to compare their performance against their peers in the industry.

As we were preparing ShopMeter for launch, we validated that ASA members consistently perform better than the industry averages. We think it has to do with that “positive influence” that is gained through association with shop leaders like Aaron Clements and the other ASA Top Shops honored this year by Motor Age.

Congratulations to the ASA-member Top Shops! You must be doing something right …