andybizub

Just switched from Paychex to ADP. Paychex became less responsive when we had a problem, then almost doubled our bill without telling us anything about it. Guess they just figured it would slip through the cracks

May was very good. We started with ReviewDriver about 6 weeks ago and it gave us a huge uptick in reviews, which I think translated into a lot of new business.

I went with CW Taylor about 1 1/2 years ago to design a new website, do ongoing SEO, tracking, etc., and am pretty happy with them. They're very responsive and everything is taken care of at their location as far as I can tell. No outsourcing. They are $698/month for that. I also signed up with ReviewDriver to handle customer follow-up and generate reviews. They have been GREAT and we have gotten over 30 new reviews in the last month, almost all 5-stars. ReviewDriver is $149/month, but we're down to $109/month because I referred two other shops and we get a $20 credit for every referral. Lady named Krystal Burroughs runs ReviewDriver and she handles my customer service, she's very good. We do NOT outsource responding to reviews, we do that ourselves. I do not want anyone else speaking for us, it takes less than a minute to give a personal reply, and I have never understood why any shop would want a third party to be responding to the shop's customers. It's just another opportunity to make a personal, favorable impression. Why would I ever give that away to someone else? We never run specials or coupons, they don't attract the kind of customer we want to have. We sell the value and experience of our shop.

Probably not, until we show them pictures of oil filters that overstayed their welcome! LOL We have had several high-dollar repairs in the last year due to poor oil changes, extended intervals, etc. I even wrote a post for our Google+ page entitled "Oil Change Disasters". I'll find it somewhere and share the link. People tend to get it when we show them a picture

Two things: 1. With the way the oil filters look after 10,000 miles, why would you ever want to stretch it to 20,000? The filter would end up looking like a raisin and if it has a pressure-bypass mechanism in it, that oil could end up unfiltered for thousands of miles 2. When my kids were babies, some genius at one of the big diaper manufacturers came out with the "2 week diaper", (no, we did NOT try it). Just because it can be done does not mean it's a good idea.

I had the John Bean guys come in and demonstrate their machine, it was a little sketchy the ways it worked, and it read my car as being way out of line, which it is not. My Hunter rep found a 5 year old machine and scissor lift from a training center, I went with that setup, bought a new computer, and Hunter installed up to date software. I have to say, the used Hunter setup was about the same price as the new John Bean, but it works great, I get great service, and my techs like it.

www.midwestperformancecars.com Interested in hearing feedback from anyone Thanks!

We used Mitchell One in the past, but switched to Winworks for a couple reasons: 1. You buy Winworks, and once its paid for, you own it. No more monthly $300-$500 charges. You can buy $600/year tech support, but they answer normal questions even if you don't have the support. 2. This may be unique to us, but our Mitchell sales rep was horrible. The guy didn't know the product and couldn't answer any questions. 3. Winworks integrates with digital inspection apps like Autovitals, which we are considering now. Winworks also has their own digital inspection add-on, but I don't know how good it is. No doubt, there isn't one system that does everything, but we've found Winworks to be pretty good, and the fact that its paid for is great.

You might want to check into the Wurth TPMS reader and their universal sensors. We are primarily a Euro shop, and we switched from OEM sensors to the Wurth ones, and we use their tool to read and register to the vehicle. They've saved a lot of time and money, and they work on everything from Audi to VW

Hi all. We just launched a new website 2 weeks ago, would like to hear your feedback please: www.midwestperformancecars.com Also, we are very active on Google+ and it has a big impact on our new customer acquisition. Shoot me a message or reply to this post if you would like to find out how we use Google+ in our marketing plan. It's free, not selling anything. Andy Bizub

To address a couple concerns that keep coming up on this thread: 1. We had to install an all new server setup late last year (our old hardware had become obsolete). While it wasn't totally painless, WinWorks did swap over to the new hardware with very little problem. So I can vouch that once you have the software, it can go to a new hardware setup and still function. 2. Winworks DOES integrate with Quickbooks. We have not made the leap to do it yet, but we're planning to. Winworks will generate a QB file whenever you want to produce it, ready for import into your Quickbooks. 3. Regarding opinions on subscription based vs. "buyable" software, as I said previously, I love the fact that I don't have an ongoing $300 to $500/month bill coming for my shop management program. Guys, these programs are NOT rocket science. They don't utilize high-level math or algorithms that have to be constantly changed or optimized. They are really a glorified mashup of a Word document program, an Excel spreadsheet, with a point & click ordering function for parts. Once the program is written, it's pretty much done, and if it works (which WinWorks does), it should not have to be fiddled with again. I just do not see the need for a constant payment to a software company that isn't doing anything for me, when I can buy a software package outright. I'm not here to criticize anyone's software choice, if it works for you, that's great. But I don't like to see shop owners thinking there are no options available other than a monthly bill that comes forever. When we used to have Mitchell One, our rep couldn't answer the simplest question about the product. He was brutal to deal with. Switching to WinWorks got us a better financial deal as well as got us away from an ineffective support system. Good luck

My coach is Brian Hunnicutt. Call ATI and ask to be switched. He got me a pay plan in about 3 days, and he is very demanding, but that's what you want. You're paying like heck for it.

Have you claimed your Google+ page for your business yet? Google+ has been a huge help in getting us up in the online search rankings, and it costs nothing but time to do. There's several hours over several days at first, but once you establish your Google+ page, it only takes 15-30 minutes a day to put content on it. It's not going to result in an overnight flood of customers, but in time, people will start finding you Check out my shops page to see what I'm talking about: https://plus.google.com/u/1/+MidwestPerformanceCarsChicago/posts

We used to have Mitchell, but switched to WinWorks a little more than one year ago. I liked that we could pay 12 installments and own it. And if you want ongoing full tech support, it's only about $600/year. It doesn't do EVERYTHING, (it doesn't appear that there is any one platform that DOES), but it's pretty easy to pick up, is stable, and the things it does do, it does very well. It integrates with most major parts distributors (we use Worldpac), and is fairly customizable. We are still picking up new twists and tricks to making things run smoother and faster with it. I am surprised that so few shops in this thread of replies have mentioned WinWorks. It's really nice not to have that monthly $300+ bill coming for your shop software. We also use ALLDATA and Partslink24. Hope this helps, email me if you want more info. [email protected]