For an industry that was once dominated by males, I am pleased to have watched us evolve to a point where today we have female technicians, service advisors, managers and shop owners that are superstars in every regard. Without question, there are many powerful ladies throughout our industry that are role models for all of us. When I think of all those amazing women and the impact they have had on our industry, I can’t help but also think of a gal that’s not only changing our entire industry at
One of the most common questions we hear from shop owners is regarding how often they should perform employee reviews. I would like to use this article to not only answer that question, but to provide you with a guide that will enable you to perform reviews that will keep your employees happy and productive.
Putting first things first, let’s start with new hires. With every new employee, during their orientation you should clearly outline the company goals, their personal goals, the goals
By Bob Cooper
If you speak with most shop owners they’ll tell you that they think their shop is worth x amount of money. Ask them how they came up with that number, and they’ll tell you it’s based on what they heard another shop sold for, or it’s predicated on their annual sales. But if you really want to know what your shop is worth, first of all, forget everything you’ve heard about “goodwill” and the fact that you have thousands of names in your database. That’s icing on the cake, but it
By Bob Cooper
It’s only natural that most of your employees would like to take their vacations during the summer. Unfortunately, that’s typically your busiest time, right?
Let’s say you have a technician who typically produces 50 hours a week during your peak summer months, but during the month of February, when your car counts are lower, he typically produces just 38 hours a week. If you bill at $90.00 per hour, and if you are operating at a part to labor ratio of .75 to 1, then those t
By Bob Cooper
Mistake #1. Have your technicians compete against one another. We all can agree that competition among employees is good, but there is a right way, and there’s a wrong way. The wrong way is to tell your techs that you’re going to post the hours they each flag, and at the end of the pay period the winner will receive a reward. Although that sounds good, you’ll inevitably end up with one winner, and no matter how you cut it, the rest of your techs are going to be losers. Now you
By Bob Cooper
When car counts aren’t what they need to be, most shop owners will pump more money into their marketing efforts. But before you invest one more dime in your marketing campaigns, you should first make sure that you’re doing a good job of converting your current leads into customers. At Elite, we’ve discovered that the number of phone leads lost by most shops is staggering. They’re lost by not having enough staff available to properly handle the calls, by having poorly trained r
By Jim Piraino
Far too many shop owners will set an annual sales goal, and then simply divide that number by 12 to set their monthly goals. However, since this approach does not take the number of work days in each month into account, it is not the way that you should be setting your monthly goals, especially if your service advisors receive a bonus for hitting and/or surpassing monthly goals. With that said, I would suggest setting your shop’s monthly sales goals using the following method
We all know that vehicles are being built better, they are lasting longer, and the competition for auto repair customers is heating up. Accordingly, shop owners are constantly looking for ways to add value to their services in order to separate themselves from their competitors. Some owners attempt to accomplish this objective by providing longer warranties, which is a nice feature to offer. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for the competition to catch on, and before you know it, your competi
By Bob Cooper
All great companies have one thing in common: They realize industries and consumers need change, so they follow their customers. Apple provides a great example. As we all know, when Apple started they were a computer company, but when that industry began to decline, Steve Jobs was able to see that his targeted customers were investing in music. This is why Apple Computers became Apple Inc., is why they reached a point a few years ago where their online music sales exceeded the
By Bob Cooper
Over the years our industry has seen many changes. For example, beyond the changes in styling and efficiencies, today’s vehicles are better built, they last longer, and they require less frequent servicing than they have in the past. But there is one emerging trend that will have a far greater impact on our industry than all the other changes combined. Consider this…
Electric cars are not new. As a matter of fact, they date back to the mid-nineteenth century. Yet if you
By Bob Cooper
In building a successful auto repair business, most shop owners feel that what they need to do sell is more parts and more labor. Although both of those items are a part of your business model, one thing is for certain: your customers don’t look forward to buying either of the two, at any price. Yet thousands of shop owners are having sleepless nights trying to find ways to squeeze more money out of their part and labor sales.
While I was still operating auto repair shop
By Jen Monclus
1. Make sure your advisors schedule car deliveries with first-time customers whenever possible (The point is to try). If an exact time won't work, provide the customer with a window of time. This is considered an 'active delivery', and will allow your advisors to spend a few minutes with each new customer to personally thank them, go over the paper work and sell them on the next visit.
2. Ensure you have backup in place so that your advisors are able to take the time ne
By Bob Cooper
Many years ago I read an article that featured an interview with Herb Kelleher, the co-founder of Southwest Airlines. In the article he stated that he and his mother (who was a Harvard graduate) would often debate who was more important: He argued that it was the employees of a company, and his mom argued that it was the customers. With all due respect, I would argue; why does it need to be one or the other? From my point of view, this debate is like having two children and be
By Bob Cooper
A few years ago I had the opportunity to interview over forty people for a panel of customers that I moderated. My intent was to discover what drives their decisions in choosing an auto repair shop, and how they make their purchasing decisions. I spent well over an hour with many of these prospective panelists so walked away with some truly surprising and noteworthy insights, but the most profound discovery was that we as an industry have an expectation of loyalty from our cus
When car counts aren’t what they need to be, most shop owners will pump more money into their auto repair marketing efforts. But before you invest one more dime in your marketing campaigns, you should first make sure that you’re doing a good job of converting your current leads into customers. At Elite, we’ve discovered that the number of phone leads lost by most shops is staggering. They’re lost by not having enough staff available to properly handle the calls, by having poorly trained receptio
There are a number of changes that are occurring in our industry, and there is no question, some of them will have a profound, long-term impact. To name just two, automobiles are being built better, and as we all know, service intervals are constantly being extended by the manufacturers. Although this is all good for consumers, better-built vehicles means they’ll need fewer repairs, and extended service intervals means you’ll be seeing your existing customers less frequently in the coming years.
By Bob Cooper
If you want to generate more repeat business, then there are a number of things you will need to do. You’ll need to deliver an extraordinary value, exceed your customers’ expectations at every touch point, and stay in touch with your customers after the sale. Over the years I have discovered that most service advisors have the right intent, and make their best effort to do all of these things. They want to do a good job, and they know that a part of their job is to help their
By Bob Cooper
There was a time in our industry when shop owners were the only ones who knew the cost of their parts. Additionally, the amount they charged for their repairs and services was typically not public knowledge. If customers wanted to know how much it would cost to perform a specific repair, they had limited options; they would have to either call for an estimate, or visit a repair facility. The service advisor would then page through a catalog, find the price, and then share that
We all know it’s getting harder and harder to find the superstar techs, but finding those stars is just the beginning. Once found, you need to interview them like a seasoned pro. Here are some interviewing tips that we share with our Elite Coaching clients:
#1. Impress the applicant with your professionalism. When you are interviewing a real superstar, they will be interviewing you at the same time, so you need to really wow them. One way is by being well prepared, and ensuring you have a
By Bob Cooper Anyone who has been selling service for any length of time will agree that there are two kinds of customers. The first is the customer who has a history of making good decisions, not just with auto repair, but with most decisions. And then we have the other kind of customer: the kind of person who more often than not makes the wrong decisions. Let’s use maintenance service as an example. When you’re dealing with a relatively intelligent person who understands the value of mainten
By Bob Cooper of Elite Without question, it is getting harder and harder to find the really great technicians. We just need to bear in mind that they’re out there, and that they’re more than likely relatively happy where they are. So how do you reach these superstars? Well, you may want to consider what your competitors would never dream of doing, and offer a referral reward that gets the attention of everyone in our industry who resides in your community. Most shop owners will try offering a
By Bob Cooper If there is one thing most shop owners have in common, it’s that they have big hearts. They typically start their careers as technicians, and as soon as they have their very own shops, they want to help as many people as they can. To achieve this goal, they network through their family and friends, and do everything in their power to get the word out into their communities. And then the inevitable happens; they wake up one morning, and decide it’s finally time to advertise. With l
By Bob Cooper You don’t have to be in the auto repair business long before a customer asks you if they can supply their own parts. Although there is no one technique that will work in every case, here’s one approach you may want to consider. First of all, you’ll need to bear in mind that a customer is making this request because they feel it’s a legitimate one. They are simply trying to save as much money as they can, which is perfectly normal. With rare exception, these customers are unaware
By Bob Cooper Far too many shop owners hire service advisors who they feel are good at what they do, and then prefer to “get out of their way and let them do their thing.” Unfortunately, that’s a mistake. Now I am not suggesting that you need to micromanage your advisors, or any of your employees. However, over the years I have employed many of the top advisors in America, and through our service advisor training courses I have had the opportunity to meet hundreds of the industry superstars, so
By Bob Cooper In today's competitive environment you need to make the most of every opportunity that you have at your disposal to generate more sales. Follow these 5 tips to convert more first-time callers into happy customers. 1. While your competitors are trying to sell their first-time callers on the repair, you need to take a different approach, and sell them on you. If the caller doesn’t believe you’re the right person to help them, then regardless of whether or not they believe the repa
