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So true, I was hired into a dealership as the Service Mgr and had a wiz kid tech, really was an all around great mechanic, just a terrible person. Threw tools, swore, unhappy at most of what life tossed his way. He would come in and the whole mood of the shop would turn glum. I tried the normal things you would to to cheer him up, gave all the kudo's trying to inspire him to enjoy life. Talk and listen to what he was 'upset' about. After at least 6 months of this, pulled him into the office and said I Quit! He looked at me funny and I said your out of here, I quit trying to get you to work as a team mate and your unhappy attitude to the other guys and office staff. No notice, no lets try something else, I quit YOU. Load your stuff and I will have Sally cut your last check right now. As he was making his exit, the rest of the guys all came and said Thank You! Many said they were in the process of trying to find other employment, but now would stay and not feel threatened by the bad guy. Hard to believe but the work output went up with that one guy gone. Don't put up with a toxic employee.

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About a year ago we had to fire our bad apple. He was constantly complaining about working on rusty cars (Uh, its Minnesota dude.) and was just never happy about anything, to include how the owner ran the shop. There was no real reason to fire him, and the owner was looking for someone else. The bad apple did us the favor by taking a customer's 1969 convertible Mustang for a joy ride, I mean test drive, to check out if the fuse he replaced was the problem. 30 minutes of joy ride later, I mean test drive, and he returned, flying over the railroad tracks and a big grin on his face. When the owner asked if he brought a spare fuse with him in case the new one failed, the answer was no. He knew he was done and there was cause to let him go.

 

The change in atmosphere and attitude was like a fog was lifted overnight. The owner took his time finding a replacement and used a working interview to select the final hire.

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About a year ago we had to fire our bad apple. He was constantly complaining about working on rusty cars (Uh, its Minnesota dude.) and was just never happy about anything, to include how the owner ran the shop. There was no real reason to fire him, and the owner was looking for someone else. The bad apple did us the favor by taking a customer's 1969 convertible Mustang for a joy ride, I mean test drive, to check out if the fuse he replaced was the problem. 30 minutes of joy ride later, I mean test drive, and he returned, flying over the railroad tracks and a big grin on his face. When the owner asked if he brought a spare fuse with him in case the new one failed, the answer was no. He knew he was done and there was cause to let him go.

 

The change in atmosphere and attitude was like a fog was lifted overnight. The owner took his time finding a replacement and used a working interview to select the final hire.

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My bad apple quit last month. He had 9.5 unpaid days off in the first 3 months of this year, when asked if he could put in some nights or weekends to make up for the loss in revenue he did not think he owed me anything. Sorry to say I have had other 24 year olds say the same thing to me in the past.

This one gave me notice then texted me the next day to say he was getting his tools!! Of course the shop & schedule was more than full but we survived without him.

Looking for his replacement still.

Dave

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  • Have you checked out Joe's Latest Blog?

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      Auto shop owners are always looking for ways to improve production levels. They focus their attention on their technicians and require certain expectations of performance in billable labor hours. While technicians must know what is expected of them, they have a limited amount of control over production levels. When all factors are considered, the only thing a well-trained technician has control over is his or her actual efficiency.
      As a review, technician efficiency is the amount of labor time it takes a technician to complete a job compared to the labor time being billed to the customer. Productivity is the time the technician is billing labor hours compared to the time the technician is physically at the shop. The reality is that a technician can be very efficient, but not productive if the technician has a lot of downtime waiting for parts, waiting too long between jobs, or poor workflow systems.
      But let’s go deeper into what affects production in the typical auto repair shop. As a business coach, one of the biggest reasons for low shop production is not charging the correct labor time. Labor for extensive jobs is often not being billed accurately. Rust, seized bolts, and wrong published labor times are just a few reasons for lost labor dollars.
      Another common problem is not understanding how to bill for jobs that require extensive diagnostic testing, and complicated procedures to arrive at the root cause for an onboard computer problem, electrical issue, or drivability issue. These jobs usually take time to analyze, using sophisticated tools, and by the shop’s top technician. Typically, these jobs are billed at a standard menu labor charge, instead of at a higher labor rate. This results in less billed labor hours than the actual labor time spent. The amount of lost labor hours here can cripple a shop’s overall profit.
      Many shop owners do a great job at calculating their labor rate but may not understand what their true effective labor is, which is their labor sales divided by the total labor hours sold. In many cases, I have seen a shop that has a shop labor rate of over $150.00 per hour, but the actual effective labor rate is around $100. Not good.
      Lastly, technician production can suffer when the service advisors are too busy or not motivated to build relationships with customers, which results in a low sales closing ratio. And let’s not forget that to be productive, a shop needs to have the right systems, the right tools and equipment, an extensive information system, and of course, great leadership.
      The bottom line is this; many factors need to be considered when looking to increase production levels. While it does start with the technician, it doesn’t end there. Consider all the factors above when looking for ways to improve your shop’s labor production.
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