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By Joe Marconi in Joe's Blog0 commentsAuto 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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By Hands On
I keep getting a request now and then to go to someones house. I am starting to wonder, is it because they think it would be cheaper, or is it like in that show billions, where the guy has so much money, he can afford to pay chef ryan to come to his house to cook dinner.
How much would it take to get each of you to come to my house to work on my car? Honest answers, and you have to give an amount.
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By Joe Marconi
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By carmcapriotto
Nichole Bennecoff discusses the importance of customer experience in the automotive industry. Nicole shares her company's focus on customer experience and introduces Taylor, a client success representative who manages communication between clients and the company. Taylor's responsibilities include monitoring client communication, arranging loaner vehicles, supporting service advisors and providing excellent customer service. Nicole and Carm also touch on setting client expectations, appearance, and the importance of listening to service advisor calls.
Nichole Bennecoff, Subie Guys, Traverse City, MI. Nichole's previous episodes HERE
Show Notes:
The Breast Cancer Awareness Challenge (00:00:50) Discussion about the annual challenge to raise funds for breast cancer research and the goal of getting 500 shops involved. https://www.brakesforbreasts.com/ The Role of a Client Success Representative (00:06:07) Nicole discusses the importance of customer experience and the implementation of a client success representative role in her business, Taylor. Taylor's responsibilities include monitoring client communication, arranging loaner vehicles, and providing excellent customer service. Finding and training Taylor (00:09:07) Taylor was hired from a call center and has grown in her role to provide consistent and empathetic customer service. Importance of customer retention (00:10:05) The importance of providing a great customer experience to retain clients and build trust for future visits. Setting Expectations for Clients (00:16:47) Discussion on the importance of setting expectations for clients before they come in, including explaining the inspection process and providing information about the first appointment. Client Gift Bag and Follow-Up (00:17:46) The practice of giving new clients a gift bag at their first appointment and sending thank you cards, as well as discussing the inspiration for these ideas. Professionalism and Client Experience (00:18:41) Exploring the concept of professionalism and how it is demonstrated through intentional actions, appearance, and creating a positive client experience. The customer experience and wait times (00:25:08) Discussion about the wait times for appointments and how they fluctuate depending on the week. Branching out to other car makes (00:25:31) Exploring the expansion into servicing cars other than Subarus and teasing upcoming exciting news. Thanks to our Partner, Dorman Products. Dorman gives people greater freedom to fix vehicles by constantly developing new repair solutions that put owners and technicians first. Take the Dorman Virtual Tour at www.DormanProducts.com/Tour
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Click to go to the Podcast on Remarkable Results Radio
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By carmcapriotto
In this podcast episode, Coach Chris Cotton discusses the survey he created to understand why technicians are leaving the automotive industry, and sharing insights from the responses received so far. The top reasons include pay, benefits, work-life balance, and poor management. Coach Chris emphasizes the importance of addressing these issues to retain employees. He also highlights the need to attract more technicians to the independent sector and concludes by emphasizing the role of good owners or leaders in employee retention.
The age distribution of survey respondents [00:03:34] The speaker discusses the age range of the survey respondents, which includes people from 18 to 56 years old. Reasons for leaving the industry [00:05:58] The speaker explores the comments and opinions of technicians who have left the industry, focusing on the negative impact of dealerships. Alternative industries technicians are entering [00:08:42]. The speaker shares the various industries that technicians are transitioning into, including elevator and escalator maintenance, cybersecurity, construction, farming, and industrial mechanics. The main reasons for leaving the industry [00:11:59] Discusses the top four reasons people leave the industry: pay, benefits, work-life balance, and poor management. The importance of fixing pay and benefits [00:13:10] Emphasizes the need to address pay structure and pricing to improve pay, benefits, and work-life balance. The lack of effort to retain employees [00:16:38] Highlights that most respondents said that no one tried to keep them in the industry when they gave notice, suggesting a lack of effort from owners or leaders.
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The Weekly Blitz is brought to you by our friends over at Shop Marketing Pros. If you want to take your shop to the next level, you need great marketing. Shop Marketing Pros does top-tier marketing for top-tier shops.
Click here to learn more about Top Tier Marketing by Shop Marketing Pros and schedule a demo: https://shopmarketingpros.com/chris/
Check out their podcast here: https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/
If you would like to join their private facebook group go here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/autorepairmarketingmastermind
Connect with Chris:
AutoFix-Auto Shop Coaching
www.autoshopcoaching.com
www.aftermarketradionetwork.com
940-400-1008
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AutoFixAutoShopCoaching
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3ClX0ae
Email Chris: [email protected]
#autofixautoshopcoaching #autofixbeautofixing #autoshopprofits #autoshopprofit #autoshopprofitsfirst #autoshopleadership #autoshopmanagement #autorepairshopcoaching #autorepairshopconsulting #autorepairshoptraining #autorepairshop #autorepair #autoops #onlinebooking #serviceadvisor #serviceadvisorefficiency
Click to go to the Podcast on Remarkable Results Radio
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