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When saving the customer money; backfires!


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The sad or/and funny thing is, she may come back with a broken seat in a couple of month again.

But I definitely agree with Xrac, or if I my add to his statement my personal observation.

Most likely your best/most paying customer = less complaining, happy, referring customer

your least paying, most given attention to and white gloved customer = most complaining, never could be pleased customer.

Please note, i am not advocating neglecting or mistreating the customer, the above is just another cost of doing business imo.

Edited by nmikmik
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I have learned however not always followed is to always offer the best and "right" fix at all times. I tell my customers that we have to perform this repair procedure and/or use this part for their benefit and to do the job right. If there are any issues with the repair or the part we can surely warranty the work and would take responsibility for the job. Otherwise there would be a larger possibility of a failure with no recourse.

 

Of course in the interest of keeping a customer happy I have resorted to breaking my own rules which has bite me in the ass many times but thats a different story!

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Me too and some of the biggest messes I have gotten into were when I tried to save someone money. It is the "No good deed goes unpunished syndrome."

Seems everytime you look at a situation and you know the cost of a replacement component is more than the car is worth or out of the customers pocket book... AND you take the initative to go the cheaper way it always bites ya in the seat of the pants.

 

I totally agree with everybody... give them the option first! Then the decision is entirely theirs and if the patch job fails it's their problem not yours. (Considering too...that the patch job was first done well.)

 

Been there..done that...got the chew marks on the ars to prove it.

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Seems everytime you look at a situation and you know the cost of a replacement component is more than the car is worth or out of the customers pocket book... AND you take the initative to go the cheaper way it always bites ya in the seat of the pants.

 

I totally agree with everybody... give them the option first! Then the decision is entirely theirs and if the patch job fails it's their problem not yours. (Considering too...that the patch job was first done well.)

 

Been there..done that...got the chew marks on the ars to prove it.

I agree. If I feel there is a viable option I will always present it to the customer and let them make the decision. It gains far more trust I find to not dictate but to educate. Such as with brake pads, we can go with compressed cigarette ash like the $99.95 brake place, but you're going to have shorter life, more noise, more dust and lower braking power, or we can go with a premium pad, restore the factory performance and all that other stuff. When faced with options and reasons why the cheaper option is cheaper, not better or of greater value, the customer has to decide how their ability to pay and the value of their life plays into the decision.

.

With that said I absolutely hate the good/better/best scenario because if you use economy or inferior grade parts, it doesn't matter if you explain to the customer the short life-expectancy and poor performance they won't remember the discussion 6 months from now when the part fails. You can put in on the work order, video-tape the discussion, have the customer sign the disclaimer and promise you that they are actually selling the car (haven't we all heard that story before?) you just know you're going to see that car 19 months from now, the 12 month warranted part has failed and the customer is complaining, "But you JUST fixed it!"

 

Yeah, well you were selling it too!

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I agree. If I feel there is a viable option I will always present it to the customer and let them make the decision. It gains far more trust I find to not dictate but to educate. Such as with brake pads, we can go with compressed cigarette ash like the $99.95 brake place, but you're going to have shorter life, more noise, more dust and lower braking power, or we can go with a premium pad, restore the factory performance and all that other stuff. When faced with options and reasons why the cheaper option is cheaper, not better or of greater value, the customer has to decide how their ability to pay and the value of their life plays into the decision.

.

With that said I absolutely hate the good/better/best scenario because if you use economy or inferior grade parts, it doesn't matter if you explain to the customer the short life-expectancy and poor performance they won't remember the discussion 6 months from now when the part fails. You can put in on the work order, video-tape the discussion, have the customer sign the disclaimer and promise you that they are actually selling the car (haven't we all heard that story before?) you just know you're going to see that car 19 months from now, the 12 month warranted part has failed and the customer is complaining, "But you JUST fixed it!"

 

Yeah, well you were selling it too!

Oh man did you hit the nail on the head. This is exactly why I won't sell or install parts I am not willing to back.
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Me too and some of the biggest messes I have gotten into were when I tried to save someone money. It is the "No good deed goes unpunished syndrome."

 

That's great! Thanks for putting a name to this, xrac. It seems that we have been having more than the usual bouts of this in the past couple years and we have been here for 31 years. What is really difficult to deal with is when the "good deed" is put into a review as a less than stellar experience for the customer. So not only did we go above and beyond eating things that weren't even ours to eat seems we don't even get to keep the customer and we have to explain why saving a customer money was a bad thing. Oh well, such is the life we have chosen! :-)

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  • Have you checked out Joe's Latest Blog?

         0 comments
      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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