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General Discussion
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Yellow PagesJust wondering everyones opinion on yellow page advertising. Worth it or just basic listing? RichardCustomer's buying their own partsHey guys. I'm new to the forum and was looking for this subject but couldn't find it. Sorry If I'm posted something that's already been discussed. I own a brake shop in Austin, TX. We do anywhere from 10-20 brake jobs a day. We only do brakes so I don't know how much full service auto shops deal with this problem but... Customers are constantly calling in claiming they've bought the best parts or they want to provide their own parts because they've done research and know what is best. This drives me crazy. First of all they don't know whats best. Then after being told no they get offended and act like tons of shops allow this. What is the best way to handle these customers? Just send them away? I'll quote them a price using our parts and they act as though its a rip off. What shops are doing this for their customers? I feel like I'm letting jobs get away from me. Any experience with this?General Liability / Garage Keepers Insurance Quote…I have a 2 bay facility that I rent and one employee plus myself. I was quoted about $2346 per year for both general liability and garage keepers from Liberty Mutual(using CoverWallet as the broker). - General liability was $1,032 per year if paid in full for $1,000,000 limit and $2,000,000 aggregate - Garage keepers was $1320 per year if paid in full for $75,000 coverage Does this sound right? I am in the process of getting other quotes but wanted to see if I am in the right ballpark. This is my first time getting insurance for the business and it seems like some places don't want to insure you unless you have history. Shop size: Employees: Location: Own or rent: Coverage: Insurer: Thank you
Regional Automotive Shop Management Discussions
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New Jersey Governor Signs Unsafe Used Tire Lawhttp://www.moderntiredealer.com/news/724720/new-jersey-governor-signs-unsafe-used-tire-law A new law in New Jersey forbids the sale of unsafe used tires. The legislation, signed by Gov. Chris Christie on Aug. 7, 2017, was supported by the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA), Tire Industry Association and the New Jersey Gas Station-C-Store Automotive Association. The law fines businesses that sell tires that exhibit any of these unsafe conditions: — tread depth of less than 1/16 inch measurable in any groove;
— damage exposing the reinforcing plies of the tire, including any cuts, cracks, bulges, punctures, scrapes or wear;
— improper repairs, including, but not limited to: any repair to the sidewall or bead area of the tire; any repair made in the tread shoulder or belt edge area of the tire; any puncture that has not been sealed or patched on the inside and repaired with a cured rubber stem through the outside of the tire; any puncture repair of damage larger than 1/4 inch; — evidence of prior use of a temporary tire sealant without evidence of a subsequent proper repair;
defaced or missing tire identification number;
— inner liner or bead damage; or
— signs of internal separation, such as bulges or local areas of irregular tread wear. Violators will be subject to a fine up to $500 for a first offense. A second offense will be considered a violation of the Consumer Fraud Act and subject to a penalty up to $10,000. Additional violations will be subject to a penalty of up to $20,000. Anne Forristall Luke, CEO and president of the USTMA, said, “New Jersey has taken a bold step to protect motorists from high-risk used tires that have no business being put back into service on New Jersey roads." The USTMA says its research shows more than 30 million used tires are available for sale nationally. The legislation does not ban all used tire sales. It targets used tires that have specific, well-established, unsafe conditions The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says worn-out tires are three times more likely to be involved in a crash than tires with sufficient tread depth. NHTSA crash statistics indicate about 200 fatalities and 6,000 injuries are attributed to tire-related causes annually. The law was sponsored by Democrats Shavonda Sumter and Raj Mukherji. Sumter said, "What initially seems like a good deal ultimately can be deadly in the market for tires. Retailers who sell damaged tires to consumers endanger not only their customers but also everyone else on the road. Banning the sale of damaged tires simply is a common-sense matter of public safety." Mukherji said, "Drivers in New Jersey should be able to buy tires and rest assured that the items they've purchased are safe. The lower cost of used tires does not warrant putting lives across the state at risk. Damaged goods that put consumers in danger simply should not be on the market, especially when it comes to tires."ASTEAs new members of IGONC (independent garage owners association of NC) we have found so many useful benefits and positives of being involved with such a great organizations. One of them being the ASTE event in Cary,NC! The training and expo has been a great resource for us. We learned so much last year, it has literally transformed our business. I just wanted to make sure the members here knew about the event and had the opportunity to research/plan to attend the event! http://asteshow.com/ https://www.facebook.com/ASTENC/ Sent from my SM-G955U using TapatalkVision KCAnyone going to vision KC? Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk-
Automotive Repair Shop Management
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Creating coupons/ PicturesWhat are you guys using to create coupons and deals for your shop ? Is there a software that can be bought to create automotive specific coupons ? Also looking to see how to make professional looking pictures with shop logo and what not on them. Thank you!Anyone tried Groupon?Hello all, I was looking for some feedback from shop owners who have used Groupon before. What are your thoughts? Lately it has been pretty slow and we are looking for ways to advertise online and through social media. Please share any insights on what you have done in the past and if the Groupon investment has worked for you and your business. Thanks, NickPost your shop's website!We've created this section here for you to post your shop website. This is a great way to get some feedback and suggestions from your peers.
Please post relevant automotive shop websites only. Any posts including non automotive shop websites will be moderated and removed.
Thank you.
Automotive Repair & Technical Discussions
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DREW TECH RAPHow many of you flash computers? We do and it has been a headache sometimes. There is a new program, or at least I just heard of it, Drew Technologies RAP. It is a kit that you pay a monthly fee. It has everything you need, including the battery tender. Then you pay $125.00 per flash. If there is a problem, they take care of it. My question is, If you have this equipment, how do you like it. and what do you charge the customer. Of course, it will now be in house. We have always charged like a fee for the flash and a hour of labor. Thank you for your information.What tools have made a positive impact in your sho…Hi there!
My name is Kiley and I write for "The Return" in Ratchet+Wrench magazine. (For those unfamiliar, 'The Return' is more of a personalized review that gives readers the chance to learn about how a product works inside a shop that uses it as well as the shop's review of the product.)
My question to you all today is this: what tool has made an impact in your shop? If someone was looking for a product to add to their shop, what would you recommend? (This can range from shop floor tools, security systems, management systems, payroll, etc.) Thank you so much and have a great day!Bead blasterLooking for a bead blaster for problem tires, eBay as cheap as $50 up to $500 or more. Don't want to buy one and then not be able to seat the tire when needed. Are the $500 ones that much better? How about a bead bazooka?-
Blogs With Recent Activity
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Recent Entries
Superstar shop owner and Elite Business Development Coach Darrin Barney shares an easy-to-apply tip that will help shop owners ensure that they're following through with the behaviors that are critical to their success:
To learn more about how you can team up with a superstar shop owner like Darrin to reach your shop's goals, visit the Elite Coaching Program web page.
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Latest Entry
Google Releases Mobile-first indexing for websites
Google has been rolling out Mobile-first indexing and many webmasters received an email similar to the one further down informing them that this anticipated change is now here. But what does "Mobile-first indexing enabled" actually mean and what impact can it have on your website?
First off, lets start with saying that nowadays, if your website does not render well on a mobile screen, it's time to update. It used to be OK to just design a website that looked great on desktop sized screens. Then, as time moved on with mobile phones gaining traction, there was a race to develop a "mobile-friendly" theme as an addition to a website, where a visitor who was browsing from a mobile device was redirected to a different and condensed version suitable for smaller phone screens. Today, it really is no longer optimal to have a different version for mobile screens and websites need to be fully responsive and adjust accordingly to the screen size they are being viewed on. Screen sizes are now categorized into mainly desktop, tablet, and phone, with variations of minimum and maximum screen sizes where your web designer can adjust elements to show and not show, depending on what type of device is being used to view your website. If you have analytics installed on your website, you have probably noticed a trend over the past few years where mobile screen sizes are picking up traction. In some cases we see it as a 50/50 split between desktop and mobile, some sites are even higher on mobile. So to not design a website with this in mind, is a mistake.
Google is now indexing and displaying search results differently, depending on how well your site is built for mobile screens. What they are essentially saying is that you may get different results when searching on Google from a smart phone then from a desktop and Google is going to rank websites that render well on smart phone screen sizes higher than those that don't. This is where all those outdated websites will start to lose organic traffic.
Here's Google's official statement from their email to some website owners and webmasters affected:
Mobile-first indexing means that Googlebot will now use the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking, to better help our (primarily mobile) users find what they're looking for. Google’s crawling, indexing, and ranking systems have historically used the desktop version of your site's content, which can cause issues for mobile searchers when the desktop version differs from the mobile version.
Here's the actual copy of the email that we received for our website:
Google is now going to use your mobile site for ranking purposes and time is running out if your website does not have a good mobile version available. Fortunately for us, we are prepared and so is AutoShopOwner because we use responsive technology and coding that adjusts to screen sizes accordingly.
You can test out your website here: https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly
If your website isn't mobile ready, contact your webmaster and get it updated ASAP. If you need website services, you can reach out to us for a cost effective solution 🙂
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Recent Entries
Latest Entry
MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR
Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !
I hope your 2018 will be a great one. I have a very special offer for all ASO members that want to get there business profitable in the upcoming year.
If interested let me know and I hope you and yours have a great holiday season.
Dan Stevens
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Recent Entries
Latest Entry
Account Notifications Management
As a member of AutoShopOwner, you can manage the types of notifications that we provide you for when things happen here, either via email or when you login and view your notifications list (the bell icon). For instance, when you start a new topic in a forum or reply to an existing topic, you are automatically subscribed to receive a notification when new content is posted. That can happen by email or not, depends on how you want to receive it.
To get to your notifications management section, first go to Account Settings
Then go to Notification Settings
There you will see some your current preference settings for overall delivery method, follow preference, browser notifications, etc.
Scroll down and you'll see individual notification settings where you can pick and choose how you are notified. For email, an email is sent every time that action takes place based on your delivery method above. For Notification List, every time an action takes place, it will be listed in your notifications panel under the little bell icon.
One more setting we have is for our weekly newsletter, which includes a list of topics and activity from the week. You can opt in and out from your account settings as well.
If you haven't taken a look at your settings yet, we encourage you to check it out. 😃
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Car Count Daily | Episode 14
Click Here To Subscribe For DAILY Car Count Daily Tips Straight To Your Inbox
Car Count Daily | Episode 14
Click Here To Subscribe For DAILY Car Count Daily Tips Straight To Your Inbox
TRANSCRIPTION:
Hey Shop Owners. Captain Car Count here, sometimes known as Ron Ipach. Welcome to yet another edition of Car Count Daily. Now, on a previous episode, I talked about the number one group of people that you should be marketing to. Now this is the low hanging fruit. The people that know, love and trust you, and people that are willing to give you more money, more often. As you might have guessed, it's your current clients. These are the people you should be spending your money, time and effort to get back to your shop, so they come in more often. But as I suspected, I knew I was going to get a lot of push back because I typically do from shop owners. Because, look, you do a great job for your customers, you do exactly what they want you to do, and provide a phenomenal repair and you maintain their car, so, of course they're going to come back to you, right? That's the argument I get all the time, and I'm here to tell you, no, that's not enough. Okay?
I'm going to take the viewpoint of a customer here. Now I get your business, okay, I know all you do to do a great job and maintain the vehicles and fix the cars, and all the busted knuckles and the bloodied hands and all the stuff you go through to do a great job for your customers. But the customers don't see that, you see that. If I'm Joe Customer here, and I'm bringing my car to your shop and it's broken, I am paying you to fix it. So, when you bring it back to me fixed, you've done the job I'm paying you for. Okay? I paid you to do that job. I don't know how difficult it was. I don't know how awesome you were at doing it. I paid you for a service and I got the service.
So, that's what Joe Customer thinks, or Jane Customer, is it's ... You're doing what I paid you to do. So, of course, you should do it right. Of course, it should be fixed. Of course, it should be maintained 'cause that's what we're exchanging the dollars for. I'm giving you money, you just give me what I asked for. So, the fact that you did a great job means absolutely nothing to me because I don't know about the bloodied knuckles and how difficult it was to do that repair, or how well trained you needed to be to do that repair because I paid you for that.
Okay, now don't get mad at me. I'm just taking the viewpoint of your customers. So, doing a great job, and simply just saying you did a great job is enough to bring them back, I'm going to argue with you all day long because if they're just paying you for that, you're providing a service and that's it.
Write this down, and you might want to remember this at all times, it's not what you do, when it comes to repairing the cars, it's what else you do when it comes to repairing the cars. Okay? I'm paying you to fix my car. What else are you doing to develop a relationship with me? What else are you doing to ensure that I'm going to come back to you versus going to the next shop down the street. Because, again, Joe Customer here, all I want is my car fixed and maintained. I'm paying for that service. So, no matter how difficult it is, I'm going to assume if it was real tough, it's going to cost me more money. Okay?
It's what else are you doing. What else ... Why are you inviting me back to your shop? Why do you want me to come back to your shop? What offers are you going to give me? What incentives? Why should I come back to you versus going anywhere else? Now, keep that in mind when it comes to your marketing.
Understand the most important person you can have in your shop, as a customer, is one that's already been. It's that repeat business that will build your business. Simply doing a good job isn't good enough anymore. It's a matter of what else you're doing. Impress me, give me outstanding customer service. Market to me, let me know that you care to have me back in your shop, and I will come back to you. That's why it's the most important group of people that you want to market to.
Keep that in mind and you will blow your car counts through the roof. I guarantee it.
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