JustTheBest

Nice job with the map! Just watched it. What a great resource?? Can you share where/how you purchase them? I know a few shop owners who could really use this! Even if you're not looking for a shop - you can start to do some direct mail into those zip codes. Thanks for sharing! Matthew "The Car Count Fixer"

Cheers! And a big thank you for the work in maintaining this site. Good work and appreciated! Matthew "The Car Count Fixer"

Affected by COVID is an understatement! What's really surprising is the number of people this affected - and not just in a "business" way. Everyone has a personal story - good or bad. I think one of the biggest lessons learned (overall) is that we all seemed to get back to what really counts - the people! In the heat of a busy day, we all tend to take a lot for granted. But when it comes down to it, no matter if they're the "penny pinching" customer or the so called "bottom feeders" - everyone has a goal and from what I'm seeing. the goals are changing and there's more respect for those, even if their goals are different from ours. Here's to a safe, healthy and prosperous 2021! Matthew "The Car Count Fixer"

Hi tirengolf! My only question. "How old will you be in 5 years if you DON'T do this?" Yeah, thought so. Matthew "The Car Count Fixer" P.S.: Grow your Car Count, Income and Profits - Follow Car Count Hackers on YouTube P.P.S.: Facebook? P.P.S.: Car count in 72 hours?

You're "spot-on" Joe! The problem I see (from the shop owners I talk to) is that marketing/advertising/promotion is considered like a "like item" expense. It's treated like "supplies" or other expensed you need to run a business. I get it. But if that so called expense generated income, is it an expense? Or an investment? I know we can play around with words too - and I'm not trying to "sell you" (or anyone) on anything. But in conversation with shops and I ask them "What was the last marketing or promotion or the last time you sent a postcard or anything?", know what the answer is?? NOTHING! So with the risk of sounding like a smart a**, I ask them "Then what did you expect?" Look, if you put together a simple postcard... just black ink on a colored stock (I like yellow because it seems to get more attention) ... and just mail it out to your customers (who already know, trust and like you) with a kick-butt offer... you're going to get work! It's that simple. That makes the "expense" an investment. Hope this helps! Matthew "The Car Count Fixer" P.S.: Grow your Car Count, Income & Profit - Follow me on YouTube P.P.S.: Facebook? P.P.P.S.: Car count in 72 Hours?

Hi coastalcarcarenc! Good question - but in my opinion, I think it's something we (the industry) sort of created ourselves. The short answer is most car owners view their repair shop as a commodity. On the other hand, doctors, dentist, etc. are professionals they have an association or relationship with. Pretty hard to tell a customer they're going to be charged if they don't show up for (what they feel) is the same service they can get anywhere. Why? Well maybe you can answer this? Why is it that current stats show that when a repair shop gets a new customer, there's ONLY a 27% CHANCE THAT CUSTOMER IS GOING TO RETURN FOR A SECOND VISIT. So what did YOUR SHOP do to follow up? Stay in touch? Let the customer KNOW YOU CARE? Hope this helps! Matthew "The Car Count Fixer" P.S.: New Training : Virtually Unknown Secret That Will Add At Least $126,750 To Your Repair Shop While You 10X Customer Reviews and New Customer Referrals WITHOUT Ever Spending Another Dime on That Money Sucking Advertising!

Hi Noah Harrison! You didn't speak much about your experience in auto service/repair or body work - so that could be a problem. Look, you don't have to know HOW to do the work yourself - but you DO have to know what a good job is and what isn't a good job. Without knowing more about you, you have to start at the beginning. 1) Selecting a location is important and being sure that you comply with local by-laws, that you can obtain permits and things like that. 2) Staff - again, depending on what you're trying to do - staffing usually is a problem. That means not only getting the staff that knows what they're doing - but that you can work with. Additionally, you'll need to know what experience you'll be looking for. There's a huge difference between an oil change tech and one that can do electrical diagnosis on import vehicles. 3) KNOW YOUR NUMBERS - When you get close to opening (or you have a plan) what is it going to cost you on a DAILY BASIS. This get's the numbers down to the nitty gritty. When you know your costs that well, you'll know how much you'll have to do just to break even - nevermind profit. 4) Where are you going to get customers... because there won't be a rush of customers just because you opened. That means you better have a marketing plan to start "working" your area - and I'll tell you right now, getting new customers is going to be the MOST EXPENSIVE thing you'll do in your business. There's a ton more I would be willing to share, but it's a little hard not knowing anything about you, your experience and what you're trying to accomplish. Let me know and I'll do the best to steer you in the right direction! Hope this helps! Matthew "The Car Count FIxer" P.S.: Join me on YouTube at Car Count Hackers! FREE Help to grow your Car Count, Income and Profit! P.P.S.: Like and Follow Car Count Hackers on Facebook P.P.P.S.: Have you registered in my FREE Training? "How to Double Your Car Count in 89 Days - The Complete Roadmap to a Million Dollar Shop!"

Hey DAC, I get it. Actually, I've used QuickBooks in some applications when getting some things started and I've got nothing bad to say about it. Maybe it's not centered on the auto repair shop - but it's a lot better than scribbling down names and numbers on a napkin! And understand this - I'm not selling anything - and I can't tell you what app you should or shouldn't use because I haven't worked with any of them for a long time. But here's something I can tell you - You said you've got what you need with QuickBooks. Great. But I always ran my businesses with the "where do I want to go?" attitude (or question). I listened to sales people selling their stuff because that was the only way I could understand what their product/service could do. But the overall focus was me, asking myself, "will this take me to where I want to go?", and in all honesty, that's the real question you need to answer (for yourself - nobody else!) Hope this helps! Matthew "The Car Count Fixer" P.S.: Follow me on YouTube @ Car Count Hackers P.P.S.: How to Get Car Count in 72 Hours or Less - Guaranteed! P.P.P.S.: Facebook?

Hey Xtreme Marine! Thought I would chime in on this. I currently do not own a repair shop - I did - and how I help repair shop owners to get the car count they want and need. Your question about value is one that only you can answer. But let me ask you this "How do you stay in touch with customers?" Do you send them Christmas cards; Reminders; Maybe even the odd promotion? What I'm really asking is "how do you mail or contact your customers?" Or do you just want to "churn and burn" - keep wasting money on getting new customers only to have to replace them in a few months. To get to the point, every business (repair shop) will have a loss in customers. Let's face it, some move away; change jobs; buy new cars and some even die. But the BIGGEST reason customers leave your business is "indifference". They think you don't care! So I can't speak to your specific requirements but from what you outlined, looks like you've got things "duct taped" together pretty well. That would be like my repair shop going across the street to borrow their floor jack to lift my car; and then driving down the street to borrow the other shop's oil filter wrench, just so you can do an oil chance on my car. You know - sort of "duct tape" it all together. Sorry if I'm being a smart a** - but your customer list is your most valued asset. After all, without customers you would be running a hobby. But once you go through the learning curve of getting a proper system up and running (because there WILL be a learning curve, I promise) , I'll bet that a good system set up well will prove to be worth the "weight". Hope this helps! Matthew "The Car Count Fixer" More help? Join the conversation on YouTube @ Car Count Hackers

Sheesh! I was so excited when I saw this post title, figuring I was going to hear something new! But I know exactly what you mean. It was a common "objection" when I had my shop. ;-/ Of course this could be a real teaching moment... about answering objections and all that, but that would have been a long response. So after thinking about it a little longer, I figured the best thing you could have done would have been to make a "wine pairing" suggestion to go with the mouse! Just to be sure, when you're considering wine pairings, remember.... The wine should be more acidic than the food. The wine should be sweeter than the food. The wine should have the same flavor intensity as the food. Red wines pair best with bold flavored meats (e.g. red meat). White wines pair best with light-intensity meats (e.g. fish or chicken - guess when it comes to mice, okay?!?). Sometimes the response should be just as ridiculous. I would normally say "hope that helps" but today, I'm just going to leave it with I hope you got a chuckle! Matthew "The Car Count Fixer" PS: Here's one of the latest videos: 14 Auto Repair Shop Marketing SECRETS! P.P.S.: This is 100 Years Old | Get More Car Count NOW!

You're right! No matter what people are doing (read that as pandemic or not), most are used to the "back to school" concept. Been around since time began. One of our users already ran this text message coupon with great results (the address has been redacted) but know that the customer can respond in 3 ways: 1) Complete a form when they scroll down (That emails direct to the shop owner's inbox) 2) One tap to text the shop back 3) One tap to call the shop directly from their text app. Works really well because it's a fact that digital coupons get a 10X better response over any other form of advertising. But don't forget, there's a ton of reasons to do promotions for your repair shop. In fact, I've got a list of 111 Reasons Repair Shop Owners can use to make offers! It's a totally free download and you're welcome to grab yours! Hope this helps! Matthew "The Car Count Fixer" P.S.: Find out How one shop owner made an EXTRA $22,470 in the middle of a lockdown!

In today's economy, my choice would be finding the shop owner looking to retire or get out of the business. I understand your review of EBITDA, but if you can, go for the list. The money is ALWAYS in the list. Hope that helps! Matthew "The Car Count Fixer" P.S.: How a shop owner generated an extra $22,470 in the middle of a lockdown!

Great points Joe! You’re correct on every one. I’ve only got two short points to make. One - I would move “Get your plan in place” to the top of the list because without a plan, you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. Secondly, I would be concerned about what I would call “collateral damage” that could take the wheels off the best laid plans. You made no mention of it - but I think it’s important. It’s the little issues like Stimulus money? Unemployment money? Is there going to be a mortgage crisis? Real Estate crisis? And those are just a few. When I look at the broader picture, I have to ask, "Will the car owners survive (financially) long enough for you to take advantage of all the opportunity?" All the 12 year old cars are great for service - if your customer still has the money left to pay for service. The truth of the matter is, yes, some will. The important part of that statement is the word “some”. So now, how important is each customer you have today? How important is the follow up with each of them? When I say “follow up”, I mean the little things like a meaningful thank you; getting a good customer review; getting customer referrals; sending out simple oil change reminders; sending out “bounce back” coupons just so you have a shot at getting them back in the door! So you’re correct about the opportunity. But, if half of the customers disappear, each one you have today just became TWICE AS VALUABLE. Sort of makes you want to download a customer list and organize a piece of mail, no? Hope this helps. Matthew “The Car Count Fixer” P.S.: Join the conversation on YouTube at Car Count Hackers! See 'ya there!

You're right! It's NOT 1995! Getting the typical customer in the door 3 times a year can be a struggle - never mind 5 or 6! But with that said, it always was and still is about car count. Call it cars - call it customers - you need the "churn". Without actually having customers, you've got nothing to measure. Your entire post was a look at "what's going on" in your shop. Sure, you may be seeing a change in ARO - but because you've got the business, you've got something to compare to. That's why I was a little puzzled (by a recent post you made) about changing all the marketing you were doing - or eliminating some of it. I agree, we're in the middle of a pandemic and nobody has a playbook as to how this is going to work out - or what to do. Maybe this post should have been What are YOUR numbers? My issue always was that recession, depression or new competitors - you've got to keep up the grind. Not saying that you don't make changes - but you've got to stay in touch. Then - the key - which is what you've already proven is- you're got to track it. You're watching your numbers. At least you have the details and information to make good decisions. I can't tell you the shop owners I talk to that can't tell me their ARO, how many "real" customers in their database (no, the 9,000 people are just names and addresses) - or even access their customer list to do mailing or anything. So you can argue cars or customers. It doesn't matter - It's all about MEASURING. Unless you're MEASURING what you're doing - where things are going - and making decisions on the numbers, cars, customers or covid doesn't matter. Running a repair shop isn't a "what I feel like doing" type of business, but I still get surprised! Hope this helps! Matthew "The Car Count Fixer" P.S.: Join the conversation at YouTube at Car Count Hackers

Welcome! Thought it would be a good conversation to understand how your shop is doing through the COVID-19 pandemic. Thought the best way to get a grip on it all would be to get your response to these 3 questions. 1- How was your shop doing in early March - pre-pandemic? Were your numbers better, worse or about the same as last year. 2- What’s the biggest challenge you faced when the pandemic spread? 3- What’s your forecast for your shop moving forward? Is business getting better? About the same - like nothing has happened? Or are you struggling to get customers through the door? Look forward to hearing your BEFORE-DURING-AND AFTER to understand where the industry is at. Hope this generates a better “picture” of what’s going on. Matthew “The Car Count Fixer” P.S.: Join my on YouTube at Car Count Hackers Grabbed this shot of a crazy 68 Camaro (with wild Mickey Thompsons!) at a car show last week! Thought I would share it to help you remember "where we came from!" - Enjoy!