mmotley

I always wished bolt on would fix this. It can be really confusing for our customers to text us on one number but have to call another

I'll probably be signing up. I'm currently attending Elites's fly with the eagles course and I'm learning a ton. I know Mspec attended last year and I think he said it was worth it

I've actually started to like the new Mitchell scheduler. I don't use it exactly like it was designed, but I think that's probably typical. It took me a few weeks to figure out how to get it to work for my scenario, but I finally figured out some tricks and it works great now.

I have kukui email the customer I think 5 or 7 days before the appointment. I use bolt on to send a text reminder the day before (at 6pm). I usually call a customer a few minutes after their appointment time if they haven't shown up.

As for inspections turning into large jobs, I'd say look at your average hours/ticket, then anticipate small jobs turning into that. Also, telling the customer that it's going to take longer than it actually will can help you shuffle the schedule around.

The efficiency thing: I completely ignore labor guide times and schedule what I think it's gonna take to complete the job. I have a new tech that just started last month, and he has no problem working on 2-3 cars at time. He's quick. So I know put a 2 hour job on the schedule as really at 1.5 hours....

Hope that helps.

I'd also be interested in hearing feedback about this software. I have no complaints about Mitchell really, but MaxxTraxx looks more affordable and has some nice features built in that Mitchell has really drug their feet on.

Mark, did you look at bolt on technologies at all before you signed up with AutoVitals?

Thoughts on parts markup? Should I continue with implementing the parts matrix?

Spend a day on R+W website, Eliteworldwide, shopownermag, etc, etc, and you'll see every successful shop is hitting 50% GP, every coach advises 50% GP, and the shops not making it are not hitting 50%...

I would seriously put this as your top priority because it's the easiest thing to fix and you'll see dramatic results from it. Besides all that I know you have posted you are opening a second location. This is beyond a fundamental principle you should implement before going beyond 1 store.

What Mspec said. Parts margin of 50% and labor margin of 70% are basics and easy to implement. It made a huge difference for me when I started hitting those margins, and looking back, it was one of the easiest things I did. I think Bob O'Connor said something like 'all it takes is a #2 pencil and a mind change'. Sit down, do the math, and implement.

Also, you don't have to jump to 50% over night. Get to 30% one month, 40% the next month, and 50% after that if you feel your customers are gonna freak

I think Joe wrote an article a while back about a customer being rude to one of his service advisors. Anyway, I'd say definitely stand up for your employees! First, there is no excuse for someone to be like that to an employee. Second, I think your entire staff is probably watching how you handle the situation. If you don't have their back, I would I think you risk losing their loyalty and respect. Good employees are hard enough to find, the last thing you want is a rude customer running them off.

Like others have already said, advertise that your a specialist, but don't turn away other work. I opened up as strictly a Lexus/Toyota shop. While that was fine and business was growing, I consistently heard from my customers that their husband/wife/son/daughter/friend drives something other than a Lexus/Toyota and wants to bring it to us. For the longest time, I would turn them away. Turns out, I was missing out on a lot of money. I still advertise/market us as a specialty shop that focuses on Asian vehicles, but I no longer turn work away unless it's something I just don't feel comfortable dealing with.

Wow. a little over $500 a week to work as a automotive tech.

Things in Texas must really be cheap.

Over here in Bellevue WA., Mexicans at Home Depot ask, and get $20 an hour cash for basic manual labor.

I should move to Texas to retire.

Was just an example and I never said that was for an ASE certified technician with 10 years experience

Take the time now to get some auto management training. Do it now or it's not going to happen. This was the biggest mistake I made. I started out the same way you did, same plan, no debt, only employee etc.. If you do not know what numbers you need and how to get them it will be a long and painful road. There are a number of different companies out there that will help you (read, take your money). Do your due diligence in researching them and choose the one that fits you best.

I would advise partnering with a parts distributor, NAPA etc.. You will be able to offer nationwide warranties as well as many other perks.

When the shop is running try to join ASA or some similar group. They will offer training and some mentorship in most cases.

You know about the hard assets you need, tools and equipment. You may know how to repair vehicles. What you probably don't know is how to run a profitable shop (5 years later and I am just starting to get a handle on it).

Probably the best advice you can get!

A good management training course will teach you KPI's, advertising, employee management, basic accounting/bookkeeping practices, etc. Just like kars, I went almost 2 full years before I actually started being profitable. This may seem like a huge investment, but you'll likely make that money back in 30-90 days if you apply half the information they teach you.

I'm having referral cards made up this week. I figure customer referrals are probably the best bang for my buck. Since I haven't actually got to try them out yet, postcards have been my best form of advertising so far (and I will NEVER do another $24.95 oil change special!)

My current pay rate goes like this. The technician gets $10/hour, guaranteed 40 hours per week, absolutely no over time unless I approve it. For every hour they flag, they get $3.50 (or whatever I decide, based on experience, efficiency, and certs). So if they flag 30 hours this week, they will get their guarantee of $400 plus a bonus of $105.

As I stated in my previous post, I am slowly moving away from this structure and will be moving to full flag. So as each technician gets a raise on their flag time, I will deduct an equal amount from their guarantee rate and shift it to their flat rate. Once their guarantee reaches minimum wage, I'll probably just move them to full flat rate. We'll see

Agree with mspec here. I'm taking the slow road to flat rate, though. My guys are currently getting a base salary along with a set dollar amount per flag hour. I give raises to techs based on duration of employment, performance, and ASE certifications. All future raises will result in a dollar amount coming off their hourly guarantee and going towards their flat rate. I could probably just make the switch at this point, but I figure I'd rather take it slow so the guys can adjust. My goal is to have them 100% flat rate by the end of the year.

I recently hired a guy to come in part time (about 4 hours a day) to clean the shop and do the odd jobs (empty oil drains, wipe down doors, sweep, mop, take out the trash, etc). This keeps my techs busy working on cars and less time doing other jobs that don't pay.

As mspec said, now I've just got to keep cars coming in (lucky me, we so busy, we'll be working on Sunday to try to catch up).

I'm by no means a wildly successful shop owner (Small, three man shop). However, knowing that you just go to where you can afford to pay yourself a salary... I'd say wait and build up a nice financial nest egg so you don't stretch yourself too thin.

And to repeat what mspec said, "Can my shops operate with me not being there?" - If not, I would think the clear answer is no, do not open a second location

I've chimed in on the forums about it. I think they are really focusing in the scheduler right now

Yes, I am using Mitchell manager. It'd been an option ever since I started using it 3 years ago, just never realized how to do it. Technically, it's not a matrix. You have the option to set different labor rates in the program settings. Mitchell says it's for things like diesel work/ fleet work, discounts, etc. I just thought one day, why not set it for labor hour totals and use it that way. So it's not automatic, but if you get in the habit, it's super easy.

the fact that it seemed their entire staff had been replaced with valley girls over the last couple years...... recent experience with the seemingly airheaded valley girls. During the call, Kaitlyn tried to tone down the valley girl uptalk, but she was clearly annoyed that I had brought it up.

This could not be more spot on! My first account manager gave me the EXACT same feeling! After requesting a new rep, I feel way more comfortable and confident with the service. Todd, please don't ignore this. It's very frustrating and the only reason I stuck around and asked for a new rep was due to other members strongly urging me not to leave and ask for a new account manager

"You’ve ever had to order a part and the wiring diagram calls it by one name, the locator page calls it something else, the parts department calls it by another name, and still yet, the labor guide has a completely different name for the exact same part."

Jesus, this is the most frustrating thing. Toyota did a fine job with this when they were developing transmissions solenoids. They were even nice enough to make sure the exploded view in the repair manual was different from the parts diagram in the parts department. More time spent building the estimate than actually diagnosing and repairing the car.

Not at all. Granted I just started using it this week, but I can't imagine how anybody would ever find out that I'm using a labor matrix. My invoices don't print how many labor hours a job took. Also, almost all dealerships use a labor matrix. If a customer did somehow bring it up, I'd simply say I don't believe in charging our full labor rate for a job that only takes 0.5 hours to complete, so we have a lower labor rate for lower paying jobs. I'm pretty sure everyone on this forum doesn't use their shop labor rate for oil changes, so everyone is essentially already manipulating their labor rate, this is just a way to offset that. A job that pays 10+ hours is clearly a very labor intensive job that a C level tech is probably not going to be able to handle and is more prone to delays or mistakes.

Another benefit is when someone is price shopping and asks the dreaded question 'So, what is your labor rate?' Now I can honestly say we don't have a set, straight across the board, labor rate. This also happens with extended warranty companies.

Something else to keep in mind is that the math is compounding. So when you have a job that pays 3.6 hours, and you increase your labor rate by $4, your not just going to get an extra $4. You're actually going to get an extra $14.40 (3.6 X $4). This can really add up over the course of a year and have a pretty nice impact on your effective labor rate. In the grand scheme of things, The extra $14.40 is not going to sway a customer's decision on a $600 repair estimate.

Something else you might consider is setting higher labor rates for higher labor jobs. This is something I just set up this week and I've used on a few cars so far. It's not much, but an extra $2-4 each hour at the end of the year adds up. This will also increase your GP on labor and effective labor rate. Just an idea

https://goo.gl/photos/MbWDGu9FHde3MNAx6

Two easy ways to get your labor up is 1) raise your labor rate 2) start marking up your labor guide. If you're using mitchell manager, both are easy to do and takes less than a minute.

I personally mark up our labor guide 20% (16.67% GP). It's gotten me closer to 50/50, but I still run a little on the high side with parts, mostly due to me doing a poor job at selling diagnostic time

Our experience with Vonage over our Verizon FIOS network has been great. One outage earlier this year when there was a denial of service attack that made national news. We just started using their call recording function to monitor the quality of our employees' phone "presence." You can turn it on and off on a monthly basis. It's always an eye-opener.

How does the call recording work? Does it cost extra? I just had a customer try to tell me I quoted him $1,000 instead of $1,600. Either I mis-spoke or he is lying. I would love to have the call recorded. If I mis-spoke, I'd happily honor the price, but I just can't see how I would have got off that much.

UGH, I have a customer who bought an extended warranty that pays for 3 oil changes a year... Guess who gets to call and orchestrate that whole ordeal. Better believe that oil change is going up at least $15

Similar to what mspec said, it helps sooooo much to have a small savings built up for situations like this. About October of last year, I set up an automatic transfer to a business savings account. Every Friday, I have a set amount set to transfer to the savings account and I do my best not to touch it unless ABSOLUTELY necessary. I make the business work out of what's left in the checking account.

As for the fire situation, I wouldn't ever admit that it was your fault. However, I would tell the customer that since you worked on it so recently, you are going to take care of the situation. I had a similar situation recently, not near as serious though. I didn't admit fault, but I admitted how the situation APPEARED and told the customer I was going to make it right.

Again, can't stress how helpful the savings account has been. If nothing else, just the peace of mind knowing it's there. Set up the automatic transfer and forget about it.

I can't really compare the TS601 to other tools since I've only used this one. But what I absolutely love is not having to write down ID's anymore. You walk around the car and scan all the sensors wirelessly (It will let you pick if the car has 4 or 5 sensors). Say you find one bad or has a low battery (the 601 will tell you if a sensor is still working but has a low battery). After you replace that bad sensor, you walk around the car and scan all the sensors again. Plug the 601 tool into the OBD port, select write ID's, and it automatically writes all the new ID's to the car. You don't have to punch them in manually since it remembers all the ID's. It's also super handy because two more clicks, and it will write it to a '2nd set' if the car has the option for 2 sets of tires. This prevents someone accidently pressing the '2nd set' switch in the car and causing a tire light since no sensors are programmed.

Hopefully that wasn't confusing. Is it worth $750? I dunno, I have nothing else to compare it to. I do know I have no complaints so far with it. I bought mine as a package deal with the maxisys pro, so I got a pretty good deal I think.

If this helps any, when a car now comes in with a tire pressure light, I reach for the 601 instead of the tire pressure gauge. I walk around the car and in 30 seconds I know if it's just low tire pressure or a bad sensor.