Leonard Lee

Oh boy, there's so much to learn about wages and all.

From calculating the hourly rate of the shop to what employees should be paid and how they should be taken care of

 

It's probably information that should be common sense but it's really not working out for me cause i'm starting out.

 

*bows to all the masters here*

www.syncrowerkz.com.sg is mine. built with wordpress. not a wordpress expert. i'm adept at asp.net / mvc / .net C# :|

mmmm i tried sending SMS's before and it sure did work but it also meant there was a lot of messages to check out.

i stick to emails. easier to manage.

 

A lot of wisdom here. Bookmarking this answer. Right now, I am the leader for low price repair in my immediate market but I don't plan on being so for long. And the customers you are talking about.... those are the customers I am ending up getting....

 

It's always terrible to be on the receiving end of customers that just have to have a price and ask why it's so expensive - all over the phone.

 

however, i've always taken it as someone who doesn't understand the gravity of the work required and as such, the only metric is 'price'.

 

the best way so far is to have them come in and we can find out for ourselves why they were asking for a service. The guys in our immediate area shop around and never dare to tell you that they did. I would rather they be honest and tell us they did. I just don't see the point with hiding things if the whole point was to get something fixed. the thing is, they may not even be shopping based on the solution. It might just be a misguided diagnosis and now they're just running around asking for a useless service. *shrugs*

 

I find the guys who come in to the shop and allow us a good look at the car, to be more sincere customers because they see the big picture. If they spent their time shopping based on price alone, they're just missing the whole point of finding the right solution. The ones i've encountered, just end up fixing item upon item up item without actually clearing up the fault...

 

low prices never did businesses any good. high prices too.

 

however, i find that giving prices for basic services online helps to give customers a ballpark and i maintain that it's a ballpark. If they wanted something accurate to the dollar, contact us!

If you are a shop with highly competitive prices (and when I mean "competitive" I mean its going to be hard for a price shopper to find a lower price) then by all means give a price over the phone.

 

If you are a shop that sells value and benefits with your service then the only way for you to effectively get that across is to show the customer. Over the phone and with a price every shop looks the same. There is no way for you to win that battle. You win by having them visit you and your facility and give them an amazing experience where price is the last thing on their mind. At that point you have sold them on your shop and your people and not on a price.

 

Also lets keep in mind if you are dealing with a true "price shopper" then your goal is to get rid of them as fast as possible and let that customer be someone else's problem. Sometimes it is hard to differentiate between someone who is looking for only a price rather than a person who doesn't know what to ask or has been "inceptioned" by a friend/colleague/family/neighbor/other shop.

 

Good points there mspecperformance!

I currently have a paper-based form which I get all new customers to fill out. Sometimes doctors hand writing prevails and my data entry person can get it wrong. lol...

Theres a plan to have customers fill out e-forms on a tablet in the workshop to reduce the amount of interpretation errors. It's all about time since i'm a software developer!

 

It would be awesome If i could then have it tie in to my accounting system!

everyone can have dreams.

If you want my paper-based form, let me know or email me at [email protected]. more than happy to send it through mate

 

Cheers!

Wow! How in the world you guys in America do such low priced oil changes?

What's your costs?

I think that giving something of no 'real' cost to us during an oil servicing works very well.

for my shop, I give their car a safety inspection & a clean at the end of the servicing.

Quinn, i always refer to the worlds encyclopedia when in doubt or the factory oil specifications guide.

 

Customers that don't know what they are paying for should always get what their car needs unless they have an awesome reason why they want something else. I prescribe because i have the knowledge and because i want the best for the customer.

 

In terms of stock, i stock a certain weight of oil, eg 0w40 or 10w40. But if the vehicle requires a different viscosity, i will order it in from my supplier just for him/her.

 

We are the car doctors. Their interests should be our 1st priority. I wouldn't necessarily trust what was placed in before.

On my end, i've undergone a little bit of training at an oil facility in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

 

For starters: to be US friendly:
- 1 kilometre = 0.621371 miles. 120,000 kms = 74,564 mi | 60,000 kms = 37,282 mi

- Left = Wrong side. kidding

 

 

Weights

1) Always refer to the vehicle manual to determine the recommended oil when it's new. e.g. 0w20 or alternatives 5w20 or 0w30.

2) Discover kilometers (sorry Americans; which is everyone ) since a brand new engine e.g. Travelled 110,000kms

2a) Every 60,000kilometres, go UP an oil grade e.g. 0w20 to 0w30 to 0w40 and onwards.

2b) In this example, 110,000kms = 0w30. When it hits 120,000km, recommend 0w40 as a starter.

3) Disclaimer: Some cars are in even better condition and the 60,000km marker is a guideline. It could be more.

 

Specifications

1) Always refer to the vehicle manual to determine the recommended/required specification.

1a) Regardless of age, it always stays the same. e.g. An Audi A4 requires VW 502 and VW 505

2) Check Oil for the matching specifications. If it's not shown, i'ld be a little wary about using it in the vehicle.

2a) Most people would say it's alright. Its not my car so if anything goes wrong, the business supplying the oil can be liable.

3) In the case of API, any rating after will be A-ok if nothing else more specific is specified. like a SN used when the car specifies SJ.

 

Base Oils

We don't need to go to that level however it's useful to know the various types.

 

 

In my case, I service 2 brands, Volkswagen & Audi and use 2 brands of oils. Certain car models should only use certain oils within the 2 brands. My life is easy and customers are guaranteed oil that is top notch, good quality, compatible and recommended by the manufacturer. Doesn't get easier than that!

A little bit of research is required at the start but it's work worth its weight in gold.

Thanks Joe, I will! I'm actually looking to upgrade my membership and putting that as an educational tax writeoff. Let you know when I have the paperwork done!

I hope that I can have even a shred of your resilience guys when the time comes. Have a happy holiday Joe & Gonzo!

We are looking to start stocking bulk oil at our shop. After meeting with our oil supplier, I came away with the following pricing options for our basic non-synthetics.

• Castrol - $9/gal
• Gulf - $7/gal
• PuraLube - $6.50/gal (generic, house brand)

Naturally, I was curious why the prices varied so much for similar oils. The supplier replied that since all the non-synthetic oils met the API/OEM/DEXOS specs, they were essentially the same oil in different containers. The only "real" difference is the name and the marketing. Of which, Castrol has the best marketing, signs, banners, etc. (this is all quoting the supplier)

 

Personally, I have never had a customer ask what brand of oil we were planning on using. Rather, they just wanted to know if their warranty was still valid and when they would need their next change. That's it. In my mind, that does not warrant the premium for a brand name oil.

 

Am I unique in this? What are you guys keeping in bulk, and are you sold on the brand names?

 

Heya!

 

I'm the sort of guy that won't want to stock too much of anything because that to me is dead stock/inventory. Of course, oils are sold by companies that may have a lot of stock and are trying to get out of their warehouse.

 

With my shop, i'll be using Martini Racing. It's Australian and a part from being a workshop owner (to be), I've also picked up the sales position for Martini Racing in Asia just so I can get the sneaky into the industry. heh

 

Martini does things differently, There's no need to stock, which is good. It is also used by a fair number of cars in the World Time Attack Challenge held in Sydney, Australia. It is used in the champion's car as well as a lot of the other competing cars. I stock & sell that because I have full confidence in the product. If a $700,000 car wants to use it exclusively, i'm selling it! LOL plus the margin is good.

 

Hope that helps!

The way I handle these in the beginning is much like the most of you. Scan, inspect and research. After the first half hour if it isn't real apparent, I will call the customer with the things that I do know and give a few options. One of which is having the technician drive the car home for a few days with testing equipment. This works sometimes but, most of the time I explain how difficult it is to diagnose intermittent problems and that if they want us to continue they can open their wallets or just drive the car until the problem is worse. I also tell them that if they can pin down the sequence of events leading up to the fault so that we can duplicate the problem, great. I also give them the open door policy. Which means that if they are in the area and the symptoms are present, they do not need an appointment. Call me and drive the car over while the vehicle is acting up.

I agree that it will make a big difference in the eyes of the customer. It's never nice to see dirty technicians.

 

I've got friends who are mechanic/owners of their own garage and they are trenched in grease. It's hard to give a good impression under all that grease.

 

At the workshop that i'll be starting (it begins tomorrow! hurray!), i'm looking to do what you've done in the beginning and to have look clean every day.

We do. Every service advisor must understand the numbers of the business. We never make sales and money the top priority, we always make sure we are taking care of the customer and delivering world-class service. That, in itself, helps sales by the way. But the fact is a business must turn a profit and the advisors are a key component to that.

 

We track the service advisor sales, ARO, part GP and labor GP, and we also track their car counts. We also track how effective there are at selling. This helps the advisor see areas that needs improvements and areas of strength. It also gives the advisor an opportunity to feel good when he or she had a great week.

 

One more thing, we also factor customer survey scores into the equation.

That is a wonderful way of providing feedback whilst allowing the technician to feel like part of the business and really over-achieve!

 

ARO, part GP and labor GP <-- I don't understand those terms. Would you be kind enough to spell them out for silly ol me?

Hi Gonzo! Thank you for the welcome! I concur! This is a treasure trove of information on how, why, what to and what not to do when owning an Auto Shop. I have much to learn and foresee myself having many questions that I don't have answers to - Thankfully all I will have to do is ask it here! I have always been one to give back to the community so I will be around to help the new ones out for sure I look forward to meeting and getting to know all of you!

 

Hi Wes! Thank you! I will recommend that to be purchased! Thank you for the link. I'll need to do some reading so I know what I'm talking about

 

We haven't set up shop yet nor have we decided on a location - however we have zoned in on 2 locations.

 

What software do you run for managing bookings and customer information? I'ld imagine I would need some sort of CRM to keep track of work done, notes from my mechanics as well as talking points for each customer. Am I over-thinking things? How do you handle customers at your workshop?

Hi guys,

 

 

Only just realised that its a US-centric forum. I hope you'll allow me to stay around and learn+contribute

 

I'm Leonard Lee and i'll be co-owning+managing a brand new auto shop in Singapore. For the moment we're looking at Volkswagens however, I won't be turning any customers away as I want to be able to expand the business to do as many makes as I possibly can, without diluting the quality factor of course.

 

I have much to learn at this stage in terms of management. I'm not a total stranger to working on a car and i think i'm alright with diagnosis/troubleshooting, R&R of any mechanical parts on a vehicle, what I don't know is engine assembly(still learning), gearbox assembly and differential assembly (i think i got it lol)

 

I've got so many questions and I guess i can't fire them all out at once. heh... can I ?