lmcca

how do you guarantee it? your post says, pay you 10$ or whatever the price and you give the information. So, if they dont show, you give the money back?

plus, what they think is wrong with the car is not something allot of shops go by. the customer has no access to testing equipment, repair information etc and generally lacks the skills to diagnose their own car problems.

What market are you trying to get? The majority of people dont care how a car works, they just dont want to pay allot to fix it and i cant imagine there would be such a giant list of people wanting to learn how there car works. Targeted adds on facebook and google would seem to be a better market, cause so many are already on the website.

hmm, well, not very much as its just a number. Keep one thing in mind, the people on your website most likely dont have much money, thats why they are there. The ones with money, google, find a shop, see the reviews, decide which ones seems to fit them, see if its a nice shop then go to it. The ones on an actual website are looking for a low cost repair so for me i would have to becareful as to what i pay for that information. Plus, the biggie, so we pay you for this info then the customer is like, thats way too much, click. So now, i paid you and i got nothing. I know its advertising but " I " feel that its advertising to a lower end customer or one that is looking for the cheapest repair they can find.

my 2 cents.

revised: repairpal and openbay.

They do that. But to answer you question, maybe. You got to show that customers will come to your site, if its a monthly fee. If its a per customer or per job then i guess it would depend on what that fee is and how it is applied, flat, percentage etc.

repairpal, carfax, openbay, autozone to name a few.

we have had it for a while, we actually stopped the dvd's and just use the menu board now. The programming is very good and seems to get people to watch it, we found ourselves watching it too, weird.

You will have to forgive me for I don't see using an internet based company's valuable customer base as a bad thing. Much like the market that we work in right now, the low ball grimey shops deliver poor experiences and customers don't go back. Rack up a half dozen awful ratings and see how many jobs you get no matter how low your price is on one of these sites.

 

I don't go for the lowest price, I provide an honest fair quote and find myself among the other several shops that have done the same with great ratings. I am taking business AWAY from those grimey shops that may have otherwise got the business had the customer not used the web platform (perhaps they just called them, got a low price and went there) and saw that they sucked.

 

I also think that I tend to retain these customers better and see them more frequently for maintenance items because these online platforms almost automatically schedule routine work that they need. They are also less likely to push items out. What this means to me is that I am likely to change a particularly customer's tires an extra time or two over the many years I service them. Making up for the 10% they are asking two fold. And quotes are still provided by me, so there is nothing stopping me from quoting something $105 that would have been $100 as a walk in. Customers want to use the internet and they are okay paying for that convenience.

 

Sounds like I am alone on this?

nope, we are in it too. Look, i know you old heads (no offense) dont want to see this and i have seen your reasons and they are valid. You cannot stop this, the consumer is tired of the guy that is ripping them off and they want answers. It just so happens that these "online" companys are doing what we want, gathering customers. Why would you not want to be apart of this? I am signed up with repairpal (he you cant get your pricing in between there scale then i wouldnt be taking my car to you anyway), openbay and other thing that i can get our name out there on. I give our price, if they dont want it then they move on, but we are participating. We just recently signed up with openbay and have done a few quotes, nothing has come of it but i didnt sign up to expect it. TBH i dont know what to expect from it but the internet is going to be changing things in EVERY industry and it will continue, so, again, adapt or die.

Adapt or die

haha, awesome

Strongly recommend you check out the mitchell forums. Make it a habit that when your get bored or have nothing better to do, check out the recent posts made on there. A lot of useful info on there.

well, the key word being "good". They will delete anything that is not good praises of mitchell1 so it kinda gives you a false hope. While we had good stability with mitchell and it was indeed a good program it does have its limitations. They dont care too much about the customer, they let us go after 12 or so years and didnt seem to care at all. i have another post around here with the crap that came from them. Basically if they get in over there heads they will just stop helping and leave you in the mud. But the program is pretty good and above all to be usefull there should be a forum that is NOT controlled by the company.

if your going to advertise here, advertise, tell us the cost and we will decide where to proceed, not giving the costs only tells us its way too expensive.

Autovitals has brought to my shop a tool that I have been wanting for many years now but did not know how to put together or where to find it. This system will help all the process in your shop in ways you never thought possible. The only issue you will have with it is why you didn't start with it sooner. It is VERY reasonably priced for what you get and there are a few levels to choose from. They also have a special program for all the NAPA AutoCare Centers out there.

All these one post wonders coming out of the woodwork, SO HOW MUCH IS IT?

We've been using Autovitals for 1.5 years now....it's definitely the future for auto repair shops! The independent automotive repair industry has been waiting for a technology company to recognize the severe gaps in the software available to our industry...Autovitals IS that company!!

and how much is it?

Haha, my thoughts exactly. They did however, increase the subscription costs this year...

glad to hear that, i always thought they were not charging enough to ignore you

 

Care to elaborate on this? I've heard it before, but haven't had someone describe what the problem actually is.

Has anyone contacted Mitchell about fixing the problem(s)? I can't see a big company like Mitchell not fixing issues with their system.

lmao, Mitchell1 helping its customers? lol, thanks, i needed that......

I think the challenge will be to get people to download your app. Car Repairs is not like starbucks or dunkin donuts. It is not a service you are using regularly (2-3 times a year and you are doing a good job). There is very very little incentive for people to download your app. I don't know about you but I hate having a whole bunch of apps on my phone that I never touch. I toyed around with the idea of signing up with these services but I do not believe they will see a large ROI. Besides that if the apps are not updated and new phones and OS come out they might become obsolete before you know it. Even if you got a good program going you might be limited on the advancement of said tech company.

i agree with this, gonna be a challenge to get people to use it. To do that it has to be something they are really interested in. However, your on the right track, what you need to do is find a web marketing company to promote you on the web, smart phones are starting to overtake desktop computers as the main medium to the internet. Research is finding people are NOT looking for stuff in the community in front of their pc's as much as they are in their cars looking for it on their phones. Google is moving to this with pushing, promoting websites that are mobil optimized, meaning they are setup to cater to smart phones, we have all seen this, some sites are super easy to read on your phone, which are mobil optimized and the others, you have to zoom in and out to read the info, which are not mobil optimized. As seen here: http://www.engadget.com/2015/04/21/google-mobile-search/ google search will favor a site that is optimized for mobil phones.

The carfax app or others would be the "apps" people install like mycarfax stated, gives more functionality.

Good luck!

to me its a free perk. They cant have it too loud and cant be a distractor, never have had a problem with it.

geez, cant be right unless they are doing mostly 10 oil changes.

Thanks, my way of thinking wasn't about running a business it was simply about well trained techs, as I am sure you know from running a business that there are a lot of hacks and parts changers out there. And good techs being hard to find. That is all. I am sure I will do fine if and when I decide to open a shop. Thanks for your input

 

have a good one as well !!

 

p.s I googled your shop saw a picture of it very very nice I defiantly give your props !

i hear ya, and yes, there are hacks out there and we dont like them and agree good techs are getting harder to find. Im actually not the owner, im the general manager but thanks!

you didnt hit a nerve, im not upset, i dont care what you do, i was merely pointing out your level of thinking is flawed. i hope you change that type of thought process when you open a shop or you just might be here asking why your failing

have a good one!

its not that we found this guy in the gutter and said, here, log into this website, your a tech now. You should climb up out of the dark ages, i understand you dont like technology and it has made you feel cheated some how but it is a tool same as your wrench, not using it because its a computer that has prior technician experience and knowledge collected on it is just dumb to me.

But hey, to each his own, i prefer a collaboration of things for a diagnosis, you want only whats in your head, my monies on the guy that can verify his work.

Seeya.

I see, but as you pull the code you can easily check the operation of the maf and the o2 , now the rest can easily be checked with a smoker made at a good size vacuum port at the intake and blocking the air induction tube at the air filter.. So that was part of my initial question why are good techs becoming scarce, one of my thoughts were all these identifix type things out there, yes they may point you to the most likely cause but what have you learnt? nothing that is the same as the dyi guy googling and youtubing in my opinion. Like I was saying now a days no body wants to learn how things work lets just look up and see what people have found. It is hard to find techs out there that understand the computer systems, know how they work , know what sensors are used for how they work how the computer process these readings (basically just accessing different charts) and then reacting with actuators. Like I said the real tech now a days is a dying breed sad

why would you want to do it that way? i disagree with most of what you said. I have seen great techs use identifix etc to form their diagnosis, your stupid not to if you have it available. A good tech knows that information is power and if you can shave of 15 minutes, 20 minutes or whatever off of your diag time then your are an even better tech. Why should a tech waste the time to set up a smoke machine when a production vehicle comes in with a engineering problem. Thats the beauty of production cars, most of them have the same problem.

Case in point, the best tech i have ever had was an identifix king. He would pull the code, identifix the problem, verify that problem look for maintenance and move on to the next one all the while our "seasoned" old school guys are wasting their time piddling around with the other stuff. He always ran more hours, INCREASED HIS ACCURACY and increased his productivity way more than the others.

Why wouldnt you want EVERY bit of information to help you give a better, more accurate diagnosis is beyond me.

Enjoy.

I was a supervisor for Consol Energy and my company was HUGE on sending us to all kinds of "supervisor and leadership training". One thing they always taught was about how to deal with your employees problems and you were never allowed to just shrug it off and tell them to return to work. We literally had to semi, get involved and help the employee work through his problems. That being said, I don't think smaller employers like a repair shop could ever do something like that as it's way to performance based.

i do, to a degree. If you turn them into a business only thing then its asking for problems. Humans are naturally social, (look at the crap facebook) and they NEEED to talk it out sometimes. How many times have you heard in your life, "dont keep that stuff inside man, you gotta get it out...." Well, maybe these guys have no other avenue to get it out, maybe they need you to listen, give insight, a pat on the back, share a similar life experience (that worked out) with them. Sounds kinda funny but its a needed thing to do. Employees have to be maintained just like a car, never change the oil in your car and see how long it lasts, never be social with your employees and see how long they last....

Anyway, my two cents..

an added note, you could base a bonus of THEIR performance. If they reach a certain number of hours then a bonus. Allot of times techs are given bonuses based on the overall shops performance but if one tech is not pulling his weight then he still gets a bonus because the shop did great or the other techs picked up the slack and the service writers did good, so why reward that person??

We use a bonus for techs based on hours, they reach 45 hours in a week and we start to bonus them, its simple and straight forward, we dont show them our p&ls as their is no need and its not their business. I know successful shops that dont pay any bonuses too.

hell no.

This guy needs to know his place. I would sit him down and find out what his problem is. If he wont tell then i would tell him his attitude is not appreciated and toxic to the other employees and that if it continues he will lose his job. There is nothing worse than toxic employees, some you can fix, great! and some you wont, such is life.