Dan Reichow

This is a rough position we all have been thier starting out. One thing tech experiance is not your best sales person on front counter we have found.

You need to figure out which is best for your business plan , hiring an service advisor can make or break your business. You have explained you do a lot of the expertise of your reapir side , can you hire yourself to do the mechanical. It still will be hard to leed when you are busy with the wrench's. Thier are many dedicated s/a's but you own the buisness and not being at the counter will not build boneding and committment that a business neeeds to servive today's competition. I hate the frt , but it was a decision after taking ATI training that was needed for our business model to servive. I loved wrenching and was an excellent tech. By changeing and getting the owners up frt we have increased revenue and stabilized profit. We still have hard work each day due to the economy. The roller coaster effect is an cop out for slow times , need to make a bwetter marketing plan if you still have a roller coaster effect. This may be harsh but most shops wait for work to come in , We aggressively seek work every day. Thanks Dan R.

This is something we do automatically so be [ SOP ] /// Nitrogen - client preference fill with air or send back to the place that did the airing. To me it would make owning a nitrogen equipment worth the investment you can charge to check & top off. We do not try to send our clients any where close to the previous shop they used to go to / tire repiars our free if they have warranty from another company, etc. Brakes pads no problem Free if lifetime warranty somewhere else. Thanks Dan R.

I tell them--[ opinions is like asshole's every one has one ! ] You are right most pepole are intelligent that they no thier is two sides to the story. I have had clients say I am going to tell so & so and so on . I have called some of the friends and they tell me we know how they are we still will be your clients. Doesn't happen often , but when it does it is upsetting.

We belive you need to train others even thou we all want to maintain profit. The trouble begains when you create an elite few that thier will comea day they turn and eat your lunch. We believe cross training is the vest practice in all jobs

WE ROTATE STAFF TO HANDLE AND WE HAVE SIGNED TWO TECHS TO ONGOING SATURDAYS .

We have done the same thing and opened up on saturdays / longer week hours // What a difference . We are in the retail business want sales then need to be there and handle the calls

You can change the pump oil // make sure lines are not restriced . This unit has a smaller pump on it they make strnger pumps 4cfm or better. I may be selling a pump if you decide you need it. try changing pump oil first

It has to some degree already for years - When clients know labor times and parts pricing ahead of time , not that it matter's due to we adhere to standards of the upper end of the industry . It actually helps if clients have knowledge if correct information ? , Tells them we are being truthfull what we tell them. I think it reinforces thier trust at times.

KEEP US INFORMED - ALWAYS LOOKING FOR NEW WAYS , WE SIGNED UP FOR REPAIR PAL WHEN IT WAS FREE NEVER RECIEVED ANYTHING NOW ASA IS PROMOTING , NOT SURE PAYING FOR IT WOULD HAVE BETTER RESULTS , THEN THIER IS ANOTHER NEW ONE YOU PAY A FLAT $17.95 AND THEY SEND THE EMAIL THRU NO PROMISE OF WINNING THE CLIENT. THIER ARE SEVERAL MORE OUT THIER IF YOU SEEK IT . I DO THINK PRUNDO HAS A BETTER PROGRAM TO START WITH THEN THE OTHERS . JUST WITH ALL THE SEARCH ENGINES WHERE DO YOU PUT YOUR MONIES. I TRULY AT THIS POINT HAVE BEEN PUTTING MONIES INTO EXSISTING SITE AND CREATING TO SUB SITES TO TRACK DIFFERENT OFFERS AND CLIENTS. I WANT TO REVIEW CLIENT HABITS FROM MY THREE SITES. I MAY BE WAY OFF , BUT NO DIFFERENT THEN TRYING AN AD IN SOME PUBLICATION THAT DID NOT WORK. THANKS DAN R

IF YOU NOTICED UP FRONT FREE NOT AFTER THE FACT BY PREPAYING A YEAR . THERE IS NO ONE ON THE SITE IN OHIO AND MOST STATES ONLY CALIFORNIA. I AM NOT SURE WHAT YOU MEAN BY DIRECT MAIL, MY RETURN RATE HAS BEEN CLOSE TO 23 % USING MY EXSISTING DATA BASE . DO YOU THINK THEY WILL PROVIDE 23% OR 1,400 CLIENTS COMING THRU THE DOOR . I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THE STATS ANS RETURN ON INVESTMENT THEY HAVE STAT'S SO FAR. COUPONS REDEEEMED AVG RO OFF THE CLIENTS REDEEEMING. NOT SAYING IT IS A BAD THING AND ONE MORE TOOL IN YOUR MARKETING . WHAT I DO NOT SEE IS STATS ON THIER WEB SITE AND I EMAILED THEM AND NO ONE CONTACTED ME WITH THIS INFO. HOW ARE THEY PROMOTING THIER PROGRAM TO LET CLIENTS KNOW THEY ARE OUT THIER. IN CLOSING THE INTERNET IS MORE COST EFFECTIVE IF USED RIGHT AND TO ITS FULLEST , BUT THAT TAKES TIME , MONIES , TALENTS TO BE EFFECTIVE TO EVER REPLACE MEDIA PRINT ALTOGETHER. LET'S FACE IT IF A PROGRAM COULD SUPPLY ME ALL THE RIGHT CLIENTS WITH A GAURENTEE OF SUPPORTING THE NUMBER'S WE WOULD BE IN HEAVEN. THANKS DAN R.

THEY NEED TO GIVE SOME MONTHS FREE UP FRONT TILL THEY GET KNOWN NATIONALLY , WILL TAKE YEARS IF EVER THE WAY THEY ARE DOING THIS, MANY HAVE TRYED THIS AND STILL NO WHERE. I SEE NO ADVANTAGE TILL THEY ARE A TRUE PLAYER?. DAN R.

ASA -- Automotive Service Association tryed working on that and fell on deaf ears , From my knowledge Texas has a $1,500 dollar credit to improve your vehicle. Was bad enough 1- billion now 3- Billion, Do you really think most car dealers will re fill thier lots with inventory ? NOT! The other issue if 60% is imports purchased from this program how many nieghbor's will go back to work. All this bill is hype that will not fix the economy it just switch's support to a different segment and will cause severe harm to the true small business economy. Watch Nov / Dec / Jan when no car's our sold and made where this economy sinks.

If you are in a depressed area with high unemployment , need to change your thinking . I have friends say I cannot wait for normal to return , really do not think normal will be found for many year's . With the new cash for clunker's and the offer's out thier for cheap work will take a long time for clients to revert back to wanting to pay more for great service!. Do not get me wrong thier are many quality clients ,but even those are pushed to the wall due to hour's cut, and or a spouse has lost thier job. Stay positive and create your own economy , has worked well for us , not saying it will be easy . Marketing is the key and staying consistent. Say yes as often as you can. Some on this site will say no to low offer's to motivate clients to come in , but some of us have no choice but to work on taking an [ d ] client with the hopes of moving them up to a client. In Closing no one situation fits all , but try something if it does not work then move to the next one. Thier are many things can be done for penny's so why not market. Thanks Dan Reichow - [email protected]

car counts up // hard to maintain R/0 figures where they need to be.

It will suck the life out of several business , Resale and rebuilders , cores , restoration shops , Again a law for the big boy's

We started opening Saturdays , one of the issues was hours and person power . I will say it is draining. BUT WITH THAT SAID -- It has been the best thing we have done. We have not lost mon- friday sales all techs busy, and saturdays have become very busy . We started in December . We are up 8% over last year Kudo's on the saturday discussion - it will be tough especially we are open 7:00 - 7:00 Mon - Fri and 7:00- 3:30 Saturday. My goal is to do what ever it takes to be up 12% this year and raise avg r/o back to where we were two years ago. Thanks Dan Reichow

Our first quarter was up 8% over last year as most our car count is up and R/o down , but we have increased our R/o up $70.00 to an average of $323.00 . April is always a tough month we hope to stay on track . Thanks Dan Reichow [ OHIO ]

Could be a good thing if start getting in place let me know Dan Reichow Dan R's [email protected]

We have set our 2009 budget as increaseing 5% over last year . We have taken our budget and changed from full page ad's in each media we do and downsized to half page ad's. We have increased media avenues with the cost savings. The reason we are increaseing into diffrent media is to have something hitting each week . What tends to happen you send out a big event /sale you are busy first week it hits and last week if you put an expiration date for urgency. What I have done this year we have 2 media's hitting pepole each week , direct mail , news paper ad's , letter's , e- newsletter's , reminder card's . Remember thier are inexpensive marketing can do without creating budget cut's . We do B2 B flyer's and go to neighbor hood business personnally and offer thier staff and them discount . Share an ad with a neighbor hood business . flyers hanging on poster boards at grociers stores , banks in thier lobby's. We just done one where our local pharmacy - we put our advertising on ther prescription bags, 25,000 bag's we split with 4 other business cost $700.00 fourth job in spent $1,700.00 these will run approx 10 months We do what everyone want's cheap ofl - like an seminar this week - Todd Hayes said AN O F L IS LIKE A FIRST DATE YOU ARE LUCKY TO GET A KISS - SO WITH THAT SAID BE PREPAPRED AND BE READY FOR THE SECOND DATE WITH YOU CLIENT. THANKS DAN REICHOW DAN R'S AUTOMOTIVE www.danrsauto.com