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bantar

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Everything posted by bantar

  1. Did you always have DVI? I do have questions to better understand the value. Were you losing sales before implementing DVI and saw this come up afterwards? If you were to stop DVI, would you lose sales? Are you paying more for your DVI system and how much? Any other value worth mentioning? The reports are indeed impressive, but in every case, I find it hard to convey reality with pictures. Unless you are looking at something obvious. I do see the value in the Professional Looking Report. We don't provide the same format, but, in extreme case will have 2 pages of written notes. Most are 1-2 paragraphs. We explain our findings clearly with written words. In some cases, I do show pictures when they are picking up the car, or we show the part, if it is of interest to the customer. Currently, with our sales success rates, I don't imagine a DVI system increasing our sales. But, I'd use it for the reporting if it was part of my SMS. I won't buy an overlay DVI package though. I'd switch to a fully integrated system instead.
  2. Let's start with the fact that I've never used DVI. I may be uneducated. I've listened to the various pitches. They kind-of make sense, but are they a crutch for poor-performing service advisors? We are calling everyone and explaining what we found. We are overcoming sales objections, but are not "selling". We are not losing business for a lack of DVI. I've taken many pictures of parts on cars and they are not always true to life. For instance, yesterday, I took two pictures yesterday and when the customer was there to look at it, I could not show the location of the oil leak and I knew where it was. As I was looking at the pictures, the leak was less obvious. And, I made sure to look at these pictures immediately after taking them to verify that I could see what I wanted to see. Similar thing in taking pictures of brakes and other items. Most people when they look at a picture, don't know what they are looking at anyway. However, I like that ability to store pictures in the SMS. From memory, the value proposition of the DVI reports is to show a diagram of the system impacted, a picture of the failure and give the person time to digest the information BEFORE you call them. In some cases, they text the report and say call the shop. I guess it depends on you each person process data as to which method is best. If someone sent that to me, I'd be on the phone asking questions. Others may simply text back and say get it done. More often than not, we talk to people, answer questions, and then send a written Authorization to them to let them digest the data. We generally send a simpler version of the final invoice with just job prices vs a parts and labor breakdown. We write our findings in a PLEASE READ section, which are written prior to calling the customer. Once our thoughts are on paper, the call is essentially repeating the words verbally. Our goal is to not say something that isn't already written down. And secondly make sure that they can comprehend what we've written. Today, we had a bit of a sales objection on a Volvo with 245K miles over an AC replacement. At 245K miles it's a good decision to ponder.... unless you live in Texas!! If you can't afford the AC, there's no way you will afford that new car that she was thinking of. My read is that she needs to process this a bit more and will return on Monday to do the work. We made it real easy for her to consider and return if so desired. The rubber hits the road when you see that new car sticker. I was reading on another forum that many people are saying YES to big-ticket jobs because of the price of new cars. IMO, it comes down to the cost of DVI vs the return. With Protractor, I have to have a 3rd party DVI. It's $400-$600 monthly. They are out of their minds at that price! Now, if it was part of my base SMS, I'd probably send the report after we talk to them or just as we start the conversation. I'll take a tangent and discuss the videoconferencing for a bit. My team developed video conferencing products in the early 90's starting with Black and White and eventually color. We found that video conferencing was a better tool than voice calls, but neither were a substitute for building in-person relationships. You build these in-person and MAINTAIN them with lesser forms of communication. On the other hand, maybe I'm just a boomer.
  3. While I mostly agree with this and have such a location, I find myself doubting it at times. I'm next to a very busy Walgreen's location. Their customers drive thru my firelane to get to them. I've had people, who frequent that location, come in and say that I've been going here for years, and I've just now noticed you! This frustrates me, because why wouldn't they notice MY building? I notice MY building. Shouldn't they? However, when I'm driving, I don't pay attention to the things in-between my house and work. I'm on a mission to go somewhere and looking at the scenery just slows me down. In spite of this, it does help. However, I do believe that the Auto Repair business is largely a trust/destination business. People will drive far to reach a place that they WANT TO VISIT. My Quick Lube is a Convenience Business. Limited people will drive past others businesses to reach us, but most are happy that we are close. (This is another thing that drives me crazy. Close is your reason for choosing us? I'd rather it be because we are doing great work and they like us). Wrapping this up, if you don't have a great location, all of your focus is on your reputation. It will drive traffic too.
  4. I have 2 of these machines: They work pretty good and generally reduce most bleeding procedures (not all), but you have to be sure. You get a left and a right tank, so you can have 2 types of coolant. Once type 3 is needed, gotta drain one side or the other as the new fluid must be in a tank. We use these for routine maintenance replacements. If we have a system that requires manual flushing, hoses come off. We'll then finish with this machine for the final fill. Service is generally pretty quick (20 minutes plus a test drive). Does require attended operation to ensure that the vacuum is maintained (don't let the hoses wiggle loose, etc). I'm not seeing the link show up: C-VAC3 - https://flodynamics.com/product/c-vac3/
  5. SEO won't get you known. It takes forever to show progress. I'd focus on marketing... flyers, business cards, attractive pole or building signage, advertising, radio. Become known. You need to be known. Even marketing takes time to really work, but it should show signs (sales) earlier.
  6. You can't. But, you can use this as a marketing opportunity. Many folks when looking at reviews, get the main score and then look at the responses to the bad reviews and also look at the most recent responses to get a feel for your shop. Here's how I respond to a bad review: First, call them to see if you can make it go away. Maybe it was a simple misunderstanding. If this fails, then I do not care about the reviewer. I'm responding, but I'm NOT responding to the reviewer. This is your marketing opportunity. You are responding to those that read these bad reviews to see how the owner reacted. I generally start with empathy and agree with what their concern is. e.g. I too would be unhappy if my shop could not handle a Prius. Then, I tell the story of the reviewer. Just the facts. Often, they look uneducated or selfish or mistaken when I'm done. Then I wrap it up with positive. Without reading your review... here's a mini-template to try: I too would be unhappy if my shop could not handle a simple Prius oil change, however, seeing that you've not visited our shop since 2009, I wonder if you've directed your complaint to the wrong shop? We do not even show a Prius on your account. We did call you in an attempt to resolve this issue, but have not received any response. We do Prius oil changes and/or repairs weekly. Had you visited our shop, I'm betting that you would be much happier than you are now. As you can see with our great reviews, this is uncharacteristic for our highly rated shop. If you have any further information to share with us, I'd like to hear it. Please call me, name, at 555-1212 to discuss further. Embrace it. Again, this is written to your future customers who are reading your bad reviews. If they read the review and think the reviewer is mistaken or just wrong, then you're off the hook. Now, reel these new customers in. They sided with you in their quick read of this review. I've had people tell me that such and such is a $^&(#!!! They do get read and processed with reason. And you don't want the ones that pick the wrong side, so they don't dirty your doorstep. I have fun with my review responses. I take the bad ones seriously and write 5-15 edits before I post a response. But with my good reviews, I answer everyone and keep it lighthearted and again, market to my review readers. An undeserved bad review sure ruins your day, but it's not terrible. It's only terrible if you deserved the review and any good shop will try to make it right anyway, so ultimately, it's not terrible. Most of my 1 star reviewers have never entered my shop. I have one that I deserved, but offered to have repaired. We dented an Aluminum F-150 door. (Who puts aluminum on trucks???) I have some who are mad that their car has multiple problems that I won't fix for free. And like you, I have some that are mad at someone else, but I'm being blamed. All in all, I still have a high rating. Hope you find this helpful.
  7. Start with Quickbooks until you run out of time managing it. Then when you switch, you'll get some time back. As for website, you need one to at least prove you exist Build it yourself if you want, but without significant effort on keyword optimization, you'll not rank high on searches. So, you need to find another way to be known. My methods of being known are my sign on the street, advertising and word of mouth. I don't spend any money on my own website for SEO optimization. This is a big money battle. I do spend money on other local websites that get 1st page rankings, well above mine, but this is just another form of advertising. Make sure that you sign up for Google Local and be sure that all of your NAP information across your website, google maps, apple maps, etc is identical in every way . NAP i s Name, Address and Phone Number.
  8. No update. He whipped out his credit card and paid. She left with a working vehicle. Our new friend David, who came, beaming with happiness and love left a memorable impression. Even with no actions taken, he would have been remembered. It shined bright.
  9. $400/month is a mere 2.66 hours of billable time. If you are operating alone, then think of the software as a very low cost assistant. If this software can free you up to make more billable hours, you come out ahead. Trying to do billing in QB's would take much more of your time. When it comes time to balance your parts purchases, having all of this done within the SMS is a huge time saver. Being able to go back to older invoices to review parts and labor and findings is invaluable. The ability to order parts online is wonderful. Your goal should be easy to use, and helps you save time. Time is what you sell. Protect it at all costs! Find a modern SMS with built-in Digital Inspections, even if you don't use it at first. DVI means that they'll have multiple methods of communicating with your customer as DVI requires robust communications. Pay the going rate, don't go for cut-rate offerings. If the software company does not make money, then they can't update their software and provide you with support. You want them to be healthy. With a Credit Card terminal, your customers can give you a credit card over the phone. However, whether text to pay or over the phone, these are the riskier models of payment. Pay at the terminal is the safest for you. They pay when they pick up the car. It's normal.
  10. You are asking for advanced features of paid SMS. Lots of feature innovations are out there. You'd probably like them. I'd say embrace the free paper model or raise your rates to buy a modern SMS. I print paper invoices, myself. I don't see people wanting to interact with your website to get their invoices anyway. If you are going paperless, email the invoice to me. Don't make me login to your website to get my invoices.
  11. None that I've heard of. If you are running a business, for sure you need an accounting program. Quickbooks will let you do invoices. See this topic: I'd pull my hair out if I had to use QBs for invoicing. With a low car count, it would work fine. Once you add volume, it's not optimal. My SMS makes my life so much easier and is easily worth the cost. When I first started, I didn't appreciate the value, but I do now. I only knew that I needed one.
  12. I walked to the front counter to help a customer as my manager was out running an errand. Shortly after stepping up, a new customer, David, maybe in his late 20's, a transplant from Georgia, came up to the counter and asked my receptionist for her name, Ericka. He then asked if he could say a prayer for her. She said, "Definitely!". He prayed over her and our shop. It was a touching moment. They continued talking and I continued helping the lady I was talking to, Cynthia, who had in tow, her 2 yr old daughter. I was explaining to Cynthia about her repairs and was giving her a few options. She was upset that she had just spent about $1000 on a long delayed cooling problem in March. Then, she's back for engine problems due to exceeding her 100K maintenance. This invoice was about $2000. She was frustrated with her car and said that she was going to take it to the dealer to trade it in. The recommended repair was going to fix this problem for sure. I was trying to provide confidence for her to make the best decision. While we were wrapping up, our friend David stepped up and said that Jesus was calling on him to pay for her repair bill! She was astounded and started crying. At first she did not believe him and I too questioned whether this was prudent. I gave him an opportunity to back off, but he insisted. He took no credit for his deed and proclaimed that Jesus loves her and need for her to be helped. Shortly thereafter, Ericka and Cynthia were hugging and crying in the parking lot. I was more touched by his original action, praying for Ericka. I'm happy for the 2nd action, but now, I'm worried about his ability to really afford his own action. I would hate for this to hurt him. I really think that he will be feeling the pinch of his very kind gesture. Sadly, after his service was complete, his own car would not start as it needed a new battery, which we did not stock. So, we got him started and pointed him in the direction of a parts store with the battery in stock. EDIT: Wait, he was also here a few weeks back, when another customer offered to pay for a half of one of my employees prosthetic leg, that was due for refit. And I remember seeing him before this even.
  13. When people say that they don't have the money, I see three possible reasons: 1) They really don't or 2) They have prioritized other non-essential items above this expense, or 3) They need more time to pay as they may not have a slush fund readily available, but can easily absorb this repair into their budget with time. I remember one no-money situation where the lady was in a hurry to get to the nail salon to have her expensive looking nails done again. Did not finance as it wasn't a priority to her. Or, that new iPhone just came out and I've almost got enough saved up for it. Hmmm. Car repair or New iPhone? In truth, the new iPhone, that's only 9 months newer than your current one, will give you more joy-for-your-money than the car repair. 😁 So it truly makes the decision harder. Less so, if the car is not running. However, we don't look down on anyone needing financing nor question why. We encourage them to only take it if they can stay within the no interest period, otherwise we discourage it. We recently had to finance a lady for a repair that came at a bad time. She was moving and had new deposits to put down, moving expenses, etc. She had no brake power assist and didn't have enough meat-on-the-bones to bear down on the brakes with full confidence. She had to drive from appointment to appointment for her job. This was a Positive Financing outcome. (Interesting side note: I was listening to a podcast with 360 payments as a guest when the topic of CC Chargebacks, came up with respect to financing. Chargebacks are unique to CC and thus don't apply). I recently noticed that we are seeing a spike in Financing, but I didn't really pay much attention to it... until I read your note. I track the numbers, but didn't think about any patterns. Well, by golly, there are patterns! It's on the rise. Already, in the 1st 4 months, we're 35% higher than all of 2021 financing. Last month, my financing jumped to a record 14.8% whereas, the previous month it was only 5.2% of repair sales. 2021 had a mere 2.2% finance rate overall. I'm not exactly sure why we are seeing a spike, but I do know that this program is helping us to capture large tickets that might otherwise do partial or nothing without it. I don't think we are seeing the "free money" folks. I'd say 100% are time shifters.
  14. I recently saw a sign at a KFC that read: "Now Hiring People Who Show Up for Work!" We hired a new employee to start yesterday. Didn't show up, called and he said I'll be there in 20 minutes. Never showed. Never answered the phone again, nor responded to text messages. I can respect "Hey, I changed my mind", but no communications?? Our criteria is "a servant's heart" along with either experience or aptitude to be trained. Sometimes, our criteria is a combination of aptitude and the mirror test with the intention to keep looking for our real criteria.
  15. We do a fair number of oil changes. We put oil stickers on cars for 3,000, 4,000 and 6,000 miles for Conventional, Synthetic Blend and Full Synthetic oils. 5,000 for Diesels. I track intervals per type of oil per year and only on cars that I've seen twice or more. For 2021, we've seen these average mileage intervals between oil changes: 5,189 - Conventional 5,370 - Synthetic Blend 6,320 - Full Synthetic (this average also includes euros) 7,000 - Diesel What does this tell me?? Conventional customers (3,000 mile) are saving money in two ways: 1) Buy the cheap stuff and 2) It doesn't need to be changed THAT often! (73% stretch) Synthetic Blend customers (4,000 mile) are more likely following the oil change light which turns on about 5,000 miles. As a category, they are trending too long. (34% stretch) Full Synthetic customers (6,000 mile) are staying close to our sticker and possibly the oil change light. Good boys and girls! (5% stretch) My diesel counts are not high enough to be statistically meaningful (just under 1%). Here's the surprising thing. Over the last 4 years, the oil change intervals have not meaningfully changed. All categories have very-very tight year-to-year groupings. What has changed is the time to hit these intervals. Over the last 2 years, I've seen the time to hit their interval rise 30-40 days (+50 days if you go back 4 years). This tells us that they are driving less overall. My data says that Oil Change mileage intervals are not changing... yet. Mind you, we are educating our customers to stay close to the intervals for less total-cost-of-ownership. Definitely Education! I keep oil control valves on my counter as talking points. The minute I have to change one of these because your let your maintenance lapse, you've lost the cost-of-ownership battle! We focus on encouragement, but I sometimes jokingly tell them that we'd prefer that you not take car of your car. Which side of the shop would you prefer to visit?
  16. If you become a PPC expert, then you are ahead of the game! I fear that the game has evolved and sprouted some sharp knives that one must avoid. Google is always playing cat-and-mouse with those trying to game the system. So, once you land on a strategy, it gets reworked by Google. You and I, both have very healthy advertising budgets. In this response, I'm going to champion a good advertising budget and push back on the need to DIY. I could likely DIY this, but I just don't find it enjoyable. I used to DIY my pool, but I was terrible at it because it wasn't enjoyable and I was lazy. My paid experts seem to be lazy too (but that's an angry story for another day!). For the rest of us, whom are either too lazy or busy to do this (I'm both), there can be value in hiring a competent PPC advertising expert to help you. This is important, because bad PPC is very costly. Good PPC is less costly. Knowing how to tune the the results to get optimal costs takes skill and time, as some of the tuning comes from trial and error, feedback and trial and error some more. Things that impact your costs are your Google Website score, Google Ratings, the quality of your ads, the quality of your landing pages and how well things that are searched are matched. Ultimately Google ADs are a computerized bidding war. My costs for a top advertising position for a given search term are lower with good fundamentals. For reference, I'm paying $350/month for managed Google PPC advertising. Last month, I spent $700 on ads, which resulted in 7,716 impressions (# times one of my ads was presented) with 619 clicks @$1.13/click ($700/619) and 260 calls-to-action $2.69/calls-to-action ($700/260). (I think the 2nd costing method (actions) is a better way to score success). Do this wrong and you can easily pay 10X for the clicks and thus get less clicks overall. I'm not tracking the actual conversions and true cost of conversions (because I don't want to invest that next bit of effort to do so and don't think I need it. Yes, I'm violating the marketing rule that says you track every conversion). I get monthly status reports with tons of data that I could review. Instead, I have my ad manager interpret the results for me and send me a monthly summary in addition to the raw data. She tells me how we are doing compared to previous months and where we are making changes, etc. Reading the raw data can be overwhelming and interpreting it correctly more so. I may spend 15 minutes on the detailed data reports. With Google, we can specify a targeted ad budget and they reduce the number of impressions shown to stay within or close to your budget. The real challenge is finding someone who is actually competent with PPC. There are many who say that they are the best, but are they??? How can you tell? Secondly, I'm not investing in SEO for my website. It's hugely expensive to fight your way to the top. I'm using advertising instead. Now, there are some SEO principals that you must mind and it wouldn't hurt to have your website cleaned up to at least a C+ grade. I follow an SEO technical forum, but do not have any desire to be an expert on this topic. I try to pick up the latest buzz only. If someone had some good data, it might be interesting to see if using a hyper-SEO optimized website service such as Kukui @ $1000/month (or more) is more valuable than advertising? I know nothing about this topic or vendor. P.S. Not that long ago, I was only paying $300/month for this SAME service. They had the audacity to raise my rates! 😡 Later, I followed suit. 😇
  17. As they say... "All's fair in Love, War and Recruting!", so you're good. Congratulations on creativity! My ads are skewed to telling the prospect what we have to offer (many words). Explain why they would enjoy working at your shop. It doesn't take many words for the technician to understand the type of work that we are doing and the skills that we desire from the candidate. You are looking to generate interest in a crowded field. Most ads are written with exacting detail about what the shop owner wants from the candidate. The goal is to have a wider net. Part of this process is putting on your "Sunday Best" as well. You can still weed out the misfits, but you have an opportunity to find a great fit with a crooked shell (that needs to be mended) and/or a perfect fit! We are not currently looking, but I do remember seeing both styles (formal and attractive) of job offers being posted... and very few of the latter.
  18. The concise definition that I remember reading was: "If it breaks during disassembly, then its on you. If it breaks going back on, then its on me." Of course, this needs to be wrapped flowery words.
  19. Have similar recent scars.... I read your review responses and I take a bit of a different approach when responding to haters. You thanked your hater. While it came off as nice and friendly, I only read that you were expensive and maybe it was because of better parts. You didn't tell me that it was a rust bucket. Had I known that, my impression would be quite different. I do commend you for responding with grace. I assume that the person that wrote the review is dead and never coming back. I have no desire to interact with them (after exhausting phone contact attempts to resolve it). Instead, I write to the future readers of this review. If I messed up, I own it, but if they are unreasonable, I want the readers to see this and to dismiss this review on their own accord. It takes me 1-2 days and 10-12 iterations to put the necessary flowery words around the very negative things I have to say. 😬 I invest this time and effort because I'm marketing to the future reader. Most of the time, they have 3 sections: empathy / concern, negative stuff and positive stuff. By not responding immediately, I'm no longer acting out on anger. On the last review where we were called rude, my manager wanted to be all corporate-like with "we will do better" words. I listened, but disagreed. He's usually right though and who knows, maybe was right here too. My response totally dismissed her demanded entitlement. I have found that many people are reading our reviews and surprisingly, they are coming from further away than normal because of the overall good reviews. They will sometimes tell me about a bad review and relate that they didn't believe it was our fault. Who did your customer a bigger disservice? You for being thorough to solve his critical safety system or the other guy that did the bare minimum but gave him favorable pricing. Your safety minded customers would agree that the other guy offered a disservice. It's a marketing opportunity for you to connect with these safety-minded customers! I have to say that those unearned negative reviews hit me personally. Because of this, I'm unable to write bad reviews of other businesses. I will write positive ones when deserved.
  20. Like you, I only listened to the YouTube Video, but after reading this, I listened to the whole podcast to see what I missed. Negativity would be uncharacteristic for them, but speaking openly and truthfully is their style, even if it hurts your feelings. They often say mean things like "raise your rates!". Like many of their podcasts, this one took a right turn from the main topic (which wasn't clearly defined anyway) for a bit and this really delved into a conversation on Trust (of your shop by customers). Some of the trust issues were brought to the surface by other shops communicating poorly, sometimes intentional and sometimes not. In general, the conversation was positive with a spin towards how professionals should act. Summary: This short title listed here is truly worthy of the description: Clickbait
  21. This Auto Repair Shop Podcast is Screwing me! And I didn't even get dinner beforehand! Rather than listening via my podcast app, I played this youtube version, only to find out it is a 6 minute Clickbait teaser! Then you goto their website and it's not there.... that is the clickbait title is absent from the actual episode. It is entitled: "ASOG Podcast LIVE at Vision KC with Phil Norvold of Max-Bilt Off-Road and Jamie Kane of Legends Marketing" I've listened to a number of these podcasts and others. In a nutshell, I classify these as "relevant" vs "intellectual" podcasts. Most of what I've listened to so far has been relevant. Normally, having just said "intellectual", I'd sling a friendly insult as I feel like I know them quite well after listening for hours and hours, but they don't know me. I'm just an audience member, so my clever joke would fall flat! 😉 I like them and their topics and recommend listening.
  22. Taking this topic off of the EV Maintenance thread.... Saw these videos (there are 2) in my news feed today.... The 2nd video is about 8 months old, but was buried in this twitter thread. In the twitter thread below, @phibetakitten explains: Not my video, but this is Yermo, California which has 18 150 kW stalls & is on a frequently busy travel corridor between southern CA and Las Vegas. My spouse was headed out of CA on a different route today and noticed the chargers were unusually full. Not sure why. Spring break? Then later in the same thread, I saw this video....
  23. Each browser usually has a zoom function. For Firefox and Chrome browsers, you can hold the CTRL key down and use your middle mouse scroll button to increase and decrease the font size. If you don't have a wheel, you can find it somewhere under the browser settings. And you can also buy a 32" monitor. This has downsides as you must now scroll your neck from side to side and up and down to see the whole screen. But, your font sizes would be the envy of the neighborhood! Here's an affordable one.
  24. You've described a typical early-adopter / fanboy of whatever technology / new thing exists. They want it and will make it work no matter what. To them, they get to go on a Sunday drive in their newest and funnest toy! Life is grand! The mainstream wants a nice car and convenience and I heard that they might honk if inconvenienced! 😁
  25. Off topic, but this comedy sketch mirrors your bathroom door sign. The real question is does this still apply in retirement?









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