SMMotors

It' seems like a basic sales pitch. I have attended management suscess and wasn't blown away with it. It wasn't bad, just nothing earth shattering.

Your giving away 3% on credit cards plus the credit cards are charging you 1.9-3% already? And your automatically giving 5% off if they pay cash? That's horrible business sense my friend. Why are you giving any discounts especially ones like that! I can see giving a discount off an oil change if they are doing 4 tires but to arbitrarily give 5% back paying cash seems crazy.

Amazing what happens when you charge for an inspection or estimate. It's almost like you value you what they have to say more because you have something vested in it. Hint hint

I have actually worked in a unionized auto repair shop. I was in IAMAW LOCAL 1484 for 7 years. Great benefits, crap pay, and had to do what the masters told me. Wanted to go to work but the metal workers are striking? Too bad, you ain't going to work because we have to stand with " our brother". Didn't matter that i didn't have a dog in the fight, had a wife and 2 kids to feed, it's the union way! Unions have done wonders for the economy wouldn't you say? No budget deficits to be seen anywhere, especially in California, Chicago, Greece, ...... The only reason I was able to work in a union shop that survived was because it was commercial fleet. We worked at the docks and refinery and had contracts. Contract comes up? No more worky for me. Not many non multi billion dollars companies that can support union auto workers. In private industry, it would never work. The labor rate would have to be double to support the mandated benefits and payacsle the unions demand. There goes free industry. We now all have to charge the same to make it work. So much for a free America. Your argument is counterintuitive. It doesn't work. The problem is the public image, auto zone advertising that " any one can fix a car, we will scan it for free and tell you what to replace", and trying to be the cheapest around. That's an amazing marketing campaign autozone has by the way. Sell more parts and never have to figure out the problem. I digress. I do find it interesting that after 30 years and being a master tech that you've never found a place that appreciates you. I can't imagine why. I would hire an ASE Master with smog in a heartbeat and I pay well. And yes, I'm one of the "greedy bastards" that you're referring to. Funny thing though, I've had the same employees for 13 years. I charge more than the dealers and yet my lot is full and my next opening isn't till next week. So we have taken the union option off the table, you've been a shop owner ( that didn't work however you can understand the troubles that small business ownerships have) and you've been in the business for 30 years. What is another option? I don't give away diag time and I also don't pay flat rate. I feel that shops that don't charge for inspections and testing are hurting our image and are part of the problem. PS, I have taken a blue pill, it's a great time !

I have actually worked in a unionized auto repair shop. I was in IAMAW LOCAL 1484 for 7 years. Great benefits, crap pay, and had to do what the masters told me. Wanted to go to work but the metal workers are striking? Too bad, you ain't going to work because we have to stand with " our brother". Didn't matter that i didn't have a dog in the fight, had a wife and 2 kids to feed, it's the union way! Unions have done wonders for the economy wouldn't you say? No budget deficits to be seen anywhere, especially in California, Chicago, Greece, ...... The only reason I was able to work in a union shop that survived was because it was commercial fleet. We worked at the docks and refinery and had contracts. Contract comes up? No more worky for me. Not many non multi billion dollars companies that can support union auto workers. In private industry, it would never work. The labor rate would have to be double to support the mandated benefits and payacsle the unions demand. There goes free industry. We now all have to charge the same to make it work. So much for a free America. Your argument is counterintuitive. It doesn't work. The problem is the public image, auto zone advertising that " any one can fix a car, we will scan it for free and tell you what to replace", and trying to be the cheapest around. That's an amazing marketing campaign autozone has by the way. Sell more parts and never have to figure out the problem. I digress. I do find it interesting that after 30 years and being a master tech that you've never found a place that appreciates you. I can't imagine why. I would hire an ASE Master with smog in a heartbeat and I pay well. And yes, I'm one of the "greedy bastards" that you're referring to. Funny thing though, I've had the same employees for 13 years. I charge more than the dealers and yet my lot is full and my next opening isn't till next week. So we have taken the union option off the table, you've been a shop owner ( that didn't work however you can understand the troubles that small business ownerships have) and you've been in the business for 30 years. What is another option? I don't give away diag time and I also don't pay flat rate. I feel that shops that don't charge for inspections and testing are hurting our image and are part of the problem. PS, I have taken a blue pill, it's a great time !

It's amazing in this day and age with so many hack shops out there that anyone on ASO would use non oem fluid. What's next? Let's use non dexos oil in the cars cause all oil is the same? It's just coolant, those engineers didn't really think it matter so the universal coolant should be fine. Yep there sure is a lot of different coolant out there. So what? Charge the customer and install the tight stuff. I stock about 7 different coolants. Heck, Chrysler has 2 different types just based off the model year and it looks the same. Do your customers a favor and set your shop apart and use the correct fluid. It didn't cost you anything to stock or use the right fluid. I've done a ton of Toyota and Chrysler water pumps because someone put in the universal or worse green coolant "because it's all just the same" makes me lots of money!

What are you looking for? Like if a person calls asking for a price on brakes, you fill out brakes, phone #, $? Then you'll follow up with them later?

Then fire them. Or send one home for the day. If up you have to keep repeating yourself, then it sure sounds like you don't have the guys respect. Like I said, I have no problem keeping my area clean and I don't like working in a pig s pile. That's just basic life. But if the boss tells me to clean the darn bay, you know what? I'm going to clean it. Maybe they don't value working for you and you need to pull the choke chain a little to remind them. But again are your guys flat rate or being paid to clean? Was it told to them when they were hired they'd have to play maid? ( I ask when I interviewed at my previously places a lifetime ago). What does it say in the employee handbook? You have one of those .....right?

It's usually doing that because the ECM is seeing that it can't pull a vacuum. I've sen the canister come apart, plug the purge valve and it can't draw a vacuum so it throws that code. Read your SI, that system uses vacuum, smoke won't help you. Test it correctly and read the code set criteria. Look at your scanner and see what's not within spec and go from three.

Do you pay them to clean? I understand keeping my work area clean, but if your asking them to take out the trash and clean the crapper, I'd have a hard time with that especially if I'm flat rape. If your paying me hourly, then I'll do it. To an extent. It's costing the shop take me off a car to take out the trash. I can promise you it's going to cost you more than if you hired a scut worker for $8-9/ hr to clean up. I have one that mops, emptying trash, fills up washer fluid and brake clean jugs, empties the waste oil, ect because I crunched the numbers and the lost productivity was way more expensive that his salary. Food for thought.

You don't have to get out of this business to set aside 30 mins bro. That's on you. Weather your running an auto shop or a plumber, if you can't step away for a bit to take a call, you gotta look at the reason. I don't know Elon or his company, but I can understand where he is coming from. You read horror stories of people burdened with their shops and can't make time for family or improvement because the shop can't run on its own. There's more to life than working. It's about getting help to figure that out. There's people that have systems and figured out how to do things the better way. I've looked into management companies, and the ones I've seen FOR THE MOST PART do have a good basis. I've also seen the dreaded " sell more flushes, raise your labor rates, charge for everything, pay your techs less but then dangle the carriot so they feel like they can make more if they work harder" companies as well At this point, what's 30 mins going to hurt? Like I said, it doesn't matter what business your in, you gotta get help when needed.

Hey stow, I usually agree with most of what you type, we seem to think a lot alike. However, you've said it multiple times, " come in for a free inspection". Why do you do free inspections? I charge to look at pretty much anything. Granted there are times I'll check something out, but if a customer calls saying they need an alternator, I'm going to charge a nominal fee to look at. That $1200 load tester I have and 20 years experience costs money. It seems to weed out a lot of those " price shoppers " right out. It's rare I have those black holes darkening my doorway. If someone calls asking for the price of an oil change, yes I'll say it's anywhere from $50-120 and give the speech that it's a full service. It's become very rare that people price shop us. Our reputation is so solid that when we tell someone that it will be $120 to check out the dead battery no start, they say no problem, I've heard you guys are great and trustworthy. That's where I think you need to focus on. Not worrying about converting the price shoppers, but making it so that you have such a great rep, that people just want to make an appointment.

I'm doing the same. We average 250 cars per month and I stock about 25 filter and this includes euro # s as well. It is rare that I have to order anything. I'd be happy to post what I stock if it would help anyone.

Man, this just keeps getting better. No disrespect, but you need to stop working on this truck and take it to a shop that is computant in auto repair. What parts are you going to throw at it next, maybe a wiring harness? I'm in no way trying to disrespect you but I've been following this thread and you should have never touched this truck, even with your so called expert. 20 hours to find a bad plug and you threw an ECM at it? This is one of the reasons that our industry has an imagine problem. There is nothing wrong with not being able to do all repairs. There are shops in my area that ONLY DO brakes and alignment. Brakes making noise or steering pull, they are the guys. Check engine light on or car isn't starting not their bag. The days of being a general repair shop are GONE. It's bad for the customer financially and your doing them a disservice. You really should reevaluate your business modle. Stick to what you know and do it well. Look at how much this job has cost you in terms of money, time, and credibility. These are all things that once gone, you can't get back. Why are you paying for the cats? The car had came I with a misfire and the truck had been driven for a long time with one. If you knew about Fords, you would know that they take forever to code for misfires and thus if are driven, they will cause cat damage. Now the flip side to this is, if you were tooled up for ford, you would have been able to run a balance test on IDS and pinpoint the misfiring cyld in about 2 minutes. Hell, you could have even looked at mode 6 pid 53 with a code reader to see what was misfiring. This comes to my point of your expert. If he couldn't figure out what cyld was misfiring, and it took 20 hours to find a bad plug, he isn't an expert. I sure hope you didn't pay him 20 hours. Your tech that said he changed the plug wouldn't be doing anymore diag or repairs if he worked for me. Again, I'm not trying to bash you, I just don't like seeing people take on more than they are capable of. It hurts our whole industry. Next shop that gets this customer, customers is going to be on gaurd and not want to pay for testing, because he already had and has spent $xxxx and the problem is still there. I would encourage you to get your guys into training. It's fine if you want to start doing diag, but you have to have a capable tech and proper tooling. I don't work on all car lines. I only work on what I'm tooled for and know how to fix efficiently. I'm in this business to make money, not be a superhero who can fix anything. I don't do motors, I don't rebuild transmission, and I do maybe 5-6 clutches a year and I charge very well for them. Now imagine if you stick to doing brakes, Maintience, and simple services. Think of all the hours you lost with this darn truck. I'll take gravy work all day. We've all had our rear ends handed to us, I just know now when to say NO sooner. There is nothing wrong with sticking with what your good at. Again, please don't take any offence to what I'm saying. I'm not judging you or your shop, I just would suggest you rethink your business model. We are all here to make money, not lose it.

Doing lift service and having inspections done are two different things OOooo. I service my lifts as well. I have a background in hydraulics so it's pretty easy stuff. I don't do my own inspections though. I want that piece of paper from a certified company should there be an accident. Lot easier for my insurance company to cover an accident if I go " yep, I've got it inspected per the law". Granted in Comifornia, I mean California, it's the law we have to have lifts inspected annually. However, there aren't any " agents" out to inforce it. If the state has a hard on, they usually go after bigger companies that have deeper wallets anyway. The on,y reason I do it is to keep my guys safe and insurance happy.

What ever came of this Rambiss?

I don't cave. I've told the warranty companies that I'll let the customer know that you've refused to honor the warranty. I do have a work around that hasn't failed yet. When the warranty companies want to send us parts, I tell them that my insurance won't cover any parts that aren't sold on the work order. Doesn't matter if they are OES or AM. I politely ask if the warranty company if they would like to underwrite my insurance policy and cover the million dollar liability I have. This is a huge thing that I don't think ESO's take seriously. If the part you install isn't supplied and sold by you, you will not be covered if there is any problems ( at least on my policy and other shops that I've worked at, I've seen it in the contract as well as asked the adjuster). You all have read the posts " times were slow so I went ahead and took the job and used the customer supplied brake pads cause some money is better than no money". That never ends well. I encourage everyone to review and ask your adjuster about it. I was told by 2 different companies that if I put customer supplied parts on, there is an accident, I have no protection. No insurance coverage, no company lawyer, no financial protection. With extended warranty companies, I make my money. I know how to play their game and charge for stuff that I wouldn't charge for with regular customers ( ie hose clamps, total freon in the system not what was evaced minus what I put in, list price on coolant and filters, book time for LOFs, full diag time at a higher per hour charge). I make good money on the extended warranties most of the time. I don't let them dictate how to perform my job, what I make, or what parts I use. Good on you Joe!

You can't change for the estimate, but you can charge what's called an "administration fee" I usually charge $300. If the bike is totaled,I would be charging my admin fee PLUS storage fee from the time the estimate was sitting to when it was hauled off. I charge $65/day storage and have always gotten it. As far as getting blacklisted, customers can bring their car/bike to whatever repair facility they wish. Your not going to get blacklisted as much as your not going to become a preferred vendor for said insurance. It's all a giant game. Don't think that because insurance already spent$1200, that they are in a hurry. Make your money, learn the game.

I have a list on my computer that I'll send you tomorrow. I based it off my days in the union. One piece of advise I would give. We had a problem employee. He was hired as a smog tech. We do about 60 sniffs a day and have 3 dedicated smog techs and 1 office personal. There was a lot of downtime where the techs would be on their computer or on the phone. I never minded because the shop was clean and there wasn't anything to do. Well, the repair side was slammed like always and we asked the tech to help us move cars. He response was"that's not my job". Classy response. Long story short,I cut back his hours, loaded him with work and made it so he wanted to leave. He ended up quieting about 2 weeks later. Morale if the story. Now in all job descriptions in the employer hand book it is written that everyone is to do anything and everything for the betterment of the company when asked by management. I don't abuse it at all but it has prevented that from happening. I have a full time janitor to clean up after the techs,a parts guy that gets the techs the parts, and a shuttle driver so no one ever has to do what they weren't signed up for. I don't believe techs should be asked to mop up the shop if they aren't getting paid for it. However, if I'm paying you then you better move a car or help out if I ask. We've never had a problem except for the one guy but I learned my lesson.

I don't work on anything older than 1996 and even then I'm picky. I try to stick to 2000 and newer. I pay hourly with a bonus if the SHOP hits a certain amount of hours. We have a team atmosphere. Makes it so everyone is trying to get the shop the make the money because then everyone has a vested interest in what the shop makes. We base it off our PNL. if shop makes it's 18% gp, we spiff everyone. Makes the techs and office staff more alert on wasting supplies, brake cleaner, pens, ect. We have no problem spending money on things the shop needs. We specialize on a few car lines and only work on those. We are factory tooled with scanners and SI so we are more productive/efficient. If the tech can get a car diag quicker, it's only going to make the shop more money. When it comes to flat rate it's a tough thing. I've seen more techs in the past 10 years burnt out by flat rate. ESO's don't want to pay for labor if the tech isn't working and the techs don't like not getting paid if there aren't enough cars or the SW can't sell. I've seen more discussions on here about charging for testing/diag than I can stomach. If you pop the hood, you charge. My owner taught me that it all starts at the head of the snake aka the office. You've got to have your front office working perfectly then the techs will make you money anyway you pay them. Flat rate, hourly, bonus, it doesn't matter if the front can't get the flow handled. To the OP who talked about the BMW techs only getting 13 hrs. Why do you have a BMW tech working on a cutlas? That's like getting made at your dentist because he couldn't fix you knee. If the BMW tech can knock out the hours on BMW, then I sure would be marketing that I work on BMW and setting that tech up to make me money. If you have someone that can only bill out 13 hours in 45, that's only going to lead to the sale of an unprofitable business. Is it the techs fault that he can work on a 30 year old car, or the ESO for expecting him to be efficient on it and wondering how can he pay the tech differently? Sorry for the long post. Don

Umm sorry to be the voice of decent, but 30-40k? Are you nuts? And you got a whooping 4 LOF and a set of tires. Please, don't take offense. I truly think that's a horrible investment. Tires run at what 20-30% gp if your lucky? LOFs are usually a loss leader ( from what I've read on here, I make money on mine). To spend $30k means you have to bring in 70k. Wouldn't that be better spent towards improving efficiency and productivity? Put it towards a computerized inspection process, get the techs tablets, and increase your average RO. Then put 10 k into yelp/Adwords/ your website. Then with the left over purchase factory scan tools and now your even more productive. Like I said, I'm not trying to be rude, I just think $40k on a message board is crazy. Especially with the test results you've gotten back.

Umm how did they think you were too expensive? Are you giving out estimates prior to seeing the car? Are these new customers that are calling to book appt that have never been in? If so, never give out an estimate over the phone. Get them to come in, charge to inspect, and then if they balk, you got paid for your time.

Slippin Jimmy really makes you open your eyes to things, doesn't it. Great show and insight into hustling.

I do the same as Scotty P. I only book 4-5 appts per day to leave room. Yeah, I've lost a few customers, but I'm so busy that it doesn't really effect me. I'd rather make 10k working on 9 cars then working on 16 cars a day. Most people understand and are happy to make appointments. You can't physically survive trying to keep everyone happy.

Welcome Phil, where are you located in ca?