KMS

 

 

Pretty much sorry about your luck better luck next time, some weeks are good and some are bad. I will pay him when he hands the ticket in and the job is done. If it take the customer a week to come pick up their 30 hour stupid 6.0 headgasket job then sucks to be me and I have to float that. But thats also where having strong financials helps.

Its not the techs job to float the costs of the business ever. It is up to the business to pay the techs for what they have done weekly.

KMS, how often do you review/audit the time sheets? I would think daily makes sense since at the end of the week any errors or mistakes can be harder to track since its been days since the work was done.

All time sheets are gone through daily, so I know what a tech has produced each day. Then, at the end of the week, the times sheets are what their pay is based upon. The service advisor should be going over all work performed daily with the techs so the time sheets stay current. It helps keep the numbers accurate for each week.

We use our local papers, and direct mailing. We also have juggled around doing sponsorships, just haven't jumped on board yet.

pay him when the job is done, as a tech myself thats what I would do to myself. you get paid when the job is done and ready to ship.

This is when it won't be fair to the tech. Scenerio: Tech does 8 flat rate hours worth of work on a vehicle on Weds, then finds out a part you were waiting for isn't going to come in until the following Monday. How is that fair? So what you are saying is the tech should not get paid for a full day of work because he was unable to finish the job?

What do you think about out of the area customers who have never been to your shop, or possible customers that just moved to the area? Word of mouth may not work. How would you advertise to these customers if you don't know about them?

We have gone away from the price shoppers. In the past year I raised our labor rate from $101.58/hr to $117.58/hr without any drawbacks. I feel most customers do not shop on price alone, and I will never tell anyone that we are the cheapest. Sometimes we charge more, sometimes we charge less. It hardly ever matters what the price is as long as you provide a "Great Service Experience!" Try not to dwell on what other shops are charging. Ever shop needs to charge a certain amount to profit. Don't let price run you out of business. Also, remember we don't charge for parts and labor, we charge for service.

If I forget a name, I just say "Good Morning, or Good Afternoon" with a big smile , then after I pull the information off of their car I always use their first name. I think using first names make the visit more calming, trusting, and personal.

We were having that issue a while back. What we implemented were tech time sheets. We found this to work out great, then the tech would get paid the week he had time into the job. Not only is it good for the tech, it is also good for the shop to be able to track properly. So, each week the tech would get paid off of his weekly time sheet. It works really well.

Referrals work excellent! We did a program and gave out 5 - $20.00 referral cards to give to their friends and family or anyone else, and if a new customer came in with the referral card they received $20,00 off that visit, and we would put $20.00 on the customer's account who referred them to us. It worked pretty well.

What if you don't have these type of communities near? What's next?

I do agree that is does depend on the surrounding economy. Does anyone know of anything out there that isn't real expensive and effective?

ARO was a challenge but after going from $350 avg and higher car count with the chaos I agree less car count higher ARO now we avg 500-$575. We did this by inspecting every car that comes in and taking time educating the customer. The other factor has been auto vitals. Taking pictures and showing your customers has been huge for us.

I completely agree. Work smarter not harder. Excellent job on the ARO!

I like the sponsership idea. Thanks.

We have gone through the entire program (service advisors to ownership) with excellant results. I was always afraid of change, and thought my way was the correct way. WOW, was I wrong. As long as you are willing to listen and make changes, you will see results. The return that we have seen since we first started with them has been outstanding. They will help you change for todays market. It is way different than even 10 years ago.

I deal with every situation differently. I do have the technician that worked on it previously repair it correctly. Remember, you will have comebacks, appologize to the customer and take care of the bill. I also give the customer coupons for their troubles. If it is a safety concern that is a comeback and it is our fault and not a defective part, I will give the technician a final warning and tell them if it ever happens again he/she will be fired on the spot. If not, I will give him a warning and deduct his time from the last repair. They will learn very quickly to check and recheck their repairs to make sure it is repaired right the first time.

If you are selling parts and labor you are going to lose. You are selling a service. That service happens to come with a highly qualified technician performing the work and an industry leading warranty and also includes parts and labor. When you start the sales conversation with parts and labor breakdown you just put yourself on the bottom of an uphill battle.

Yes, you sell a SERVICE! Never give a customer a break-down unless they ask. We always give the bottom line total first, then individual service prices (only when asked), then a break down of parts and labor (only when asked). It makes the sale easy.

Thank you. I will work on the internet aspect some more.

I never send out cheap service. What I do is send out is $25.00 off any service visit, or $50.00 off $250.00 or more. I do not what the cheap shoppers coming in our door.

5 Star Auto Spa,

Why don't you stop advertising oil changes and start advertising other services. See what happens.

A high car count is easy to attain. Any shop that has used bottom feeding coupons has probably seen just how many bad customers will show up to claim their free thing. Bad marketing means losing money on all of that increased car count, too. (Paying money to print and mail the ad, only to pay money to inspect vehicles that will never turn into paying customers, only to lose money from the coupon.)

 

A high ARO, on the other hand, is the culmination of good marketing, good inspections and write ups, and quality service writing. And there's no sustainable shortcut to improving those three things...improving them takes measurement, accountability, and training on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

 

Years ago, our shop tried the first route. 40 cars a day, sub $200 ARO. Inverting those numbers (25 cars, $450 ARO) means less stress, less chaos, and more profits. A high ARO is harder to attain, but it's well worth the effort.

I was talking about quality customers. KEEPERS! $250.00 ARO jump isn't unrealistic. It would depend on your location and if your service advisor/s ask for the sale. Also, they can't be afraid of high estimates. Remember, its not your car, you didn't build it, you didn't break it, but you can fix it.

I believe in telling all customers all issues with their vehicles I see. Then, I prioritize it. Even the small concerns that aren't really an issue yet. It earns their trust, and helps them save for their next visit. Also, many times they just tell me to take care of it all now. Always put the ball in their court. I agree with not selling un-needed services. This is one of the main reasons I get calls from customer's who have their vehicle at the dealer.

What is the best and cheapest way to advertise? I have been finding that I have been spending a lot of money with poor results? Let me know what is working for you?

TTP

I have found that it all depends on the area your shop is in. You are telling them the right thing. It's you reputation that can be hurt if and when something goes wrong with the cheap parts that they are probably bringing in. Don't take that chance. What may also help is offering a better warranty. My warranty is 3yrs/Unlimited miles. We only use OE or factory parts. We pride ourselves on this. Remember, it is your shop and you only want quality life-long customers.

Great post Koala, btw I buy your products they are great!

You're Welcome and thank you.

KMS Thanks for your post. The question still lies what is harder to obtain. Higher ARO or higher car count. High ARO and a high enough car count is ideal however on a day to day struggle what is everyone's problem.

I have seen that it is much harder and a lot more expensive to bring up the car count. There are many factors that all shops need to think about. ARO is simple to accomplish. Having a good service advisor is key. Even raising it $50.00 would be simple, here are some examples:

Simple thing you can do:

1.) Add a tyre rotation - $29.95

2.) Add shop charges - $5.05 (Base it off of a percentage of labor with a cap of $39.84 on big tickets)

3.) Add .5 labor to a repair order @ $100.00 - $50.00

4.) Raise labor rate by $10.00/hr

5.) Average 60% mark-up on parts

This is a good one:

"There isn't anything in the world that someone cannot make and sell cheaper and the person who buys on price alone is this person's legal prey."

John Ruskin - English Essayist 1819-1900

Quality life-long customer's don't purchase based on price!