PAPShop

On 3/15/2018 at 12:07 PM, DUFRESNES said:

Sadly, it has not been resolved.  1st she went to the BBB and we agreed with what she wanted.  Then she decided to put another on the BBB and again we agreed.  Finally the BBB closed  the complaint.  She then filed a small claims but she filed it in the wrong county.  We finally go to mediation and court in the end of May.  We replaced her engine with one that had 7000 miles less, did a timing belt for free.  Now she want more money.  We will see.  We had many customers came in to keep us up to date.

We had a situation like this.  We filed a counter claim in small claims court.  The judge requested that all parties try to come to an agreement before he will hear the case.  We came to an agreement, and found that some of the case was based on misinformation between the husband and wife, and some was just misunderstanding of vehicles.  We shook hands in the end and both parties felt the agreement was fair.  Good Luck

We pay for their time at the class and for the class, but not drive time.  Training is taken into consideration when it is time for reviews and raises.  

We do a basic combination of what is discussed above.  No one is on flat rate. hourly and a percentage of hours billed.  General auto repair is billed out at book time and techs know what the job should take on book time.  On performance, there is no book time on performance jobs, however, after 10 years of business there is a knowledge base of how long it should take, and milking the time clock will not be tolerated.  Right now we h ave a group of go-getters and they were happy when the "clock watcher" was let go.  They are currently on a high after completing a restoration job, and they can't wait to finish the next performance job.  High Five's all around!

We were promised the rainbow when switching to Mitchell.  We were very specific and some areas we had questions about and were told that they could handle that aspect of what we were looking for.  The guy that came to install the software was a joke.  Knew nothing about computers or how to use the software.  After 2 months of getting information transferred from Quickbooks to get ready to go live..... we jumped in both feet and went live.  Ha.  2 weeks later I quit and walked out of the shop. (I'm the owner's wife and bookkeeper and resident IT person).  I was told over and over by tech support "you can't do that with our software".  It became "stump the dummies" whenever I called them. I think there is a note on our file that I'm the crabby b!tc# when I call. The original integrator was a joke.  We now use The Back Office for Quickbooks integration and it works wonderfully!  When we opened our second shop, the representative that came and installed the software was great and gave a short training and was helpful, it was night and day.  Over a year later and we are still learning how to use the software.   //Rant over**

She's not a guard dog - just a mascot.  And of course her name is Shelby after the man, not the car.  Goes home with us at night since the police and fire station are both right over the river next to us.  I scoop her poop, and have to vacuum and sweep the hair constantly.  We even have customers that stop by just to give her treats.  She has her own bed in the back office.

We do have a high female customer percentage for our general automotive repair.  (The performance side, not so much.)  Here are a few things we have worked on to gain and keep our ladies as customers.

1.  Our waiting area is female friendly, AND VERY CLEAN.  Our restroom is VERY CLEAN.

2.  Our service writer is very respectful and does not talk down to the customer.  He jokes that he will treat her like his daughter/sister/mother/aunt/grandmother.  He makes sure she understands the what and why of the repairs.  He will also prioritize if there is a laundry list of repairs.  The most common categories are: immediate, soon, before the change of seasons.

3.  Show and tell.  We will bring the customer to the back and show them on their car what is going on.

4.   Honesty.  Before we had our shop, I had a couple of bad experiences with other shops in our town lying to me.  My coolant flush turned into replacing parts that were brand new.  My brake job turned into my brakes never being changed and I was charged for pads, rotors and calipers - my calipers were custom painted and I was told they put new ones on and they all come that custom color and they lost my wheel center cap. I was told it came in without it.  The owner of our shop (my husband) vowed that the experiences I had would never happen to our customers.  

5.  I'm female, I am mostly in the back office, but I wander up front, I answer phones and will make some appointments.  I will chit-chat with the ladies.  They seem to like the fact there is a lady working here.  

On 4/13/2017 at 6:04 AM, Custom Coach said:

papshop.

That's the way it is here today.

we hired one kid about 10-15 years ago as a favor to his dad (his dad and mine were friends)

He became a certified air brake mechanic in 2 weeks and never laid a hand on any part of an air brake system.

The teacher had the students form a semi circle behind him and watched him do all the work then they took a test and got to use the books with the answers in the lesson.

and there was not a day that went by when my brother did not threaten to kill him for not listening to his instructions.

I got my macs R12 license through them I took the book and test read the book left it at work went home took the test and missed one question.

The instructor graded it and asked if I used the book I told him no and where the book was while I answered the test questions.

He replied well if you would have used the book like we let our students do you would have gotten all the answers right because they are in the book.

I looked at him like he had lobsters crawling out of his ears and I thought to myself how is that learning anything if you already have the correct answers.

Today you can go on that side of town and tell what kids are in the auto or diesel classes there at school

 They are out in public day or night looking like they just used themselves to change the oil and tranny in a car or diesel (dirty bodies filthy clothes) steel toed shoes that don't fit (so they sound like a Clyde's dale walking through the store) and this facial hair that looks like they all shaved a dogs butt and glued it to their face in no uniformed manner.

The only kids that I have had the pleasure of getting to know there ( are few and far between ) but they work for a local parts store as delivery drivers and they grew up on dad or grand dads farm or shop so they are there to learn and take that tech home to help out on the farm or rural community.

The rest are there just to help this non profit college expand their fleet of 18 wheeled race car haulers at last count was 7 nascar style semi trucks (capable of hauling 2 cars in each) and a couple semi truck style motor homes.

 

 

We have been advertising for an experienced tech in our second shop for 6 months and have only had very few applications.  They have either come from the local tech school or they got their experience working on friends cars, and they look like they crawled out from under the car and forgot to shower or put on clean clothes.   

On 4/10/2017 at 6:47 AM, Custom Coach said:

The town I live in has a college in it that teaches auto, diesel.

My dealings with most of the students over the years has been they don't have the sense to get out of their own way.

These kids come in with hi hopes and big dreams of being the next Smokey yunick, Richard petty  or Don Garlits

I just wish this college would not fill these kids heads with top of the ladder dreams when most are not even ready to start the climb  

 

We have a tech school for auto repair in our town.... it is just a three blocks down the road.  The "instructor" only teaches computer diagnostics and electronic repairs.  In his opinion that is all that cars are now.   Our owner hired a kid from the school that was the top of the class.  1.  He stared at a transmission for 45 minutes to figure out what tools he needed to remove it.  THEN  2. He didn't know lefty loosey, righty tighty.    He was gone by the end of the day.

The kids coming in for interviews think they deserve top dollar pay with no experience.  Their instructors tell them that's what they will get upon graduation.  

I like the one xrac chose, however there was one that the wrench came in sideways like an e, HOWEVER I also do not like the cursive font on that logo.  Use the font for essential in the logo with the wrench and piston in that choice and it would work better.  Essential should be a simple font.

Being from Minnesota, Caribou Caribou blend from the Keurig with cream and sugar......HOWEVER  Tim Hortons just opened up 3 blocks from the shop, so Saturday mornings its an XL double double with two crullers. 

10 minutes ago, mspecperformance said:

PAP, what model rack did you get? 

RX10, we've had it for about 4 years.  We have a second set of ramps that we use so we can do low profile cars. 

15 hours ago, mspecperformance said:

Did you flush mount your alignment rack?

No we didn't.  

On 3/21/2017 at 10:23 PM, xrac said:

Is anyone using the scissor type alignment lift? IF so what brand and how well do you like it.  Does anyone have the Hunter Sissor lift?  

We have a Hunter scissor lift.  Besides alignments and the repairs related to them, we do oil changes on the lift and we do inspections on it.  In a pinch we've done brakes also.

I would think that monkeying with the stands would create inefficientcy in the shop, as opposed to drive on - drive off situation.

Wanted to share this:  We just remodeled our store area and made a customer friendly waiting area. 

The one change from the picture is we put a picture frame up with our logo, our catch phrase "Setting a new standard in service" and that we are family owned since 2007. 

The picture that is shown is a picture from about 1959-1960.  It is the "original Brainerd car club" and has 4 cars and their owners standing next to their car.  One of the guys in the picture is the shop owner's dad, one of the other guys is a local car "legend" and one guy still owns the car in the picture, he lives elsewhere and had our engine builder work on it when he lived in the same town..... not knowing it was the grandson of one of his buddies. It is a great conversation piece.  This change has been one of the best changes we have made to the shop.  Cost:  Furniture $250 at Habitat for Humanity Restore, Rug $162, everything else was scrounged from our house or was in the old waiting area (TV & Coffee table and Keurig).  Result: happy customers and our question during the whole remodel "is this woman friendly?" helped to guide us.

Put that next to the "We use EBay Parts" sign.

Discount works on keeping their overhead low.  They do not do their own alignments - no lifts - lower worker's comp etc.    In - great customer service - out - send the customer somewhere that does alignments.  We do alignments for our local Discount Tire.  It was a great business decision.  We have gained several good customers because of their referral.  We maintain a great relationship with the managers and most of the tire techs also.  They are all willing to refer their customers to us.

On ‎2‎/‎28‎/‎2017 at 6:19 PM, CMillet86 said:

The Engine Dyno &  machine shop is technically a separate business. I do run a chassis dyno, but that is one reason I've been floundering, it's not making any money. My biggest issue's are marketing and me. When I do get busy I get behind as a one man auto repair shop. My car count only averaged 21 a month last year, now I have a high ARO at $508 for the last year, but profit margin wasn't there. I only averaged 26% on parts last year. I try not to cut my prices, but in my town it seems like everyone is selling parts at cost and only running a $65hr labor rate. I'm at $70 and trying to make a minimum of 40% on parts and everyone keeps telling me how high I am. 

I have spoke with you in the past and we met at PRI.  Our shops have some similarities as far as the kind of work we do.  I am sorry to hear you are still struggling. 

I completely agree with hiring someone at minimum wage.  Give a kid a chance that is a total motor head who is willing to learn.  This will free up some of your time.  Teach and demand from him quality, and to do it right.  He will become a valuable asset.  Or if you can find someone experienced that can bring some business with or fill in your weak areas, that would help you.

Our chassis dyno took awhile to be busy, it is something you have to create a reputation.  We started out only scheduling dyno pulls for Fridays and Saturdays.....  Why?  Word of mouth travels faster on those days in the performance area. It is just before the weekend and your customer will brag all weekend. 

Another suggestion from our experience:  Change your shop labor rate..... RAISE IT!  Have two different rates.  Have an hourly rate for your daily drivers, and a second, higher rate for performance.... and do not make excuses for the higher rate!  Your experience and knowledge on performance is worth more than general auto repair rate.  Our hourly rate is $90 and our rate is $130 for classics (older than 30 years) and performance.  We take pride in our performance side of the business and you get what you pay for, a top notch job done by an experienced shop. With the higher rate, we have earned respect and the performance shop did not slow down this winter. 

You have customers telling you about other shop's pricing.  Are you comparing apples to apples?  Do you take in the same clients?  Secret shop the competition and find out for yourself.  Don't go on the word of a customer that wants a deal, fire them and define the type of customer you do want in your shop. 

(Sorry so long)

I recommend having a written policy. For example, employee's and their immediate family 20% off of book labor & parts at 20% over cost. What ever you decide, do it in writing, and be fair, firm and consistent with policy. Its the appearance of favoitism that leads to problems.

I realize this is an old post.

We are clarifying our written policy. Who is included as immediate family? We are listing what immediate family is included.

"Immediate" is being stretched so we are going to define "immediate". Where does the line get drawn? Wife, kids living at home, mom, dad. Step parents? Wife's parents? My mom raised him, he's like a brother to me? My girlfriend I live with but we're not married? My baby momma that I don't live with? Can you see the stretch? TIA

We just opened our second location the Monday after Thanksgiving. It is in a small town 35 miles away from our original location. The opportunity literally "fell into our lap".

The shop had equipment and was essentially turn key. We did have a couple of bumps in the road, but we see that it will be worth it. Our reputation and great customer service from our first shop catapulted us in bringing in business.

MSpec has some great questions. When I posted the same question as you, I believe someone on that thread asked about running the two shops without relying on each others profits. That was probably the major point that ran through our minds as we were getting everything set up.

We have switched to the new "Back Office" integration system..... highly recommend it.

When the weather is bitterly cold, well below zero, it was a little quiet except for batteries, alternators and ditch pull out damage. When the weather warmed up, it has picked up. Temperatures and snowfall usually effects December business around here

This year has been odd as far as seasonal work. We are still getting cars in that would normally be put away for winter. We have 2 El Caminos and 2 66 Mustangs and a Grand National.

Try this link http://www.mitchell1backoffice.com/

Does this mean the current integration program will be phased out?

 

I cannot align myself with a company that devalues the work we do.

 

Perfectly said.

Thank you all. This is a unique opportunity.

The shop is turn key with equipment. The previous tenant was locked out due to being arrears on rent and everything else. The landlord owns the equipment and we will include that in lease with an option to purchase.

The business was very busy and profitable. The tenant was locked out because the manager (the owner's son) was pocketing everything and daddy did not listen to everyone telling him about it.

You seem to have a niche service. We are somewhat the same, we are a performance shop in addition to an auto repair shop. The best advertising for the performance side of our business is "be where your target customers are". Interact with them, don't sell but have some business cards in pocket and word of mouth will spread.