jfuhrmad

Go ask a body shop.  They’ve been “approved” for years.  I’m pretty sure it isn’t a good deal in the long run.

Based on what I was seeing here I took the gamble and raised mine $30.  Nobody has complained.  I just tell them how much the job costs to do and they say yes or no.  We are in a wealthier area so that may be a contributing factor, but it's working out well so far.

2 hours ago, John Shanderuk said:

I'm charging $169.00 and keeping $17 an hour just for myself on the entirety of the labor hours of all techs when I do payroll, that's how I am paying myself. So if there are 200 billed hours I get paid $3,400. So figure out how much YOU want to get paid and go from there kind of backwards thinking but I got tired of being pooch screwed. Got tired of insestual labor rates (to want to look to those within your industry as your sole source of inspiration and best practices for building your business). I work hard for my money, I'm actually going to work now for awhile (Saturday) so I should get paid. Mike drop...

Sorry about the rant!

Hells yeah!

Anybody seeing shortages?  I haven't been able to get hose clamps for 2 months now.  Today I tried to order 0w20 and 2 vendors were out and said it would take 4-6 weeks to get.  2 weeks ago I tried to order rotors for an F150 and there wasn't a single vendor that had a set of 2.  I had to special order them from a warehouse in Texas.

Seems like some areas are seeing this before others.  Maybe we should keep a list of what's happening so we can get early warning on it.

I went up $5 2 months ago.  I’m higher than the chains right now.  Nobody blinks.

I’m going up another $5 this fall and another $5 in late winter.

I like doing it slowly.  The Euro shop right by me is $8 ahead of me and all the dealers are $40 higher than I am.

We’ve trained our drivers to put the parts on the parts shelf and take the paperwork to the front counter.

If they don’t, we call the vendor and ask when the part will get there and tell them we don’t have it.  Then we install the part in the meantime and return the extra part.

It doesn’t take long for the drivers and store managers to catch on.

Hi bantar, is this still available?

So, were the 40% and the 45% calculated the same way?  I like how bantar does it where he compares actual car count to what is expected.

Wow!  So you guys are actually down more than a week ago when you were 40% down (compared to 45% last week).  People in NY must be much more reluctant to head out.

27 minutes ago, Joe Marconi said:

As the weeks pass, we are seeing different trends around the nation.  Many shops have little to no impact from COVID-19, some are down 40 to 60% and some are nearly out of business.  New York is rebouding slowly.  Traffic is up and many businesses are gearing up to opening soon.  Only time will tell the full impact of the crisis.  

For my business, I have made the economic adjustments, I will "wisely" use the PPP money and I look forward to the future success of my business.  While there will be many lessons learned from this crisis; the most important lesson is to never forget that the shop owner's mind-set will dictate the shop's future.  Stay positive, boost morale and be a strong leader. 

How far are you guys down?  The only visibility I have so to bantar and dfrisby and my vendors.  So it looks like Minnesota (still with stay-at-home in place and Texas (just prior to removing stay-at-home) were only down 15-20%.  Please provide your numbers and any other numbers from “around the country” with more specific info so we can keep an eye on what’s happening.  Thanks!

27 minutes ago, Joe Marconi said:

As the weeks pass, we are seeing different trends around the nation.  Many shops have little to no impact from COVID-19, some are down 40 to 60% and some are nearly out of business.  New York is rebouding slowly.  Traffic is up and many businesses are gearing up to opening soon.  Only time will tell the full impact of the crisis.  

For my business, I have made the economic adjustments, I will "wisely" use the PPP money and I look forward to the future success of my business.  While there will be many lessons learned from this crisis; the most important lesson is to never forget that the shop owner's mind-set will dictate the shop's future.  Stay positive, boost morale and be a strong leader. 

How far are you guys down?  The only visibility I have so to bantar and dfrisby and my vendors.  So it looks like Minnesota (still with stay-at-home in place and Texas (just prior to removing stay-at-home) were only down 15-20%.  Please provide your numbers and any other numbers from “around the country” with more specific info so we can keep an eye on what’s happening.  Thanks!

Wow!  That’s great to hear.  I’m down about 20%...but the Oreillys store in m town (not by my shop) was only down 15% last week for his professional sales. He said it’s really come back nicely.

So we have Minnesota and Texas that are 80-85% of normal.  Anyone else want to report?  Is the rest of the country coming back too?

Nice.  It seems we are seeing a trend.  I went ahead and dumped some dough into marketing last week because it seems like it’s picking up.  It’s good to see confirmation of that.  I know we had one day last week where the phone wouldn’t stop ringing.  Still down, but picking up a bit.

Thanks dfrisby.  Good to hear northern MN is picking up too.  We are 4 for 4 on shops that saw an uptick last week.  Anyone else seeing this?  It appears to be happening across the country.  I still think we need a few other to chime in before we run with the results as being a trend.

To summarize we have an uptick in Minnesota, an uptick in Texas and an uptick in New York city.  It's slight and a bit early but there seems to be a a pattern developing.  Can anyone else comment on what whether they've seen an uptick in the last week or so?  It would be nice to have a few other data inputs.

I sold a set of aftermarket wheels and tires to a customer yesterday.  When I picked the wheels up the warehouse loading dock was packed.  I've never seen it so full in the past 3 years.  There were 3 other customers at the dock waiting to pick up wheels, which I've never seen before.  Usually it's just me, or maybe one guy waiting for me to leave the dock.  All of the sales staff was on the phone at the same time and I had to wait in line which has never happened to me before.  Typically, there are at least 2 guys that I can stroll up to and chat with.  When I walked into the warehouse to pick up my wheels, I talked to the warehouse staff and they said this week it is back to normal.

Is anyone else seeing an uptick yet?  We should start reporting upticks on this thread so that we can see how it spreads across the nation.  That way we can be prepared to bring staff back asap and get our marketing rolling again.  I know it takes 2 weeks between when I order postcards and they land.

Let's help each other get ahead of this thing.

Joe, are you still down 40% or has it gotten worse?

Thanks for the answers.  I am an experienced shop owner looking to start another location.  Area is 100k+ people with $110k average income.  It's a unique circumstance but I need to get to 150 cars at $350 ARO starting from 0.  So, I need to know if this is possible, and if anyone has done that....how long did it take them and how did they do it?

Any of you out there care to share your car counts from starting a shop from zero?  How many months did it take to get to 150 cars and how did you market to get it there?

I have one...are you referring to the air line that attaches to the turn table?  I can snap a picture but I'm not sure what you need a picture of.

Here's how I think about it...would you put cheap Chinese parts on a customer's car?  No.  You install quality parts because they are better for the customer.  Same here.  Quality equipment doesn't break as frequently, is faster to fix when it does break and often is faster and easier to use due to its superior engineering.  You are not just buying equipment.  You are buying reliability, service and functionality.  How much reliability do you want?  Well, it's going to cost more for more reliability.  Hope that helps!  I know it's served me well thinking about it that way.

Hi Wheeling,

I'm trying to shed some light on the lies that some newer shop owners may be buying into.  They are thought patterns that are driven by the cheapest customers but they tend to stick.  The idea is to demonstrate the absurdity of the lies and expectations that some customers place on our industry through in person interactions and online reviews.  We should not give in to these fallacies or make business decisions based on them.  I am in 100% agreement with your responses.  That's how I run my shop to and the complainers don't get to drive those decisions.  But I know there are other guys out there who mistakenly run there businesses based on the lies I outlined above.

I have the hardest time understanding the ethics in this industry.  It's like the auto repair industry has it's own set of ethics and expectations that are completely different than any other industry.  It's absurd!  Look at it:

1) Billing for 100% of Time - Lawyers do, doctors do, accountants do, plumbers do, phone companies do, and employees do...however, shops are supposed to stick to the estimate come hell or high water.  Otherwise we are gouging or padding our time, or just adding random time.  It's crazy!  It's a double-standard that we allow to be placed on us.

2) Selling Only What Customers Need - People don't need 2 TVs, or 10 pairs of shoes, or bottled water, or Apple products, or bubble gum.  Yet none of these industries are considered unethical for selling people something they don't need.  Why are we unethical for selling people something they "don't need"?  How did that happen?  Don't go the wrong way with this...I'm not proposing telling people their car is broken when it isn't.  I'm saying that right now our industry is in a position to bow to the customer any time they don't feel like the "need" a certain repair because they'll pull the unethical card on us.

3) Marking Up Parts - Why are we the only industry that is unethical for marking up things that we sell?  Hardware stores do, restaurants do, plumbers do, Wal-mart does, O'Reilly's does.  But for some reason, certain customers expect us to sell parts at our cost.  Why not at O'Reilly's cost...or at Moog's cost?  What is the ethical price?  Is anyone allowed to make a profit selling parts?  If so, who is and why only them?  It's just crazy when I think about the unbelievable expectations people have for our industry.

Here's my theory for how we got into this position.  When we are desperate for customers we'll do anything they want.  And it's much easier and less risky (so we think) to give into them by knocking the price down than it is to spend time teaching them about what they just bought or are about to buy.  There's so much focus on shop efficiency that we don't take the time to develop customer relationships and educate them about the benefits of buying from us.

It isn't a waste of time to teach customers about their car, to show them why we are proposing a certain repair, or to explain every item on the invoice.  If we don't then people will continue to expect us to sell parts at cost, eat unexpected labor time, and not perform a proper repair all in the name of ethics.

We have to put a stop to this.  Our industry generally isn't unethical (we have 7 shops in my town of 12,000 and only one is shady) but we accept that moniker.  We don't have to.  I certainly don't.

Does anybody else think the expectations on our industry are just plain stupid?

Explaining is the only way that customers will ever understand.  If you just eat it then they'll never understand.  Your strategy is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Watch:

YOUR SHOP

1) don't tell customers why you charge for shop supplies

2) customers don't understand what's in shop supplies

3) customers complain because they don't understand

4) you can't charge for shop supplies because they complain

MY SHOP

1) we tell customers why we charge for shop supplies

2) customers understand what's in shop supplies and why we can't break it down into line items

3) customers don't complain because they know we billed them fairly

4) nobody complains about shop supplies (I've never had a single person complain about it) so we can charge for them

Every shop owner is free to make their own decisions, but in my experience people are willing to pay for the things that are required to do the job as long as they know what they are paying for.  Any shop owner that isn't charging for shop supplies is leaving money on the table that customers are willing to pay for.  I'm up 30% this year in sales and July alone was up 58% in sales over last year!  I'm not losing customers due to charging for shop supplies.  I'm not losing them because my shop rate went up 2%, I'm gaining them because they feel comfortable with us because we show and tell everything that we can so there are no mysteries.  They know they are getting what they pay for and that there is no fluff in the invoice.  It's all legitimate charges for what it takes to do the job in a professional manner.

And just an FYI I'm not a tech and I've never been a tech.  I'm just a business person in this industry trying to make a profitable business that people can trust.  It seems to be working.

We don't diagnose leaks unless it is obvious.  So, a left front axle seal is obvious but a coolant leak always goes to pressure test to diagnose.  We average $4.77 in air filter sales/oil change and about 33% of my oil change customers do a rotation.  These are legit air filters and rotations.  In fact I could probably do more.  We don't check difficult air filters like in Chevy Ventures or some Caravans where there is a lot of work involved (but we check every Silverado and they suck).  But we mark them as "did not check."  As for brakes, we do our best to look with tires on.  If we don't know or can't see, we mark them as "difficult to estimate pad depth" and move on.  Then, if we feel like they might be less than 30%, we inform the customer that they should do a rotation so we can see them better.

The way I look at it is that a rotation is 100% gross profit and an air filter is over 50% gross profit, so if I can take $10 in gross profit from an oil change and make it $40 then I've 4x my gross profit for that hour.  It makes the oil changes more productive.  Same for batteries, wiper blades and belts.  Anything that I can do in the the allotted time slot is fair game as long as it's good for the customer and not just for sales sake.

You want that oil change time slot as profitable as possible because you're paying a guy for time, so any parts that can be sold should be.