xrac

We could have been potentially scammed out of close to $3,000.00.  Be on guard of anyone you dont know placing a large order for tires.  This is commonly what they try to do.  

4 hours ago, Joe Marconi said:

Wow, what an amazing story. So, ordering the tires gave you and Police time to set up the sting? 

Joe, I wasn't working so I got my facts more straight. See my revised post above. The time to order the tires allowed them to be caught. Made for an interesting day.  

Got my story straight since I wasn't present. Thursday a first time customer wanted a quote on $3,400 in tires. Tires were ordered with Friday pickup scheduled. This was a ring making fraudulent purchases with stolen credit cards.  The police had a license plate for a truck used in this scam. They had scanned it crossing from Kentucky into Indiana. The local police detective called all the tire shops looking for someone trying to make a purchase. When the police contacted us we worked with them to set up a sting for Friday when they came to pick up tires. Three people were arrested. Police said it was a crime ring they had been trying to catch for some time trafficking stolen credit cards. They had scammed three different business the previous day.

3 hours ago, Joe Marconi said:

As mentioned earlier, my experience was not good. First, the clientele that it attracted did not fit our profile, and many were not even from our area.  The rate for installation, repairs, and removal was set by the company.  My techs did not like doing the work, and my service advisors had many challenges, as Bantar pointed out. Those people that needed the install came in already angry about it.  And none of customer became regular customers.  

Joe, we had a similar experience. The results were just not worth it. 

I think as owners and managers we have to not only approach things from a profitability standpoint but also an employee welfare standpoint.  Having an intact happy family helps create more productive happy employees.  Our decisions need to try to find a balnce between all interests.  When is an employee with small children going to be able to take a family vacation other than when school is not in session?

On 7/19/2023 at 8:22 PM, SW Car Care said:

This topic is on point, Joe.

After 32 years in business I can honestly say my crew has logged more tardy days in the last year than the previous 10.  It's aggravating to say the least.

I finally called a pow-wow last week and told the guys, "Look, when you're late, I or my brother (my business partner) are out in the shop picking up the slack because we've told customers that they can get their vehicles worked on and back at a certain time.  When you walk in late, you blow our schedule and our potential to maximize the bays and the days out of the water.....and no, we're not going to slow down for you or turn work away.  Therefore, any day that you walk in late and you hear an owner say, "You're late" instead of, "Good morning" just know without exception that we've logged the tardy in the payroll ledger.  That tardy will cost you $100 off your bonus (which we pay bi-anually).  Do that 10 times and see how you like the result.  Nobody is going to lose their job over being late because we like you all and we like your quality of work....but if we're going to turn the wrench, we're going to keep that money".  

Keep in mind, we are numbers guys and even our most junior mechanic knows our "value of a minute".

That is a great way to deal with it!

Employee vacations during peak seasons is tough.  However, when employees have children who are still in school or spouses who work places with mandatory summer shutdown it is not fair for them not to be able to take vacations with their families.  I do not like it but we let employees take vacations whenever they want as long as they clear it far enough ahead.  We just lived through being without one of our techs for two weeks since he is in the National Guard and they have two weeks camp every summer.  

Never go against your first instinct. I interviewed a guy who was so cocky it was a turn off. However, we needed someone so bad we hired him. However, for a short while it looked like a good hire. He knew more than we thought he did and could give him bigger jobs. But it only took a few weeks for the worm to turn.  He had a bad attitude, his jobs started coming back, and his productivity was non existent. He cost me a lot. What a huge mistake. 

8 hours ago, Transmission Repair said:

Are you selling the real estate with the sale of the business or just the business?

We will consider both options. I would prefer to lease the real estate. 

I will be 70 in December and have ran a shop 24 years in March. My shop is for sale. Covid hit and killed a potential sale. Another sale was killed because another less expensive shop came up for sale during due diligence.  We have had five shops or body shops change hands here in the last year. 

We liked the look of Shop Boss.  The two strengths of it that stood out was a very robust scheduling tool better than any we have saw on the programs we have evaluated.  The other feature is the Digital Video Inspection which is a strength of Tekmetric.  I haven't looked at Shop Ware but I have heard a lot of people that like it.  We use a program called Omnique which also owns Shop Boss.  Omnique is not one that I would recommend.  However, it is being improved at a pretty steady clip. 

23 hours ago, GetStartedAuto said:

Mobile technician here!

I'll start by saying I love this site! My name is Jarvis and I started Get Started Auto Repair in Las Vegas, Nevada in February of 2021. I joined this site last year and haven't posted yet, since all of the posts are from shop owners and I was a bit intimidated to bother posting since I'm just a mobile guy. That being said, this topic is right up my alley, so I thought I'd provide some insight on the mobile tech experience.

It seems the concensus or possibly even the misconception regarding mobile techs are the work will need to be simple or only a few types of repair jobs can be performed. Here are just some of the jobs I've completed successfully at the customer's location:

• Strut and shock replacement
• Steering rack replacement
• Steering column replacement (and EPS recalibration)
• AC compressor replacement, AC condenser replacement, AC refrigerant hose replacement - including refrig. evac., recovery & recharge
• AC system cooling issue diagnostics (leak testing etc)
• Fuel pump replacement (inside of gas tank)
• Fuel injector & pressure pulse dampener replacement (after a series of diagnostic tests)
• Starter replacement
• Brake rotor, pads & brake drum/shoe replacement
• Timing belt replacement
• CV axle replacement
• Exhaust system replacement (from cat converter to flex pipe to resonance pipe down to the muffler)
• Engine performance & driveability diagnostics (using bidirectional scan tool & an oscilloscope, with a few self-made tools)
• Headlight replacement (on vehicles requiring removal of  bumpers and other components)
• Thermostat replacement, coolant flushing & air bleeding
• Oil pump rebuild (on GM engines where timing cover has to be removed and engine partially raised)
• Knock sensor code diagnostics, testing & wiring harness repair
• Transmission removal & replacement

These are just a few repairs that come to mind that I've completed on a customer's site, within an hour and no more than 3 hours (except the tranny swap -- I'll never do that again!). The trick is to know your limitations when the quote request or referral comes through. I research ALL quote requests briefly, to get an idea of the labor rate average and what the job will entail to complete. If the quote request states they have white smoke coming from the tailpipe and their coolant is disappearing daily, I tell the prospect it's likely they have a blown head gasket and that job is outside of our scope to do since it's a job that may not be finished in one day. And as a mobile tech, I don't take on any job that won't allow me to have the customer's vehicle fully assembled and ready to roll on the same day (unless more parts are needed and I planned a return visit).

As far as sending them to a "real repair shop," I would never use the term "real" because that downplays what we offer and my value as a tech. But I do like to be able to tell a customer "while we can't perform the repairs on the diagnostic we gave you, feel free to contact our partner, XXXXXXX auto shop and tell them Jarvis sent you for a great deal and customer experience."

I'm still in the process of finding an actual shop I can refer customers and prospects to when the work is beyond my scope, but the same reason I got into this as a mobile mechanic is the same reason I haven't yet found one -- lack of trustworthiness among so many in the industry and it's tough to find one you can trust without actually experiencing their services as a customer.

 I do think once a tech gets some experience offering mobile services, the natural progression is to open up a brick in mortar, simply because you start to see the limitations posed by being mobile, which the number one concern being scalability (or lack thereof). As well as dirtbag prospects who feel they can get over on you because you're a "mobile guy." Until they realize you have processes and procedures in place to make them as accountable as a brick and mortar would.

Hope my little $.02 brought a little perspective to those of you who may not know how a mobile repair company operates and the types of repairs that can be done on the road. And I'm glad to see a mobile conversation on the site. I'll definitely be trying to post more as time allows and people engage.

 

Welcome. Good to have you in here and your perspective. Based on the various jobs you have done I bet you are fairly young and still tough as nails.

Business has slowed but is still strong. I think business will be strong until people are able to buy new and used cars again at a decent price and adequate selection. Then things may fall off the cliff. 

52 minutes ago, tomkatv10 said:

My competition is the grocery store, the cable bill, phone bill, college tuition and anything else that splits up my customers income pie. 
I don’t pay any attention to other shops or what they are doing. I’ve always told my employees, keep doing what we do right and fix the wrongs, everything else around us is white noise. 

You nailed it. 

I am not close friends with any other shop owners but friendly with several. It is good to maintain good relationship within our specialized community. Could I benefit from a better connection?  I think definitely yes!

First of all This is a great thread with a lot of useful information and wisdom from warriors who have been in the trenches.  Car-x started as Car-x Muffler.  I guess that was a pretty simple business model. Every technician sold their job while the manager priced it up, sourced parts (mostly in house inventory), and billed out customers. By the time I bought a franchise it was Car-x Muffler & Brakes. We did exhaust, brakes, shocks, struts, undercar, and starters, alternators, AC, etc.   That was the store model I was introduced to with technicians selling their own tickets. After about a year I realized we would not make it by being a muffler and brake place. I hired a guy and he led us into being a General Repair shop. When we started we did not have any type of labor guide or any type of access to technical information. Everything was best guess and knowledge. It is shocking to me now that Car-X was selling franchise so unprepared.  Of course as we went general repair we added subscriptions and scan tools and moved ahead. As we did that we dropped the technicians selling their own tickets.  First of all that was an inefficient model as far as I am concerned. Like the medical field you have people trained in specific skilled. Most technician’s aren’t great service writers or great managers. They may be passable but usually it’s not their strength. People like Joe have became great through years of experience and training.  Likewise great service writers or managers may not be able to fix cars.  Our technicians are paid to identify problems and fix them. Our service writer’s job is to sell the job, deal with customers and allow the technicians to be as efficient as possible. We have done it both ways and the later is the only way to go in my opinion. 

On 8/25/2022 at 3:01 PM, Joe Marconi said:

Agree.  Unless technicians are trained in the art of sales and customer experience, they should only have a simple conversation with a customer. Leave the sales and technical questions out of it. 

Years ago, I had a tech road test a car with a customer for a noise on turns. On the road test, the tech said, "Oh, I hear it, it's the left from wheel bearing, I have done tons of them. Should take under an hour to replace. And those bearings are cheap too." 

I learned a valuable lesson that day! 

That’s one reason I do not want my technicians speaking to customers except in certain situations. Some technicians talk way to much. I have had guys that I have had to tell that I did not want them the talking to customers. They often say things that cause you to lose the sale or raising other issues that are unnecessary that leads to needless conversation and time lost. 

On 8/25/2022 at 2:05 PM, newport5 said:

Here's what a technician told me years ago about talking to a customer when asked about the cost of a certain repair.

The tech answered like this: "I'm the "how," they are the "how much."

I think the tech has to be careful when the customer asks: "How long does it take to replace it?"

The tech's first thought is to simply answer the question, say one hour, because he/she's done it 10 times. 

But it pays one and a half or two hours. Then it puts the service advisor in a tough spot.

First of all I love the how versus how much. That was a great way to frame it. The other point is well taken. Techs often underestimate the time because of their confidence In their own ability and experience.  They do not considered the time involved in test drive, inspection, building an estimate, sourcing parts, or allowing for things going south, etc. 

On 8/15/2022 at 2:39 PM, Transmission Repair said:

We allow our techs to talk to customers as it promotes transparency.  Transmission repair is somewhat of a hidden service and customers need some reassurance.  We even had one customer want to watch his Honda transmission get rebuilt.  I turned it into a promotional video opportunity.  Open lines of communication is always the best policy.

4:32  

 

Good one Larry. You are very creative. 

On 7/17/2022 at 9:59 AM, juanpablo4219 said:

There's only 3 persons in our shop and we all talk to customers. When the techs are ask for prices, they're referred to the office/me. Get him a quote and it's the customer's decision, and yes, I am part of the techs/ service advisor/manager/owner. And yes, I am a working Boss,like one of my friends told me, I also work as a tech and I am the one that tells the customers that they need to go to the office/customers' area.

 

We even got a bad review for telling this one customer to come and wait in the office. 

I answered the review with respect and told him that we have a designated area for a reason, if you go to Restaurant, they won't allow u to go into the kitchen for a reason, same principle.

That was a great response and one that everyone should understand maybe except that idiot. 

Waiters are a pain in the rear.  Repairs never go as planned. Bolts brake. Guys take lunch.  A projected 3 hour repair turns into all day.  The wrong part is delivered.  It happens all the time.  Maybe waiting on an oil change is practical but that is about it.  We encourage people to drop off by saying "we can get it in on Monday if you can drop it off".  Can't drop it off we can't get it into till next week.  We also offer rides home.  I tried loaners for a while but now do not think the headache and cost is worth it.  The more affluent customers always have options. It is the poorer customers and single individuals who most often want to wait. 

1 hour ago, Joe Marconi said:

If you think about all that goes into servicing and repairing cars these days, it's hard to imagine being efficient at it. It has to be limited to basic and simple tasks. 

One of the problem the mobile guys have is the employees that are loafing and not working because they have no visual supervision.  My friend who was a manager said guys would go out and sleep in the truck. Then either the business eats the hours or the customer gets over billed. This was in a mobile fleet business where they billed by the hour not by the job.  

None of the mobile service guys who tried it local have survived. Mobile serve seems to be the way a lot of guys boot strap there way to eventually having a bricks and mortar location. 

21 hours ago, Transmission Repair said:

Free pickup and delivery is a lot better that mobile service.  No investment in a mobile service vehicle, etc.  Uber to their house, pick the vehicle up.  Deliver the vehicle after the service and Uber back to the shop.  Since most customers live within a 5-mile radius, Uber is cheaper than using 2 employees to pick up and deliver.

That is a great idea and one I have never heard before. 

On 8/26/2022 at 2:26 PM, newport5 said:

hhhhmmmm ... I'm not so sure.  We have (only) 32 reviews (on Yelp) and all 5's except one.  I've heard nothing negative, but naturally I don't know about people who are turned off by that. 

If we create a great experience with a new customer, I say: "Hey, if you had a great experience, please leave a Yelp review."

I've learned that if that customer doesn't have a Yelp account, that brand new review doesn't make it to the front, it ends up behind the scenes (I forget the category name).

I know a guy who ASKS for 5 star reviews. He has 41 reviews, all 5-Star on Google. It works for him. He does have a lot of video reviews as well. Viewers feel as if they know him.

No matter how hard you try if you get enough reviews eventually somebody will give you less than a five star. I had a really good customer who comes all the time give us a 3 star review. He thought that was a good rating. I have also gotten 1 star reviews from former employees I have fired and people who have never been a customer.