dfrisby

About 70% of my business is powersports (ATV's and UTV's). I also do automotive work. I have 2 techs and myself as well as part time service writer. I can't even imagine operating this business without some sort of shop management program. I started out with baymaster and was extremely happy with them until they were transitioning to online only. The price was reasonable. When they transitioned I panicked as there were alot of flaws and I ended up switching at that point to AllData. I probably would have been better off to stick it out with baymaster, and if they would have held off their transition until they had all the bugs worked out I would have. In addition to AllData, I have added "myshopmanager" which is a marketing program that automatically texts my customers checking in on them about jobs we have completed. It also has a VERY GOOD vehicle inspection part that allows us to send a text to our customers with pictures and videos of their vehicle inspection. This has sold alot of extra work we wouldn't have had without it. In order to grow in this industry at this time, you have to invest in the technology. I think I'm paying $289 a month for "my shop manager", and I'm ok with that as I can see clearly it's bringing in an extra $2,500 a month in revenue per month as long as we are using it. We've been so busy the last couple month that we have not been using the inspection feature as much as we should be. Our biggest problem there is staff. If anyone has any advice on getting quality mechanics that want to work and can show up on time... please share your secrets. I could be a 3 tech shop instead of a 1 1/2 tech shop if I could just find the right people. The 1/2 is my second and isn't efficient or reliable.... and may not be employed for long.

@RickD Thanks for the very thorough information. I'm in Northern Minnesota. A/C repair isn't of quite as high demand here I'm sure. Probably just as often as repairing A/C problems, we need to recover to perform other work on the vehicles easier.

I use this kit on every system. The one I had that proved to have sealant I asked the customer about it and he was sure he had never put stop leak in the system. They had added canned refrigerant themselves several times, but the leak had gotten bad enough it only lasted a day or two. He wasn't aware that about half those walmart cans have stop leak in them. I don't trust the customer with my equipment investment, and even if they meant no harm, there is no way to know if my customers kid or husband or even another shop had ever added the stuff. I highly recommend this kit. https://rotunda.service-solutions.com/en-US/Pages/ItemDetail.aspx?itemID=122683#:~:text=Neutronics QuickDetect™ A%2FC,before attempting recovery or repair.&text=Sealants can void warranty.

So far, Lawson. They set me up with bins. The hardware is expensive, but still cheaper than running to the nearest hardware store 20 miles away. Their sales guy quit stopping by, I think because of health reasons. But I just replenish online and refill my own bins as needed now.

Well... I thought I had ordered one. Just got notice that they don't have them in stock and have no idea if or when they will be able to get them. Will try to contact the company directly in the morning. Robinair shows a similar product, but it lists as discontinued everywhere I can find.

Thanks for the information. I've ordered one of the Recycle Guards. Can't be to safe with my investment in equipment.

I sell tires. my wholesaler doesn't have Goodyear anymore. No love lost here. But I do find it kind of funny that "Goodyear" is in a scandal in one of the least "goodyears" of my lifetime.

I recently bought an A/C recovery machine. I've heard plenty of horror stories of these machines being destroyed with stop leak. I spent the money on a "stop leak" detection kit. Just had a car come in my shop that is full of stop leak. Didn't even move the ball in the test kit. Asked customer about it and they have been putting in cans of freon from every source around for months. I'm sure some with stop leak. Obviously it's not working as the system is still leaking. My question is how do other shops handle customers that have tried this cheap do it yourself fix, failed... and then put my investment in equipment at risk? Replace everything in the A/C system? Is there some kind of flush that will remove that cr**p? Call the customer and tell them it's now a winter vehicle only? Not sure where to go in this situation and can't really seem to find an answer on the almighty google thing.

No. Not gonna happen in my place. It's just another surface to clean. Before doing that, I'd set up a service writing kiosk on my sidewalk and conduct my business outside. But I'm in northern Minnesota in an area where we already did social distancing even before it was cool.

Two years ago I cut out Saturdays and reduced our open hours from 8-6 to 8:30-5. I live on site and am still often working till midnight or later, and almost always work Saturdays and some Sundays. But I let the answering machine get the phones and I keep the doors locked when I'm not open. Those are my most productive hours. Every once in awhile I think I should reopen on Saturdays, but I don't think it will ever actually happen. It either was so busy I couldn't get anything done without more staff, or so dead I was paying for staff that didn't need to be there. Either way it wasn't worth it.

We are holding steady and scheculed about 8 days out right now. The surge of new jobs may have dropped a little, but the ARO on the jobs coming in seems higher than normal. Hoping it holds out long enough to save up for a long dead winter, just in case.

In northern minnesota I'm about 10% higher than this week last year. Our shop does almost everything land based that fits in the door, so ATV service has been huge since it's a socially distancing activity available to my customers. Auto is also slightly above last year for the last 2 weeks in dollars, but not car count. my average repair order is higher also I think partly due to the stimulus and bloated unemployment checks. Since the mines in our area are shutting down, I'm not sure how long it will last, but we had to hire another tech for now and that makes me feel alot better than I did 3 weeks ago.

Yes, at the customers request as well as their risk, although the risk is fairly low in my area. I live in the other end of the building and seldom go away. I'd be less likely to do that in a metro area. I've thought of welding together a key drop box and having a separate compartment for customers to pickup keys at and just use a combination style lock. Could give them the combination to retrieve their keys from it as needed.

This last week in northern Minnesota surely picked up for our shop. Not to levels of last year same time, but way better than last week. Now trying to hire another tech, but that's proving difficult even with the high unemployment rate.

From Minnesota, that looks pretty solid still.