Jonathan Ganther

We use Weaver Platinum Professional pads sold by Carquest which is now Advance Auto. They come with hardware and we have very few comebacks on them. If we do another axle on a repeat customers car we always check to see how the pads life is. I can't be 100% here but it looks like the pads last anywhere from 60-70k miles. Often we have clients who call complaining of squeaking after getting their brakes serviced at BMW, we replace the stock pad with the PMD or PXD whichever is the stock material and have satisfied customers!

Wow, you are getting 150 new customers a month from Yelp? Those are awesome numbers.

Yes we do anywhere from 240-300 brake jobs a month. We don't ask every singles customer where they found us but most say Yelp.

Good evening is anybody using the Yelp pay per click. If so how is it working.

We love Yelp Pay Per Click. It brings us 1,000 additional page views a month and we probably convert 15% of those. I'd say almost half our customer base comes from Yelp each month. A lot of people view our site and click Yelp though. So hard to tell if they find us somewhere else first and then Yelp. Advertising with Yelp was the best decision I've made since opening BTG.

I don't know I'm stumped. I've had leaking boosters where the pedal would travel far with no resistance but then I would always have pressure at the end and the car would stop.

Intermittent above 40mph. I thought booster after being told that the problem occurred only at a certain speed, I thought the booster might be the problem causing it. With the pedal to the floor there is absolutely no pressure, doesn't brake, doesn't matter how hard you press that thing. I haven't run into a booster that's gone out and then provides absolutely no brakes. Maybe this is just a first.

Kinda going crazy here. Got a call about the brake pedal going to the floor on a 94 Civic. After talking with the customer it sounds like a Master, were sure to check for any leaks on wheel cylinders, caliper, lines and hoses. We can't replicate the problem, we drive it do everything but take it on the highway. Customer's friend who's a "tech" talks to me after we can't replicate it and tells me to put a master on. We don't and tell the customer we'll have to come back out and try to replicate it again.

Customer calls back three days later, Master Cylinder got replaced by someone else brakes felt good and then when getting on the highway the same problem occurred. So I send one of my guys out again to check it out. I think maybe a defect reman got put on or whoever installed it didn't bleed it right. We bring a MC with us this time, tech can't replicate it and I really don't want to throw parts at this thing but I told him to try our MC and see if you have the same issue. Sure enough same issue. There are no leaks the loss of pressure only happens when the car is braking at over 40mph, I know this sounds crazy but its truly what is happening. The proportioning valve looks like it was replaced as it is all stripped up with paint pen. I only mention this because I'm at a loss, I can't figure this thing out and neither can my techs. Brakes feel great when driving bellow 40mph at 40mph and over loss of pressure.

posted this in the wrong area

Great thank you for the testimonal.

On another note we run Yelp! ads and have landed a good amount of clients through it. Over 1,000 views a month more off the ads and we probably get a phone call 20% of the time. Check our Yelp! page out...

http://www.yelp.com/biz/brakes-to-go-mobile-brake-repair-austin-2?sort_by=date_desc

We use Mudlick targeted mailing if we know a slow time is coming. For those surprise times when nobody show up, we use e-mail blasts through Kukui.

How successful has this been? Every time I get a bunch of ads in the mail I just toss them, hard for me to believe this works. How much do they charge you and how do they bill? Per house or a region?

We are about to overhaul the site but I thought I would post it anyway. I read Search Engine Optimization for Dummies, the book is huge but man did it help. We come up organically number #1 for brake repair in Austin underneath Yelp!.

http://www.brakestogo.net/

Hi. Im based in South Africa and enjoy the forum immensely.

Here is my sites link:

http://www.acdautomotiveservices.co.za/wmenu.php

 

Would appreciate your comments.

 

Regards

Martin

 

I like it, looks great.

This guy is someone that reads on the forum all day long, thinks he knows what he needs and is a fricking nightmare of a client. Barf.

I also own a brake shop and in my first year I did install customer supplied parts on occasion. Over time I noticed a pattern with these people, they rarely showed up! Most likely they found some backyard guy to do it for $20 and a 12 pack, but didn't have the decency to call the shop to cancel. I quit doing it, no exceptions, and it doesn't bother me one bit if they don't like our policy. Let them go, they are not going to hurt you and only cause you grief. Focus on doing top notch work with quality parts and charging a fair price and you'll do just fine. After 4 years now I'm the go to brake guy in town and can barely keep up with the work.

 

Oh and if they need a reason I tell them it's a liability issue with our insurance company, that if their parts fail the insurance company has no recourse. They usually understand that. I even get one now and then that'll bring his parts back and let me do my job.

That's exactly what I've been telling them. "Our insurance won't allow us to install customer parts for liability reason's but let me give you a quote with our parts anyway" I appreciate the input. Nice to hear of a brake shop dealing with the exact same issue.

Thanks for the input. I think the biggest fear I have is that when I quote them what the fair labor is on the repair they'll go spout off on some review site about how expensive we are. I like the review sites because they provide me with new clientele constantly but the sites also have me tip toeing around aggressive, cheap customers. Customers don't understand, they think your just making X amount of dollars off them. So I'm hesitant to quote someone labor on replacing pads and rotors. They've gotten the parts for $75 at AutoZone and think "how hard could it be it's just brakes, probably cost me like $60 buck". And I agree with you, the way parts stores market themselves now along with DIY videos everyone thinks they're mechanic. It sure does make the sales parts of the job more difficult.

Hey guys I'm new to the forum and have already seen how resourceful this site will be. I'm 30 years old and have worked at several shops as tech. I did enough side work to feel secure enough with starting my own business. I opened Brake To Go in December of 2013. We are mobile brake shop that now has 4 technicians doing anywhere from 10-20 brake jobs a day. Yelp! has been a big help to us as we have over 125 five star Yelp! reviews. Thank you in advance any advice I receive. I look forward to talking with y'all more.

Hey guys. I'm new to the forum and was looking for this subject but couldn't find it. Sorry If I'm posted something that's already been discussed. I own a brake shop in Austin, TX. We do anywhere from 10-20 brake jobs a day. We only do brakes so I don't know how much full service auto shops deal with this problem but... Customers are constantly calling in claiming they've bought the best parts or they want to provide their own parts because they've done research and know what is best. This drives me crazy. First of all they don't know whats best. Then after being told no they get offended and act like tons of shops allow this. What is the best way to handle these customers? Just send them away? I'll quote them a price using our parts and they act as though its a rip off. What shops are doing this for their customers? I feel like I'm letting jobs get away from me. Any experience with this?