Jay Huh

2 hours ago, UsedTireShop said:

I am in this predicament right now. This tech is loyal, honest and willing to do what he is told to. I love him as a friend and truly care about his well being but he has to go. 

The issues I have with him is:
Massive procrastinator
Weak production. Under 50%
Messy
Every vehicle aggravates him and is a piece of crap. He will yell and swear when working on cars while stating that he needs to find another career.

So why is he still there? I have put off letting him go because his 18 year old daughter was killed in a car crash 2 weeks before Christmas.

Now that I think about it he has always had the issues I mentioned above and shame on me for being a chicken. He should have been gone years ago.

The lesson to be learned here is. As soon as you know someone is NOT right for your shop then let them go. Nothing is gained by hanging onto the wrong people. Do not let your emotions block the proper decisions for the company.

 

After reading your post I thought: "Just let him go!" But I am in the same predicament! It's always easier said then done.

I have a "tech" that is not really good. Probably a C tech-GS level. Have had several comebacks- one being loose caliper bracket bolt (actually missing when he came back) and no oil cap after oil change.  Hanging onto him because he was diagnosed with lung cancer after his wife and 2 yr old son died in a car crash last year and he was the lone survivor.

Knowing what you know now, how much would you have paid to know all this information when first starting out? I would have gladly shelled out $1000-$2000 and I was broke in the beginning! I would have saved a lot of money too by not making the mistakes I've made

On 3/10/2017 at 0:19 PM, sparkerauto said:

I use advance auto for my main supplier and they are giving me 15% off.  Does this sound about right ?

I just remembered, when I first started out and before I had a commercial account, I was getting 20% off..... I bought everything on AAP website with their 20% off code. I stood in line at the store, bought on my phone and they would pull it for me lol. In fact, I even did this after I got a physical location for a while. Commercial manager just ended up giving me ridiculous deals so that he wouldn't lose to the online store. Believe it or not, the store doesn't get credit for online orders, completely separate part of the  company 

Also I definitely understand being on a shoestring budget.... really really do because I was there about a year and a half ago. I also started out with no capital and mobile.  I strongly strongly strongly recommend that you get Identifix if you have more than 3 customers a week. If it's only like 1 customer a week, it'll be hard to get.

Identifix has labor times along with factory service manuals. Has all the info you need. Chilton labor time is what they use and generally higher than mitchcell or alldata.

The BEST feature of identifix is the common fixes- this will save you A LOT OF TIME. We still diagnose but 90% of the time, it ends up being what people on Identifix has found to be the common problem. PM me if you have any specific questions. Not sure how many people have been mobile on this site but there are distinct situations of being mobile that a shop owner would not understand

I have never heard of Auto Value. I can't even begin to imagine your struggle with not having any parts stores nearby. We have 4-5 stores at both locations that deliver within 15min. 

When I was mobile, I used to pick up parts on the way to the appointment. Problem with that is sometimes, customer tells you it's brakes but it's something else. Or doing brakes and caliper is seized... 

It might have to be a 2 trip repair... one day to diag and another day to install. Amazon.com has amazing prices and bc they are so cheap, you can mark them up quite a bit. I personally would love to use amazon for parts but 95% of our repairs are same day. 

Oreilly delivers so make a commercial account and wherever your hub is (your house) have them deliver there. When I started out with mobile, I put my home address as the shop address. Even after opening a physical location, they keep coming to my house! Apparently it's a pain to change it in the system and they have to remember to take it to my shop address lol

20 hours ago, xrac said:

Jay, you did a good job but your guys didn't do their job by letting the customer out of the shop and not properly identifying the condition of the battery. 

You are correct. We should've done a battery test and sold a battery. Customer wouldn't have been inconvenienced and we wouldve made money instead of giving autozone the business

3 hours ago, mmotley said:

Jeez, I wish I got that!!! O'reilly's hardly gives me any discount. I've seen where it's cheaper for a customer to walk in and get it. I'm getting ready to drop their certified auto program because of it and look more towards worldpac. Worldpac delivery is hard for us since we don't have a local one, but sometimes it's worth it. It's certainly not worth O'Reilly's threatening a $100 membership fee if I don't buy enough.

I'd drop em. Too many competition out there for them to threaten you with petty stuff. Tell them you're going to go with technet lol

With Advance I have a platinum account and we do all our brake pads with them. We get their Gold Ceramics for $23.99. Doesn't matter which car, Bmw, Mercedes Audi you name it. 

With bigger ticketed items, depending on the sutuation, I ask for a better price. But the best deal is Autozone. They will slash their prices next to nothing to earn business. But for some reason, we just don't deal with autozone too much. It's just that feeling in the back of my mind that quality isn't that great no matter how low the cost. 

Brake pad wise, we have used everybody. Oreilly, Napa, autozone, advance, online etc. hands down lowest comeback percentage with noise etc is Advances Golds. Maybe like 1 out of 300 come back for a slight squeal. Napas pads are almost twice the price and comeback rate was like 40%! Greased pads, used disc brake quiet and everything 

"The Net Result" "You have to check your numbers everyday. If you're not... you cannot be profitable." Nice to see a familiar name and shop in this months issue!! 

Awesome average RO stat btw. Someone contacted me today actually from R&W for one of the "solutions" articles. 

Just now saw 1 person in chat and I got excited. But it was me, forgot I clicked on it from a different browser tab 😂

3 minutes ago, skm said:

Nah, I think it is just like the business we are in, there are the ups and downs, things seem to come in waves

Strange still because if you own a shop, then it is your livelihood and you should be thinking about how to constantly make it better 24/7, maybe that's just me. Im on this forum multiple times a day trying to see if there are any new ideas or whatnot. My business has made tremendous changes since I've found this site like 3 months ago!

2 hours ago, skm said:

yes I use to get an email alert that said "xxxxxx" just liked your post, now you only know if you look at the notifications when you sign in.

Maybe it's just me but I feel like there was more action before the change and I think the "likes" being notified through email has a lot to do with it. Don't get me wrong, love the new layout. Just so you know, I am giving you guys "likes" for bringing this up 👍

I have 6 techs. 2 have their own scan tools. One is brand new snap on $5000 and the other guy has a Matco. Which one of my 6 techs do you think get the diag work? Shop has the latest Autel Elite with programming

 Been reading a lot of books lately and one of the things I learned is that there are 4 different personality types. Assertive personalities respond best to assertive people which is why I answered the way I did. But yea long story short, customer comes in for brake diag, gets brakes done, we had to jump the car to get it started bc we kept trans in neutral to diag brakes to see if they're locking up. Anyway we let him know that and tell him that battery should charge by the time he gets home, which it should've.

Service advisor picks up phone call, angry customer, car wont start. He accuses us with "sabotaging the vehicle and doing something to his alternator. Goes on to say that he is calling the police, has friends at the police, contacting attorney general, coming to my shop and stopping people from coming to my shop, leaving bad reviews everywhere... drops a few f bombs here and there... anyway I try and explain the situation but he wont let me. Finally I say "John! (made up for sake of customer) If you want to call the police and the attorney, I'm not going to stop you, but if you want a SOLUTION to your PROBLEM which is getting your car started as soon as possible, I am your best bet. I'll see you in 20 min and I'm going to give you the best damn customer service you've ever seen! What's your address." more or less how it went.... gave him a jump, he said battery was only a year old.. sticker said 02/13 which made it 4 years old and corroded. Showed him, explained, and suggested he go to the nearest Autozone for a new battery and he did. He told me thanbks like 3x and apologized. I do understand the customers frustration tho, no starts are never fun

3 minutes ago, OOOooo said:

I will throw out another thought. Buy the land and rent it to someone else. I have done that several times because I didn't want to deal with running another shop. If you do this you will hold all the cards so you can do what ever you want down the road.

Yea I'd love to own the land bc that would be ideal. I just need to save enough money for the down payment, roughly $200,000

Anyone here a millionaire? I'm  not talking about assets, I mean $1 million in the bank.

This industry is good to make a living but not to get rich. Wondering if you guys think the same or I'm wrong and people are making a killing.

My goal is to become a mlillionaire in 5 years but I don't think it'll happen through my automotive business

Reading Think and Grow Rich and it is an awesome book so far

OK guys, I am thinking about getting a bunch of bumper stickers. They are about $3-$4 each. Thinking about a loyalty program, where if they have our bumper sticker on their car, they get $5 off their oil change.

My thinking is that if I have enough cars out there with my bumper sticker, people will be curious enough to look me up. Cost wise.... $4 per sticker plus $5 off - 200 stickers is $1800. Worth it? I spend a little more than that on online ads a month

Another thought was license plate frame but not sure where I can get one made cheap

32 minutes ago, xrac said:

Personally I think if contests are of two long a nature that participants lose interest.  I always had one guy who would win and he would build such a lead no one could catch him so nobody else tried. 

How long was too long?

wow! This is great! I just contacted them through the website for more info in becoming a service provider

1 hour ago, ScottSpec said:

#1.  It is fun and keeps your interest.  #2. Stirs up negative feelings with the rejected sticker and the hassles of dealing with it.

 

Scott

Yes, I noticed after reading your comment that the second one DID stir up negative feelings with that fail sticker.

Here's the thing, it seems like you are marketing to people that FAILED inspection and want their cars to pass. To them, it is a serious matter that is constantly on the back of their minds. I think the second one will get you phone calls.

I like the first one too though, it's nice and fun- a good image for your business

😂😂😂

Ad works tho! Made me look up his shop online. Judging from the pics, he's BUSY!

4 minutes ago, skm said:

just have to be careful about the work quality going down if they are rushing trying to get more done , they also my skip the "little things" just a thought . Maybe more of a long range contest that they may put in the back of their minds in stead of being in the forefront , allowing for better concentration on the task at hand.

ah yes that is a good idea. Definitely don't want it to effect my customers that just needs a quick tire patch or an oil change. Great point about having a long term contest. I need to implement a contest of some sort for my techs to make it fair

Do you guys ever have contests for your employees? I have 3 service advisors and I like friendly work competition. Also running a 50% off oil change ad on adwords..... so doing a $100 contest to the advisor that has the highest GP average this week.

First time doing something like this. Hopefully it lights some excitement about their job and no sore losers at the end lol.

This is great. Google reviews have been a HUGE part of my business. I send a follow up email and word it like this when asking for a review:

"If you are completely satisfied, would you consider leaving us a review? If you cannot give us 5 stars, please let us know what we can do to change your mind."