RickM

I agree 100%. One of the problems in this area is we have a "tech" school for training technicians. When I graduated from their in 1997 the school was privately owned and concerned about what you were learning. Now its owned by a bigger "group" and the student numbers and money are more important so that school is pushing through "techs" that can't hit their butt with both hands much less do a decent job of working on high tech cars.

 

The other problem (I saw this at the dealership I worked for) is the tech field is getting older. Not enough young people wanting to work in the harsh envirnment for the lousy pay. Because of this, most of the techs have been passed by with the technology required to do the job. That will be another problem in the future.

I agree. In my area it is almost impossible to hire an experienced tech. and even harder to find younger people eager to learn the trade

I had a similar experience just a few hours ago. A Ford Expedition with the doors locked and a very small child inside. The lady called the police but when an officer arrived he told her they were not allowed to unlock vehicles and if worse came to worse he would break a window but that he knew I unlocked cars and would call me and see if I could unlock it. Needless to say I dropped what I was doing and went to unlock the vehicle. While I wass unlocking the car I heard the lady thank the officer for trying and for calling me, but when I got the car unlocked the lady never had a thanks or how much for me. Like xrac I wouldnt have accepted, I did it for the child not the lady but my poor Kentucky family didnt raise me that way either.

Has anyone used or tried the Automotive Expert Management System? The adverisements look like it has a lot of good featuress. I am using Alldata Service Center now. I havent compared yet but it seems that Alldatas labor times are low on a lot of items.

Unashamedly I will say I hired a world class service manager and 90% of the credit goes to him. Over time we got rid of all the help we had before he came. We hired better qualified people with better skills and attitudes and paid them better. We expanded our service offerings and developed a very positive and up beat attitude. We cultivated positive relationships with key vendors. We worked hard on customer service. We did women's seminars. We learned how to sell and how to properly present the need. We concentrated advertising where it seemed most effective and jazzed up our ads and offers. We have tried to offer something catchy and different from what competitors are offering. How about a camel and a gas pump and something about beating the pump. We did that in one ad. How about my picture on the face of a ten dollar bill that was actually a coupon. We have used that as well. We started opening at 7:00 a.m. in the morning. We started rotating our work schedules so a tech gets at least one 3 day weekend per month. We became better organized.

Thanks for the insight, I believe that is the key to a lot of my problems. Better organized and more positive attitude. I feel like I will see a big difference if I can get my shop back to looking like and acting like a Professional Repair Facilty instead of the good ole boy garage. Even more reason to come and see how you guys operate right?

You need to get your billable hours up and they only way to do that is to have more manpower. You cannot afford to turn away work. People are too busy these days and if you are not accommodating they won't come back.

 

Part time techs are an option. When I was expanding I hired “B” rated techs part time with the opportunity for full time as the business grew. I also paid them a wage that was lower than they would expect, but paid them commission based on productivity. I found that techs like this. In a busy week they can make money.

 

As our client base grew, I put them on full time.

 

In my opinion, the most important thing you need to do now is concentrate on getting your car counts up. And this requires not turning away work.

 

Another thing, your manager needs to manage. That's the way you make money. Keep him out of the bays.

 

I struggled with the same thing. Trust me, do this first.

Joe, how did you set up the commission based on productivity? I have been considering this option to put on another tech.

Also, maybe it will help keep me out of the bays. one of my big down falls I'm afraid. but when we get behind I head for the shop to turn out work.

Jeff, if it is any consolation we went through a three year period where we were losing money and were actively trying to sell our business.

Xrac, I'm sure Jeff is as interested as I am in what you did to turn things around. I'm not to the point of wanting to sell but you sure didnt hear me say I'd turn down an offer.

Rick, I thought you were going to stop by and visit us. My service manager and I will be happy to help you every way we can. However, one of the problems you have is location. People in rural areas want everything cheap.

I am coming up to see you xrac, just havent been able to get away. When I first opened, the Chrysler dealership I was at closed so I opened with a good cusstomer base. I opened running it a lot like I ran the Service Dept at the dealership. I opened as a Tech-Net shop. I used the Customer Survey Cards, Tech-Net Vehicle Inspection forms. I was even a National nominee for the Tech-Net dealer awards. However it seems as I get busier I let these things slide. I have been considering taking a few days to clean, rearrange and more or less reopen almost like a new shop. Maybe this would instill a more professional image. I have a good customer base of customers who are more interested in quality and customer care (just as Joe described) but seem I am being overwelmed by the bottom feeders. I could ramble on and on. Joe, xrac any thoughts, ideas, suggestions? I know I have the opportunity to corner the market in my community by being a more professional shop. Just seems I have trouble running the business instead of letting it run me. Our area has plenty of shade tree shops, but I think the quality customers are looking for quality repairs and honest caring service.

Too many shop owners have nothing more than a job and not a very good job because they don't charge enough. They work a lot of hours and sacrifice themselves and their families but wind up with little to show for it. They have no retirement plan, they have no buisness asset they can sell or pass on, their bodies are broken down, their equipment is worn out, their location is terrible, someone else owns the property, etc. They have never understood return on investment, opportunity cost, gross profit margins verus net profit, etc. The shops my dad use to take his cars to all closed when the owner died or retired. Not a one survived. They worked all of their lives and then got to the end of their life and find that they had nothing.

WOW!!!!!! It seems you have described me and my business to a T. I have owned my business for 5 1/2 years. I have worked for both Ford and Chrysler dealerships both as a tech and as a Service Manager. I have myself and one son working full time and two part time who are mostly lube and tire techs. I feel my biggest issue I can not seem to overcome is trying to work the front desk and the back both. I see daily that I run wide open all day, still do not accomplish much. Our shop stays super busy but we still dont seem to get ahead. I have been on both sides of the fence (shop and management) Any ideas, suggestions would be appreciated more than you know. Im gonna have to go spend a day in xrac's store>

We are running into this more and more , We tell the customer up front that the labor will be increased by 40% if they supply the part , we also tell them that our hoist time is $2.00 per minute if the part is wrong and they have to go and get another part. Also there is absolutely NO warranty for any labor. This stops most people from wanting to supply their own parts. There is a few exceptions like someone that broke off a spark plug or stripped the threads out then we will install their spark plugs. I do not like supplying or installing used engines but due to the economic situation I install a few of them , I give the customer a list of which wrecking yards have an engine and let them buy it from them. I also still charge 30-40% more for the labor with no warranty. By us not supplying the engine the ball is in their court if it does not work.

I havent raised my labor rate for used parts but may look into that. The hoist or bay time is a big issue with us if we tear it down and it is stuck in our bay while they take their time looking for the right part. I learned the hard way to never supply a used engine or tranny. I will install them but no warranty and the price quoted is done when the engine is installed. if it doesnt run, has a problem we stop call the customer and advise them additional time is required

I am seeing more and more customers coming into the shop with their own parts or wanting us to estimate labor and they will bring the part. We had a car in the shop today with an overheating complaint. We found the cooling system low and pressure tested the system finding a leaking part. We have had a bad experience replacing this part with aftermarket in the past and now only use OEM. We priced this repair to the customer on the phone and they agreed to the repair. They called back a few minutes later and said they had called a parts supplier (I wont mention the company) 25 miles away and could get the part for almost 1/2 of my price and wanted to know what the labor would be. My wife explained to the customer that we had previous problems installing this part aftermarket and only installed OEM with a 1 yr parts and labor warranty. She advised her that sh could bring her own part but their would be no labor warranty. The lady was upset but stated that she wanted the labor warranty and to go ahead with the repair. How do you guys handle this type situation? Customers supplying their own parts (usually wrong) are killing me. Thoughts and comments?

We currently use Alldata for our labor guide. However, we also have access to Identifx which has Motor labor information. Lately we have discovered some large discrepencies between the labor times. For example the labor to do a head gasket on a 2001 Chrysler Sebring 3.0 is 6.9 in Alldata and 9.9 in Identifix (or something close to that). The later seems to be closest to the actual. I could site other similar examples. Does anyone know which is most accurate? Advice?

We use alldata as our labor guide also. I've noticed several repairs that seem to be out of line. We looked at both Mitchell and Alldata when we first opened and went with alldata. We will be looking at diferent labor guides in the future

I've been looking for a site like this. I like the fact that a lot of the guys here are smaller shops such as mine. I began my career at a Ford Dealership, moved to a Chrysler store and worked driveability/Electrical, then Service Manager/Warranty admin. I opened my shop 5 years ago when the Chrysler Store closed. I have a 5 bay shop with myself, my wife, son and two part time employees. I hope to figure out how to move from owning my job to being a business man owning a business. Hope to learn a lot from you guys. a site like this has been needed for a long time

I'm not so sure about the last quote. Didn't we hear that when obdii took over? No one will be able to afford the complex diagnostic equipment, etc... I actually think it is getting easier and less expensive to purchase diagnostic equipment that was before off limits to DIY'ers. This also leads to the "I know what is wrong, just replace the (insert part name here) for me, it'll just take a few minutes and shouldn't cost me more than $10. Here, I already bought the part.

Amen brother. I don't feel so alone now