Transmission Repair

I've never been a fan of customers making their own online appointments because it can and will disrupt the work flow in the shop. There's too much out of our control. The availability of online appointments makes it sound like we are like the "Maytag repairman" with techs just sitting around waiting for a new job. Perhaps online appointments online may work for certain other shops, but I could never get it to work for us. I tried.

Independent repair shops don't have the luxury of having multiple profit centers subsidize shop overhead that new car dealers do. Here are just 4 other profit streams that have nothing to do with repair or maintenance: New car sales Used car sales Paint & Body shop Detailing To me, it's simply bad business to be cheaper than the dealer. We had 13 car dealerships about a mile away from our shop. Southtowne Auto Mall We were either the same price, or higher for transmission repair, but we gave a longer warranty which added value. If we were less than the dealer, we could never remain profitable. I think about it this way: We weren't higher than the dealer; but instead, the dealer was cheaper than us for the reasons above. We ended up towing a lot of vehicles out of the dealerships along with customers dropping the vehicle off for repair. The numerous new car dealerships near us were the source of a lot of the work we did. Don't be afraid of dealerships; embrace them because they are a great source of new jobs coming into the shop. Lastly, here's the Southtowne Auto Mall's "claim to fame" they would advertise...

Right To Repair doesn't cover WiFi communications, only hardwire. Here's a good article where one government agency says to NOT follow another government agency's ruling.

When I first got into this business, I had an experience that taught me a valuable lesson. I had a customer bring in a 30-year-old Chevrolet Impala. A 1957 4-door if I remember correctly. It was rusted out and in very poor shape. It needed a transmission and wasn't worth the investment in my eyes. I let the customer know my opinion and proceeded to knock the condition of the vehicle and generally berate the car. The customer seemed to change their mind about the repair and left the shop. About two weeks later, the local Aamco store manager called me and wanted to thank me for "selling a job for them." I didn't understand and asked for a bit of clarification. As it turned out, the customer had a huge emotional attachment to the vehicle. It was originally his dad's car and he grew up in that car. His dad used to give him rides in it. He learned to drive and got his driver's license with that car. Additionally, his first date with what later became his wife was done in that car. After his dad passed away, he left ownership of the car in his will to his son. As it turned out, the car eventually became a family treasure and heirloom. Basically, I blew a very profitable sale by not asking questions of the customer and knocking the vehicle. I lost the sale to my local Aamco. I learned a very valuable lesson that day and never made the same mistake again... ask the customer questions and try to understand their motives. And NEVER knock a customer's vehicle.

https://www.ratchetandwrench.com/shop-life/article/11462586/curb-appeal

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Some time ago, I had a similar experience of losing a major part of our business. We had a GR shop that sent us a lot of referral customers. It was well over half our business. Long story made short, for reasons unbeknownst to me, they started installing reman transmissions from Jasper. Our business suddenly became unprofitable due to our high expenses. I learned to never have any job source become the majority of our business. The good thing to come out of this was I suddenly had a crash course on a new type of marketing. It was social marketing. That saved our bacon. A year or two later, I started dabbling in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising with call tracking. Over time I got really good at it. I was able to generate an extra $500K in income, just with PPC. That cost me about 10% of revenue or $50K/yr. It was truly magical to me.

Utah totally stopped requiring an annual state inspection a number of years ago. More recently, they changed it again to include cars older than 10 years must have an inspection, and newer than 10 years don't. Some shops' revenue model uses failed inspections as the major driver for new work. Personally, I'm neutral on the issue.

Interesting topic. Believe it or not, Google Drive and Google Docs are both in the cloud and FREE. We use QuickBooks Pro Desktop as both our SMS and accounting software. There's nothing QB won't do. We paid Intuit to do payroll and our 941. They would simply dial into our shop, log in, and extract our data. Our data remained on our PC. I gave up on paying any SMS for all the reasons previously cited.

You said, "Let's discuss some of your best ways to attract and hire qualified auto technicians. " This doesn't answer your question about attracting and hiring qualified technicians, but a horror story of trying to use money as the main motivator to hire and keep technicians. In my experience, it flat doesn't work. That's a double-edged sword. I've noticed serious techs tend to "embellish their qualifications." Case in point: I hire a seasoned builder from out of state. He's in Arizona and I'm in Utah. Unloading his tools was a real chore. He had all the right tools. Soon after hiring him, I noticed we were starting to get a lot of Honda warranty jobs he built. I asked him how much Honda experience he had. "Oh, I built hundreds and never had a problem." As most of the Honda transmissions he built were becoming huge problems. They are built like a Swiss watch. Everything has to be on the money. One day I decided to call his former employer and ask about the Honda situation. His boss told me "Oh, we never build Honda transmissions; they are too hard. We usually buy a used unit." I probed a little deeper and asked him if they buy nothing but used Honda units. He replied, "If it's not a used unit, then it's a reman from a Honda dealer. We don't build Hondas." Because the labor market was so tight (and it still is) I hired him at $104,000/yr. salary. ($2K/wk.) He was unusually fast and the simple transmissions he had no problem with. I continued to look for a transmission builder. As soon as I found one, I cut him loose. My next builder was much better because I worked with him before. END OF REPORT

I was in the transmission business for 40 years. There were 3 jobs I refused to spend a lot of time, especially for free. LEAKS, NOISE & VIBRATIONS WERE A MONEY-LOSING PROPOSITION. (remember this) We were always busy. "Lost opportunity cost" was my reasoning. We could be working on a transmission malfunctioning instead of a small-ticket repair. With that being said, our MARO (major RO where the transmission had to be pulled.) Was $3,500 and our ARO was $1,250. If I couldn't diagnose in no more than 1 hour, I sold diagnostic time, then"free" went out the window. The kind of customer that always slayed me was the guy who come in and he's convinced that he has properly diagnosed the transmission as leaking. Not so fast Kemosabe. The engine is leaking motor oil, PS fluid, or coolant and it's blowing back on the transmission making appear to be leaking. What really killed me was when I asked how big of a spot it leaking, they would tell me "about the size of a quarter every other day." End Of Report

I've come to the realization that I don't need to play with individual stocks. Rather a mutual fund or an annuity. If I've got my math right, our retirement savings will last for at least 30 years.

Oh, I get it now. I prefer reading technical data myself; or anything pertaining to transmissions or drivetrains. It's not only more relevant, but it's more succinct. Over the years, that has morphed into reading sales, management, and marketing material as opposed to the technical. When I go to expos and seminars I always take the management track, not technical. Today, I read some technical, but mostly management and marketing. The hardest thing I had to learn was how Google's PPC and call tracking worked.

You make me laugh. There are a lot of people in our industry that aren't much on reading. They are more visual and hands-on when it comes to new information so don't feel alone. Actually, all of my employees weren't much at reading. When transmissions became computerized they couldn't "see" things that were wrong like a sensor, pressure switch, or solenoid. Proper diagnosis could only be learned by reading. I was the only guy that liked to read so all of those "transmission electrical problems" fell into my lap. I was the guy that had to not only diagnose the problems but fix it as well. I'm certainly glad I'm not in the business anymore because transmission electrical problems have only grown.

Few people talk about retirement because it's so personal. Everybody is different. I personally know 2 different local shop owners still working in their respective businesses and they are both in their 80s. I'm 68 and could never even dream about running a shop in my 80s. Maybe they both like to work. Maybe they can't afford to retire. No matter the reason, I'm glad I'm not in their shoes. I've been retired since 2020 and retirement is not what I had envisioned. I feel like it's a major victory that my wife and I can live our pre-retirement lifestyle during our retirement years. While on the surface it looks good, I find myself gaining weight due to my low activity level. I was at the doctor's office yesterday and I couldn't believe my weight is up to 271!!! Wow, that's a 70-pound weight gain for me; I'm 6'0" tall. I always envisioned retirement as pretty much doing what I wanted, including doing nothing. However, I find myself missing the daily routine of having to be to work by 8:00 am and working until 6:00 pm. That completely blindsided me. I didn't know being unproductive would be such a detriment to my health. While I do enjoy writing, it's not everything. My sister suggested that I write a book, more like an autobiography. I don't think anybody would read it. From the outside looking in, my life has been pretty boring and nobody is going to read a boring book. During my first year of retirement, I drank a lot of beer. However, that was short-lived. One of the few things positive that has happened in my retirement today is that I consume much less beer. I used to really enjoy beer, but not so much nowadays. If I had to give a piece of advice to someone contemplating retirement is that everyone should have a hobby or part-time job to keep themselves busy. There are only so many "honey-dos" a guy can do. My wife keeps herself busy with a couple of hobbies. She sews quilts and blankets, plus works jigsaw puzzles in between. Not to mention cooking and cleaning. As comparatively more active than myself, even she's putting on a few pounds, too. Taking my own advice, I need to find a hobby or part-time job to keep me busy. I have no idea of either. Stay tuned, I'll keep you posted.

I just read an interesting article in Motor and wanted to share it with the group. According to the Motor survey of drivers, 64% of those drivers are putting off necessary car maintenance. There's a lot more information in the article itself. Motor Drivers Survey

A while back, I posted a letter I wrote to a bad apple we once had. About 3 weeks after giving him the letter, I had to let him go because I saw no improvement. One of the best things I ever did.

I just read this really great article in Ratchet & Wrench magazine and thought I should share it. https://www.ratchetandwrench.com/running-a-shop/article/11463898/how-to-build-the-3m-shop

I never labeled the company vehicles. By the time I started free rent cars, magnetic signs had already fallen out of popularity. The first and last rent car all had custom vinyl letters. Magnetic signs went by the way of the flashing arrow signs. 🙂

No wrap, but vinyl lettering on both sides.

Wow! That's great! You mentioned "free loaner," so nonchalantly, I took it to mean you just got started with free rental cars. I labeled our program "free Rent-A-Car" because it sounds much more upscale. "Free loners" doesn't give the same connotation as "free Rent-A-Car" does. TWO QUESTIONS: Are your cars wrapped or have the name of your shop advertising on them? Why or why not?

Anything I say concerning this topic is basically irrelevant because I haven't had any employees since 2015 and my subsequent retirement. However, I did just read a killer article from Ratchet & Wrench magazine... http://ratchetandwrench.com/shop-life/shop-profiles/article/33003329/write-job-ads-that-excite-techs

Well... I'm not a fan of the 4-day work week or being open on Saturdays. I have to put being closed on Saturdays in the proper context. I had a VPN tunnel between my home and the shop with WAN modems on each end. There was nothing that required me to be at the shop. Everything on my home machine was a mirror of my shop machine. The same goes for my phone at my home. I could make and receive phone calls at home and the caller didn't know I wasn't at the shop. In a nutshell, my home office machine was a mere extension of my shop machine. I didn't have to go to the shop to take care of some perceived business need. Perhaps a graphic, like the one below, would make it a little bit easier to grasp the concept and understand... I could take on new jobs on any weekend. If they needed to bring their vehicle in for something that couldn't wait, I would have the customer bring in their vehicle and use our key drop box to leave us the key(s). Setting this up was relatively cheap and had no monthly charges to maintain.

Labeling a company vehicle as a loaner will come back to haunt you; the question is not if something bad will happen, but when. Have a written Vehicle Rental contract the customer signs, even if's free. The customer's insurance is primary. The customer is responsible for gas. The customer is responsible for any body or paint damage. The customer is 25 or older. I used one of the contracts from the website shown below.