Joe Marconi

I recently bought the Hunter Auto34 for runflat and low profiles. It's great machine for runlflats and low profiles but not too good on regular tires, infact for some tires it's horrible, like an SUV tire with a soft wide section height area. Another thing about the Hunter Auto34, the plastic tip that grabs the tire can snap off if the tech does not position it right. It takes some training to get the hang of it. We have a MAC that handles all other tires.

You know be by now Gonzo....and you don't have to tell me....but I hope you charged what you are worth. There are not many techs out there that do what you do, and don't be modest; I have been around the block more than a few times to know when someone knows their stuff. And you know your stuff. Great story, great dedication to your craft.....no, I take that back.... Great dedication to your Profession!

Mitchell1 Registrations Closing Soon for Workshop Mitchell1/ Shop Key Manager Work Shop to be held in Atlantic City, New Jersey on April 19-21, 2012 For more info and for registration go to http://www.buymitchell1.com/form/m1usersinfo.htm

There are a few ways they handle it. Shops that use a clock will still clock the actual time, but charge back the tech at the end of the pay period. If at all possible, the tech that caused the error should get the job back to redo, if not the tech that does the comeback will get credit which goes against the other techs hours. With shops that don’t track productivity hours and just pay an hourly wage or salary, it’s a little harder. Some shops, when the tech as very few comeback, will not even make an issue out of an occasional mistake and eat it as a cost of doing business. Remember, a chronic comeback problem cannot be tolerated and usually is an indication of a problem. If it’s not a part issue or training issue, then it’s a tech issue. If the tech cannot improve, you need to pull the trigger. I don’t know of any shop owners that actually make the tech pay out of pocket, unless the action was deliberate, and in that case there’s a real problem at that shop.

Come to think of it....it's the EURO dealerships that give us the most trouble....

I just created a simple excel spreadsheet.

Even the best mechanics make mistakes from time to time. I have made my share of blunders too. Unless we share in all the profits of the business with our techs, we need to realize that things will go wrong and chalk it up to another cost of doing business. If a tech has a comeback due to his or her mistake, that tech should re-do the job, if possible. Flat rate shops and hourly rate based shops will have different pay procedures to deal with this. If a tech makes a mistake, find out why. Is it lack of training, lack of following company policies and procedure or is due to sloppiness. If there is a trend where the tech’s quality cannot be improved, you will need to let that tech go. We track all comebacks, tech related or part related and we know what percentage of total sales are comeback related. We know that in any given year we will have 2 to 3% tech comebacks. We add this to our cost of doing business breakeven number and amortize this expense like any other budgeted expense. It hurts less when we know the numbers and have it budgeted. Because we track the number of each tech we can tell if a problem is developing and deal with it.

Below is a link to an article about how consumers are choosing the aftermarket over new car dealers. It’s a great article and I feel it’s worth spending a few minutes reading. It will give you insight in future trends that will affect our business. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-study-reveals-dealership-service-profits-threatened-by-aging-customer-base-141412473.html

We had a long standing rule about people bringing in their own parts, but now have a different outlook. Economies change and business models change. We all read how the DIY market is shrinking, but I still see a lot of people trying to do a lot of work themselves, so we have changed our way of thinking…somewhat… First, we do not accept the customer’s diagnosis or a part’s house diagnosis. If they bring us the alternator, I insist on testing the charging system and will charge for that. If they will not allow us to test it, I shake their hand and say, “Have a nice day, goodbye”. Second, I tell the customer up front that we are not in the business of accepting parts from the consumer and installing them, this is not what we do. You can’t bring your steak to Outback and ask them to cook it for you. So, please let us build a relationship where we take care of your car. Third, if we think that we are helping someone, we will give the person a price for the job. We calculate the job with parts and labor markup and charge them the gross profit dollars we would normally make on that job if we supplied the part. This way we still get our money, but with no warranty. So, if we normally make $60.00 on the alternator part, we add that to the labor. We have been very successful with this approach and it keeps our margins in line. I don’t like it, but I am tired of trying to win every battle and change the mindset of some consumers. I just hope I am no diluting my brand.

I am curious to know if other shop owners have a no rehire policy. Obviously if someone was fired, I would never rehire that individual. But, what if a valued employee left to start his or her own business or for other sound reasons and wanted to return to you because things did not work out. Would you rehire this person?

Welcome to AutoShopOwner.com. Spend time researching the forums, there are tons of great information from shop owners around the country. My advise, check all business training companies, I don't like being pushed either.

I have always been a firm believer of taking care of my customers as if they were family members. If my customer comes to me with a problem on their car and the car is still under factory warranty or needs reprogramming, we will take the car to the local dealer and handle the transaction. I don’t want my customer to make a separate appointment with the dealer; I want to remove that burden, if at all possible. What happened this week opened my eyes to a tactic I was not completely aware of. Please read on, I must share this with you. A longtime customer brought his Mercedes to us for a noise in the dash when operating the heater. We found a faulty blend door motor, a very extensive job. The customer authorized the job and everything was fine, except that the car needed to be reprogramed after the repair. We set up an appointment and shuttled the car to the local Mercedes dealer for the reprograming. Two days later after numerous calls and no return phone call, we finally reached someone in service and the advisor told us they had to remove part of the dash to repair a broken wire. No call to let us know, no authorization, no consult…..nothing! My shop foremen and lead tech worked on this car and took digital photos thru every step. They are both master techs. Both of them are outraged and said the dealership is lying. But wait, it gets better. After we picked up the car, an email and phone call went out to my customer! The email was a satisfaction survey and the phone call was to inform the car owner the reason why the car was at the dealer: The Reason: TO REPAIR A BROKEN WIRE IN THE DASH! The customer immediately called us to let us know. At this point I was furious and called the dealer. You have to leave a message whenever you call this dealer and I left four messages. It took another day for someone to get back to me. The service advisor told me that they are obligated under the terms of their Mercedes franchise agreement to call all of their Mercedes customers. THEIR CUSTOMER! I had to remind him of two very important facts: First, this is MY customer, not yours, and any obligation you may think you have does not include fabricating the truth. I don’t want to condemn or prejudge all new car dealers. We have great relationships with the local Chevrolet dealer, Nissan Dealer, Ford Dealer, Hyundai dealer, etc. I just thought it was important to share this story with other shop owners. I am not one to draw a line in the sand; I feel we should all get along. I will never know the truth about the broken wire, but this Mercedes dealership tactic has left me with suspicion.

I want to thank everyone with thier input on loaner cars. I will take all advise and make a final decesion. ASO has great talent. Thanks!

Gonzo, we all at times either ignore or are afraid to admit that we went into business to make money. That’s not a bad thing, it’s a reality. The issue, and we have discussed this in the past, is that our business focus is oriented toward car repair and service. And, where ever our focus is will determine our direction. We also spend large amounts of time taking care of customers and finding ways to “prove” to them that they are getting value when their car is in our shop. As an industry, have we trained the motoring public to react the way they do? Take a franchise, any franchise, and you will find a detailed plan based solely on profit. The plan may include all the warm and fuzzy things that we all declare when it comes to customer service, community, great prices and quality. But, the root of their business model is profit. I am not opposed to profit, but I feel some customers whether they knowingly realize it, are.

I find it real interesting that the 100 year old company Pep Boys is selling to the investment firm, Gores Group. What’s more interesting is that Pep Boys will no longer be a publicly traded company and will become a privately held company. As the dust settles, the reasons will be reveals and perhaps lessons can be learned from this story.

Thanks FranK, I am glad I have you around!

Labor drives the business and needs to be tracked. Each tech should produce enough labor hours so that the business remains profitable. There are a lot of benchmark numbers, but it depends on the mix of the type of jobs you do. If a shop does mostly major repairs, the labor hours should be high. I have two facilities, a traditional repair shop and a quick maintenance shop. For my repair shop my labor production goal is 100% or better, in the quick maintenance shop, we look for 75%. That's because we do many small jobs such as state inspections, tires, tire repairs, LOF's, etc. Many of which are While-U-Wait. But with this model, we can upsell any major repairs and shift it over to our repair shop. My Labor to Parts ratio is: Gross Labor Sales 45% of total sales, Gross Part Sales 55% of total sales. Many experts will tell you that the mix of parts and labor needs to be 50/50, and some may tell you that labor sales should be more than your parts sales. I am not in total agreement with that. With my Total Car Care concept, I sell a lot of related products: additives, wipers, accessories, mirrors, bumper covers, filters, etc. This tends to inflate part sales. I have no problem with that, since I am also a believer in total profit per car. You can earn much needed profits with sales of related products. In other words, a customer is in your shop for a check engine light and you happen to notice he also needs a set of wipers, a headlight and an air filter. Those additional items, may not add to you labor column, but will add dollars to your bottom line profit. Hope this helped.

A couple arrives to your service counter, husband and wife. The man begins to speak and starts to explain why they are bringing their car in for service. You begin your questioning process and direct all your attention to the man. The entire dialogue is between you and the husband. You never speak with the women or even turn to look at her. What you don’t know is that the car the husband is referring to is his wife’s. I don’t want to get into all the reasons why some men feel they must take the lead with car repair, but the lesson here is not to assume that the women is not involved in the decision making process when it comes to authorizing work. In fact, simply including the wife during the initial write-up will increase your chances of making future sales. Ask questions such as, “Who is the primary driver of this car”? Addressing both the husband and wife equally will send the right signals that you respect both the wife and husband as equals. It will go a long way at establishing a firm relationship with the couple. What you don’t want is for the wife to walk away feeling alienated, which may cause feelings of mistrust.

No, do you anything about it?

No, I have not. I think the engineers underestimated battery life. I just read in Tire Business Magazine that TPMS sensor batteries can last up to 10 years.

Cancer is a subject we all know too well. My mother was a real tough lady, but even she could not fight that evil scourge and fell victim at the age of 47. I am happy to see that Bo has such a good chance for survival. As far as the cancer in our industry, if there was one thing I could change and one thing only, it would be to raise the level of business awareness in our industry. I know most of us are techs, and we got into business because we were good at fixing cars. But the lack of business skills is too often hurting too many hard working shop owners. We need to collectively work toward changing that cancer you speak of. Once we took possession of the keys to the shop, we crossed over to a different world, the world of business. Like it or not, guys like you and me are mechanics by trade, business owners by choice. Gonzo, I hope all our members read your heartfelt story and learn a valuable lesson on life and business.

As TPMS sensors age, we are seeing more and more issues with seized sensors, that need to be replaced. The issue becomes explaining to the customer. The dissimiliar metals that are used in the core and stem are corroding, leading to the seizing after time. Also, people are putting the wrong caps on some sensors and that's an issue too when the cap seize. We have adopted a strick policy for some time now that when ever we service tires, tire repair or tire replacement we inform the customer PRIOR that the vehicle has TPMS, and that sometimes sensor or sensor may need to be replaced. We have brochures to help with the explanation. We also try to explain the relearn process and the re-program process. Not a lot of fun for us to be honest, it's takes time to do explain all this. This helps a lot, although we still get the occasional customer that says: "You touched it, you broke it, you buy it".

You have just described my worst fears....