Joe Marconi

Anytime!

What about pricing. I do get some people come in after reseaching parts online and hand me a printout from some cheap site. I really do not want to go down this road with customers. Your thoughts?

Do not hope, my good friend. Hope is never a plan for sucess. Look at you sales figures and make it your goal to reach that goal. Less than1%???? You can top that, I know you can. Put together a sales plan to reach a certain sales goal for each job, each day, each week, each month. Don't say hope....Say, "I WILL do better than last year!" Stay positive and positive things will come your way Joe

I agree. Do you think that the web will somehow dictate or set standards with respect to pricing and servicing?

Yes, I firmly believe that. What I have learned in the short term is how important it is to manage the business. You can't grow your business or run your business from a creeper or under the hood!

We have so busy with the new facility that we have not devoted enough time to used cars. We have found that the $5000 to $7000 range sells the fastest. Over that people look for a cheap car or cheap lease. luckily, our repair and service sales have been good.

Are sales for 2009 better, worse or the same as 2008? Have you ever openned up Saturdays? Would you consider it to increase sales?

I am seeing more and more of this type of online advertising. Is this the up and comimg new standard? We all need to be on the web, it is the future. Let's hope this doesn't cause confusion for both the shops and the public. Feedback will be greatly apprciated!

Thanks, that's a lot of free press. Tire business has featured other articles of mine in th past. Thanks again

3 to 5% of total sales. But I have to tell you that I stopped ads in the local penny saver, news papers and the yellow pages. I primarily concentrate on TV, Radio and I buy mailing lists of people in a 5 mile radius of my shop. I also heavliy concentrate on marketing to our exsiting customer base with email newsletters, service reminders, seasonal promotions, etc. And another thing that has helped is getting invloved with local ograinizations like the Chamber of Commerce. Networking with other local businesses is key today. There are things you can do that won't break the bank. Remeber your target audience is a lot smaller than a Pep boys.

Welcome and good luck to you. I can speak for all memebers of AutoShopOwner when I say to you just ask and we will help in any way we can. It's a tough but rewarding business. I've been doing it for more than 30 years! The large customer area can be to your advantage. People today, espcially women, like to be comfortable. Make that your show peice. They will see that and jugde you for your waiting room more than what you have in the shop. First impresins are the most important in business. A clean, comfotable waitng area will help you sell. Good luck and welcome aboard! Joe AutoShopOwner, Osceola Garage

To a large degree, consistent and relentless advertising works. We have a large tire chain right around the corner from us and they too are always busy. They put a lot of money into advertising and you don't need an appointment. The quality of their work is questionable, at best! But they are always busy. Independents spend a lot of time and money being ASE certified, buying the best tools, the best equipment and becoming the best techs. We pride ourselves on being able to solve the toughest problems. In the end, the public may not know the difference. I am not saying that we should be more like these other shops, but we need to understand what the consumer perceives, because their perception is their reality. When expanding my business I studied the businesses that always seemed busy and I took a different approach. I learned what the customer sees as mportant, and it was not my Hunter Alignment Machine or my Snap On Scanner. And it was not even the fact that we are an ASE Blue Seal Shop! What matters to them are convenience, a friendly face, speedy service and a fair price. We now advertise more (TV and Radio). We offer while you wait service and you don’t need and appointment, and it works. Our business has increased. The world has changed from the days when I started in a 2 bay gas station in the 70’s.

Tough situation. I guess you need to find your unique competitve advantage. We all wear too many hats. I would like to compare collections.

You may not make any more money in your case. And, techs should not run the front counter. I think you running the office is a good thing. The only issue I have is that as the owner you have to work on growing the business. And that means having free time to work on the numbers, advertising, etc. It's not easy with two techs. I don't know how big your shop is. Is there room to grow?

I want to go a little further with this, if it's ok with you. How big is your shop and the other shop that offers free diag? What type of shop is it? Independent? Franchise? Tire store? Other?

This is the best they could come up with?????? Am I the only one who thinks these ads are stupid???? I understand the "run flat" angle, but please give me a break!

Same for us. We have a drug testing policy and inform all employees and new hires that random drug testing will be performed. I have yet to do this but will start. I now have about 14 people working for me and I have had issues this past year with 2 techs that were stopped for DWI. They are both gone now, but we all need to protect ourselves.

First, great point...if you not on the first or last page you will probably not be noticed. And I agree about the bait and switch ads. We have this in my area and I will not go down the road...ever. As far as picking a radio station. We took note of what radio stations our customer’s listened to by seeing what our customers had pre-programmed on the car radios. We also asked customer what they listened to the most. Then I called those radio stations and asked for their demographics reports. You need to match the radio listening audience to your “ideal” customer. For us we are looking for family people or women, home owners, with kids, 2 car families, and 35-60 years old with incomes above 65k. In other words, my audience is not the hip-hop culture or teen culture so I would not want to buy time on those stations. It’s also important to pick a local radio station; if possible, that does a lot for the local community. Once I picked the radio station I focused on drive time traffic reports and weather reports. People tend to listen to the traffic and weather and not switch to another station when an ad comes on. Hope this helps.

I have the same issues. We need to balance the week. Networking is great, but we need to run a business also. I am very selective now on what I do and what I get myself invloved with. There are only so many hours in a week. As far as your prize...When our paths cross (and they will some day), diner and drinks are on me!!! Thanks for your loyalty and support to AutoShopOwner!

I think you have something there. What this does is make you think like a businessperson, not a tech. To network with people from different businesses, increases your knowledge. This will make you better. Good stuff!

I agree. When a new customer complains about another shop, I remain silent and don't pass judgment on anyone. We need to stick together and become more professional. The more we raise our image the better we will all be. The more we stick together the better we will be too.

Thanks for the concern, nice to know there are people out there like you. Starting our 2nd location has been tougher that I thought. I have no regrets and business is ok. It's just that I need to hone my skills better, revise my systems and re-work old policies. These are the growing pains of expanding. If it were easy, everyone would do it!

That's great information, we went a little nuts today on a lexus. We have the Bar Tech. It read the fault ok, but re-set was a pain. Thanks again!

I read the article and here is my reply I posted: You sound bitter, and I can understand fully. I have been in the auto business since 1974. But, I have to tell you, one of the biggest problems is with too many shops that don't charge diagostic fees, that are willing to install customer supplied parts and other bad practices that hurt us all. We need to look in the mirror. We may not be able to change the public,but we can change ourselves. Joe Marconi AutoShopOwner.com OsceolaGarage.com

The past few years I have been more involved with local business groups. It has helped me network among local business. I like to hear from others on your thoughts about local networking