Joe Marconi

Best of luck and welcome to the AutoShopOwner.com. Don't be a stranger on the forums and search thru all the posts and articles. There is plenty of great information from so many of our members.

In the end I think we need to do our best to make the customer understand the Value, not the Price. The value in protecting the engine, fuel economy, maintaining factory warranty and extended oil service interval. No one wants to lose a customer, but we need to maintain integrity too.

If you speak with most shop owners, we would all agree that training is a key component to continued success in business. There is so much new information these days, the only way to stay at the top of your game is through on-going training. And while most of us set up training for our technicians, we often neglect the need for continued training for our service advisors, managers and even for us as shop owners. Service advisors need ongoing sales training. Shop managers and shop owners will benefit from training on topics such as employee management, employee recruiting, cost controls, understanding the financials, marketing and leadership. Everyone in your shop benefits from training. It not only sharpens their skills, but also improves morale. And you, as the shop owner, can benefit from a tune up now and then too.

So, what's worse than AutoZone and Advance doing free check engine light scans? You know the answer, installing the part that was sold by these part stores without performing your own diagnostic tests first. I was at an affair the other day sitting at a table with a few people I did not know. And then the question I never want to answer comes up, "So Joe, what do you do for a living?" This person told me a 15 minute story about going to AutoZone to have a check engine light scanned, then buying an O2 sensor, bringing it to the repair shop that was recommended by the AutoZone, only to have the check engine light come on the next day. I am sitting at the table attempting to eat a really bad steak, and now I have to save the world. The more I tried to explain the more distant this guy became. So, I gave up and suggested he go back to the shop and pay to have the problem tested and diagnosed. His eyes lit up, "Pay for something they do FREE at AutoZone?" We are evolving into an industry where standards are being re written. And, it's not good. This guy went to AutoZone because of all the ads he hears on the Radio, and also speaking to a few of his coworkers at the office. Is it me or is there a real problem brewing here? Bigger than we have imagined before?

This is a tough one. Trust me, I have been down this road too, and usually no one wins. We lose even as an industry. You cannot trust the information you are getting; either from the customer or the other shop. What bothers me is why some shops bad mouth other shops, when they should keep their mouths shut. The other shop does not know the entire story. They don't know how the customer insisted on "saving money", which almost always turns out bad for everyone. I really don't have a good answer for you. We just went thru this a few weeks ago. I ended up hanging up on the customer. We diagnosed a bad transmission on his Rav4, he wanted to complain to Toyota, so he goes to the dealer. He ends up getting the transmission replaced at the dealer and now wants his diagnostic testing charges back from us! He told me that the dealer told him we did tests that were not needed. Talk about blood boiling. After him shouting at me over the phone I hung up.

I want to wish everyone a happy Labor Day Weekend. I hope everyone is spending time with friends or family, or just catching up on much deserved Rest and Relaxation.

It amazes me why people would skimp on something like this. It's an oil service, what are they really saving?

We have all been down this road. Sometimes we can resurrect these machines, sometime better to leave them dead. One of my favorite "rusterations" was on a 66 Buick Riviera. The customer looked for years to find one. He wanted to surprise is father with it for his 70th birthday. This is the car the family had growing up, so it had a lot of sentimental value. It was not in the best of shape, but it had promise. We did all the mechanical work on it, leaving the body a little dull, but acceptable. My customer drove it from New York to Chicago to present to his father on his birthday.

I feel the same way. It's nice to get great reviews, but we all cringe when we get a bad one. And, as you said, can we trust the source? I am not promoting any company, but at least Angie's List has actual membership that can be verified. Plus, it's easy to reply to a review on Angie's List. Track all reviews, reply to as many as you can, especially if it's a negative review and understand that we cannot be everything to everyone.

This is a perfect example of some of the scenarios that we need to consider when performing high tech work. While it may be hard to standardize each operation, as the years pass we will see more and more high tech work replace traditional straight forward labor jobs. The important thing now is to start tracking the time it actually takes to insure that the car is done right. And while I agree with you about charging $200, we need to establish some sort of compromise. This may not be a perfect analogy but here goes: If a doctor has to order an X-ray after he takes a cast off to insure the bone healed properly, the X-ray is billed to the customer (or insurance). The doctor is verifying his repair. This is great conversation and I hope to hear more comments from others.

As uncertainty continues for many collision shops, many are turning to other forms of income streams. Expanding services such as truck bed liners and detailing services are just some of the things collision shops are considering. I guess the key thing is that, as an industry, change is coming and we need to explore other services to offer.

I recently hired a young tech we acquired from a local dealership. He was a graduate from UTI, passionate about his career, but felt stuck at the dealership because they only allowed him to perform oil changes and tires. We had him work with us on his day off and was impressed with his skills. We hired him three weeks ago. Last Friday I asked him to see me before he punched out. I just wanted to see how he felt about us, the work he was doing and to get to know him better. He said he was thrilled to work for us and that he has done more in three weeks than he has done in the last two years at the dealer. But what really surprised me was when he said, "You know, I did not come to work for you for more money, I just wanted to advance myself. Thank you for the opportunity." I wonder how may young techs feel the same way?

The AAA is growing a chain of repair shops in the mid-Atlantic states. AAA started in 2011, and now have 11 repair shops which they use to sell insurance, increase membership and perform automotive repairs. AAA plans on opening up more facilities in the next few years. AAA has different clubs across the country and each have different strategies. As an AAA Approved repair shop in New York, you can only imagine that there are questions I would like to have answered. Below is a link to an article in Tire Business Magazine. What are your thoughts on this? http://www.tirebusiness.com/article/20140804/ISSUE/308049999/going-clubbing-for-car-repairs-competition-growth-strategy

Sorry, I do not. I have the Hunter Hawk Eye. Great machine.

Some repair operations have finality to them. By that, I am referring to jobs that do not require additional labor after the job is complete. For example; installing a tail light lens, set of wipers, an air filter or cabin filter. Once these jobs are done, they are done. There are other labor operations, such as brake work and wheel alignments, that even though a road test is required after completion, there is enough gross profit built into these jobs, that we do not need to worry about the total labor charges. Now, let’s take an O2 sensor, catalytic converter or other similar jobs. Theses jobs are not over once the part is installed. The tech needs to retest the system and the component, verify the repair and road test the vehicle. In addition, more time is needed to sell that type of repair. Where I am going with this? Understand that you need additional labor charges for retesting, verifying the repair and road testing. The labor time to replace an oxygen sensor is only part of the repair. You also need to account for the additional time needed to complete the operation: retesting, verifying and road testing. Not taking this into account could hurt labor production, which will affect your bottom line. Oh yes, I am hoping that everyone is getting paid for testing too.

Now that is funny! Great story! I got a nice laugh at of this one. I bet we have all done similar funny things. Talk about a Kodak moment!

We use BG machines for every fluid service, very happy with them.

Man, that was great! Too funny!

Funny! Oh man, you nailed it with this one! That gate you speak of is a portal from a dimension that is unknown to people like us. We know it exists, but we have never been there. In that dimension you will find all those undesirable people and cars you speak of. How else to you explain it? Oh, this dimension seeks out and finds repair repair shops. Bad news though, I don't know of any type of welding rod that works with "portal dimensions"

So true! Great comment!

All great comments. Opening Saturdays is a business decision. If it doesn't make economic sense and you can organize your work to become efficient in 5 days, that's great. I think it also depends on your community.

I finally got my AAA approved repair shop status, but not sure how this will affect me. Each state or region in the U.S. is different. Thanks for posting this, I will need to do some research.

As shop owners, there are times that we feel we are on an island. We need to push on in spite of the challenges around us. Life throws us curve balls. We have all been there, that's for sure.

Many great analogies and a lot of fun to read. You have a real talent to see things from a very interesting perspective. It's like and adventure each week to see what you'll be writing about. Great stuff!