gravysuckinpig

I have been in this business for twenty years as a tech and as a service writer before i became an owner... and ive seen alot of shady things in the various shops ive worked at. and ive worked for alot of pushy managers who only cared about sales and numbers- not about the customers, their vehicles, or the integrity of the shop. this is one of many reasons i stay away from doing public work- a great deal of the motoring public has been conned, over charged, let down, sold un needed repairs, and been misdiagnosed to the point they naturally dont trust auto repair shops. and they can be quite nasty. Let me stress i am not grouping ALL SHOPS into these categories. I am talking about the chain stores mostly, the ones people feel they can trust - the ones with district managers that get bonuses on sales categories, the ones ran by people with a "sales" background, who wouldn't know a resonator from a converter. I have a great deal of animosity towards these places because of the way they do business, and the way they train their employees to write an estimate. Been there, done that- hated it.- which gets me to my question - how many of us try to write up every little thing we see on a customers car and try to sell it based on a "mileage" condition- or just because it "looks" ready to fail. do you train your techs to "pick it apart" and write up every little thing they see, and your service writers to "push " people into buying. or should i say do you "allow" this to happen in your shop? as long as the repair is sold. do you check your invoices to be sure the techs and sw arent "padding" the ticket to increase their commission? It has been my experience that customers are much happier spending 2-300 or 400 $$ with a shop every 4-6 months than coming in and walking out with a 800-1000$ or higher bill the first time they come to you, because the sw pushed them into buying NOW. i understand sometimes this is unavoidable in the case of a head gasket or a major repair, but the average customer seeking a few maintenance items or a simple brake job walks out feeling taken advantage of - especially when they DONT hear, feel, or sense their car acting any better, or even different, than before they took it to you. Do we hire a sw based on his "sales" background or his "automotive" experience? 80% of my past experience has shown me that sales is the basis for hiring a sw- whether he sold washing machines or doorknobs - it does not matter- if he can sell he can write service and answer customers questions about thier cars. would you rather have a customer that spends 2-400$ with you every 4-6 months, or one that spends 800-1000 or more once? keep in mind that customer will tell 10 other people where he took his car and how he felt when he left, and those 10 people will also tell at least 2 others what they heard from your customer. so thats 30 people from 1 customer. Sorry if this is long winded but i feel the need to vent a little. It has been proven many times - people will spend MORE on a place of business that they feel comfortable dealing with, just for the piece of mind they get. thanks for listening- if we as a group want to increase our bottom lines, we must also work on how we treat our customers, or, how we let our employees treat our customers. customer service should be followed through even into the estimate, not just at drop off and pickup. We must train them to use honesty and integrity to build our businesses , and the rest will follow. Give your techs business cards to put into their customers cars when they work on them, this will keep them accountable for their work, and it gives them incentive to take that extra step for quality knowing their name is on it and the customer will see it, and it gives the customer something to pass along to others they know who need repairs. ok im done now. but there will be more on customer service to come.

I think it is more a matter of where do the old used weights get disposed of after they are removed from the wheel, im sure there are shops that just throw them in the trash - which means they end up in a landfill somewhere. ??

here is our total package for the year 5 paid sick days 3 paid personal days paid holidays... new years day/easter/labor day/july 4th/memorial day/thanksgiving/xmas eve(close at noon) xmas day 5 vacation days every 6 months (they do not accrue- use em or loose em) a cash Thank you bonus every 3 months or so (usually 150-200$) company picnic in the summer / weekend camping trip (friday- sunday) we give ham/turkey depending on the holiday we buy the shop lunch at least 1-2 times per week - and NO ONE is permitted to do the work while you eat lunch thing. christmas party - NONE why? the subject never came up- throughout the year we set aside .50cents for each employee for each hour they turn during the year and give them an envelope full of cash 2 weeks before xmas so they can have it for xmas shopping or whatever they desire. thats the holiday bonus. but as far as a party we dont do one- and we have never had one complaint or even an inquiry. and i pay minimum wage- with a per hour bonus attached depending on the amount of hours you turn for the week. my guys work mon-fri 8-5 - saturdays are optional- we are not open but if you want some hours and the work is there i will let you in till NOON.

you could go to the grand opening, grab a bunch of food and and while eating it, hand out business cards to people and tell them when they buy the part the scanner says is bad and it doesnt fix it - or they buy the cheap rotors that are warped out of the box, or the o2 sensors that dont cycle, to call you to get it done right. I hate when customers compare our parts prices to the cheap parts stores - all i say is "did you ever hear the saying you get what you pay for" ...even worse - " the parts store scanned it and said i just need an _insert any part here_ It got to the point where i would just put the part on and put the car back outside - whether it fixed it or not - when the customer came back in (after paying the bill) because the problem was still there i would politely ask them if they were ready to pay for a correct diagnosis yet, or if they wanted to take it back to the parts store and have them scan it again, or maybe since it didn't fix it they could get their money back for the free scan. it all depends on how the customer treats me in the beginning during write up. this is exactly why i gave up working on vehicles for the general public. Does anyone know - if a parts store scans your car and says you need "x".. do they let you return it if it doesn't fix it?

Thats not too unusual for the small contractors - they are like any small business struggling to survive. The larger companies like cable, satellite, landscape etc are usually great to work with. Part of my model is ONLY doing fleet work - I guess that helps - each company thinks they are "special" and we drive home the fact that we dont try to gouge them simply because they are a business account. They feel like they belong to their own exclusive "club", for lack of a better word. We also do all their vehicle mods when they buy new ones. As far as the contractors you mentioned - they are no different from the customers with the same attitude - we try to weed them out when they first come in. - We dont do much work for the towns or the city either - they mostly have their own garages.

Just wondering how much of everyone's work comes from other local businesses. Do you actively recruit their business or do you just wait untill they come to you for service? What type of discount do you offer them if any . We do not work on vehicles for the general public - i save all those for gonzo - ha ha. It does keep the "price shoppers" and crazies to a very minimum level- and in todays economy there are alot of those types. We do not do semis or large box trucks - cars and trucks up to 3500 series only- i am located in a fairly large city with more than enough large companies that have a fleet of vehicles - the business model of ONLY doing work for other businesses is a great selling point - it gives the companies the impression of a more personalized relationship with their repair vendor.you would be surprised how receptive they are to not having to share a shop with the general public. And did i mention the stress level is almost non-existent... no price haggling, minor damage complaints,parts price whining - they just want to know when will it be done and how much... so... what is your fleet customer base like? and what discounts if any do you give them?

What i am getting at is this - first , i am SURE anyone at that level of government has been investigated so deeply they wont be able to sit down for a week - and 2- the u.s. is a muslim country, and a catholic country and christian and Buddhist and any other religion you can think of - thats what makes it better than the "muslim countries" you mentioned. Just because they are muslim does'nt mean they dont deserve the same opportunities as everyone else. If as you said, you dont feel like all muslims are terrorists then there should be no issue that 2 of them were appointed to HS. I can see the prez's thought on this - if your gonna catch a muslim extreemist - you need to think like a muslim- as for my "catholic priest" comment - it is toward not your outright words - but where you are leading the reader with your choice of words- i wonder - would you have any problem sending your kids to a small daycare for 8 hours a day that was run by a catholic priest? I did not see your post as a "security issue" i took it as a bigotry issue (i am white) which is not what church is supposed to teach people. If i look at it as a security issue... i can see your concern as a valid one - my apologies. When it comes down to it - we are all business owners and leaders of our community - we serve all the people that walk into our stores and spend MONEY - i dont know about your part of the country but where i am, if one of my muslim customers saw me write something like that with my stores name and logo next to it, i would be out of business in a matter of months- we as business owners need to think about everything we do and say in a public forum - you never know who could be watching.just my 2 cents - did not mean to offend on my first post as a member...

does it run ok? plugs and injectors good? Ive seen low power at idle cause accessories to do strange things. If they have oversize tires chances are the did something to "make more power".

Thats like saying all catholic priests are child molesters - and im sure they didn't get to their previous positions and keep them as long as they did if they were terrorists. Im glad your church teaches you not to judge lest ye be judged.