flacvabeach

North Pole??? I've gotta ask - what's your car count?

On my previous post - standard disclaimer - I'm sure there are a bunch of good HR outfits like SESCO that can help. They are just the one I know.

Anytime you are dealing with human resources issues, it's a slippery slope. You might want to consider professional help. I got SESCO to give me some advice on my Employee Handbook and it's still a work in progress. A good one has a LOT of "legalese" in it that you probably wouldn't come up with on your own. SESCO is a preferred provider with ATI and Virginia Automotive Association, so I can call them and get a free consult anytime I have HR questions. They will write your handbook for you for a fee.

The fleet customers we have had in the past were always looking for someone to do it cheaper and I understand that. We do a lot of government vehicles through GSA and they can be tough customers, but they pay by credit card and in our town, they have a LOT of vehicles, primarily late-model domestic. We don't see Sprinters. Wonder where they are going?

We won't quote a price on the phone - period.

I get a lot of good ideas from smart people that I hang out with, but you win the prize. Very thoughtful and provocative list that I'm going to try and do from top to bottom. Good stuff, Joe.

The bad thing about money bonuses is that there is no way to evade the taxman, so a $100 bonus is $70 in your employee's pocket and about $117 out of yours, but we do money because that is what most of our folks need at Christmas time. We put it in their check a couple of weeks before Christmas so they can spend it as they please. I like the gift card idea, but (call me paranoid) I don't like things I would have to explain in an IRS audit.

Mspec's post is my story as well. $1500 is one good ticket each month. What is expensive is making mistakes until you are either out of business or finally forced to admit that good training is cheap. The best athletes in the world have coaches, so should you.

How many hours does he make for you each week? What incentive does he have to make more hours for you?

We provide them for all employees. Our membership in the Virginia Automotive Association gives us deep discounts based on their alliance with Unifirst. Might want to look in your area and see if there are similar groups and arrangements.

Absolutely agree, Joe. I'm a dyed-in-the wool DIY guy. For years, I saved $$ by refilling my own ink cartridges for the numerous inkjet printers around our two shops. I bought ink by the gallon and probably saved a bundle, but every time a printer quit, it was my crisis and my fingers were always ink-stained. Last year we signed a contract with an outfit that put three laser printers in strategic spots. They provide service, toner comes in the mail and our invoices and courtesy checks look impeccable. Best of all, it freed up a lot of my time to work on more important stuff.

We are currently sending a couple of hundred greeting cards (based on Customerlink stats) with a 25 dollar service gift card enclosed that can be used after the first of the year. Right after we put the materials together another shop owner told us they were making their gift cards so they could be used once per quarter in the coming year. DOH! Why didn't I think of that? Previous years, we sent out packages with a $25 gift card for them and four $20 cards they could hand out to friends as referrals. WAY too complicated. It was amazing how many came in wanting to use all five cars themselves to pay for a big repair.

We were slow to adopt a real approach to tire sales and just considered them a relatively low profit item that we had to deal with if we want to be our customers' "one stop shop." We can't compete with the clubs and the high-volume tire outlets, so we decided to make the most of our position as sort of the 7-11 of tire sales. We're fast and convenient and we have access to all major brands. We settled on targeting a 34% margin (34% of the retail price is profit) based on a matrix in RO Writer. With the help of our coach, we developed a road hazard policy that goes on each tire sale and is quoted to the customer. Of course, the customer can decline the policy, but many take advantage of it. After a couple of years, we have had very few claims on the policy and when you do have to replace a tire, it's a good will win. We signed an agreement with the biggest local tire distributor and they give us great service on delivery and pricing. Tires are still a small portion of our business, but we feel like we have it under control. Also very important, we NEVER do plugs. We do internal patch-plugs within RMA guidelines. When you tell somebody their tire with 30% tread is going to cost $35 to repair, it's a great time to offer a new pair of tires and alignment.

I think I can report that our switch to digital inspections is a complete success. We are still fine-tuning our inspection reports to maximize the impact for the customer, but techs and service writers have fully adopted the process, the hardware and the program.

Sounds high to me. Our matrix in ROWriter is set up to drive us towards a 61% margin (portion of the retail price that is profit) on parts overall. On the high end on engines, trannies etc. our margin is about 20%. Not a great ROI, so we would rather be selling the humdrum water pumps and alternators that are in the "fat" part of our matrix.

Any compensation plan you come up with that does not report income to the local and fed government is putting you in jeopardy. Gift cards sound great but they are just a scheme for tax avoidance. It sucks that if you want to give a tech a bonus or incentive, the tax man takes a chunk of it, but that's how our system works. Big tech companies provide cafeterias where their employees can get free lunch. They are engaged in litigation to show why that should not be considered income for their people.

This proves the theory that we should all be recruiting all the time. When you suspect that you have a "square peg in a round hole" problem is when you should start looking for new candidates. Not saying this is what I do. I'm reminding myself.

In my two shops, I have two female SWs who are stars. One came from the dealer world, the other worked for the local AAA chain. They have put up with us bringing a lot of change and new processes to their world. I think they would say they have grown and improved as a result. Each has a young female assistant whom they mentor and it's great to see the interaction. The young folks are much more open to new processes and the senior folks take pride in passing down knowledge. Female customers love to find that they don't have to be intimidated by a grumpy old man and male customers quickly learn they are dealing with experienced, knowledgeable advisors. I don't want to sugar coat this - there have been days with each when I wanted to tell them to take a hike and I'm sure there have been days they were ready to walk out, but overall, they have helped us achieve our goals and our customers love them.

I'm constantly amazed at the number of cars we get that don't have enough gas to do a test drive! We put $5 in and put it on the invoice.As far as promoting your shop, I agree word of mouth is best, but it takes time. Internet advertising in our business is very competitive and expensive. Every door direct mail is a good approach for a new business. You can select individual postal delivery routes and the rates are pretty good. If you need help, there are lots of guys that will do the job end-to-end. We use Mudlick, but there are lots of them out there. A good one will coach you and work with you to produce the most effective mailpiece to achieve your goals. Try and get the local paper to do an article on your business. You have to post on FB like crazy. Look at how many people your post reached - it's probably in the single digits, but if you "boost post" they will send it to thousands. Not real expensive and it helps increase followers. You have to play in Google+ to build Google search rank. Do some videos, even if they are amateurish and put them on youtube. Youtube is the second biggest search engine.

THS did give us an estimate of the hybrid population in our franchise area. I think it was a little bit optimistic and I don't have any idea where they got the data. We are not overwhelmed with hybrid business, but it has turned into a nice profit center for our shop. This conditioning process only works on nickel metal hydride batteries. Toyota and others seem to be locked into that technology for at least the near future. Some of the new EV / HEV vehicles are starting to use lithium ion but it's going to take a long time for that technology to populate the market. In the meantime, Prius batteries are aging rapidly and Prius owners seem, more than other car owners, willing to spend big chunks of money to keep their little babies going. One of the first cars we did was a Gen 1 Prius that we converted to gen2 cell packs and replaced the transmission to the tune of 3500 dollars on a car with 250,000 miles on it. Our Honda customers seem to be split 50 / 50 on their willingness to spend 2800 dollars to put a new battery in their car, but we have done a few of them. You could go broke and crazy trying to second guess your customers' willingness to spend large amounts of money on their car. You give them the estimate and wait for the answer. Sometimes the answer will surprise you.

We share all of our numbers with our Shop Manager and Service Advisors. They are pros who are very knowledgeable in shop operations and have been to ATI training and know what good numbers are. Their knowledge and cooperation is critical to achieving the numbers we are looking for. We also share them with other shop owners in our twenty group.

I think my family and I might have been among the first handful of shops to sign up as Hybrid Shop franchisees. My son and his wife heard the initial pitch at the ATI Superconference two years ago and were sold on the underlying concept. Later that year we attended the initial training that was held at Curry Automotive in Northern Virginia and stroked a check for the down payment. That summer our equipment was delivered (they do offer financing) and Dr. Mark Quarto came to our shop with Bob Curry who is now President of the operation and trained us. We have an exclusive agreement for a 25-mile radius, which really gives us the southern half of Virginia and North Carolina because there is not enough hybrid population nearby to support another shop. The battery conditioning process really works, except for Hondas. We were seriously disappointed early in the game to find that Honda batteries would appear to condition, only to come back in a few weeks with codes for pack degradation. Turns out the Honda batteries are technically inferior. Add to that the fact that they have inadequate cooling that causes them to be damaged during normal operation. Toyotas, GM, Ford, on the other hand are very robust and reliable and respond well to conditioning. Bottom line is that the Hybrid Shop process produces a reliable, balanced documented battery that operates at approx 95% of original capacity. I have yet to see an aftermarket battery, including the dealer replacements, that can make that claim. The margins on this work are, well, fantastic. Add to that the fact that this is very clean, safe work that techs love. But the real benefit is that this brings a whole new population of customers to your shop. Hybrid owners, more than any other segment of the driving population, have felt that they are shackled to the dealer for all of their repairs and maintenance. We now have a steady stream of hybrids coming to us for routine maintenance and repairs. The Hybrid Shop management has been supportive, but hands-off. They don't place any demands on us that are typical with a full franchise (this is a fractional franchise). Technical support is excellent. Dr. Quarto and his staff at AR&D are extremely well versed in all of the technical aspects of this process and respond to tech queries very quickly. They offer (and expect you to attend) SAE certification training in hybrid/electrical technology. I was talking to another shop owner who was considering joining and the subject of the cost of the equipment came up. I tossed out the current figure and he said "Huh, that's an alignment machine!" He was right - most of us consider that a necessity and we make it happen. Anyone considering doing this who wants to talk one-on-one about our experience can email me at [email protected] and I will provide my cell phone number. I'm just thankful that I'm not going to wake up tomorrow an find that my competitor down the street beat me to this opportunity

States that require safety inspection are in the minority and decreasing. The Virginia Automotive Association wages an ongoing lobbying battle to preserve our inspection program.

WE have used test strips for years just out of habit, but we have become very disillusioned with them as they always seem to read the same results. We have started using the refractometer.

Welcome to the forum.