5 Star Auto Spa

Google automotive technician job and your zip code and Indeed is the first website that probably displays........

I think it really depends on which company has full integration with the shop management software you are using.  If the digital inspection does not have full integration with the shop management software, you will lose out on a lot of functionality.

We use Mitchel SMS.  We switched over from All Data Manage.  So far so good for us, crossing our fingers we don't have some of the bad luck that others have stated above.....

Don't do it.  We made that mistake when we first opened and it is extremely hard to source replacement parts when you need them.  

Bolt On does not integrate well with All Data Manage.  We had All Data Manage as our SMS when we initially started with Bolt On and a lot of the funcitionality was missing that was available for Mitchell ManagerSE.  We ended up switching our SMS software to Mitchel ManagerSE and it works much better.  

mspec, why did you choose to go with Autoserve1 intead of staying with Bolt On?

$99.95 here in Virginia

Thanks for the reply Harry.  In that scenario you just mentioned, what do you charge the customer to "check it out"?  Is that service complimentary?  Do you charge for "checking it out" if the customer declines the service once you have told him what he/she needs to fix the issue?

Thanks for the replies Joe and Harry.  

To answer Joe's questions:  The vehicle was a new vehicle with low mileage.  The customer suspected that it might be covered under warranty and wanted to take it to the dealer to verify.  It was a first time customer who had no previous work history with our shop.  The job was sold with the assumption that it was the bulb but upon further investigation by the technician, the socket had been damaged due to rain intrusion.  We charged for the bulb service labor but did not charge for the part/bulb itself as this would not have resolved the customer's issue.  

To Harry:  How do you typically sell/price a light that has gone out on a vehicle from an oil change/state inspection?  Typically customers want a price before committing to a service and the price could vary based off of all of the different reasons why a light could be out.  We typically sell with the assumption that the bulb itself has gone out unless we can see obvious damage.

Your technician performs an oil change or state inspection and finds a side marker light bulb out.  The CSA gets approval from the customer to replace the bulb.  The technician performs the labor to gain access to the bulb.  The technician finds that water intrusion has caused damage to the socket.  The CSA notifies the customer but the customer declines the service.  Do still charge for the labor portion of the originally approved bulb service as this was already performed but the bulb was not replaced?  Do you not charge anything at all because the issue was not resolved?

Interested to see what brands of conventional / semi synthetic / full synthetic oil shops are selling to customers?  Do you think the average customer cares or has a preference for brand?  Do you think as long as it meets the vehicle specifications the customer doesn't really care what brand of motor oil is being put in their vehicle?  We are currently using Mobil products and they are so much more expensive than other products such as Cam 2.  Thoughts?

http://www.autoshopowner.com/files/category/2-technician-forms/

It doesn't allow me to download any of the forms? Do we need special access to download the forms?

 

I used to do hourly as well. The really good thing about this is the comebacks. It was easy for warranty work etc bc they are hourly. I could even help friends and family as well and sometimes do charitable work bc it costs me the same regardless. I used to buy broken down cars off of craigslist (bad engines etc) and have them replace it and sell it.

The flip side to that is... when it's slow or no business, it's tough. Little to no motivation to work on harder things like timing chains or head gaskets. Not enough incentive to look over the car. I was doing something very similar too, $4 per billed hour additional on top of hourly pay... in the end they didn't like it.

 

I do $20 flat rate now and give them a bonus when they hit 40 hours. They like it and I don't care what they do when it's slow. A truck came in the other day for regular maintenance, my tech sold him about 8 hours of additional needed work/maintenance (initially came in for front shocks and spark plugs). It went from like a $300 ticket to a $1300 ticket. Good luck having your hourly guys do that. The reason I changed over was because I put out an ad for a tech while I was doing hourly. The tech was good and he refused to sign on unless it was flat rate, so I changed it overnight. No regrets since

Do your technicians ever NOT get to 40 hours? If so, do you provide a minimum?

We were planning on running a campaign through Google Adwords. Has anyone done this before? Good/Bad?

 

 

This is the mix I have used in over 20 years.

 

1. Base salary, plus production bonus.

 

2. When retail customer flow is slow, and fleet accounts are up to date and there is shop slack. I make sure all items that need attention around the shop are fixed.

 

3. I keep a set of vehicles that need to be serviced before they are placed for sale. For example, if I have bought a 2006 Camry that is going to be sold, I have it inspected, prepared, repair/service, certified, set for sale.

 

This cycle has not failed me yet.

For your mix, is this correct: Base Salary = $800 + Production Bonus - How is this calculated? Is it based on if the technician turns a certain number of hours or is it based on efficiency on the hours that the turned? Do you add the base salary with the production bonus?

Agree with mspec here. I'm taking the slow road to flat rate, though. My guys are currently getting a base salary along with a set dollar amount per flag hour. I give raises to techs based on duration of employment, performance, and ASE certifications. All future raises will result in a dollar amount coming off their hourly guarantee and going towards their flat rate. I could probably just make the switch at this point, but I figure I'd rather take it slow so the guys can adjust. My goal is to have them 100% flat rate by the end of the year.

 

I recently hired a guy to come in part time (about 4 hours a day) to clean the shop and do the odd jobs (empty oil drains, wipe down doors, sweep, mop, take out the trash, etc). This keeps my techs busy working on cars and less time doing other jobs that don't pay.

 

As mspec said, now I've just got to keep cars coming in (lucky me, we so busy, we'll be working on Sunday to try to catch up).

When you say you give your technicians a base salary along with a set dollar amount per flag hour, does that mean if the base is $700 and the set dollar amount per flag hour is $20, if they turn 30 hours in a week they will receive $700 + $20 * 30 or do they receive whichever one is higher?

We used to pay per hour billed only, but found out that that plan is not legal in CA if we require them to do other things, like cleaning the shop.

 

Then we moved to base pay + bonus after certain amount of billed hours were met. Better, but a headache to keep track of.

 

Currently we pay hourly starting at $25+ for full-time. Our shop rate is $120/hr. But we run a little differently then some shops so this pay method works for us. Our techs clean, some of them write work orders and talk to customers. We are open on weekdays only (9am-6pm) and they get paid OT for anything over. It has been pretty smooth so far.

 

Every shop is different so you have to just find one that meets your shop's needs. Do you have techs that are just doing this to pay the bills? Do you have techs that are passionate and want a career out of this? For some people, hourly pay doesnt provide incentives to work their best. But have to also remember not everyone is motivated by money. You can pay someone well but if your shop is not a great environment to work in, that can also bring down performance. So there's a lot more to look at in terms of incentives and efficiency. Sorry if that doesnt help much!

Do you ever have any issues with keeping technicians busy when there are no cars to work on? What do you have them do and how do you keep track of what has been done? We currently pay hourly as well and it sometimes it seems difficult to get technicians who are used to flat rate to understand that expectations are different when you are paid hourly......

So we are a shop that pays our technicians hourly. We have an incentive built into the pay that rewards technicians a percentage based on performing detailed vehicle inspections that are sold but the bulk of the pay comes from a straight hourly wage. Because we pay our technicians hourly, the expectations we have of our technicians are different then say a dealership or independent repair shop that pays flat rate. When there are no vehicles to service, because our technicians are paid hourly, we expect them to stay busy. We have an extensive To Do List that we have our technicians perform during down time which consists of cleaning and maintenance tasks around the shop. The technicians are expected to come into the front office area and sign off of the To Do List as they complete each task. This helps the CSA know what the technicians are doing at what time. We have noticed that most of our new technicians that end up leaving seem to have great difficulty or dislike to adhere to this policy. I almost think they feel as though they are being micro-managed and they should be able to self direct themselves. The problem with not having a specific set of tasks for a technician during down time is that beyond just sweeping and moping, nothing of significance gets accomplished during the down time.

Are there any other shops that pay hourly/salary and if so, how do you deal with down time? I'm not sure if we just have to change our pay to flat rate with a guaranteed minimum base.......

Any updates from any of the users of Kukui? Did you stick with it? Did it generate enough new customer/sales to be beneficial?

Something else you might consider is setting higher labor rates for higher labor jobs. This is something I just set up this week and I've used on a few cars so far. It's not much, but an extra $2-4 each hour at the end of the year adds up. This will also increase your GP on labor and effective labor rate. Just an idea

 

https://goo.gl/photos/MbWDGu9FHde3MNAx6

I like that idea! Have you had any customer complain / question why there is a sliding scale for labor rate?

We actually install and remove window film. We use a chemical that helps dissolve the adhesive left behind after removal of window film. You should be aware though that some film does not come off in one sheet and will crumble/break as you are removing it. This extends the time to remove the film by HOURS. We let customers know when this happens as you can tell almost immediately and charge appropriately.....

We ended up investing in a car wash that was a lease buy back. The investment went bad and we went to court and had to kick out the original owner. The car wash was equipped with a separate 8 bay garage that the previous owner had only used for full details. We installed lifts, became an inspection facility, and entered into the automotive repair arena. That was 5 years ago. We are lucky that this facility was making money through the car wash as we did not make much money from the automotive repair business for the first 4 years. If this was a standalone automotive repair business, I do not know if it would have made it. The business is owned by myself and my sister. We are both college graduates with no automotive background. She was a lawyer and I developed software prior to working here.......

I tend to explain to price shopping customers that we warranty the parts with a labor guarantee and that parts purchased online do not come with that guarantee......

Joe, the new company that you are using to source your parts, are they relatively in line in terms of pricing compared to the AA / Carquest in your area?

For vehicles that require dealer fluids for ATF, coolant, etc., what is the markup that you apply for the fluid per quart/gallon?

Why are you thinking about switching from Mitchel? We were thinking about switching from All Data Manage to Mitchel SMS.....