J.P. GLENN

Epoxied floors look great! We get compliments all the time and it is fairly easy to keep clean.  I personally do not ever plan to have bare concrete floors in any shop for many reasons.

I've used multiple DIY Epoxy products over the years and none of them held up to the chemicals or lasted very long.  I found that Armor Seal 1000HS (purchased from Sherwin Williams) to be a very good product and has now been down for 5 years with minimal issues and still looks great.  I know a few other shop owners that paid to have their floors epoxied and can tell you that theirs are going to far outlast my DIY epoxied floors.  As with any other painting type of application, it is all about the prep work (and that is why I think the professionally done floors seem to be holding up better). 

My advice would be, if you are going to stay in that building for 10 years or more, pay the professional. If you are planning to move, I highly recommend DIY with the Armor Seal.

Make sure that you respond/reply to all of those negative reviews. It really does minimize their impact to future customers more than you would expect.  Our only negative review is FALSE, and just by responding to it and asking them to contact us so that we can make it right has actually helped us attract new customers.  New customers comment on seeing that review all the time and how it made them feel MORE comfortable to bring their car in.  Keep it short and try not to be negative in the reply.  

On 9/30/2017 at 4:50 PM, alfredauto said:

The moral of this story is if a customer won't let you do your job properly, let them be mad and go somewhere else. Rip the band-aid off fast. I hate to be that guy that says no I can't help you but sometimes it's mandatory. 

100% agree. Words to live by for any S/A

Putting a plastic chain with a sign on the closest bay door to the office worked surprisingly well when we were having similar issues.  Just put a sign with the word "Office" and an arrow on it pointing to the office.  (you could also just do each of the "end" bays for a little more coverage depending on which way the customers are coming from.) 

We've used My Shop Manager for almost a year. I can tell you that most or our customers LOVE to be texted. Up to this point we have only used their automatic "campaign" for after service Thank-You's and we use it manually for appointment reminders. It has also been good for when you can't reach a customer and some customers are texting for appointments. They do have a lot of other retention campaigns for texting and emailing as well. 

So far My Shop Manager has been good to deal with and overall a decent experience. However, we had an issue last week with the program sending someincorrect messages and were NOT impressed with the way they handled it. We still have no idea if it is fixed or not or what caused it.  To be completely transparent, we us RO Writer and recently upgraded to version 2.0 and it is likely that has something to do with it.  No matter what, no one really seemed to be concerned with customers receiving texts about vehicles they don't own. It completely takes the personal touch out of what texting can offer and we are very concerned about the negative impact it could have caused on our customer base. 

In regards to texting customers, I'd say absolutely do it. My Shop Manager is reasonably priced and at least worth looking at. There are many services out there, so shop around and pick who suits you best.  

On 5/6/2017 at 8:06 AM, JohnC0721 said:

If I have the time or if the customer isn't scheduled for a few days I use rockauto or amazon prone to buy a lot of OEM parts.  Just last week I got a motorcraft transmission filter housing for a diesel for $229 from rockauto when the list at the dealer was almost $600.  Doesn't always work out time wise but Amazon also has those same parts often for a little more than rockauto but they can deliver next day.   Not exactly what your question was but good way to make more profit off quality parts

I would like to caution everyone about buying "cheap" brand name parts online. Specifically Amazon and Motorcraft.  I have not had any personal experience, but it is known that there are counterfeit car parts for sale online. Motorcraft and NTN bearings both have formal articles showing how good these counterfeits are at fooling even those of us "educated" consumers.  I overheard a conversation about Motorcraft doing some kind of audit on their parts on amazon and found a staggering number of "motorcraft" parts were fake.  I've also read a few Ford forums were consumers had proof that their "Motorcraft" coils were indeed counterfeit. I'm not saying all (or even most) of the great deals online are fake parts, but it is absolutely a "buyer beware" kind of situation. Just a heads up for anyone who wasn't already aware of how big this issue is. 

On 4/30/2017 at 2:25 AM, Shoichi Kinouchi said:

World Pac changes your pricing according to how much you buy each month.  The more you buy, the bigger discount you get.

This is correct. The last time I checked, they base your pricing off of the previous 3 months of orders. The more you spend, the better the pricing. 

On 4/30/2017 at 10:23 AM, OTPAuto said:

Maybe or maybe not, but have you monitored the price of items you buy and watched their prices go up less than a week after you bought them, on a regular basis?  Their prices are fluctuating a lot, on a LOT of items. Not everything, but something is going on. Your statement makes me believe you've never really monitored your worldpac prices.

They do seem to update their pricing very frequently.  We are a specialty shop and buy the same items over and over and we have not noticed prices going up for us. Some prices go up, some down, overall the pricing stays reasonably the same.  I did notice a somewhat significant change is pricing when I didn't do much with them for a month or so.

If you are buying in bulk, they do have special "Stock Order" pricing which may help keep the pricing down on your coolant.

On 4/30/2017 at 7:33 PM, ScottSpec said:

I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but I understand that WorldPac updates their database daily to make sure they have all catalog info as current as possible.  I image that part of that update includes pricing.

Scott

That seems in line with what we see with them

1 hour ago, AndersonAuto said:

I'm open 7-7 six days a week. The main driver in that decision was to make things more convenient to my customers.

Techs work 7:30 - 6:30 and Advisors work bell to bell. We run a rotating schedule so everyone works a 4 day work week, and I'm able to have a full staff every day I'm open. Because of the way the schedule rotates, everyone gets a 5 day weekend every 3 weeks.

Back when I opened my shop I said I'd never be open Saturday because when I was a tech it was a wasted day. Nothing but oil changes. But the way I do Saturdays is different than the way most independent shops do Saturday. Most shops are open half day with half staff, and do almost exclusively oil changes all day. Not profitable for anyone, and techs especially hate it. By being open all day, and having a full staff, Saturday isn't much different than any other day. We're able to get some real work done, so it's worthwhile for the techs and advisors to be there. We have slightly higher car count, and slightly lower average RO, with revenue being just like any other day.

This is very similar to what we keep talking about doing.  We are a much smaller shop as of today, but we are planning to grow quite a bit over the near future.  How many employees do you have to make that system work?

For what it's worth, I like the same one as xrac. My only suggestion would be to flip the circle with the wrench to look like a lower case "e".

We used the Lite Brite system for a couple of years.  Some cars did really well, others we had to redo, some more than once. And as already stated, you can't do it on cloudy days without the UV light.

We eventually decided that is wasn't something we wanted to offer and we stopped doing them in house. We have technicians in the shop and not painters.  We do quote Factory headlight replacement and sell a few here and there. We also have made arrangements with a local body shop and send all of the restorations to them. Every single one they do looks better than any restoration we have ever done.  They put a lifetime warranty on the service and we have had zero warranty issues in the 3 years we've been using them.  They give us a discount if we bring them the vehicle or charge full retail to the customer if they bring it (that way the price is the same to the customer so we don't look like we are "overcharging").  This has worked out great for us and in this business it is always good to have a relationship with a body shop! 

jfabrega: I am sure everyone appreciates you adding to this forum. I do too as well. I learned quite a bit from your Jan. 6th post in this thread, thank you for that. Keeping up with technology can be challenging to say the least and some of us need more guidance than others.

I would like to point out that anyone using "an older dial-up credit card machine" potentially has a HUGE LIABILITY. If "most of your shops" do not have modern EMV (chip card) terminals then you could be doing them a disservice in helping them continue to use them. This technology was fully adopted in 2015 and I would assume it is hard to find a terminal that complies and doesn't support an internet connection. I am sure you know more about that than I do, I just wanted to point that out to anyone looking into this. Also anyone using their modern machine as dial-up should check with their processor about switching it to internet. We did this 2-3 years ago for free, all they had to do was reprogram the terminal. When using them through the internet they are considerably faster and don't tie up a phone line (that you may be paying extra for). It is a win win in my opinion.

As for faxing, I'm too young for that one anyway! Of course I'm joking and I do know a lot of business that still use them. I did a little research and found that most of the services that offer this want you to scan the document and use their "dashboard" on your computer to send the fax. So you are correct that the analog fax with Voip is probably not a great idea. But just like the terminals, it is going to be more efficient to use the internet.

(of course all of this applies to someone that would be interested in Voip and therefore has some faith in their internet provider)

 

Good point. I forgot to mention that VoIP doesn't play well with analog telephony devices like fax machines, credit card modems, etc. I've also seen issues with DTMF (Touch tone) reliability at times.

I have been researching VOIP services and most have Fax capability included. Also, an up to date modern credit card machine should run through your internet, so a Voip phone system has no affect. I just wanted to make sure people are getting the correct info here.

.... VOIP IS the go to technology.

I 100% agree with this

Self driving cars that drive themselves back to the dealership for service could be a concern.

That was my first thought when I started considering what self driving cars mean for our industry. I think about this subject quite often as I have a young son that is really interested in our industry.

I agree there will be parts to replace and repair, but it could be a very different market. Look at all of the changes to our industry over the last 2 or 3 decades and you see that some adapt and others go away. This particular issue may be a little different than what we have seen in the past though. Google and Apple are both interested in the self driving car market. If we have learned anything from watching them change the world, we have learned that they will do it in a way no one else has. I do not feel that self driving or electric cars will ruin our industry, but it could be a very different place. Here is my concern: If the cars can completely drive themselves, then I am willing to bet there are very little reasons to own a car if you live anywhere near a metropolitan area. Why have a payment and one sitting in the driveway when you can use an app on your phone and a car will come pick you up whenever you need it? You will pay for what you use and all of the other hassles of car ownership are no longer a burden to you. The companies doing this (think Apple and Google) will most likely have their own facilities and probably will not need the independent repair facility at all. These cars may not go to the dealer, but they won't come to you either.

There will always be those of us who love to drive and own our own vehicles, but the more customers that I run into that have no idea of what year/make/model of the car that THEY PURCHASED, makes me wonder how many people really care to own one.... I'm willing to be that the majority of people only own vehicles 100% out of necessity. That necessity may be a little less necessary in the future.

(disclaimer: these are just my thoughts with no real data to back it up!)

I started my shop as specialty shop that solely worked on Toyota/Lexus/Scion. I've decided we are going to add Honda & Acura to our line up, but I've run into one issue. I can't seem to find a concrete maintenance schedule. All I can seem to find is the owner manuals that say just to do whatever the maintenance symbol calls for. That's great, unless they have just been taking it to the 'time-it lube' places where they just drain the oil, spin on a filter, and reset the light.

We are Honda/Acura specialists and are adding Toyota/Lexus/Scion this year! I completely understand, and have my own concerns about Toyota schedules...

You are 100% correct on the idea that if the light is reset at at lube store, then no one will ever see those codes again (until next time they are due). The system is not liked by us at all. We have chosen to use the older schedules as the Maintenance Minder system seems to come fairly close to these anyways. Here is what we do on vehicles with that system: (all others are in identifix/alldata/Honda Service Express,etc with mileage/time reccomendations)

I worked alone yesterday, I can't go back to that way of life. I had forgotten how hard it is to get things done being service counter man and technician.

I went through this last week and it was not fun at all. I totally agree that I CAN'T go back to that. Not only do I suffer, but so does the work and the customer.

As for when to hire, I agree that you should hire when you can't keep up with the work in an 8 hour day fairly consistently.

As for who to hire first, I made the mistake of hiring the lesser experienced techs because I was terrified of the expense of a top level tech. I paid dearly for that mistake. From my experience as the business grows you will find yourself at the counter more and more, and keep in mind that is a good thing! You will need that guy that doesn't need much instruction when this happens. I will also tell you that I waited way too long to do it.

As for how to pay, you will most likely be required to pay them W-2 by law. Incentive based plans are the way to go in my opinion, especially when starting out (base pay plus bonuses/incentives). The right person will help you grow with this type of plan, but keep in mind it's not always about the $$ to an employee. As for 1099's, their really is no such thing as a 1099 "employee" because 1099's are for independent contractors. It can be done but you must be very careful and know the rules. Consult with an accountant to be sure if you can or can't do it. And on a side note: we do our own payroll in house and it is not that difficult.

CMillet86 AND Bockauto,

Thank you for the input. 1-2 alignments a day would make it worth it for me to go with the alignment lift over the stands in our current situation. If you don't mind sharing, what car count do you guys have? (If you don't want to share exact numbers as I did, feel free to give a % of total car count or something along those lines.)

Hunter rep is giving me some numbers of their expectations of what could be done. Obviously the sale is up to us. I'm interested in the "real world" numbers of what others are doing so that I can make an educated plan.

Also - Is anyone checking alignments on services or normal inspections for free?

mspecperformance,

I really want to look at it from a numbers stand point but I keep feeling like it is more of a "guess" than anything else. We only sublet about 3 a month, it is time consuming, and when looking at the labor cost of 2 trips with 2 people we really don't make anything on them. Due to the fact it isn't profitable, we turn away another 3 a month on average. We typically only sell them when doing steering work or replacing tires on a vehicle that has obvious alignment issues. Since we are only selling them when absolutely necessary, I have no idea of how many to expect to be performing.

I do plan to schedule yearly alignments and I love the idea of the different priced services. We also just started doing digital inspections so finding the sales opportunities shouldn't be an issue. And to be completely honest, I personally feel that we are doing our clients a disservice by not selling more than we currently do.

Being there are no parts involved (typically) it seems to be less profitable than most repair/maintenance work. This is probably my biggest hesitation to an alignment lift over a 2 post lift. At the same time, we will be doing alignments and we will be doing as many as possible so I want to make them as efficient as possible. As with almost anything else, I guess I can't have it all!

Thanks again for the advice

Thanks for the responses!

I use a 2 post with stands only because I have a 2 bay shop, with bays that are really smaller then average. So the flexibility for me was the big thing, it's much faster with a drive on lift for sure but it was another investment at the moment.

The flexibility is definitely a concern. The cost for me will be the same (although I am comparing a used alignment lift to a new 2 post). Do you think you would sell more alignments if you had the space for an alignment lift?

In my experience if you have equipment that is not easy to use then you most likely will shy away from using it. I never used stands however we did have our scissor alignment rack not in the best location. We hardly used our alignment machine because of the inconvenience. Once we rearranged our lifts then we started performing more alignments. Just some things to think about.

This particular bay is not in the best location to start with. That factor is making this decision so much harder than it should be! I think the location will be better suited for alignments but I am concerned about losing the ability to do other jobs if necessary. Unfortunately we are stuck with an inconvenient situation no matter what I do. Since we have never really pushed selling alignments I also have no idea of what to expect as for how many we will (or could) be doing.

I guess the question I am really trying to answer is, If you had only 2 techs and 3 bays what would you rather have: A shop full of regular lifts with alignment stands, or 2 regular lifts and one alignment lift?

I agree with M-Spec.

 

We have an alignment lift (cover photo on https://www.facebook.com/Paradigm-Automotive-99678520342/ ). We use the lift for other work, short jobs and especially oil changes....... hook up all the tires and air up the tires, tech can walk under car and do inspection while oil is draining. I've seen a few brake jobs done on it, and the owner tends to schedule PPI's on that lift so he can "show & tell" what is wrong with the vehicles.

That is my expectation with an alignment lift. Thanks for the input.

Anyone using alignment stands on a 2 post lift? How are they for daily use?

I have a smaller shop with 2 techs and 3 bays, We have 2 lifts and 1 small "flat" bay. We are Japanese specialty shop that is growing and we were planning to add a new lift to the flat bay. The bay is not deep enough for a true 4 post alignment lift, so I was planning to purchase a new 2 post lift and add stands with an alignment machine in the near future. In searching for the right lift to be used with stands, I was just offered a used 2 post Hunter alignment rack that would fit in the bay for the same price as the 2 post with stands... and that really got me thinking...

Knowing that we will be doing alignments out of necessity in the near future, I am leaning towards having a dedicated alignment lift. We do an average of 25 cars a week on 2 makes and we are adding 3 more early this year (thus the need for another lift). We just started doing tires this past year and only sublet alignments when they are absolutely necessary. Our situation is pushing us towards needing an alignment machine in house, but we could use another lift for "over flow" just a much. Here are my questions:

1. Does anyone regret purchasing their stands over an actual alignment lift?

2. Does anyone do "other" work on their alignment lift?

3. And how many alignments should I really expect?

If space were a major issue, what would you do?

(Drive-on alignment lift -OR- 2 post lift with alignment stands?)

Anyone using alignment stands on a 2 post lift? How are they for daily use?

I have a smaller shop with 2 techs and 3 bays, We have 2 lifts and 1 small "flat" bay. We are Japanese specialty shop that is growing and we were planning to add a new lift to the flat bay. The bay is not deep enough for a true 4 post alignment lift, so I was planning to purchase a new 2 post lift and add stands with an alignment machine in the near future. In searching for the right lift to be used with stands, I was just offered a used 2 post Hunter alignment rack that would fit in the bay for the same price as the 2 post with stands... and that really got me thinking...

We do an average of 25 cars a week on 2 makes and we are adding 3 more early this year (thus the need for another lift). We just started doing tires this past year and only sublet alignments when they are absolutely necessary. Our situation is pushing us towards needing an alignment machine in house, but we could use another lift for "over flow" just a much.

Knowing that we will be doing alignments out of necessity in the near future, I am leaning towards having a dedicated alignment lift. My questions are:

1. Does anyone regret purchasing their stands over an actual alignment lift?

2. Does anyone do "other" work on their alignment lift?

3. And how many alignments should I really expect?

If space were a major issue, what would you do?

(Drive-on alignment lift -OR- 2 post lift with alignment stands?)

We are using a Brother QL series printer and their white adhesive labels (the clear ones did not last long in the Florida sun).

PRO's:

Cheap (printer under $100), Wireless, Stickers look great (you can make them look any way you want)

CON's:

Clear stickers don't last, White stickers are hard to remove after a few months (razor blade needed more often that not), Only one print color available

Overall it is a good option in my opinion..

UPDATED 3/20/2012:

We have been seeing some stickers coming in that are faded more than I consider tolerable. I think we will be going to one of the others mentioned in this thread.

You have already done more work than I did for sure when starting my business. I just flew by the seat of my pants and it has lasted for 6 yrs. Sadly now I am having to really make some hard decisions because its crashing due to lack of proper management (me). My business in the last 3 yrs grew by about 100k a year in total sales but in the last 6 months we are off by more than 75k

Wow, I can relate to all of that!

Our gross sales increased by about 30-40% each of our first 5 years (excluding the first year). We are a small specialty shop and did very little advertising. Our growth was due to word of mouth and learning to properly price the jobs. I have no idea if that is good or bad, it is just what I experienced. I am now in my 6th year and am also seeing a decline in sales, and I attribute that to the same reason as CARMandP...

GREAT TOPIC!

I also believe in making sure we can handle oil changes ASAP and at a competitive price. We have to make sure that we are thought of as "their" shop for everything the vehicle needs. Allowing them to go other places for service seems to really hurt the "loyalty" we want from our customer base.

In regards to the "cheap" oil change:

I too have believed cheap oil changes and coupons may attract too many of the wrong type customers. I accidentally just exposed my customer base to coupons, and had unexpected results.

I have never used coupons in any of my advertising/marketing pieces (except for my referral program). I recently started using Customer Link for my customer retention, and it has been received very very well by my customers. I did not catch that ALL of the emails and mailers had some sort of coupon on them ($5 off next oil change, $10 off $100, $20 off $200, etc). Once they started pouring in the front door I called and removed the coupons. I have been using Customer Link for 3 months, I removed the coupons in the second month, and now I have actually had a few customers comment on the fact that they haven't been getting any coupons! These are my GOOD customers and not "bottom feeders."

I am having a hard time deciding what to do with this information. The coupons worked very well on making sure my customers came back, but most of them were coming back anyways. (although I did have 3 customers tell me that they chose to do previously recommended work because of the coupon). I do not like the idea of paying for the coupon to be sent, and discounting my service with the same coupon! It's like a double hit! But, if it keeps the bays full AND I adjust pricing around it, it may work well. It just goes against everything I have been told (and believed) up to this point.

I am very curious as to what others are doing in regards to coupons and if anyone has had any similar experiences. (I hope that isn't too far off topic!)

Glad I'm not the only one dealing with this! It's such a pain. We use Google voice, which allows us to block callers (and track to make sure calls are being answered, record customer calls etc). It cuts down on the number of calls but lots of them constantly call from new numbers. If you ask about being removed they hang up.

 

Could you elaborate a little on the Google Voice? That sounds interesting....

In the past I also tried Val Pak for 3 months. It brought me 0 new customers and brought in 3 of my least favorite customers (now holding coupons!). I am interested to see how it works for you. I hope you get better results!

I think Joe's strategy of warning customers about warranty companies beforehand is of the utmost importance. If you set the customer's expectations and let them know that they'll be left with whatever charges the warranty company wont pay, there's little chance they'll blame you when the prediction comes true.

That is #1, always prepare the customer up front. I also recommend that you understand each individual companies procedures EXACTLY, and record all communications with them.

I have had both good and bad experiences with multiple companies. The worst one being a company that "approved" the repairs and then refused to pay because, per their procedure, the wording should have been "authorized". (they argued that the "approved" only meant it could be covered, and we were waiting on "authorization" from upper management.) That one is still hard to talk about!

For the most part if you CYA and are a little cautious, they are not too bad. I always build in a little extra labor time, sometimes paid by the customer, to cover the added time required to deal with the process. Stick to your guns, and never let them tell you how to run your business.