marista

Just like you I find myself needing to take notes. This helps especially when I give my partner a synopsis of the problem the customer is having on a vehicle and suggest he talk to the customer before they leave. Then when they are talking to him and you would swear they are talking about a completely different vehicle and he's looking at me like "WTF? that's not what you said!" like I am crazy. Then when they leave I show him my notes that I took when they were talking to me and we just shake our heads. Somedays you just have to laugh otherwise the frustration will drive you mad!

We do tires at our shop. We got a great deal on some used machines. We are in a high traffic area so we get a lot of walk in business for people with flats, etc. It's an added bonus to be able to offer tires to our customers instead of losing the business to someone else. We just hooked up with a new vendor for tires and we really make a decent profit on tires. We don't stock tires so they need to be done on an appointment basis. I think the profit is worth the investment in the machines. Having a the ability to balance tires in house is a huge plus. A lot of our customers issues can be solved with just a re-balancing of their existing tires and it's great to be able to do that for them rather than send them elsewhere.

We were using Seafoam for trans for awhile with hit or miss results. Lately, we started using BG's ATC Plus with really impressive results. One of our mechanics thought he was going to need a trans for his 98 Durango. Used the BG product and no issues. It's cured. We have also had really great results with their MOA engine additive. We don't do a lot of additives here either - but these two are worth their weight in gold.

Started using Smotgo about 6 months ago. Like any software of this kind there are pros and cons. Some of the features seem a little tedious to me (inventory/purchase orders) - but overall I really like it. Scott is very responsive to questions and suggestions for improving or changing things. The appt page was a big plus for me - I used to keep an excel spreadsheet - but I had to key everything in - it's great to just pull the customer and vehicle from the database when scheduling. i agree to ability to access the info from basically anywhere is great. I've used my iphone countless times on the way in to the shop in the morning to check the schedules and order parts I forgot about the day before or to call customers if we have an issue getting in by opening time (are we done with winter yet?) My only real concern is that if Scott closes shop - what happens to the site and all my info? And obviously, if the integration with labor times could be accomplished I might just be in heaven. I would definitely recommend it.