Bossman

Had 2 of them back to back. Boy how I suffered. That was a year ago and I am finally back where we belong. I hired a guy that was a general manager for a hotel chain. They bleed customer service like we all do. Little knowledge of cars but learning fast.

I ask myself that same question every single day. I always worked as if I owned the business and I think that is what made me who I am. But I have to tell you after an episode I had the other day, I have a new attitude. You WILL be held accountable for you actions. Employee showed up late after being specifically told he better not. It was explained to him why. He showed up 45 minutes late anyway. I cancelled his training and told him when I get 6 months of "Good Behavior" I will send him. Not backing down anymore. We are not the bad guys we give them jobs and benefits and other perks and they think we are the bad guys?

The new breed is way different than the old. They think they are entitled to everything the senior techs get

I have Bernie. Korean war vet wounded many times. Kept getting sent back. When he went in he was 6'2" bull. He now stands about 5'6" and has to wear a neck brace.He has been in and out of the VA hospital since the day he got home. He still deals with PTSD. He sleeps in a chair because he sleeps most comfortably that way. His wife sleeps on the couch so she can be close to him. He just found out he now has double lung cancer. I cried in front of him when he told me. After the crap he has survived now this. The most amazing thing is throughout all this he is as upbeat as anyone I know. Like Mike said when you look at stuff like this my problems are nothing.

But did I make the decision

Who wants to be the first to charge $50.00 for a flat repair?

Don't do reviews too much but there is one thing I do get kick out of. The people that give poor reviews, if you look at their history, they give almost everybody poor reviews. Some people are never happy.

A couple things to say about it. If you think about it, Toyota care is free maintenance for 2 years or 24,000 miles. Whooped de do! Think about that, it might cost them 100.00 in parts over that time for oil changes, rotations and cabin filters. And you know "there are certain things that will need to be done" that are not in the owners manual. I have a few customers whom would rather pay me than to got back to the dealer for anything. I have some tell me to fix something even though they know it's under warranty because they don't want to deal with them. For Toyota, I think it's a way to earn back loyalty for the whole Camry recall issue. More power to them then.

We use Customerlink and we have not had anything work this good at driving in customers. I feel that ROI is spectacular and I would recommend it to everyone. Reminders, Thank You cards, etc. The only thing I am not impressed with is their "Find new customer" but I am staying with it until the end of the year.

Me too Me too

New recently www.johnsplaceglenview.com

How do you rate the integration with QB?

We use Shopkey. Really stable. Kind of limited in my opinion. Couple years ago we bought RO Writer. Great program but never had the level of service writer that could use it to it's full potential so we went back to Shopkey. I now have a qualified guy that I think can run it so I might be taking it out of the drawer again. Thinking of the industry today, RO is much better. It can do a lot more.

So I have this young tech. He thinks he's a hot shot (What tech doesn't other then real good ones) He's been with me about a year. He WILL be a great tech in a few years. He had asked about going to a BMW training class. I researched it. I think it is slightly over his head at this point but I agreed. I am paying for everything but accomodations. The other day I was out of town and my manager was scheduled for all day training. He was told he could not be late under any circumstances. Well lo and behold he shows up 45 minutes late. My number 2 sent him home and wrote him up. I know we all take our lumps with young techs. I cancelled the training. I told him if he keeps his nose clean for 6 months and shows me responsibilty I will have no problem sending him to the next one that comes up. Looking for wisdom