mspecperformance

Mitchell is OK. It does everything I need it to but you are right, a lot of these SMS are very archaic. Not a wide enough customer base for cutting edge software You will find some nice features with both RO Writer and Mitchell but nothing will ever be complete. I have heard some good reviews about some other programs out there (MaxxTraxx?) but I would suggest thoroughly demoing each.

oh my goodness. I am tethered to yelp and fb on my phone so when I get a complaint or ANYTHING from yelp my anxiety level goes through the roof. I really do need to take that off my phone and let my Service Advisors handle that. I take things way to personally and I am sure a lot of you guys do too!

www.eliteworldwidestore.com I am a current client of theirs so I can answer any questions you may have. No shameless plug I get nothing from them just passing along my great experiences so far. Does WinWorks have parts catalog integration? No one Shop Management Software (SMS) is going to be perfect. For instance I use Mitchell1 currently and my newest SA is always bitching about how inefficient some of the operations are to carry out vs RO Writer which was the software he was used to. Since you guys are relatively new and not set in any particular ways or habits I would run the gambit of different types of demos from different software companies. You should take as much times as you need to pick the right one for you. Most of the management systems have integration with a credit card processor and also QB integration. It is possible to set up a system to eliminate all the steps you are encountering. Thats as much advice I can give on that since by nature I am not the most organized person LOL. I do know it can be done though you just have to take time to get the right tools and build the right system.

What kind of margins are you getting back from the parts store? I would be worried about the liability factor and attracting the wrong type of client. I can trace back all of my headaches to letting customer bring their own parts, use used parts etc.

Victoria, I think I can relate a bit on your situation. We used to work on a good amount of project cars in the past. Depending on what your work mix is you may want to have different technicians on different pay scales. What I mean by this is I am assuming you have a mix of regular work and project work. You may be want to delegate most of the regular service work to one technician whom would then be paid on a flat rate (commission by hours produced) or a small base salary with a commission. The techs who have to work on long projects I would suggest some sort of salary with incentive for more production. These are just some suggestions for you. It can be tough when you don't have a measurable work load at times and I know project cars are very very hard to project accurate timing and pricing.

Regarding paperless depending on what shop management software you use there are options for tablet based add on software that can take the paper work orders out of the equation. You can also capture signatures and such with those programs. Look in to Auto Vitals or Bolt On. They integrate with many leading shop management software. Depending on how savvy you are with accounting and financials maybe it would be best to have a CPA come in and set up a system where you can follow and be you own book keeper. If you are referring to accounting in regards to what Key Performance Indicators you need to keep track of, there is a lot of info on this forum as well as trade magazines etc. It will take you some time to compile all that info so if you wanted to accelerate that process I would suggest taking a few classes or a course at the very least. Elite an RLO Training are some of the companies I have worked with and that I would recommend. Your shop looks really nice and your team looks like a collection of bright young individuals. You guys are going to do great!

Some sound "millennial" advice!

Probably have low usage due to having to pay.

The issue with having special policies about customer provided parts is that if the job doesn't go perfectly (their part working flawlessly) and even with a disclaimer you generally have a less than satisfied customer.

NAP will affect your ranking. What I have done is have all my phone numbers congruent except for yelp. Only reason I kept a tracking # on yelp is I get a good amount of leads from yelp and I want to stay on top of tracking that information.

live training whether it be online live or in person live is best. I believe RLO has an online live class and Elite has a in person and phone conference course. I have tried pre recorded module courses and although they have good information, retention and implementation become the biggest issue.

+1 on getting dedicated front end people. As an owner you give a lot of work away for free and you also burn yourself out trying to wear all the hats in the business. I am assuming you don't feel that you can afford to hire a service adviser/writer which I understand. You have to get yourself to a position where you can hire someone up front and you'll see your business blossom. This is also contingent upon hiring the right people and getting them training.

I love that white board with the names of the day's appointments!!! That rocks!!!

shop was making less than 6 figures???? wow how did the doors stay open????

Any consulting firm is going to cost some money. Most of them are about or more than what Elite charges. You can try to wing it on your own and there a lot of great resources available for free or lower cost such as this forum, classes sponsored by your parts vendors, other shop owners that can mentor you. In my experience however if you want to cut down your learning curve dramatically then you have to invest educating yourself.

I just want to first mention that all my comments are meant to be constructive. I know sometimes text can be misconstrued. With that being said with a HPRO at 1.1 and a ARO 226 something has to be broken somewhere. Without being there with you I have to assume your inspection process is flawed somewhere. Maybe the techs are not discovering the work. Maybe they don't care enough to notate the correct items. Maybe they see it as a waste of time. Secondly I am curious as to how you are estimating your repairs. Do you use a labor guide? is it integrated with your shop management software? Do you use a labor matrix or a labor multiplier? In my experience with what we do (German makes) there is always, always, always tons of possible recommendations to be made on every car we see. I can't see this being very different for general repair. I would start by analyzing your inspection process. Add up all the recommended items and find out what your average dollars in discovered work are. This will help you narrow down where the problem is. For instance if you track how many hours/dollars your techs are discovering per car for a week (lets say an average for $1000 and 5 hours) and you are only able to sell 1.1 hours and an ARO of $226 then the problem is more in the sales side. If your discovered work dollar amount is very low on average then that is where your problem may be.

I just want to first mention that all my comments are meant to be constructive. I know sometimes text can be misconstrued. With that being said with a HPRO at 1.1 and a ARO 226 something has to be broken somewhere. Without being there with you I have to assume your inspection process is flawed somewhere. Maybe the techs are not discovering the work. Maybe they don't care enough to notate the correct items. Maybe they see it as a waste of time. Secondly I am curious as to how you are estimating your repairs. Do you use a labor guide? is it integrated with your shop management software? Do you use a labor matrix or a labor multiplier? In my experience with what we do (German makes) there is always, always, always tons of possible recommendations to be made on every car we see. I can't see this being very different for general repair. I would start by analyzing your inspection process. Add up all the recommended items and find out what your average dollars in discovered work are. This will help you narrow down where the problem is. For instance if you track how many hours/dollars your techs are discovering per car for a week (lets say an average for $1000 and 5 hours) and you are only able to sell 1.1 hours and an ARO of $226 then the problem is more in the sales side. If your discovered work dollar amount is very low on average then that is where your problem may be.

He ended up paying, we separated amicably and I hope to never see him again LOL

I would agree that you might be measuring incorrectly. If you are measuring bay productivity you should be measuring per bay/per tech. You would be asking your techs to be minimally be 200% efficient it seems. Your cost average however leaves you below the desired 70% Gross Profit on Labor. You would have to be at around $480 for a loaded cost of tech to meet that benchmark.

I would love to however we use a digital inspection process by bolt on. Previous to bolt on our inspection process was informal and I have never used a paper inspection. Essentially we went from 0 to 100. How is your sales process? Sales staff? Have you guys had any formal sales training?

Tried and true method is to have a solid vehicle inspection process and then an effective sales process in place.

I dont have any hourly techs. What I mean is there is a motivation factor in implementing this. I would say 9/10 people do not like to clock in and out. They feel it is a wasted time/action as well as another way for their employers to micro manage them. Hourly employees are not looking to help you make them any faster than they already are since there is no incentive for them to work any harder. If communicated properly a tech on incentive or flat rate can live with clocking in and out of jobs. If you are looking to help them be more efficient and pose it as a team effort in finding where we can be more efficient, they win by earning more money opposed to just being scrutinized even more.

Andre, how have you approached these shop owners and how did you get the knowledge that they also owned the property?

On another note I would not even dream of asking my techs to clock in and out of jobs if they were paid hourly. I believe a flat rate tech needs to be held accountable for his efficiency. The only way to do so is to track per job. If you are tracking weekly you are missing out on a lot. Reason being is because if you are looking at data on weekly basis instead of per job you can't tell whether or not it was the tech's fault or if it was a car count problem (shop problem). You can have a highly efficient technician but find out that there are just not enough cars for him to work on. You would be hard pressed to know that otherwise.

I tried using the scheduler without much success. I will probably end up trying it again once they work out some bugs and design flaws. I have used their other software with tremendous success. In my opinion if you are not using a digital inspection process you are missing out on a lot of opportunity and trust building with your clients. Just my opinion.