mspecperformance

I did as well take part in the survey.

http://www.ratchetandwrench.com/RatchetWrench/September-2015/Shop-Performance-Survey/092015/?utm_expid=98373964-14.BJVdXqfMTi-aXDnz3YdBRQ.1&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ratchetandwrench.com%2F This month's ratchet and wrench has a cool survey they put together. If you want the comprehensive version you have to pay $69.95. I am a little peeved because I swear it was $24.95 not a week ago when it first appeared. Anyone buy it? is it worth getting?

RO Writer's tablet system sucks. I saw a demo and it was very unimpressive.

Using Mitchell estimator would make your life a whole lot easier

I haven't had much of a problem navigating through it. I suppose there is a learning curve but there is a learning curve with every shop management software.

Elite does have some testing but I'll let Joe chime in about that. For the record I have yet to put those tests into practice.

I meant the typo is their ARO. I don't believe their ARO can be that low

I believe it to be a typo.

I believe your problem may not be that everyone else is paying their service advisors more but rather you should be making more to be able to compensate competitively. You may find it valuable to seek some business coaching or join a peer group. It did wonders for me.

If we have the right systems and processes in place, I believe my job as a shop owner is to stay on top of the marketing and ahead of my competition. That is paramount.

I think the challenge will be to get people to download your app. Car Repairs is not like starbucks or dunkin donuts. It is not a service you are using regularly (2-3 times a year and you are doing a good job). There is very very little incentive for people to download your app. I don't know about you but I hate having a whole bunch of apps on my phone that I never touch. I toyed around with the idea of signing up with these services but I do not believe they will see a large ROI. Besides that if the apps are not updated and new phones and OS come out they might become obsolete before you know it. Even if you got a good program going you might be limited on the advancement of said tech company.

From the feedback that I see the problem for most shop owners is finding qualified technicians. For me it changes all the time LOL. I don't know what my one greatest challenge is as I see improvement that can be made everywhere.

Would need more info and details. What features? How is it going to make you money?

We had a killer first 2 weeks then a big drop off the 3rd week. Came back a bit last week but wasn't what I was hoping. I have to chalk it up to August back to school blues. We were still up tremendously over last year though.

Misery loves company and I feel slightly better than my ASO brethren are experiencing what I am experiencing for this August. Thank goodness its over! I am hoping September will be a killer one.

ARO should mean Average Repair Order. The gross sale for services rendered for a particular car or ticket or Repair Order. If your ARO is low you have to look at a lot of different factors. There are so many but I will just highlight a few that make the most immediate impact for me. 1. Are you charging correctly for labor? Are you charging book time? Are you adding a multiple or do you have a labor matrix? 2. What are your Gross Profit Margins on parts? Are you getting enough for the parts you are selling? 3. Are your techs on flat or salary? Do they have incentives to perform a proper inspection so your service advisors have a quality list of repairs to up sell? are your service advisors qualified to sell and do you have a sales process? If I was to generalize 3 big areas these are the ones I would say would have the biggest impact on your ARO. In a nut shell, charge properly, raise your prices to get better margins, have the right systems in place to sell the work.

Bolt On Technology has been working wonders for us. I would say we are pretty Pro at using it has been a game changer. PM if you need any advise.

I believe I will be taking a policy with Zurich soon, id love to hear what the outcome is if that is the case.

You will lose jobs over it however the great majority of the jobs are going to be the customers you don't want regardless.

i have an account with them with the intention of giving them some business. However them being on the West coast and me on the east it becomes hard with the shipping charges and such. Nice looking site and lots of inventory. I like the ethos of the company as well, seems like they are much more customer centric

I have thought of this before however how do you prevent getting involved with a bad customer? I am assuming of course you are filtering as well as you can by the reviews they leave however I am thinking there still may be something things you cant avoid like the customer that no one can make happy type.

They definitely value you us as customers however there arent very many freebies from them even though they are the biggest importer of european parts. I would say if you have a warehouse that can actually perform daily deliveries its definitely a good supplier to have. They have a lot of OE parts that are hard to come by. If you need to have parts shipped to you I would look into SSF based in california or Northside Imports

stow, do you have a website?