mspecperformance

I think you guys are missing the point here... First the websites can have as little or as much content as you want but most importantly a website is suppose to work for you 24/7 365 days. For instance if you were to look at my site

www.mspecperformance.com which is one of the earlier templates they were using opposed to the newer templates you would think man this website sucks! I agree it its not as appealing the eye as the newer ones however my site according to the numbers is performing a lot better than most clients. I'd rather have my website show me its working for me by having a lot of opt ins from the website than for it to look pretty and not generate any leads.

I think the better question for your young employee is does he want to be a sales professional?

There is a big difference between a person who dabbles in working on cars and also does some front office work. In my experience you will only ever go so far without having a true service advisor. With that being said I believe training is a huge advantage. If you yourself are a sales professional meaning you have put yourself through sales psychology training, service advisor training, etc then you would the perfect first coach for your employee. The next step would be to find a suitable service adviser training program to take him further. Most training programs will not teach your employee about cars or how they work. They will teach him about COMMUNICATION. Communication is golden. You can be the best tech in the world however if you are one of those types that has a hard time communicating with people you will make the worst SA. On the flip side a lot of SA's I know that are killer at their jobs have never really turned a wrench before.

Learning how to operate within your business is something you will have to teach him (your management software, writing tickets, writing estimates, etc) however the sales part I think you should definitely find the right program for you. I am currently in the middle of training my own Service Advisor. I have had a lot of years behind the desk and have put myself through a good amount of training. I will be the first to say I don't know everything however I would like to think I have been a good first coach for my guy. With my help he has been holding margins. I recently enrolled him into Elite's Master Course which is Elites service advisor training course. I am sure you can google them to get more info. There are also several other programs out there you just have to interview them and see which one fits you best.

good luck!

Marketing alignments for pot hole and wheel repair is a good idea. I just purchased a Hunter Hawk Eye Elite which is a game changer.

I have had my fill of project cars over the years. I just want to keep the maintenance and repair work rolling and IMHO that is how you stay profitable. To stay "busy" project cars can work but I want to make $$$$

I think Bolt on Technology is in bed with Mitchell.

Yes they have a relationship. I think Mitchell was the first SMS that took an interest with Bolt On and in that is why they have such an integrated relationship. Bolt On does work with other SMS although I can't comment on how well. Say what you want about Mitchell, some of the customer service and processes are really annoying however if you are making money and know what you are doing then you shouldn't have a problem with them. I found that when I wasn't making money I would nitpick at the little things. Mitchell works for me mostly in part due to the features are in line (mostly) with what I need over other SMS. WorldPac catalog integration is pretty big for me as well as a serious digital inspection program. Bolt On is what I use with great success.

+1 on punching them in the face. I'd love to do the same a good list of people. If the world was only so civilized...

I would charge a normal shop rate.

We here in the colder areas tend to see a drop off during the winter months when it comes to car counts. I wanted to get a discussion going on how do you stave off the drop in business? What marketing strategies do you employ? I think it is absolutely prudent to think about these things months in advanced if not earlier before its too late for you to do anything.

I can only make comment about RO Writer and Mitchell. RO Writer was fairly popular with good reviews when I was I was first looking into shop software some years ago. I bought their lite version which was around $4000 at the time. I believe their full op bells and whistles version is around 10k. Great program, its currently still on an older database. I saved some money using it however moving forward as I was growing I needed more features. It came down to if I wanted to spend $4000 to upgrade or look into something newer. I looked into Mitchell as it also integrated with Bolt On Technology (digital inspections) which is the route I wanted to go in. Both have their pros and cons, Mitchell is subscription based so over many years I will be paying more however is much more manageable from a cash flow perspective instead of shelling out $10k at one shot. What I really liked about Mitchell was their revisions tab (sub estimates). RO Writer does not have this function so it gets to be a pain with estimating different estimate combinations. Otherwise both are good programs.

I had been going through the same up and down cycle like you described. I finally fixed my problem quite by accident. Newsletters! I had gotten a great deal on a minolta biz hub printer and I have always wanted to send out newsletters, so last September we started to send them out to our customers who had been in for any type of repair or service in the last 18 months. We do absolutly no advertising in it. All of a sudden the recommendations we were making were starting to come back and get done . Since September our sales are up 47% , our gp is up 5%, our car count is up 20%. We produce ,print it , tab it and fold it all in house. My or is $47.00/$1.00 and It cost me about $450.00 a month . We use an 11.5 x 17 sheet of paper folded in half so it is a 4 page newsletter. Email me your address and I'll send you one .

I believe Andre touches upon something that is meant to even out the edges of the roller coaster we call monthly car count which is MARKETING. Your marketing plan (of attack) has to be very concise and constantly working in order for you to keep bringing those customers in. All of your marketing has to have a strong branding message and has to be in front of your ideal customers (and your current customer base) constantly. Web presence, direct mail, post cards, newsletters, etc etc is all included in this. I'll let ya'll know how it pans out as I plan on putting together some strong marketing campaigns going into the fall and winter months when I normally get hit with less business.

Jim,

cool speciality!

In regards to "credit" and to make customers pay I think this is something we all have to deal with. When we were doing a lot more enthusiast based work for forum guys and such we would see a lot of rampant drop cars off and not pick back up for long periods of time. 2 things you can do... 1 is offer financing options such as an private label credit card. I have one through Bosch as I am a Bosch car service shop however there are a few out there you can look into. Another thing you can try to do is get very strict with your paperwork and make sure everything is signed. If there is documentation that customers must pick up their vehicles under threat of storage fees and a lien, you will reduce the amount of people who leave their cars with you for untold amounts of time. I wouldn't recommend the latter option but its pretty much the only recourse when it comes to lazy customers.... or get new customers.

Here is my 2c as a "specialty" shop (Only German)...

The pros are...

• You can focus on specific car makes and get really good at them which in theory cut down diag times and repair times which makes you more $$$.
• You can focus on specialty tools, equipment and training which you normally couldn't afford to with general repair.
• You can charge more for your specialized service. I believe this to be true to whatever specialty you have as long as you are marketing your service as a "premium" service liken to going to the dealer.
• Attract specialty techs with specialty training and keep them happy. When techs don't have to worry about some beat up old dog vehicle from a undesirable brand coming through the door they feel much better... or they become spoiled in which that may become a con!

Cons...

• Your market has to be able to support your specialty. You can't expect to get the car count you want in a small town.
• Your MARKETING must be SPOT ON. If you know what you are doing, there are tons of the right customers with the right cars for you to work on.
• Your reputation must be maintained well. You are not a generalist anymore that picks up a high car count off the street. You want like minded customers driving the cars you want to work on.

I read an article in Ratchet and Wrench about a guy with a subaru shop up in Alaska. I believe he has since branched out to 2 shops, the first one grossing 2-3 mil a year. Subarus in Alaska? That is a smart man.

I had a apprentice for approx 2-3 months. He was with us while he was in school and he showed a lack of motivation to learn and show what he could do. He even stopped showing up at a certain point. The months after he would visit us again asking for a second chance. Persistent is what I would call him. He eventually got into BMW Step program on his own however for some reason (he tells us he had a problem with his license at the time) they booted him. Again he was persistent asked for an opportunity. I finally caved and gave him one about a year after. Very hard worker but wow.... absolutely NO talent. He was horrible at everything and did not show APTITUDE. What was also very misleading was he graduated with a 3.5-3.7 GPA one of the best in his class. He was absolutely attrocious.

I also believe the lack of quality graduates at least in my area are horrendous. Most of the top guys will opt to go the dealership route as it is seen that there is a lot more opportunity in the dealer network. The graduates that have come through my doors and also the ones I have interviewed have been a huge let down.

Kudos for you keeping a cool head. I think that any customer you can potentially salvage and convert HOWEVER how much effort will it take? Will they become a headache for you in the future? I believe that the type of person you are dealing with definitely become a headache for you in the future (he already is and hes not even your customer!). Sometimes you have to just cut some people off. Hey you never know, your calm demeanor and willingness to help attitude might cause him to give you a genuine shot one day. I'd let him walk and if he comes back then great, if not then there are more cars, fleet accounts, trucks, vans etc out there than you are capable of handling anyway so no sweat!

Very nice I'm surprised u got it all done in 1 day!

For mitchell users, report pro through bolt on just added a advanced scheduler. It is a bit clunky right now but they are a company that constantly updates their products. In short it is what we mitchell users have wanted, a visual scheduler.

rule of thumb 7-8% of gross sale works well if you are holding proper margins (most would say 60% profit is a good number).

Now that I have a service advisor, what I find challenging is what happens when I have 2 service advisors? Right now he is on his trainee pay or what I like to call his "rookie contract" lol. After he is off I plan on paying a % of profit dollars apposed to gross sale. My challenge really will be when I am ready to add a second service advisor and how exactly will that pan out in terms of pay split. The worst thing I could do is create animosity and conflict over who's sales belong to who.

Kukui has been kicking butt for me for close to 2 years now. PM me if you need any advise.

This sounds really cool. Curious for anyone, who do you use to manage your post cards and who do you use to grab mailing lists? I personally would need addresses that own German cars.

This post is a description of a very successful direct mail program we run consistently. If you're contemplating a budget for direct mail, it's worth the read.

 

There's a lot to say about direct mail pieces, but some of the very best postcard mailings I've seen, are overshadowed by a micro-mailing program someone turned me onto years ago directed at acquiring new customers. The premise is simple, actually.

 

Of course, we all know that the quality of your list is paramount, but without reitterating some of the most common aspects or practices of a program like this, I'll tell you what I really liked: Once you have a quality list defined, buy only a small portion of the target. In this example, let's say that it's 250 addresses. Scrub it against your own customer database - for our purpose, there's no need to solicit to anyone who's been to your shop before. Assume you need to drop 50 addresses (good for you...they've already been to you before, and if you like...you can mail them folks something different later.) This brings your usable control group down to 200 addresses.

 

Now here's the exciting part - prepare 4 or 5 ad pieces (postcards work well for all but the final one). Create a marketing message that expresses who you are as a company, but DO NOT advertise any discount offers with fun little dotted lines around them. The point of the mailing is to introduce yourself to the prospects ONLY.

 

You're going to mail out 200 postcards to people who have never been to your shop. Tell them where you're at, what awards you've won, how much you care about your customers, maybe offer a list of the services you offer...but NO discounts or "special offers". Just introduce your shop, and ask them to consider visiting you for service. "Does your mechanic not seem to care as much anymore about keeping you happy? Give us a try!" Give the post office 3 days to make sure they reach the prospects, then add a solid business week to the timeline, and make sure your staff is asking how new customer heard about you, so you can tell who's responded to the postcards.

 

Let's say it was miserable. All that hard work, planning, and design work...netted you 3 responses. (Could've been 2 oil changes & a price shopper, doesn't matter). After a solid week goes by, send out your 2nd postcard to the same list, minus the ones who already responded to the first one. Mail out 197.

 

The 2nd card is kind of like the 1st one - You talk about how much your customers appreciate your hard work – maybe even include a testimonial with a picture of one of your customers. Emphasize the flexible scheduling, your staff’s training & certifications, & tell them what hours you’re available to service their needs. NO DISCOUNTS.

Wait 3 days for delivery, start tracking the response from the postcard again for a solid week, and tally them up. Maybe the 2^nd mailing only netted you 1 more response. Maybe it was a brake job, though. Of course, your first postcards are still out there, too, so this week, maybe you got another one from the first round of cards. That’s only a total of 2 more…but it’s 5 altogether.

Subtract the responding addresses from the list, and (you guessed it) send out the 3^rd card. This one is really special, though…it has the American flag on it, and your face, and you’re smiling. There’s a short comment from you about how much you’ve been looking forward to meeting them, but you haven’t seen them. Tell them you’d like to personally invite them to come in for a cup of coffee, a brief tour of your shop, and that you’d like them to tell you EXACTLY why their old mechanic has let them down. NO DISCOUNTS, and send it to the remaining 195 folks on the list. Wait 3 days…then track the results for at least one solid business week.

Now, a really cool thing will start to happen, and you have to try it to see for yourself, but people will start to respond! The right message sent to the right prospect, at the right time…and a direct mail program comes to life! I’ve seen the 3^rd step of the program personally work to bring in a response of as high as 2% without offering an discounts or offers. Afterall – PRICE isn’t all they’re bargaining for, right? So if you’ll let me finish the story…a 2% response on 195 addresses is a whopping 4 responses! This one can be fun, though, because they want to talk to you about why they hate their old mechanic. Got time for that? Aren’t you going to tell those 4 people how horrible that is, and how YOUR shop works hard to prevent EXACTLY those kinds of issues? You’ll sell them more than an oil change, for sure.

So after 3 mailings, you’ve received a total of 9 responses. (I won’t speculate on the gross sales…there’s too many variables, and that is truly up to your sales staff to control) Now you only have 191 addresses left.

I’ll spare you the longer version of the remainder of the program, and just tell you to repeat the process of mailing/tracking for the last 2 pieces, but the nature of the pieces will change.

#4 – You use a headline on the postcard that says, “We really want the chance to show you how hard we’re willing to work for you!”, and then you can finally add a SOFT discount on the card. Either give away a congruent service like a tire rotation, with their oil change, or offer a soft dollar or % discount off another, common service. Brake work? 5% off. Fluid services? $10 off. Give them the call to action they’ve been waiting for. Whatever response rate you’ve been seeing on average for the first 3 mailings will DOUBLE on the 4^th.

#5 – The rope-a-dope. Prepare a letter. Really – a personal letter, on stationery, with your company’s logo on it. Let the “Title” of the letter be something that pops, like, “Did we do something wrong?” Tell them in a paragraph or two about all the new faces you’ve been seeing, and let them know how much you want the chance to earn their business, and show them that what they’ve been reading about your company is true. Tell them that you’re SO ready to prove it to them that you’d like them to take advantage of you by redeeming a discounted oil change at your shop, and that you’re doing so only as a last ditch effort to meet them, shake their hands, and prove to them how hard you’re willing to work for them. Now, I use a $10 synthetic blend oil change (up to 5 qts. Includes filter, on most cars), and give them ONLY 30 DAYS to redeem it.

If you track new customers, and you track average repair order figures, and you’ve been tallying up what the 5 mailings have cost you out of pocket, by the time you have the 5^th mailing out to them, you’ll smile as you realize that the return you’re getting on a direct mail program is 6-8 times higher than those reported as averages by the DMA.

I’ve seen total program responses of as high as 20-25%. (That’s 40 responses on your list of 200). You MUST remove people’s address who’ve responded, and keep track of sales, profits, etc., as well as keeping your schedule. 5 mailings in 6-8 weeks.

The beautiful thing is that once you’re “finished”, you’ll be managing your new customer followups like normal…and you can start with 200 more that meet your list requirements, and do it again.

Sorry about the long post. We’re currently managing a list of 300 at a time, and have 2 campaigns running concurrently. Our average response rate per campaign is 9-10%.

 

Just one man’s (really long) story.

BTW do you ipads have flash? I find that to be a real difficult to take pictures in low light

Jack and I use Bolt On, msg me if you want to talk about it.

Thanks for your post. I agree with you in terms of offering value other than price in considerstion for our services. We are almost always higher than the highest "average" estimate according to repairpal. My question to you was directed to how you justify keeping up with a 70% profit margin in ratio to tech pay. My labor rate currently is 116.97 however I will be bumping it up to 119.97 to keep up with offering my technicians competitive pay while keeping our margins. I like the idea of using a multiplicative for the customer rate while keeping the "posted" rate competitive. I will have to do some math with my numbers.

stowintegrity, how do you tech pay rate compare to your posted hourly? I like your idea however I feel that you would have to be working with a lower posted hourly to justify a 33% matrix markup on your labor rate to stay competitive with automd and repairpal quotes.

autologic will no longer be support in the future. OE tools for coding and programming will be almost necessary. Just in case anyone was about to drop 10k on an autologic for 1 make.

If anyone has any questions about Bolt On, you can message me. I have been using Bolt On for about 8 months and it has been one of the best decisions I have ever made.