mspecperformance

I just checked on repairpal and punched in all info for my location and the average is $199-$262 which puts my price right outside the "average" which isn't too bad. I guess the customer either punched in the wrong info or a lying sack of crap. Not too uncommon in these parts

It was rear brake pads on a 2001 740iL. I charged the 1 hour Mitchell allots for the job and list on the brake pads and sensor. I came in at $271 or so after taxes and fees. I believe the customer had looked up $254 for all around brake pads. Without looking at his phone I explained to him the difference in a blind "national" average and our service. We use the highest quality parts, best technicians, backed by industry leading warranty etc. The responses I got were, "but online its this much why are you so high" and "I don't need warranty." Yeah definitely not a customer that I wanted. Certainly didn't see the value is coming to a shop with high standards let alone a German Car specialist. I guess I took offense to it more or less because I don't get price shopped so blatantly very often. Most of the people even they don't use know the value of a higher quality shop and a specialist. Yes they are brakes I get it, its been beaten into us brakes are something yourself and pick up the parts at autozone. I'm still not going stand being compared to the guy down the block that hardly know what hes doing and ships his cars over to me most of the time because he doesn't have the capabilities to work on them. Besides that "national average" takes into account many markets that cost of living is a lot lower. I'm in New York City which is a very expensive place to live. Therefore products and services tend to be more expensive than almost anywhere else.

To be honest I didnt. The customer wanted to show me the prices on his phone but at that point since he didnt really want to listen to any reason i didnt feel the need to feed into justifying his point of view. I very politely apologized that we couldnt help him but would be more than happy to do anything we could for him in the future. Killed with kindness to stave off a potential bad review.

I tried explaining to the customer that we are a different service. We have higher standards, better warranty, superior parts, best techs etc. The guy literally shook his head. I really hope programs like RepairPal don't catch on.

they create websites for you. you can check out mine. It is in some need of updating which I have plans for but its a decent template. www.mspecperformance.com you can also check out Jack's website www.integrityonwaters.com which is far better looking than mine. both created by kukui.

no of course not. Certainly not what I would ever say. Its just the feeling that comes over when you encounter those types of customers that really almost insult you with their insinuations.

Sponsoring schools, community, sports teams is brand awareness which if you are consistent can pay dividends in the long run!

marketing is very all encompassing word. In terms of the basics of internet marketing such as website, adwords, online reputation I don't think you can get any better than kukui. There are some other services out there but I don't have any experience with them. Kukui also takes care of your CRM albeit if you are coming from DemandForce you may find it slightly lacking but still does a good job. Also the people that work for Kukui are top notch and can fill any holes you may feel the program has.

creepy customer anyway I was glad to get rid of him. I am not one to judge people but literally when he walked in I kind of went "omg" in my head. Either way I figure it was going to be an easy in and out job which is normally not our normal customer. Oh well good riddance but I can't help but get a little pissed off with the customer bringing up the repairpal BS. When this guy said, "why are you more expensive than everyone else" I was very tempted to say, "Because we are better than everyone else!!" Then my adult self took over and and I played the game, gave him the song and dance, put a fat smile on my face and passed the keys off and offered ourselves if he needed any help whatsoever. I don't think I've ever had to lie more in my life.

yup told him all that good stuff and his response was, "I don't need warranty". yayyyyyyyyyyyyy!

Just lost a brake pad job to because the customer looked up on repair what the national average on what brake pads would cost. All around national average was less than what I was charging for just the rear. LMAO. Hack shops and garbage like repairpal ruin this industry. Once a customer sees stuff like that no matter what you tell them about warranty, quality in parts, workmanship will sway them otherwise. I'll be sure to tell off the next RepairPal rep that calls. UPDATE: I searched via my zip code and apparently the average for the are is not what the customer said. It would have landed us just outside of the highest range which is fine by me. I guess I should scale back some anger toward RepairPal lol

so the only way is to go to the appt and edit it manually correct? I just wanted to know if there was some other sort of automation to edit for the right text.

Mike, when lube sticker pro creates a future appointment is there a way to differentiate what text to include or do all of the appointments say "Automated Oil Change"

I've wrestled with what to do with the scheduling side of things. I learned the intricacy of loading up the schedule through a course I took through RLO Training (GREAT COURSE!) however with my shop management software (Mitchell1) and their rather archaic scheduler I can't do this within one program. The other problem is if I add carry over work from one to the next onto the scheduler in mitchell, my bolt on messenger program that sends out appointment reminders picks it up as a new appointment and will send them a text reminder... but the car is in the shop already! I may toy around with the use of google calendar but I don't know if I have the time to do double entry work since I will have to add at least some details to the google calendar and that will eat of time I already don't have.

One of the lessons I remember from my father. He would always tell me if you ever lend out money to someone, don't expect it back.

Add Services like xrac said is great. Always COMPLIMENTARY never FREE. You must be competitive with your oil change pricing however advertise making it much much more than and oil change. I would go as far as to call it a "Minor Service" or an "Oil Service" opposed to Oil Change. Do everything you can to differentiate what you are doing from the quicklubes. Yes they are still getting an oil change however they are getting a Complimentary Multi Point inspection (sell the value and benefits of this) and if you want throw in that tire rotation or whatever else you feel is appropriate. Enhanced Oil Service! +1 I've experienced the same. Techs need to know what the game plan is and they need to buy in. Just like a sports team you could have all star players but if they aren't in line with your plays you'll have a disaster on your hands. If you pay your technicians flat rate, think about paying them a nice rate for an oil change. Yes you will lose money but thats what oil changes are they are a loss leader. Make it a culture of inspections on every car every time. If the technicians understand the importance of a GREAT inspection for upselling work then they will perform a thorough inspection AND they are getting paid for it! Upselling is a necessity in our business. We have to remember to not put a negative spin on "selling" the customer. As long as you have the right ethics and are recommending needed work then you are doing the right thing. We also have to remember that we are in the industry therefore something we feel is OK for us to drive with say for instance a camber worn tire, loose suspension components, leaky hoses etc is absolutely not safe for our wives, mothers, and children to drive around in. I have sinced moved away from getting in the wrong customer however when I catch them on the phone or they come into the shop I cringe lol

Your wish is my command! Back when I first started out I had absolutely NO IDEA what I was doing. At the time we were in a 3 bay shop converted gas station very small, 1500 sqft which is still not insanely small for my area. The rent was high at $3800 and I we were not doing so well financially so I decided to rent out a bay. The bay was actually an addition to the building and it had its own motorized gate. I put an ad out on craigslist and found someone to rent the space for $1600 a month. At the time we were only working on BMWs and this person told us he specialized in Nissans, Mitsubitshi and he worked on some BMWs. We had a discussion about how since we only worked on BMWs that as long as there is no interference with our work and customers there shouldn't be any problems. Amongst many many many other things I had to deal with between this tenant and I, the major problem was that people would confuse out shop with his. BMWs would pull up and by the time their vehicle was on his lift I would walk outside look at the car, look at the customer and shake my head. The customer would then do a double take and realize he went to the wrong place!! I had discussions, arguments, etc with my tenant and he didn't seem to understand what he was doing wrong. I'll never forget what he said, "I am not going to turn away a paying customer." In 3 years he ended up going with long bouts of no business, getting physically assaulted by one of his customers and generally sat around for months with no work. He was also 1-2 months late on his rent due to his lack of business and the best decision I made was to not give him any advanced notice when I finally left my old location otherwise he would have ditched me on even more rent. Moral of the story is DON'T EFFING DO IT!

For ease of tracking and for selfish reasond it would be nice to pay for hours that have been posted however its unreasonable to not pay say a big job that had 20+ hours tacked to it that the tech already has say 10 hours in and is held up til the next week due to parts. We have cashflow issues so do techs. Im still trying to figure it all out lol

My mother id fix her car for free and send her back home with money out of my wallet! Lol

I try to perform work for them after hours. This will minimize impact on your business #s. Doesn't always work out because it makes them extremely low priority when it comes to scheduling.

I have rented part of my shop before and from experience I am going to strongly suggest this.... DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Direct Mail Pieces are not a bad option but they cost a lot and you need to be consistent with it. It is said it will take several times being in front of a potential customer before they decide to use your services or check you out. You have to be on the front of their mind when it comes to auto services. I believe some Direct Mail companies have programs for people who just moved in. Online advertising is still the best bang for your buck in higher density populations. As Gen Y gets older its going to become the norm to search up all services needed by smart phones/internet. Gen Ys hardly even check their mail anymore.

anyone

KMS, how often do you review/audit the time sheets? I would think daily makes sense since at the end of the week any errors or mistakes can be harder to track since its been days since the work was done.