mspecperformance

Bob, if you are doing everything right and conveying the message of your company whilst showing genuine care for your employees and you are having staffing issues I would certainly say you may have the wrong team. If you are Losing people over money then something is missing

You have the wrong people

Comebacks can be a real problem. Finding out the root of it is key. Is the tech making mistakes due to lack of training? Caring? Tools? Workflow management? Is it parts quality?

We all have to understand mistakes can happen. Humans are not perfect. However the way the technician reacts to a possible mistake on their end will speak volumes to their character. If you have a tech that has chronic comeback problem you should have a sit down and try to find the root of it. If a tech is in complete denial and/or wants to blame everyone but himself I would say it maybe time for him to go.

I don't know the exact figure of comebacks but I believe the percentage really should be below the 3% overall mark or even lower on total gross labor sales. Don't quote me on that

Best answer is I don't but may work for someone else a bit better. For most of my customers have pressure fitting coolant hoses. The machine works best with tradition hoses that are secured by a hose clamp. I've had to make my own adapters off of old hoses. The machine also takes about 4 gallons of pure coolant to exchange a full sys.

If you are selling parts and labor you are going to lose. You are selling a service. That service happens to come with a highly qualified technician performing the work and an industry leading warranty and also includes parts and labor. When you start the sales conversation with parts and labor breakdown you just put yourself on the bottom of an uphill battle.

Generally I charge 199.97 for coolant exchange via my robinair coolantXchange machine, 129.97 for fuel service, 129.97 for brake fluid flush. Since these are commodity items I may run specials on these from time to time. For packaging, I have not done that yet however I believe if sold correctly, package discounting is not necessarily needed since the urgency for these maintenance services should be clearly conveyed to the customer.

Internet marketing. Organic seo, Google Adwords, great website. Also great yelp and google+ reviews. Every market is different and some are behind however online reputation and online presence is the wave of the now and the future. We have seen the greatest return from that.

No, not allowing customer to use bays. This was another member's wording - just using it as an example of some of the methods suggested and that's in addition to labor not in place of it.

 

 

We also have come to the conclusion that we would like to be more selective with our customers. Basically, weed out those that are a constant issue with regard to pricing or respecting your advice, question everything we do, or have the 'your the last one that touched it, you own it" mentality. However, sometimes circumstances force you to compromise. If none of your "preferred" customers are having issues, you have to bring money in the door. Not thrilled with the idea but as long as we are not losing money and make up the difference lost on the part, I'm okay with that. - No warranty on part and if it fails you pay for part and our time again. That usually sways them to allow us to get the part.

And playing Devil's advocate: Some customers who want custom/specialty items installed, exhaust, suspension, etc. If we are installing for them, what's the difference if we install a starter purchased by customer.

I would argue that if you want to build the shop of your dreams, the business of your dreams even then you can never compromise your ethics. I understand the need to bring money to the door and there can be lean times. At the end of the day it is your business and you should manage it the way you see fit. Being that I've been in the position of "well it's still money and it's an easy enough job let me just go and let this customer off the hook from my policies" and it's a slippery slope. Everything about customer relations comes down to managing expectations. Under estimate over deliver. If you allow them to do it once they will expect it's ok to do it again. Besides that what if they refer more customers to you. They will expect the same treatment. What if those customers aren't as amiable as the one that referred them. What if you charge the referred customer for parts and told him your policy was such and then he has a convo with your original customer, someone is going to feel slighted and your customer satisfaction scores will go way down.

Point being every day that goes by customers have more and more power in their hands. You might not feel it as much in your market now but it is the future. My whole philosophy now is to keep my customers happy at whatever reasonable cost. I can not possibly do that if I flip flop on my policies.

Great post Koala, btw I buy your products they are great!

KMS Thanks for your post. The question still lies what is harder to obtain. Higher ARO or higher car count. High ARO and a high enough car count is ideal however on a day to day struggle what is everyone's problem.

I have seen quite a few good ideas here for those struggling with this issue. We will (depending on the part/job) install customer purchased parts - though we do explain to them that we don't charge more than the local retail price so they are really not saving $. Doing this, we sometimes make a decent profit on parts - sometimes not so much, but it usually alleviates the hassle.

 

Some here on the forum have suggested raising their labor rate when installing customer provided parts which I think it a great idea. Someone also suggested a bay rental fee for $35. I like that idea as well. That however is a moot point in the warmer weather months when we can do some of this stuff outside unless you need the lift and then it can be a lift rental fee.

 

The two biggest problems we have with the customer buying the parts is 1) it's not the solution to their problem and 2) it's the wrong part ex. vehicle has two options for brake rotors and they get the wrong ones. This ties up our guys and our bays. Now you are in limbo waiting on them to get the correct part and you have their car so now they're stuck for a ride to get back to the store or you have to wind up ordering it (which you could have just done in the first place!) and the car is still stuck on your lift/in your bay. Basically, if they want to us to install their parts, they are going to have to pay for it one way or another.

 

We have used the increased labor rate here lately. This works really well depending on what state your in I guess - instead of using the regular hourly rate - flat rate it compensating for the lost revenue on parts.

A bay rental fee as in you are allowing customers to use your bay by themselves? I would highly suggest against this as it would be a HUGE liability problem for you. If you are not making more than $35/hour with one of your bays then there is a serious business problem.

After the first of the year, I made a decision that I would not allow customer supplied parts unless we were making more than what we would make getting the parts ourselves.

 

Example: A customer bought a part online for his car. It cost him $150. He asked how much I would charge to install it. I said $275. He asked how much it would be if I supplied the part. I told him $300 total. So it was going to be more expensive for him to get his own part and I was actually going to make more if he supplied it. On top of that, he was not going to get any sort of warranty.

 

I have come to dread these customers, but they exist nonetheless. I figure if they are going to get their own parts anyway, I might as well make a killing installing them. I usually either double the labor or look at how much I was going to make off parts and then double that.

 

It's a judgement call if you want to allow customers to bring their own parts. From a biz stand point you are losing out 1/2 of your potential total sale. Only by doubling your labor rate would you be in line with making the correct margins. That still doesn't address the matter of wrong parts, time, liability.

We just don't do it period unless we are super slow and then I charge accordingly. The people who goes elsewhere because of this will have the bottom of the barrel working on their cars and their results will probably be unsatisfactory. Eventually they may return after they take their lumps.

Part of the reason why we don't allow customers to provide their own parts. Also I am trying to build a customer database of preferred clients. Customers that will do business our way. Once you start a customer on the wrong foot, they will always expect to be treated that way. It would be difficult to recover after you allow them to bring their own parts.

Having someone less than a fully qualified SA is like putting a bandaide on a cut that needs stitches.

All great ones. I lean on warranty, parts procurement and having the ability to provide a full service. Grocery store to restaurant analogy is s good one. You go through the motions and explain all the details to inquiring customers however if the customer still REFUSES to get its time for us as an industry to fire that customer. Sure it sucks to lose a sale and a customer but id rather build culture where everyone wins, not just one party. Im dure your employees and your family eont appreciate cut backs and reduced income due to customers that dont want to follow standards you have set for your business. Just my 2c

Keep your head up boys! I had a month of BS in December. Gosh I hate the winter.

Road force and upcharge for road force balances

4-5k would be an amazing price. I'd love to get one of those suckers for that cheap!

3rd post in and already hostile

Gene pardon me but you sound like a very disgruntled person that had a lot of bad experiences in your career. That is really unfortunate and I am sorry to hear how your past employers treated you. You seem to also have started your business due to "entrepreneurial seizure" which you can read all about in Michael Gerber's book "The E-Myth".

I suggest before you go bashing other shop owners and pass judgement upon people whom you have never met and know little more than some text on this thread that you should think about what your purpose on this site is. We are here to help each other in a positive and constructive manner. Completely opposite from your posts. I hope you can take your own advice and reevaluate yourself and hopefully come back as a productive member of our little forum. Thanks!

about 17k MSRP. I believe you can get your rep to discount it greatly.

In my humble opinion it really makes sense to have a trained service advisor manning the phones. It makes your shop look professional and serves the needs of the customers immediately. Think about whenever you call up a business and a secretary or receptionist that knows absolutely nothing answers the phone. You get annoyed and frustrated sometimes even and they do not serve any of your needs. Also if you never receive that call back it will further cause you as the customer to possibly look elsewhere.

Of course the draw backs are it is harder to find a capable person. If they are not already trained you will have to train them and of course they will command a higher salary. I am in the same boat as all of you guys. I can probably easily hire a receptionist to answer phones however I do not believe it will further my business. Sure I won't have to filter phone calls personally however I will still have to call customers back and handle everything all the while possibly getting wrong information filtered through another person.

My suggestion is to build your business up to a point where you can afford to hire the proper help and also make sure they are properly trained. Even if they have NO knowledge of the automotive business hire for attitude. Anyone who loves to talk to people, has a GREAT positive attitude and the desire to learn can be taught all the skills needed.

Take the poll and also post feedback!

Higher ARO and High Car Count is obviously the goal, however lets just keep it specific as to what is more of a challenge for you and your shop!

You have to understand where your business is in terms of maturity and financially. If you are struggling, any training program will help you leaps and bounds. If you are already successful and have your business pumping but need to take it to the next level I would suggest to do a lot of research and be as picky as possible.

Gene I think you are missing the big picture. If the customer's real reason for wanting a new battery was because he was experiencing electrical or voltage issues, you did not do him a service. In fact there is a chance the customer will put some blame on you as the shop for not advising him better. Because that customer's needs were not properly met, they could also end up going to another shop that will ask questions and service them properly which totally makes you look bad.

I believe as auto care professionals it is our duty to look out for our customers. To ask questions and find out what the customer actually needs. Doctor's don't leave it up the patients to determine the course of treatment to cure them. We shouldn't either.

In the particular case I made a post about, the customer would surely get stuck with a vehicle that did not start again due to a dead battery. We are looking at the bigger picture. Long term instead of short term.

I cant wait for the responses to roll in. Lol

Bulbs and wipers are good to comp on labor but make sure it's stated in the invoice and mention to the customer. Get some value out of it if nothing else, tell the customer you comp these items for great customers like themselves.

Wow.