mspecperformance

Once you give out a price that is all that's in the mind of the customer. I do not argue with customers, these are consumers that obviously have an agenda.

The idea is you don't want to get into giving estimates over the phone. There will always be someone less expensive than you and if you don't take the time to educate the potential good customers on what sets you apart then you'll most likely not get the sale anyway. Of course my goal is not a quick job but rather the longevity of a customer relationship. I am fairly decent at turning people over because like you read a lot on here many people don't know what questions to ask other than price. Unfortunately I've been bombarded with time wasting bottom feeding consumers. These are the type that treat what we do as a commodity like buying milk at a store. They think any shop can fill their needs. My ratio of people that I give quotes to the amount of times they actually come in is super low.

He was a younger guy it sounded like. Most likely on the forums gaining knowledge from other internet master techs. Very annoying to say the least.

Got a call, customer asked for a quote (2007 335i). I think I even exhaled when I heard that but I went through the my general run down. Here is how the convo went, Me: Sir what kind of problems are you experiencing with your vehicle? Customer: I need some quotes on some work for my car. Me: Did you have the problems diagnosed somewhere? Customer: No but I know what I need. Me: Ok what do you need to have serviced? Customer: I THINK I need my valve cover gasket changed, I THINK I need my oil filter housing gasket changed, I THINK I need a belt and belt tensioner and I have the parts, I THINK I need a mechatronics sleeve and thrust arms. How much? Me: Well sir if I can make a recommendation... since you did not get your vehicle diagnosed by a professional I would like to invite you to bring the vehicle to us and we can perform a visual inspection for you to determine what you do and don't need. I can then give you a proper estimate. Customer: But my car doesn't start, I can't move it. My brain goes into the UGH mode. Me: Why doesn't the car start? Customer: The belt jumped off. Me: It sounds like you may have experienced a problem with the tensioner bolt bending and/or your tensioner failing. When the belt falls off on this particular engine you can do a lot of damage other than the obvious. belt material can eat into the front crank seal, damage the radiator and affect anything in the front of the car. Customer: Oh really I didn't know. Me: Yes so it would make the most sense for you to bring the car to us so can properly assess what you need. Customer: I would have to tow it to you then and I don't know if I want to do that without getting a price. Me: Well sir I am not charging you to inspect the car as of now. Customer: I would have to pay for a tow then unless you offer a free tow. Do you do that? Me: No sir unfortunately we do not however I am not charging you to inspect your car. For the cost of a tow you can have a professional look at and I can create an accurate estimate for you. If you don't like it you can always go somewhere else. Customer: Well your not going to get my business unless I get a quote. I want to bring it to you because your specialist. and the convo went on for another few minutes with nothing being resolved. Odd ball people have been calling me all day and its driving me insane.

Shopcat, thanks so much! its really nice to hear kind words !! I'm not perfect and I certainly don't even think I am all that good but I do care about my business and my customers to try to improve everyday. Just a rough patch right now with so many oddball calls and customers.

Thanks shopcat! Although I feel a certain pain in my side any time I let a sale walk out of the door. When things are going good I couldn't care less because we are flowing with big tickets and I am concerned with servicing my great customers that value our work. When things are a bit slow which isnt too often it really stings even to let $150 bucks out the door

Thanks shopcat! Although I feel a certain pain in my side any time I let a sale walk out of the door. When things are going good I couldn't care less because we are flowing with big tickets and I am concerned with servicing my great customers that value our work. When things are a bit slow which isnt too often it really stings even to let $150 bucks out the door

Thanks shopcat! Although I feel a certain pain in my side any time I let a sale walk out of the door. When things are going good I couldn't care less because we are flowing with big tickets and I am concerned with servicing my great customers that value our work. When things are a bit slow which isnt too often it really stings even to let $150 bucks out the door

Here is a good one I got today from a phone shopper... "Well your not going to get my business unless I get a price" yay!!!! my December sucks

Thats why giving prices over the phone is horrible.

It is really horrible to resort to "profiling" since thats all we see on the news. I have been through this dance many times before though. Great customers either don't ask for price or respond well to the education process. When I receive a lot of push back I don't think I've ever had a good experience. Now I am accepting a job on their terms instead of mine. Doesn't usually work out well.

I don't have a lot of those but the ones I do I hate. I seemed to attract them with alignments some how. At least that was when I priced them competitively with the hacks.

Cold and snow!

Customer walks in today (Thursday). Originally made an appointment for Monday for an oxygen sensor install. Had it diagnosed at the dealer. Obviously called us because he wanted a better price (and he was of Indian ethnicity, profiling!!!). Explained that it would be in his best interest for us to diagnose the problem so we can stand behind the repair. Of course customer didn't want to pay 2x for diag which is understandable. Told him I would scan the vehicle prior to the work being done and if we relatively confident we could do the work however we still were not responsible for the diag. Price was even given to him over the phone for the complete job with parts. Customer walks in with a box in hand. Something I can't stand is the audacity of people walking in like nothing is wrong after missing appointments. Either way I am still very polite when I speak to all my customers always. I mention to the customer. This is how our conversation went in a nut shell: Me: "Can I ask you a question? Did we make an appointment for you on Monday?" Customer: "Oh yes I'm so sorry I couldn't make it" Me: "Oh ok thats not a problem. Next time we can always reschedule. I see you have a box in your hand, did you buy your own oxygen sensor?" Customer: "Yes I bought it from the dealer" Me: "Oh I'm sorry, we don't install outside parts" Customer: "Oh I didn't know that" Me: "I apologize if there was any miss communication however you received a price quote with parts. We do not sell parts and labor we sell service which includes both. It is also backed up by our 2 year 24,000 mile warranty. The only way we can ensure the integrity of the work and to provide warranty is to procure parts from our warehouses which allow us the ability to warranty and defective parts with no cost and minimal down time to you. We have this policy for the peace of mine and security of our customers" Customer: "can't you make an exception for me this one time. This is my first time here" Me: "No I'm sorry. We have our policies in place for the security of our customers. You could always return that part and we could perform the work for you. Besides that sir you had an appointment for Monday and I couldn't fit you in today" Customer: "I just don't want to spend 2 hours to go return the part" At this point I did one of these :-/ and he left annoyed/defeated. Some of you may have handled the situation differently. I felt that even though the rules of the game were explained to the customer he had complete disregard for the way we do business. Even after it was explained to him again he wanted exceptions made. Don't get me wrong I bend over backwards, then forwards and I tie myself into a pretzel for my customers. I am very clear and concise when I answer questions and explain to potential customers what our processes are. It is unfair for the customers who booked appointments for me to jump this guy in front of them. It is also unfair to all the other customers who accept our business practices and become great customers that I make an exception for this guy and install his provided parts. I also think I avoided (although a SMALL chance) that the job could have blew up in my face with the wrong diag or faulty parts. I had a strong feeling that if exceptions were made both in scheduling and parts that it would not have made a difference with this customer. Asian cultures do not value customer service. Many times have I gave a complimentary inspection, explained to them the whole 9 yards only to have them go to another shop most likely ran by someone in their own ethnic community and for me to lose the sale and time. I know from experience as well, I am a Chinese American and my people do it to me too!!! Anyway, feel free to call me an idiot for letting a $150 sale walk out the door. Believe it or not it would be nice to make some money this week. Down on sales this week, having a problem upselling probably due to everyone being tight from Christmas, loads of weird ass diag problems with the cars we have so even though my ARO is far greater than $150 any money is good money right now!

Sometimes you just can't tell. Before I implemented digital inspections I've had customers in the shop under the car an shown why we didn't want to perform an alignment. No matter what you say or do SOME people want it their way and their way only. I have just seen a very unusual concentration of that crowd when it comes to alignments.

That is a great point. I am of the philosophy if we cant do it right dont do it at all. I guess we can offer to try to set it as straight as possible. I will try this.

I have a shop that I sub out to from time to time that does alignments for $50 with brand new hunter equipment. Problem is its a 2 man process to drop off and pick up. When you work out the numbers its not as lucrative as you think. Besides that anything I let leave out of my shop opens myself up to an opportunity to lose a customer or their confidence.

What I have noticed is being "competitive" with alignment pricing got me the exact customers I didn't want. Sure they drove German cars but they were bottom dollar seekers. My philosophy is I cannot afford dissatisfied customers and I avoid negative reviews like the plague. Very deflating to think about because when I made the investment in the aligner we have I thought it would be a really great move for us. When and if I do move the rack and get a new aligner I really hope that I can profit from it.

Just wondering how everyone's sales is doing and what is traditional for you during Christmas time. We live off a smaller car count, higher ARO. We have seen a dip in spending and lower car count than in weeks past. How about you guys?

flacvabeach, our alignment car count is low as well. This is probably in part due to facility utilization (I've had a lot of dead cars around) and the alignment rack being blocked in at times, alignment rack in the back of the shop, not being confident with my equipment. I am currently looking into upgrading my aligner to the newest Hunter unit and also moving my rack closer to the front of the shop. One thing I have done that has help stave off the unwanted customers is I have increased our charge on alignments significantly ($120 to $176). I may still run alignment specials just to see if I can attract and convert some customers however if I still experience the same problem where our efforts are netting negative results.

yup, I say the same thing. I act as the SA here and while I'll never say I am great, I am very very good at connecting with my customers. It just seems that alignment customers are not the type that follow what I say. They will nod as if they agree, say they need to schedule another day to come in to get the work done then go off somewhere else to get the alignment sorted and we end up being the crooks because a hack aligned their vehicle without dealing with the suspension/steering issues. Of course this doesn't happen all the time but definitely a lot more frequently than I am comfortable with.

Bolt-On Technology and Auto Vitals seem to be the leaders there. We use Bolt On and its great.

That is exactly what we do. When we refuse to align due to bad suspension or steering components apparently that is something that is unacceptable to some people.

I find that if you deny them an alignment they think you are the devil once some hack performs a half ass alignment and you look like the bad guy.

Since I have been offering alignments as a service it has been mixed results. Typical instance is a customer will want to schedule an appointment for an alignment. We will advise them over the phone that we have to inspect the suspension and steering systems to make sure we can perform a proper alignment. Vehicles in NYC are beat to hell with the roads the way they are. Many times unless it is a very new vehicle or a vehicle with low mileage there will be things that the vehicle needs. All this is disclosed to the customer BEFORE any work is done. We also explain to them at the there is no charge for this inspection if we go ahead and perform the alignment OR we perform the recommended work and the alignment however this is a $39.97 inspection charge otherwise. Of course they agree. We check out the car and at times we get the work and perform the alignment. Other times we explain to the customer we cannot perform the alignment and would not be in their best benefit. The customer leaves and that is the end of that. Most of the time these customers who decline any further work simply take it to a hack who will align the vehicle to a better spec than it was and then we look like crooks in the eyes of the customer. The reason I bring this up is rarely do we have unhappy customers. I just got a unsubscribe to our e-mail list and reason was "Unhappy with the service." I check the history and we had only seen the vehicle once before and it was for an alignment. There were problems noted down in their repair order with their suspension. The customer left and never to be seen again. I feel like I get far more frequency of situations like this. Are we not attracting the right customers when it comes to alignments? Should I not even offer alignments other than to our regular customers? Should I take a different approach when it comes to booking alignment jobs? No amount of educating the customer seems to work on these people. It is apparently set in their minds that they can get an alignment we are just out to get them. It really gets on my nerves to say the least. I do everything in my power to not take on the problem customer or problem jobs and I feel like I am getting really good at it. The alignment situation seems to be my biggest challenge when it comes to these unwanted customers. Maybe the I am just bitter about the message of "unhappy with the service" when we were up front, gracious and were 110% honest.