mspecperformance

Waivers are a tricky thing. If a customer insists on using a different oil than you (the professional) recommends then they are probably headstrong and stubborn. There is nothing a waiver can do if they decide they want to raise hell because they feel that you wronged them some how. Generally I'd say send these people down the river.

It is tough to stay competitive as a general repair shop with the vehicles that are on the road today. There is tons of new technology in cars and if you don't have a make specific scanner you will always be limited. As for the Autel, it is a pretty neat multi-purpose scanner and definitely has a good amount of functions for Euro makes that is left out on a lot of the other swiss army knife scanners out there.

bought out by intuit, if you don't like demandforce (me!) then I would not mess with customer link at this point. Check out KuKui. Price point is higher but thats due to website they build you and also the SEO they set you up with. I am using them and I am happy so far.

I use Autologic for most of my German car makes which for us is great. We also recently purchased a Snap On Verus Pro. We use it as a swiss army knife or just a second look. Our business is 99% German cars.

Jeff I'd raise the max cap if I were you.

CARMandP, how did you come up with 8.01 percent if you don't mind me asking?

Sound off!

So now that I am at a computer here is the whole story. Guy brings 99 VW Beetle in with pregnant wife. Seem like a nice couple. Car is beat up. Slew of problems from tranny to engine. Leaks, running rough, misfires etc. Customer says he doesn't want to spend a lot of money (of course) and to let him know if its "worth keeping." The engine issue is his main issue. We scan the vehicle and do some diag. Misfires, some air/fuel codes and a cam sensor code. The code that keeps popping up is a cam sensor code. Explain to the customer the cam sensor is in a difficult spot and best option is to just swap it out instead of paying for scope diag etc. Customer agrees, we swap out the cam sensor which was actually cracked when we pulled it out. Car ran 10x better after the sensor was swapped. Still some codes however customer being on a tight budget I explained to him he can take the car and worry about the other stuff later (meaning bring it back to me when u have more money and time). Get a call yesterday after about 3 weeks says the vehicle was un drivable and he HAD to bring it somewhere more local to him. The other shop scanned the vehicle and the cam sensor code is still coming up. He says, "I assured them the sensor was installed professionally and the code shouldn't be coming back." Anyway he pressed the issue that there was still something wrong with the cam sensor. He said he would call me back tomorrow with a final diag. I was polite the whole time but at this point I had a long pause and I said, "ok sir, you can call me tomorrow however I am trying to understand how I can help you in this situation." Then the dragon came out LOL. He started getting upset and talking all kind of nonesense. At that point I explained to him, "Sir, I understand your frustrations at the moment however you chose to NOT call me when you were having issues with the vehicle and you brought you vehicle to another shop and are now telling me you are seeking compensation for a repair that I could not remedy or inspect for defect since you brought your vehicle somewhere else." Things got ugly to say the least. A charge back was mentioned and I am apparently a crook now and all I care about is money.... ugh. What people fabricate in their minds is amazing. Customer also made it sound like I coerced him into doing a repair on his vehicle say, "You asked for more money and I paid you." I presented our findings after an authorized diag and it was ultimately his choice if he wanted us to touch his car any further which I even said to him. How do you guys deal with these types? I generally have very nice customers and I am just taken aback when I encounter such geniuses with fine logic. No matter how much sense I tried to talk into this guy it just didn't matter. I guess since he already brought the vehicle somewhere and was in the hole with them (also I don't doubt the other shop bad mouthed us, thats the quality of people we have here in NYC) he couldn't do anything else other than to defend his position. I think it is simple logic though. You are covered under warranty AT OUR SHOP. I can't take your word or the word of another shop. Boils my blood. I am sure you guys have encountered these types before, give me some feedback so I know how to better handle this situation for the next time.

What do you say or do when you repair a customer vehicle, then that customer brings their vehicle to another shop and then complains whatever you fixed is still causing them a problem. Thry are obviously calling because they want some sort of compensation. Just wanted some reactions. In a nut shell i explained that they are fully covered under our warranty however all claims would have to be inspected and repaired in our shop. I'll post more when i get to a computer.

Facebook has a star rating which any person who "likes" the page can contribute. It is totally anonymous which sucks. Anyone with a hard on for your business can ask a bunch of friends to like and then give you a 1 star rating.

A friend of mine that works at a very successful shop cross town explained to me how he charges and I want to see what everyone's opinion on this matter is... Say a customer comes in and needs front brakes and rotors as well as front wheel bearings. Say Front wheel bearing labor only is 2.0 hours Say Front brake job labor only is 1.5 hours The job entails you to remove the brake pads and rotors ANYWAY. The only additional work you need to perform is to grease the slide pins and compress the caliper piston. Do you ... A) Charge the customer as 2 separate jobs and 2 separate lines (3.5 hours total) Add a smaller charge to the job due to the slight increase in work (2.0 hours + however much extra) C) Do you replace the brakes as a courtesy because it is requiring not much extra labor. Thought, opinions and explanation as to why you chose one or the other.

I used to be open during the week from 10AM to 7PM. Then I scaled it back to 9AM to 6PM. We are currently at 8AM to 5PM. We also changed our Saturday schedule from 10 to 3 to 8 to 1. I found that some customers had a hard time dropping off and picking up at our times. Saturdays is convenient for customers to drop off, pick up and for minor services. We also occassionally set up a few bigger jobs on Saturdays as some customers really prefer the Saturday time slot. There have been times when the work was slow. I would say average 1 Saturday a month we are pretty dead. I will probably reevaluate our situation once I get my management more on point.

Videos are a great idea. The key is to build up the page with a few hundred followers, hopefully with people that actually look at your content and comment or at least "Like" it. Videos are a great way to get people involved. I find that even if they are not shop related if they are engaging videos people will stop and watch.

Question for you guys, what are you guys paying for Shop Insurance? General Liability and shop keepers? I'm sure I'm paying a lot more being in NYC but I am possibly looking at some outrageous numbers. PM me if you don't want to post thanks

The pros talk about posting up engaging content. I've always had a problem finding interesting enough stuff to post so I just ended up posting pictures of cars in the shop and our daily comings and goings. It seems to work rather well for us. I only have a small sampling however I do get a lot of people walking in commenting how much they like our facebook page and all the pictures I post. I am still going to assume posting generic engaging content may have its advantages though.

Marketing in a necessity and it's going to take some time to figure out what works in your area but just think about what you are doing that ur competitors are not or better yet... What you are NOT doing that your competitors are.

I guess I have to accept that I can't please everyone. I have tried every which way not to give out prices over the phone, they are usually always met with resistance where people are baffled as to why I can't give them some sort of pricing. I hear everything from, "I know exactly what I need" "It was diagnosed at another shop/brother/cousin/dealer/friend" "I just need a ball park" "If I tow my car to you I will most likely be stuck having to use you for the job" and the list goes on and on. I don't know if I could fill a phone script with the right answers for these people.

Great advice flacvabeach! Thanks very much for sharing. Love hearing advice from the pro shops out there that are managing their businesses properly unlike myself! lol

How do you approach a situation where a customer says, "I just want an estimate i know exactly what I need (front brake pads) why can't you just give me a price????"

I certainly like to know your opinions on this. Sometimes it takes a few minutes to build a concise estimate. After asking for an appointment the customer will turn around and say, "I'll call back I am shopping around for prices." There is either an opportunity to educate this customer on why it is important to factor in reputation, warranty, quality of workmanship when it comes down to selecting a auto service provider but most of the time this approach IMO falls on deaf ears and they end up being bottom feeders anyway.

DUDE!!! Same story with ATI. Turned me off with their tactics. Hey mmotley I'll PM you maybe we can bounce stuff off each other.

mmotley, I am thinking about their 12 week Guerilla Management course. how about you?

id love to hear anyone who has any real feedback

I just spoke to someone about their Guerilla Management Course. It sounds promising with no strings attached other than for what you are paying for the course itself. Any feedback on this?

I think the hardest thing for me to learn is to get the "OMG I need this job" mentality. Years ago when we weren't doing so well I would pray for jobs, any job! That type of desperate feeling still resonates when customers try to negotiate, or want to bring their own parts. A lot of times I stuck with too many jobs or jobs that just aren't making the margins we need. I guess this why it is recommended to hire an outside person to be a service writer so there is no emotion involved!