mspecperformance

Some people are just stupid. Thats my honest opinion through a lot of anguish and experience. Some people are just selfish and utterly and hopelessly stupid./

I don't like how Yelp pressure sells you on their advertisement packages and then don't properly explain their review algorithms. There are websites dedicated to explaining how much of a scamming racket Yelp is. If you don't pay them mysteriously your reviews get filtered. BS.

For new customers you could try to market your oil changes as a "minor service" where as you perform a vehicle inspection while performing the oil change. If this is sold right and the customer knows the entire process before you perform the oil change service, you can add dollars to the ticket by charging for the inspection service as well as preparing a customer for potential problems that need repairs.

The dye idea is great!! When we speak to customers on oil leaks, I explain to them that we fix oil leaks from top to bottom. Since gravity will do its thing, it hard to determine with 100% certainty sometimes. I never usually have problems with oil leaks, coolant leaks on the other hand are INSIDIOUS. Many a time we have fixed a leak, pressure tested, bled, test drove and everything was gravy. Customer takes the car, ends up getting another leak or some other component in the cooling system went bad. This happens a lot when customers either overheat their vehicles or went a loooonnnngggggg time without servicing their cooling systems. On BMWs especially, we recommend to PREVENTATIVELY replace certain components such as water pumps, t-stats, hoses, radiators, expansion tanks. Most people don't take the advice though or they have thousands of dollars in other repairs that take precedent.

Background history for those who don't know my shop... We are a German Specialty shop and we work mainly by appointment... New customer calls to ask for directions to the shop, ends up being a drive up no problem. Vehicle had a misfire. We didn't have a packed morning so I said we could see his car this morning. 2002 Mercedes C240. Says he got a diag at Pep Boys. Turns out they pulled his codes with some BS printout and the guy ended up paying $50. Felt bad for the guy told him he really shouldn't go to Pep Boys to get any diag work since they probably don't have the proper scanners to perform a lot of needed tests. Anyway get the guy in, explain to him (as per Joe's advice from the forum) that we would charge him to read the codes but we will charge accordingly as we go along with the diag process depending on what tests we need to perform etc. Turns out that he had 2 faulty injectors after 1.5 hrs of diag time (only charged him $50 btw). Recommended to replace the 2 injectors as they were tested and were not working. I also explained to him that there might be other factors that could contribute to his misfire however we need to take care of the known bad components before we could determine if there was anything else to address. I went through this speech about 3-4 times with the same response from this Einstein, "So the injectors will clear my computer RIGHT?" At the end I got a little exasperated and I said, "Sir like I said 3 times before, we need to replace the injectors first then we can continue with our tests." Then the truth came out, "Well I just don't want to spend over $500 on this car otherwise I'll get rid of it and get a new car I don't want to deal with headaches." After that nonsense I booked him to come back in the next day (because this fine gentleman just HAD to drive to work today with his misfiring vehicle). Got a call from the customer about 2 hours later and the conversation goes something like this: Customer: "Heyyyyyyy... I just wanted to know are your SUREEEEE there isn't anything else I need?" Me: "not that i know of sir, we tested your injectors and they were found to be faulty. That is obviously your biggest issue, once we fix that we can move on to diagnose if there is anything else causing a misfire" Customer: "Oh reeaaallllyyyy... well because I have a broken hose here." Me: "Is it a coolant hose or an air hose or..." Customer: "Air hose" Me: "Ok sir well we weren't looking for an air leak because when we scanned the vehicle there were specific codes that came up for the injectors. We tested them and 2 of them were found to be faulty. If there was an immediate indication of an air leak we would have performed a smoke test. If you have a broken hose we can most certainly figure all that out tomorrow." Customer: "Ok but I want to ask you something, can I stay around while you work on the car?" Me: "... Yes you can wait around like you did today, it will take approx 1.5-2 hours to finish.." ::::Cuts me off while I'm talking:::: Customer: "No I mean can I watch you while you work on my car" Me: "No sir, we don't allow customers in the work area" Customer: "Ok then I can't have you work on my car I'll have to find someone else" I already knew his line of questioning was getting me to admit to breaking his hose or take responsibility for a broken hose without coming out and saying anything directly. At this point I just want to get rid of this guy. Me: "Ok sir thats no problem you can take your vehicle anywhere you'd like" Customer: "Go and see if I can stand and watch you guys work" THE EFFFFFFING NERVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Me: "No sir we don't do that. Good luck" Hung up on him before I could get a response. The balls on these people!!! I really think I should go back to my old policy of charging customers for every single little thing we do. It definitely helped to weed out these trouble makers. Does this type of situation bug you guys out as much as it does to me? We are very nice and courteous to customers. Honesty is part of our creed. We have a nice clean shop and one of the only true specialists in the area. I take offense big time to customers who want to accuse us of doing shady work or have shady practices. Just needed to vent I'm sure it'll be fun for some of you guys to read and relate.

You can't win against these types of arguments. The perception of your shop should be honesty and quality above all else. Quality comes with a price. You have to warranty anything that goes wrong with a vehicle, that is built into the part price as you may have to rectify the work at a later date. If the customer can't understand why he/she is getting a superior job for the price they are paying they need to walk.

This is a tough cookie. The customer may be a decent one and just in a spot where she had a professional diag done somewhere and chose to not repair the vehicle with them. On the other hand the customer could be trouble. I've also run into issues where no matter what a customer signs or or verbally agrees they may be unhappy or unwilling to pay. Of course the ball is in your court at this point since you have their car and they don't get it back unless they pay but the downside is that you'll have one pissed off person regardless if they are right or not. A pissed off customer can be very damaging in terms of ruining you reputation. Better off to let these people walk IMHO. I do not take my own advice a lot of times and I get burned. A lot.

The warranty companies are crooks for sure, however I have dealt with several customers that have a completely unrealistic expectation of how the process is suppose to go. I always warn my customers that these warranty companies are crooked and they were probably talked into signing up for these policies. I give them the break down of what to expect. When the final numbers come back to what I was expecting and warned my customers about, they get all bent out of shape and some how it becomes our problem or we have to deal with the repercussions.

I have little experience purchasing from big parts stores as my suppliers namely worldpac and northside are a wholesale only or wholesale first business. That being said, do your customers know that the parts they are getting installed in their car are atz or big parts store parts? Does that cause a problem for you all? The atz, pep boys, advanced parts stores all seem like low quality bottom of the barrel operations and I wouldn't be caught dead using them as a supplier. NAPA on the other hand treats us very well. No complaints about them.

Love this. Had a customer this past Saturday that gave me fits. After he authorized some diag work ($380 to be exact) for us to remove the intake manifold off his 650i to investigate an engine noise, the next day he had a huge problem with the charges. We had discussed and he even acknowledged he gave the OK to do the work even with no guarantee of the problem being found. We talked to him the whole step of the way but because he was now out $380 on something he agreed to do he didn't want to pay. Long story short he says to me, "I understand that you have to charge a diagnostic fee. I also understand that if you find the problem, the diagnostic fee should be waived." WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!! This is after 30 minutes on the phone with the gentleman trying to make him understand any and every which way. Just one of those you can't help, ended up charging him a $100 service fee and sent the car on its way. Can't wait til he calls back wanting help again but by then the car will probably have imploded.

if you are the only tech at your future shop and have no diag skills, don't open a shop. You would be doing the auto service a serious injustice and add to the already big problem of sub par shops and parts changers that drag our industry down. Now of course if you are going to tech school, learn as much as you can. Try to work at a indy and dealer if possible so you can see how both sides live. At the end of it all if you still want to open your shop then roll out the check book and find a spot to pitch your tent!

Set up an air reel/hose for tires where most people pull up would be a fix for that issue. Putting air in tires for walk ups can be annoying but you never know who will become a potential customer or refer others due to a simple act of kindness. In terms of other customers "bothering" and walking up with problems I usually try to stick with our appointment schedule. This keeps the ones who have made appointments happy as well is give off a sense of how professional and good we are at what we do since we have so many appointments booked! I do make exceptions for great customers and big problems. Most respond well, the bottom feeder customers can go down the road. Also if you are getting pulled off jobs to help customers, you need to hire a front man/counter man/service writer/helper to deal with these people!

Looks like you have great results and a nice website! Who designs and manages your SEO? Just to add, Kukui may or may not be a better option for those who are in a larger metro area due to more competition, web searches, etc. What also comes with your service is the CRM components as well as complete track-ability of all leads coming from your website as well as other avenues of internet marketing that you can see with real numbers. I am sounding like a rep all of a sudden! Main street hub and kukui are 2 very different services. MSB manages yours social media stuff so it basically posts on facebook and twitter for you if you are not the internet savvy type. Kukui (as far as I know) is the only program that does web marketing, CRM and some light social media features with all 100% transparency with their analytical data that you can view on your control panel. They are also the only NEW CUSTOMER acquisition program that seemed to work in my experience. The other programs seem to focus on CRM to help generate return business and hopefully happier customers for some indirect new business.

we have the OTC strut tamer, had it for the past 6-7 years, works very well.

I would LOVE to hear this story, we should have a sub forum for crazy customer stories ahahaha

Hang in there guys!!! Some new shop owner have a lot of luck and come storming out of the gate. Location, marketing, built in customer base etc play a large role. I remember years past I used to hate the winter months due to being slower than normal and increased overhead. Focus on the things you do have control over and look into marketing as much as possible. If you aren't blessed with an existing business or having some sort of X-factor like a gold mine of a location then marketing is what you need to get people to walk through the door. Good luck guys and I hope we all have a GREAT February !!!!!

Had a customer like that with a 2004 CL500. Couldnt pay the $3000 bill after disappearing for 3 weeks. Told me he got arrested and facing jail time for being a heroine dealer for the Chinatown gangs LOL. Asked me to give him 3 weeks to pay. He didn't show up, repo company came, told them with storage they owed me $6000. They paid the next day. Owner's friend calls up a week later, tell him car is gone.

The worst are the "I will send you a lot of business if you take care of me" customers. GTFO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stuff like this makes me question humanity LOL.

I try not to acknowledge too much of customer input in hopes they will STFU. Sometimes it works. If it doesn't then I'm in a world of pain LOL.

Leaving the keys in the cars? yes if its right outside our gate. We had actually seen the customer outside so we thought nothing of it. I have never ever had a customer run out on a $50 bill let alone the ones that i would never expect.

I have a guy who comes to pick up our scrap. Very nice gentlemen whom if makes any sense is a lot more professional than the other knuckle heads picking up scrap. He even brought us his daughter's car for service, an X5 go figure He does give us some money for our scrap, it is highly competitive around here, there is a new junk scrap guy that comes around at least 1-2 times per week looking to pick up and buy scrap.

So we have a customer come in with a 2010 X6. This is her second time here. Both times she walks in with a fur coat. Second time she brings her husband. Her husband notifies us that he is having issues with his battery/charging system. I explain to them that we would first like to perform a charging system test to ensure there is nothing else in the system that is in need of attention or repair. They agree and by all accounts seem like nice people. He even informs he has a 2006 M6 that he was interested in selling. Fast forward 2 hours later, we call them back and let them know that they would be needing a new battery and the rest of their charging system looks to be working. We had told them to expect that the battery costs between $250-325 and there may be an additional IBS cable that is recommended to be replaced as BMW has released an updated version of said cable. Upon notifying the customer, he gets upset with the price and says, "Wow, I could have just went to the dealer." We tell the customer he more than welcome to come pick up the vehicle since we won't have his parts until Monday if he chose to perform the service. Fast forward another 3 hours, the customer shows up (the wife). We see her pacing around outside on the phone as we are closing our roll down gate. My partner informs me the customer is outside and is probably coming inside the office. I wait 5 minutes and no one comes through the door, I find it odd so I go outside. She is no where to be seen and the car is gone. We try calling them 3-4 times with no luck. She finally returns our phone call screaming saying we are irresponsible for leaving her key in her car and we are going to have to deal with her husband then hangs up. All subsequent calls are not answered. In 8-9 years I've been doing this, I have never had this happen. These people looked like decent folks and seemingly were at least middle income. It amazes me what low class scummy people will do to get over. On top of that she had the nerve to try to make it our fault she stole her own car back LOL. I'm not going to go crazy over theft of service ($49.95). Class has no appearance!!!

Just wondering if anyone on here has good experience with these units. We have manufacturer specific scan tools however we like to have a few general all purpose scanners available. We currently have the older Autel DS708 which is decent but rather slow. I also have a Launch GDS still in box brand new that I got for a pretty good price but I have yet to use it. One of my techs had experience using one and said in his words, "feels like a toy and crashes a lot." The new MaxiSys looks fast and capable. Anyone own one? Thoughts?

There are a few industry CC's you can hook up with. I believe Napa Car Care has a program that allows you to offer CC's to customers. Bosch does as well.