mmotley

I just closed on 1.5 acres yesterday to move my shop to a much better location. We've been open for 22 months. I started out by myself and now have 2 full time employees. The number 1 complaint we get is our location. All of our customers live more than 5 minutes away.... ALL! Most probably live over 10 minutes away. Half probably live 15 minutes or further. I've had too many customers come to our place, say how much they love the service, but can't justify the drive. A lot say they would rather pay more at the local dealer than drive all the way out to see us, even after they say our service is way better and refer all their friends to come see us! So for us, location is important. I've managed to grow in a terrible location, but now I'm ready more. I think it's different for every business.

My service advisor is paid based on how many hours sold with built in guarantee for any real slow weeks. I'm currently tweaking my email surveys, and those will work as a bonus or multiplier. I was taught to keep incentive pay plans simple and easy to understand and track. If too complicated, they lose their effectiveness.

Exactly right.

I have to agree with others here, I try to stay competitive with other local shops on oil changes, but they are definitely nothing I will retire off of. They are however, a great opportunity to look the car over. Using digital multi-point inspections and top quality oils and filters as selling points, I'm able to charge on the higher end and also not be in such a rush. My customers have come to expect their digital inspection report with every oil change and they know we set spare tire pressure (even the ones buried in their trunk). All that being said, I still barely break even on just an oil change. As for A/C service, that is something I need to get on top of ASAP. We're in the 80s already in Texas, so cars will be showing up soon with A/C complaints. Look forward to hearing other's feedback

I completely agree. I am the exact same way

shorted sensor or circuit to ground. There are probably about 5-10 sensors that are checked before starting will happen. If any of them are shorted, the ecm will shut down, no communication will occur, and check engine light will NOT be illuminated when the key is turned on. You will have to unplug each sensor one by one, turn the ignition back on, and see if comes back on. Once it comes back on, the last sensor you unplugged is the culprit. If none of them fix it, you have a circuit shorted.

We just started emailing customer surveys in hopes that we can find out where we can improve, which in turn, should lead to less negative reviews. I'm not expecting to eliminate ALL of the negative reviews and I know it doesn't help with any negative reviews already left. I hope it at least gives us a little more insight on how we can do our best and avoid these situations.

Don't know about the coolant flush, but mightyvac makes the best brake bleeding tools I know of for a lot less than $2500

I would say a printed repair order with the tech on a test drive should suffice, like ATLauto suggested. Definitely recommend an air freshener for your waiting area, regardless of what it currently smells like in there. Customers will notice and appreciate it. Not sure where you are located, but you might be able to prop open a door to the outside if the weather is nice enough and it doesn't create too much of a draft.

I think he may be more concerned when there are multiple non-smoking guests in the waiting area. Some places don't let their service advisors smoke tobacco cigarettes because that one service advisor is in contact with multiple customers who might find it offensive.

I think he is more concerned about how it impacts other customers in the waiting area

So you bought it, right? Lmao

What software are you using to send out the email blasts?

Same

I should clarify that when I say tracking hours is easy, I also mean it's easy for the employees. Techs and service advisors can manually track their hours for the day/week so they know where they are at for the day/week. Trying to get an employee to know how they are doing with GP, markup on parts, etc makes it tough to calculate quickly and they might lose motivation...

Agreed. If you are a small, independent shop, techs are gonna be cautious about coming to work somewhere that they might not get a ton of hours. This pay plan will provide a guarantee that they wont go home without a paycheck but that they also have an incentive to hustle. I still have yet to become comfortable with paying employees commission off of gross sales, gross profit, net, etc. In my mind, it creates too many opportunities for employees to want to see the numbers of the business. It also automatically gives employees pay raises if you raise your labor rate, parts matrix, etc. Third, it's just too easy to pay techs by labor hours. It's easy to track, it's easy to understand, it's easy to get techs to compete against each other, it's easy to set bonuses off of, etc. Just my opinion though, lots of guys on here seem to pay off of Gross Sales, Profit, Net, etc and are fine with it.

Not to argue, but I could say the same about a customer I just sold a tire rotation to and got over $1000 in recommendations. I think M-spec hit it on the head, wonder what the ratio is of time wasters to people who actually buy recommendations is. Also, how are you paying your employees to rotate tires for free? If you are using a low-end lube tech/hourly guy, is he REALLY looking over the brakes, hub, etc all that well? If you are rotating for free because other places rotate for free, will you also price match the other services they offer? Sorry, but if I'm rotating the tires (ASE Master Certified with L1) then I am charging for it. If I'm gonna put it on my lift, use my electricity, use my tools, I'm gonna charge. The people I hire I feel are worth paying for their work, so I will not rotate for free. I've started telling my customers that if they want the high school drop out down the road making $8 an hour to rotate their tires, and have to wait while he does it, go for it. Or they can spend a few bucks and let us rotate their tires while we change the oil and filter. Also something to remember, when you take the wheels and tires off, you are now responsible if a wheel comes off after they leave. Your also on the hook for cross-threaded lug nuts you might come across. I've made my decision, it's not worth it to rotate for free.

Yes, a hybrid system like you describe will naturally cause a tech to make more per hour the less hours they run depending on how you calculate it...

^^^Agreed All throughout tech school we were told about the idiot who didn't torque down the drain plug and blew up an engine! Or the guy who forgot to tighten lug nuts and caused a customer to have an accident. Or the guy who didn't tighten down a fuel rail and caused an engine fire. And they all ended up in small claims court! Etc, etc, etc. KMS is right, they have been taught to do things correctly and to thoroughly check their work.

If you are asking me, then the answer is no. Having them sign an invoice kinda seems pointless to me actually. Now an estimate or RO would make more sense, but even then, nothing gets added to a ticket unless it is authorized by the customer, so it's still a mute point. We run credit cards over the phone all the time with no signature. Worst case scenario I can think of would be a customer saying they didn't authorize some work you performed. If that's true, then it is your fault, regardless of signatures. If it is not your fault and the customer DID in fact approve the work, then you should have it documented when and how they approved the work and you should be fine. Has worked for me so far

MITCHELL 1 backs up all invoices remotely. I play it safe and back up to 2 different USB drives, kept in separate locations. I keep absolutely no copies of invoices, ROs, or Estimates. I use Mike's Bolt On software, so unless the customer wants a printed invoice, we email it to them.

You don't even have to put him on 100% commission. You could do 50/50 or just set a weekly goal. I also recommend getting a dry erase board and posting his weekly/daily goal. This makes it easy for him to remember his goal and he'll likely start to track his hours on his own. This really works well if you have 2 or more people, since they naturally will try to compete with each other. If you have 2 or more people, it would also be a good idea to set a 'group goal' or a goal for everyone to hit their expectation. This will allow the group to push each other to hit their individual marks/goals. I've started to implement this in my shop with just 2 employees (1 service advisor and 1 helper) with great success. I can easily say the whiteboard with goals on it has been a great ROI. I also forgot to mention, the reason I asked how much experience he had was because he might not really know what it means to hustle. If you stick him with a guy putting 80 hours out a week and let him just watch, then he might get a better understanding of what you expect. My helper was slow at first, but did a great job. I finally told him to just watch me do a few oil changes, tire rotations, etc and follow behind me. Simply just explaining to him that you can visually check brakes through the wheels as your are raising the car up, check wiper blades and turns signals on the test drive instead of in the stall, eyeball for oil leaks while you are draining the oil and get your oil filter before it's done, etc. Once he saw some of the shortcuts, he picked up the pace. Things like setting rotors to turn and then going to do something else while it cuts might seem obvious to veterans, but a new guy might think he has to stand next to the lathe the whole time the rotor is cutting in case something happens. Or they might think they have to watch the oil drain into the bucket the whole time until it's done. Gotta remember, he doesn't want to screw up and make the boss mad. I've been there, my helper has been there. Try to teach him, but if he just can't seem to get it after a few months, I'd say let him go.

How long has he been with you? Does he have any previous experience in a shop?

When I left the dealer, the bottom SA was making $60k a year. Most were making 6 figures. 100% commission. All based on hours sold

Can you weld a bolt to it? Then turn the bolt to remove the stud?