mmotley

What state are you in?

Much agreed!

I currently pay my SA hourly. The plan is to move her to 100% commission once she has enough experience and training. Commission will be based on hours sold. KMS mentioned being careful as to not wanting your employees to over sell just to increase their paychecks. I think you can probably offset a lot of this by having strict recommendation intervals (ie, filters every 15 or 30, trans every 30, etc.). Hopefully you trust your employees not to over sell, but it's still something to monitor. I've chosen to base their pay off of hours produced so I can easily calculate GP on labor and parts. If both the SA and the tech's pay is tied to labor hours, I can calculate my effective labor rate, then figure out the percentage that is GP.

Just got done reading a chapter in a customer service book that touched on 'loyalty/reward programs'. The author mentioned that loyalty programs don't have be tied to discounts. He mentions maybe inviting some of your best customers for an annual dinner party. Or an art show. Or fashion show. Bring in a chef and have him cook for everyone. Just thought I would throw the idea out there

I've seen 2 other cars before with modules not completely tightened down that was causing issues. Temping as a tech to partially put a car back together to verify repairs before completely reassembling...

We've had good luck with warranty companies so far... Seems they either agree to pay everything or deny everything. We've only had one that wanted to send their own parts and we let the customer make the call on what they wanted to do. Sure we missed out on parts profit, but we padded the labor and got paid for it.

I compared some of my prices to Repair Pal this weekend... Turns out I'm under charging quite a bit on some of our items (explains all the compliments about our low prices). I'm also not hitting the numbers I want, so I've bumped up a few menu items (brake flush, etc) to meet the upper end of their recommendation.

Any update?

Gene, I never said I wanted to ban you... I could just do without seeing anymore comments from you. You've called people 'rednecks', you've told shop owners on here that all they want are 'slaves' and nobody wants to really work for them, mentioned owner's 'fat wives', admitted that you are a negative person, and now you're admitting you got the same responses/comments on another forum... Maybe it's your piss poor attitude and lack of respect for others. If we're no different than the worldpac forums, why do you continue to waste your time?

Is there a 'block' option?

I would have went ahead with the response of 'we are better than everybody else'. You have to justify why you charge more, why not start off with confidence. 'we're better than everyone else, don't make mistakes, offer best warranty, best parts, more certs, etc.' In the end, you may be right though. Maybe this wasn't a customer you didn't want, but don't be afraid to brag about yourself to sell the work

Just wait... You may get the opportunity to see it show up on a tow truck one day and say 'I told ya so!'

I don't think anybody every said it was the techs job to float the costs of the business... And I don't think anybody would ever expect that. Regardless, the idea of paying a tech when a job is completed isn't exactly floating the costs of the business. I disagree. We sell entire services and complete jobs. I pay my tech and service writer when all the services are finished and the whole job is complete. Not if they spent 15 minutes on it here, 2 hours there, 45 minutes the other day, etc.

And why is that? If you're not going to fire him, just track how much time he was late, then hold his paycheck that long after 5 on Friday... 2 hours of hanging out in the shop waiting on a paycheck might help him understand how you feel. I would get serious about the punctuality though. As you add more employees, everyone will show up late if they see others getting away with it. Your story sounds just like what I went through. 2 minutes went to 5 minutes went to 10 minutes and so on.

Direct mail

Agreed. I did plenty of engine jobs that I didn't flag till Monday morning, just made the next weeks paycheck that much better.

Currently using the Dymo label printer... Will be changing over to a static cling printer in the near future due to the current stickers fading in the sun after a while. Dymo was cheap and quick to set up, but the static cling stickers look more professional. FYI, you can get static cling stickers with just a small amount of adhesive on the back... They work great!

yet nobody does anything about it... Except that guy who flew a plane into the IRS building in Austin!!! Except of course, he was painted as a crazy person for being angry at an agency that steals '$220,500' from people everyday

Referrals... I have done 0 advertising in the last 7 months. I had to work last Saturday and Sunday to catch up. My other mechanic got 7 hours of overtime last week. We work late just about every single night. We just ordered another lift and oil drain for the shop and I have ads on craigslist for another mechanic. All of this is due to customers who walk out my door with 7-10 of my business cards in their hand. They call us up and say 'Hey, while y'all have my car in the shop, will you put some more of your cards in the cup holder?'

Yea, it's weird how that works. If you have 1 employee, he sets the stage for all the following new hires... I would sit the employee down or take him out to lunch and just be honest. Something like 'Look, when you first started here, we were a small shop that wasn't that busy. Since that time, we have grown to a larger business and our customers are starting to expect more from us and so I have to expect more from my employees.' Let him know you would love to keep him around and let him grow with your business, but he needs to realize that the new employees look up to him. If he can't follow the rules, disciplinary action will follow. I wouldn't be rude or strict about it, almost play it off as if your hands are tied (really, they are tied. Your customers expect a certain level of service from you, your employees must realize that.) That's how I handled it at my shop and it has worked so far. It's not fun letting employees go. Even if you are afraid of being painted as an 'evil and greedy boss', you can always explain that it costs you more to fire someone, find a replacement, train the new hire, additional taxes with new employee, etc. It really is in your best interest to keep the employees you have (seriously, ask whoever does your taxes). My 2 cents, good luck. Sounds like you're having growing pains which is a good thing.

Agreed with what Mspec has said. I also understand what you are saying, Bob K. I've had a 2 employees that were a huge help to my business at times, but generally were just not the right people to have working in my business. It hurt to let them go, but both parties understood why it had to happen. Like Mspec said, if you are doing everything right and still not getting the results, maybe it's time to look for new help. I've now got 2 GREAT employees who I would have a tough time forcing to leave my business. It takes time and maybe even some luck to find the right people, but when you do, you will know it.

Unfortunately I ran into the same problem early on as I first started hiring employees. I was too nice and almost treated them like they were friends. You must be strict and adhere to the rules you put in place (unless, of course, you create a rule that you later on realize isn't appropriate). I started letting my first employee show up a few minutes late here and there without any mention, then it soon became an every day occurrence and the other employee followed suit. I had to set them both down and tell them I was serious and next would be a write up. Since then, both employees are on time or early. Every once in a while they show up a few minutes late, but I let it slide. Sh!t happens some mornings...

No need to be rude. I'm simply trying to explain what I said. I for one, don't mind if my employees use social media while at work (as long as it doesn't interfere with their performance). In fact, I don't mind if they get on Facebook using the company computers. However, if I asked them not to do it anymore and they ignored me, I would have no other choice. See, if they ignore your rule about social media and there are no consequences, why would they follow any of your other rules like showing up on time or taking lunch when they are supposed to. I'm not saying to fire someone the second they break a rule, but if you have verbally warned and provided a written warning, maybe it's time to send them home for 1-3 days without pay. If they still refuse, then you don't have much of a choice left.

No, he is going to fire him for not doing what he was told to do... Period, end of story. You write the pay checks at the end of the, you tell the employees what to do. If they don't listen, they have to leave.

Curious if anyone does follow up surveys? Do you send them out yourself, is their certain criteria a customer has to meet to get a survey, do you mail them, do you email them, etc? How long do you wait to send one out? Do you use a third party company?