mmotley

I sent him a link to one of my courtesy inspections Mike

0.4 for an oil change and basic visual inspection

^^^^This^^^^^ Why worry or waste your time over these people

I would say you handled it correctly. Your repair is covered under warranty. The customer needs to bring it by and let you look at it. If there are any questions, you will be more than happy to walk the customer through your diagnosis and guarantee it 100%

^^^^^THIS^^^^^^ So much easier to walk out with a tablet, scan the vin or enter the license plate, take pics of damage, and write up the ticket right there. Plus, your service advisor has canned jobs and labor time right there in his hand, so he can offer prices if the customer asks. Upsell window tint and other sublets that techs might not get paid for. Now if only Bolt-On offered a stand alone Shop Management System so I could ditch Mitchell all together.

1 Service advisor and 2 techs here. The service advisor gets the mileage, VIN, make, model, etc. This is a perfect oppurtunity to go ahead and advise on a 60K or whatever. Plus, if the customer is dropping off for a service, the advisor needs to know what YMM to know how much oil, what filter, etc. Have your techs answer phones after X amount of rings. It's 2014, how do you know not have voicemail? I seriously didn't know you could get a phone line without voicemail.

I know some people will freak out, but maybe you could just raise your labor rate a dollar or two to make up for the difference instead of charging for each individual thing you're doing. Much like offering free loaner cars, car wash, code checks, or whatever else. They aren't really free, but you don't charge for them either

I do the same as m-spec. I try to post up pictures of cars in the shop when I can. Engaging content just never seems to work all that well. I'm really considering shooting a few videos and posting them up. Nothing spectacular, HD, or anything. Just a real, no BS, cell phone video shoot maybe showing some bad brake pads, spark plugs, or whatever...

I never had 5.9. I started out with SE, so I guess I can't offer much insight on making the transition. I will say this though, their customer support makes blood shoot from my eyes. The forums are probably the most helpful.

I was working Saturdays, 9-3. I got tired of playing on Youtube and Google the whole time, so I changed to Appointment only. Now, I have someone scheduling work every Saturday... Seems like I can't win. However, appointment only does let you come in, knock the work out, then head home!

I usually use the line "There is a good chance you don't even need that. We've seen a ton of customers who were told they need that part or repair, and turns out when we get the car in our shop, it's a quick simple cheap fix." I usually tell em if they will bring it by, we'll take a look at it for free to make sure that's what the car really needs. After all, there isn't much diagnosing in most of these cases. In xrac's example - "Nope! Raidator gasket isn't leaking!"

I'm working on getting in contact with another shop owner who has used their training before via phone. As soon as I hear back from them, I'll post an update. One other thing I really like is, I contacted RLO back in December about their training. They were very polite and gave me a reference (the person I am trying to contact now) and didn't hound me to sign up the following weeks. I reached out to ATI recently, and they call me every morning and every afternoon, at work and on my cell. And now ATI is telling me I need to give them an answer tomorrow on reserving my seat or else I may lose it!...Really!?!?!

Same here. I really like the fact that they offer webinars... No traveling costs, hotel costs, meals, etc...

Well, I've had a stall in my shop for about 6 months now lined with race deck flooring. Long story short, I would not recommend it for an automotive shop. It is awesome for a home garage, museum/car show setting, or something like that, but not for full blown automotive work. Now for the details of why. First, it expands and contracts WAY too much. Anytime you run a fuel induction service, it will cause the flooring to raise up to 6" above the floor. I heard rumors from the tool guy that a shop with a service drive had issues with it raising up when the sun would shine on it just right. I had an old LS400 with an ignition coil go bad and caused it to run so rich, the cats were glowing red. The flooring raised up enough to cause it to melt... Which brings me to my second point. It's plastic. This may seem obvious, but if your doing any sort of grinding on the floor, it will burn it. If you grind off a bolt, and it falls on the floor, it will melt it. Third, and this may just be me being lazy, but it's not that easy to clean. AVOID yellow like the plague. Darker colors are your friend. I think white may even be easier to keep clean than yellow. PROS: As the promised, I had no issues with any chemical reactions. I intentionally left a puddle of brake cleaner on it over night to see if it cause any damage. It didn't. Neither did any other chemical or fluid. It is tough and can take a beating. Dropped many hammers on it from various heights, had engine and trans assemblies sitting on jackstands and it did no damage. Protects some things from being damaged when they fall, better than bare concrete or hard tile. It provides fair grip with covered in oil or brake fluid. Looks great to a customer when they peak out in your shop and see some fancy flooring with a pattern or design on it. Conclusion: Again, it would be great for a personal garage or showroom. But to be pulling transmissions and doing brake jobs, etc, everyday... I think I would spend the money and go with actual tile, or save my money all together and just do your normal epoxy. Anyway, just my thoughts. I do have some pics if anyone is interested. Or I'll be more than happy to answer questions.

I was wondering the same thing. I'm not sure I need or can afford the 1 on 1 training/coaching that some of these companies want to offer. I started another thread asking about RLO training. I'm also curious about WorldPac, AMI, Elite, and a few others. Any input would be appreciated.

Does anybody have any feedback on these guys? http://www.rlotraining.com/

I am in the process of starting to track important figures or 'key performance indicators'. Since I am a small growing shop, one of the easiest things to track is simply Gross Sales. I have been rewarding my employees (3) with going out to dinner at a restaurant of their choice any time we have a record month. My first question is, does anyone see a problem with this reward? My second question is, how do you go about setting goals for KPIs? I know there will be different methods when comparing individual tech efficiency goals to gross sales goals, but how do you handle each one. How about shop productivity? Do you simply use industry bench marks or base your goals off your personal history?

We do not install customer supplied parts. The risks and headaches mentioned above are the reasons we avoid them (tied up stalls, warranty issues, etc). The only time I would ever entertain the idea would be something like performance parts, but there would be a clear understanding about what warranty came with the job. Also, labor would probably be marked up 50% like Joe said.

I agree. Just to follow up and maybe explain a little more of how I was originally taught effective labor rate, here is a quick youtube video I found... http://youtu.be/2mDzFLgza3k Either way, like you said, it's probably best to find a formula that you like and applies to your situation best and stick to it so you can track it.

*Commented on wrong product!

I'm not sure if I'm missing something here, but I always understood effective labor rate as being calculated another way. Labor sales dollars / flat rate hours paid out to techs This way, it accounted for your .5 hour oil changes, .5 hour tire rotation, etc. and would give you a figure that represented an average labor rate, or effective labor rate. A quick google search for 'effective labor rate formula', and I now have about 3-4 different methods of calculating it, none of which are really similar...

I have not read his books, so this is just me asking an honest question. I see the book was written back in 2003. Do you feel like the figures provided in the book apply to a shop in 2014?

Curious how many other shops are paying attention to their 'effective labor rate' in their shop. I heard that industry standard is 90% of your 'standard flat rate'. That sounds great, but I wonder how realistic that really is. Also, how do you personally go about raising effective labor rate at your shop? Did you cut hours paid to technicians for certain jobs? Raise labor rates on menu items?

Any part over $50, yes. I've had customers pay for $300 parts and let them sit on a shelf in my shop for over a month before finally coming in to have the work done.

Thanks! I just briefly looked at their site, lots of great information to go back and review. How easy is it to implement in your shop? Is it a hassle to get the techs to clock in and out? Do they tend to forget?