mmotley

I'm not a legal expert, but I've been told that if you somehow end up in court, the whole 'customer supplied parts come with no warranty' won't hold water. Can't remember exactly how it was explained, but in today's world, it's not worth the risk/headache. I will say though, props to you for charging 1.5X the labor rate. That's probably the only way I would consider customer supplied parts, with a clear understanding that if there is any delay related to the parts, the customer is getting charged 1.5 the labor rate for the time it ties up a stall.

Yea, I had an insurance company try this once. Luckily I couldn't find the receipt (it was in my toolbox back when I still worked on cars) and they gave up. Once I had a moment to wrap my head around what they were trying to do, I said never again will I play their games. My price is my price, we do a damn good job at what we do, and if they want some backwoods, shade tree mechanic to do the work for $50/hour and parts at cost, good luck! *Somewhere on this forum, someone posted something like "try walking into walmart and ask to see their invoice on the TV's they sell." We're no different. Literally everything you buy has been marked up. Everything! Our business is no different

You might be able to buy out your competitor if you charged appropriately for diag and refused customer supplied parts. If I may, let me show you how. Customer supplied parts: If you replace a water pump that pays 1 hour and the water pump would sell for $100, your revenue per hour would be $215 (according to your $115 labor rate) If you allow the customer to supply their part, your revenue per hour drops to $115. As for diag, it boggles my mind how shops give this away. I used to do the same thing you did until I realized that diag is the hardest thing we do, so why would we give it away?!? Anybody can change an ignition coil, replace a catalytic converter, or flush a fuel system. Diagnosing is the hard part. Think about it. You probably have more applications from technicians who have 3-4 ASE certs and are good at front end work, but even less who say they excel at diagnostic work, ASE master certified, and have their own scanner. If anything, you should be charging more for diagnostics since their are no parts associated with the work. Like the example above, if you diagnose the water pump for 1 hour, your revenue per hour is only $115 (since no parts are associated with diagnosing). Your revenue per hour shouldn't go down, especially when your doing one of the hardest things in your shop, which is diagnosing.

Agreed. If I get serious about it, that's the first thing I'd do. Right now it's not that big of an issue, but getting 1 star reviews because customers learn we mark up parts and for some reason they think that is unfair can get old quick

1.1M with only 2 employees!?!? That's impressive!

Thanks for the feedback. Definitely seems like a project to take my time on develop over a week or two.

Great article. Often times I have to remind myself that the reason the customer is here in my shop is because they can't fix or diagnose their car themselves. They are here because they lack the knowledge or ability. So why in the world should we give it away for free. How many years of experience, class room hours, studying, and test taking have gone into my guys being able to diagnose cars quickly and efficiently? And to just give it away!?! I think back to my first year in business and how many cars I diagnosed for free. I later 'upped' my game by charging for diagnostics, but waiving it if the customer approved the repair. Now? You pay for daig, regardless of if you do the repair or not. And we get approval for diag, even if we worked on it last week, with the understanding that if it was our fault, they would not be responsible for the fee. Too many times I've heard "ever since you worked on my car", only to find out after diagnosing the car for free, that it had nothing to do with the work we performed the week before. Not anymore!!!

Pretty scary story. I know we've probably all heard it, but try to avoid opening anything that looks suspicious. avoid .zip and .exe files that get emailed. One suggestion might be to use gmail to open these resumes going forward. If it's truly a document type file, gmail should be able to handle that in the browser itself. Also, you might try opening them first on your phone if possible. Yea, you could brick your phone, but a new cell phone is cheaper and less of a headache than a new shop computer. *EDIT: I just re-read your post and saw that it was a .zip file. I would immediately hold a meeting or at least send out an email blast to everyone in the company saying to never, ever, under any circumstance, open a .zip or .exe file that you receive in an email from someone you do not absolutely 100% trust. A .zip or .exe from and unknown source is almost guaranteed to be a virus of some sort.

This fine gentleman called yesterday and after being very polite on the phone with him and explaining why we don't install customer supplied parts, he got upset and hung up on me. 10 minutes later, I get an email from Google saying I got a 1 star review. I waited till this morning before replying so I could calm down. I'm sure I could have handled it better, but honestly, people need to start understanding that not all parts are equal. Like the example I gave in the reply, you would never buy the cheapest steak you could find and expect a fine steak house to cook it for you. I honestly couldn't care less if this guy ever comes to my shop, in fact, I'd prefer he didn't. I'm to the point where I wish my invoices only gave job totals, not a break down of parts, labor, fees, tax, etc. Just a few weeks ago, we had a guy bring in his car for a differential mount. He said he could do it himself, but his back was messed up and didn't feel like climbing under the car. Then he got upset when I provided an estimate, telling me 'I can do it for less than that!' I wanted to respond 'Great sir! You can probably cook a burger cheaper than Chili's too, but you don't get mad at them!' It's so nice to have customers who value the service you offer, but there are always a few who seem to get under your skin sometimes.

Are you seeing enough cars that have 1234yf with air conditioning problems yet to justify the cost? We're looking at replacing our 134a machine with a new 134a machine, due to it's age and it having a few issues. I couldn't imagine forking over $3-4K for an a/c machine if you're not seeing much of need. I don't think we've even seen that many cars that have 1234yf, much less, ones that have a/c problems. Would it be possible to sublet the evac and recharge to the dealer until you see enough volume?

That's a really cool feature. Too many times you submit an enhancement request with other companies and never hear anything back.

I'm looking at putting together a mission statement for our company and would like to hear what others have managed to come up with for their shop. Also, feedback on how the mission statement was created would be appreciated. Was everyone in the shop included in creating it? Did you come up with it while creating a business plan? How long did you work on it before you were satisfied? How do you use your mission statement? Is it posted in the waiting area, break room, website, or advertising materials? Do team members memorize it?

Great advice! I've bounced many ideas off mspec in the past. I've got to watch and see how much his business grew in the short time I've known him, and like he says, coaching definitely had a huge impact. He is the main reason I committed to training/coaching. Regardless of what company/coach you go with, I think it would be difficult to walk away without a significant increase in how to better run your business.

I'd highly recommend RLO as a more cost effective alternative. I've already set up another member on this board with RLO, so if you'd like, you can PM me and I'd be happy to talk about it more with you *Not in any way a knock against Elite. I've taken some of their courses, actively read their new letters, and participate in their free webinars. Great company with very talented people and valuable insight

I don't know why I never thought to do this. My last 2 employers did the same thing. Charged me about $3.50 per week and I didn't mind at all.

UGH, trust me, I'm fully aware. They released it the day after I signed up with LPM

Curious, what did find most frustrating/problematic? Maybe list top 3?

I put a lot of the feather flags out when we moved into our new location. They definitely got a lot of attention. You can't just put 1 or 2 though. PM me and I'll send you the link for the best ones I found.

Definitely should at least claim your business. It's free and online presence doesn't hurt. And like mspec said, it's gonna depend on your demographic. In my area, yelp is probably 90% restaurant reviews, the rest is random. Not worth the investment for me

I can't get them to stop calling! Facebook and Google reviews seem to do just fine. I might start asking my customers to leave reviews, but I'm not about to pay yelp to advertise.

All good info and sounds right on track with what I have been told. I've looked at setting up a separate company too, but I haven't pulled the trigger on it yet. $1000 per car with 2M worth of liability is a steal!!! I need to speak with your agent! We've had to switch insurance companies this month and it has been nothing but a huge headache. Part of me wants to say 'screw it', sell the loaner cars, and just start going with enterprise. However, I cannot express how convenient it is to have a loaner car here for the customer who rolls in on Friday at five with a leaking water pump and is on his way to Houston (3 hour trip).

Curious if anyone has any experience with this company? I need to start tracking my guys since we can't seem to produce what I would call acceptable hours. Bolt on has stated that they are working on time clock software for the tablets, but I can't continue to wait. Or if anyone uses another time clock software that tracks productivity and efficiency, I would appreciate feedback.

Maybe I should have been more specific. We have them sign an agreement form that states they are responsible for gas, along with a whole bunch of other legal 'mumbo jumbo' "no smoking, insurance, liability, etc"... That being said, 90% of my customers bring back the cars with just as much gas or more than when they got the vehicle. The 10% who don't put gas back in the cars, it's usually only a couple of bucks. Gas is ~$2/gallon, I can swing a few gallons a week. To relate this to something else, credit card processing fees. I don't charge an extra 3% when a customer swipes their card, and I don't offer a discount for cash. I chalk up CC processing fees as an expense and make it fit my budget.

We ended up getting an Autel Maxisys Pro. In our county, we have about 14,000 Toyota/Lexus/Scion vehicles. Honda, Acura, Nissan, and Infiniti only total about 5,500. The cost of factory scan tools compared to potential customers just didn't make sense. Only 10% of the time do we need a scan tool, and many times a generic scanner would do just fine. With the Maxisys Pro, you get a J2534 box, so we can always download the honda/acura scan tool if needed and take care of programming. We'll sub out nissan/infiniti programming if ever necessary and keep the couple grand for more useful stuff.

Very good point! Farmingham, I'd highly recommend the service advisor training course through RLO and their GSM course too if you really want to get better at it. Send me a PM if you'd like and I can pass along their information