EhtRob

We had a gal come in with a van she dropped off for service. We worked on the van she picks it up and then tells me we dented the fender. The fender that was dented was all rusted where it was hit so I knew that was not new. I asked the guys in the shop, they told me that it was there when she came in. After spending approx 2 hours looking at video from our camera system, i could clearly see that dent was there from the first moment she pulled into the parking lot. By the way, she was also demanding cash instead of repairing the vehicle, I showed her the video which showed her pulling in and the dent was there when she first pulled in. After that she just tells me that it's possible she got hit when she was at Safeway before she came here. Not even an apology for wasting my time. Jeez. a customer I DON'T want back.

We use a company called 10footwave. Been good for us.

Fire one of them and the rest usually get in line.

One thing I forgot to mention. One of the best features is that from any PC in your store, you can access the cameras remotely so you can keep an eye on things from the front counter, office, cell phone. Basically anywhere on any computer.

We implemented a system where EVERY wheel is hand torqued, we modified our repair orders to show a line item at the bottom to show wheel torque and the tech writes down the value he torqued the wheel to. At the end of the day I scan each and every repair order so I have a copy of this information. Comes in handy sometimes. I had an old guy last month tell me he was doing his own brake job at home and couldn't get the wheels off. He accused us of tightening his wheels too tight when we installed tires on his car the previous month. I pulled up the scan that showed what the tech torqued them to. Come to find out he was using a tiny 1/2 ratchet.

Your shop name ends up with the service history on their report. No Customer names are on the report, just service history and where it was done. It can work in your favor. The theory goes that if they buy the car then they will continue to take the car to your shop since you have serviced it before. The vin decoder is the single biggest time saver for us. We used to have to go to every car, write the vin, hope I can read my own writing and put it in the computer. Now, punch in the plate, Vin, year, make, model, engine, all come up and fill themselves in the RO. May not be needed for some but if your a high volume shop doing repairs & service, tires and oil changes it's great. Now when you look up parts and labor using Epicor or whoever's catalog parts are correct (most of the time) and labor. SO much easier than the manual route.

We use RO Writer with carfax VIN integration. All we have to do is punch in a license plate number and the VIN comes up which then fills out all of the details about the vehicle. it's free but the trade-off is our service history is uploaded to Carfax which in turn ends up on those reports. We DID have one customer come in and say the we ruined his sale for his vehicle because we got the mileage wrong. Because we scan EVERY repair order the technician fills out including the mileage which was hand written by the tech I saw the mileage was the same as our invoice. Based on the way this guy was acting I truly think he rolled back the mileage on the car. BTW, the car had a "salvaged title" sticker on the door that was issued by the state. So I wasnt too worried that he was upset.

Our initial 8 camera system with VCR and miltiplexer was over $10,000 back in 1995. We have since converted to DVR's using ordinary PC's which I have done myself. We now have 23 Cameras and 4 of them are Pan / Tilt/ Zoom for a total of about $3,500 + my time installing them. I can't tell you enough how these have saved our butts at one time or another. Most people think only about the theft and crime aspect of having cameras at their shop. Our system has saved us from loosing keys, customer's blaming us for a dent in a van that was there when the customer pulled onto the lot (clear video of her pulling onto the lot with the dent) I have had situations where a mystery car shows up on the lot and I can see if it's actually a customer's car or not. I have had employees "forget" to punch out of the timeclock on the computer and argue with me about their hours worked, I check the cameras and see when they actually left. So as you can see they are a VERY worthwile to have for your business besides fighting crime. Just my two cents..

When we first started to charge "Shop Supply Fees" years ago, we had some customer's question it. Now, customer's seem to understand it better. Our POS system just adds the percentage into the job. We DON'T charge that fee on tires that we sell. We kind of have a " Don't like it? oh well" kind of attitude because on many jobs we actually use more than the fee covers but not enough that we have to actually put it on the invoice.