Bob K

I've been thinking about the sale. Some days i have customers who wont or cant buy a wiper blade or an air filter. The next day the customer will buy anything i recommend. I just cant put my finger on it. I do however liken it to fishing. Some days the fish bite and some days they just dont. Doesn't matter what bait you use are how great your sales skills are. Some days they just wont buy. I sometimes feel like I have failed somehow those days. Then the next day i feel like a selling machine. What a roller coaster ride it can be. I would appreciate input from veteran shop owners on how to deal with the ups and downs. Thanks in advance. Bob

We went with ADT and are very happy with our choice.

I'm 8 month's into the program and have made gains in many areas. Having said that I'm frustrated with all that I've learned, changed and tried, I feel more and more like the gerbil in the wheel going in circles. One month up and the next down over and over. Although our ARO is increasing, our car count is decreasing. Also I've noticed we've lost some regular customers possibly due to our increased prices and labor rates. While we are making more with less cars going through the shop, I'm concerned about the downward trend of defecting clients. Anyone else involved with ATI experienced the same?

I must say it did feel very good to stand behind our work and happily hand the keys over to the female owner with a great running replacement engine. She was thankful that we handled it without any run around. What really felt great was being more professional than the insurance company. At least honest people with character and values can sleep at night.

It would be a quick and painless way to hire someone for the position but you're hesitant for all the right reasons. For me it would be too risky. The only way it would be worth a try is if this couple were someone you were looking to sell your business to in the near future.

It's always best to learn from other's mistakes. What is your deductible? Mine is 500. If a covered event happens. I think I'd rather have a higher deductible and a lower rate too.

I told them that we installed a replacement engine and that we installed a new timing belt per the sellers warranty requirements and that the belt had jumped timing but didnt mention the pretensioning step that wasn't performed. It really doesn't matter to them as they don't cover our work as i found out. They only cover Property and medical damages that result from the work. The insurance company knows how to cover themselves best.

Main street america. They are more than happy to receive our 800 dollars per month. It's a new experience for me. I've been in business for almost 6 years and have had no problems of this kind. Call me naive but i really thought all these years that insurance would protect me from situations like this. Lesson learned and will move on but will be more cautious with this kind of work.

So the vehicle is a 2006 Kia Sorrento suv with a 3.5 V6. After removing the timing covers to confirm the belt had jumped. The tech showed me that there is a small eccentric cam on the face of the tensioner pulley that requires a a special tool that you attach to a torque wrench and preload the tensioner pulley and then tighten fastener before releasing the holding pin from the tensioner. So it appears that the pretensioning step was not performed correctly because we didnt have the factory tool. I've never seen such a device built into a tensioner pulley. Very frustrated. Honestly it makes me not want to stick my head out by doing this kind of work.

If we replaced it then its all on us. If we didn't as per their installation requirements it's on us. Either way they're off the hook.

5000 miles ago we installed a used engine with 65k in a vehicle. We also installed a new timing belt and tensioner at that time. The vehicle was towed in with a no start condition. Long story short, the timing belt had jumped and bent the valves. The engine supplier is off the hook because they require installer to replace the belt. Our insurance carrier said its not covered either. My argument is that it's a loss. I have to buy a new engine, pay our tech to replace it and loss of ability to do paying work for about 18hours. I've never had an insurance claim and now that I'm asking for one I'm told it is not covered. How can insurance companies get away with this. Anyone else had an experience like this?

I'm located in rural upstate NY. Would indeed.com work here ? Until recently i had never even heard of it.

Does anyone charge an administrative fee to the customer of say 25 to 35 dollars to cover the time lost dealing with the warranty companies? I was at a local new car dealer service counter recently and they had a laminated statement on their counter saying that they did.

Some days i think that's the case and some days i think they're great and I'm fortunate to have them.

Leadership sometimes feels like a seesaw. I believe completely in the concept of leading by example but it can be frustrating and deflating when you lead the horse to water but it just wont drink. I do my very best to set a positive and professional example for my employees. I communicate my vision for our company, have meetings setting expectations and the results are up and down. I'm also trying to be as consistent as possible in the ever changing environment of the auto repair shop. What's wrong with people today?

We have a shop that employs 2 techs. Used to be 3 when i worked in the shop. I want to identify why our younger techs never seem to stay more than one year.I always hire them part time while they are in trade school and they are always are happy to come on full time after graduation. Our latest tech who we have mentored for about 2 years has made significant strides in his hands on abilities. He has helped us with great ideas to streamline our processes that make his and other jobs easier and other nice contributions. I have been flexible in giving vacation time earlier than i have in the past, and every other saturday off..I have purchased new work boots of his choice as needed as i do for our other employees, paid for time off to attend ASE testing to help with his professional development. I feel i pay him well for an entry level tech with 2 years trade school and only 8 month's full time experience since graduation. Typical pay 6 to 7 gross per week. Plus Monthly incentive bonuses for team goals if met. Also 250 Xmas bonus. We have upgraded many pieces of equipment this year as a shop should as they grow making our work more enjoyable.I always make the effort to thank our employees for their hard work at the end of the day. I'm doi ng my best to be a good employer and just wish i could identify why this position is not held for long by these younger techs. They cant expect top pay at such a young age. This tech has told me he is taking a flat rate position with a chain store at .50 c per hour over his current pay with us with a a 30 hour guarantee. I took the time to show him samples over several weeks where he averages only about 20 hours in a 40 hour week. We did the math together and he will be losing about 200 per week going there. He has been given inflated expectations of turning 60 plus hours per week. I would appreciate any feedback from this group. Thank you Bob Keene

Until you experience some form of Automotive business training , you probably wont see where your problems are even when the problems are right under your nose. A trainer or a coach will help you identify whats going wrong and teach you how to fix it. Some fixes are quick and easy and real eye openers.

I've stopped doing phone quotes and started asking for the appointment to see the vehicle. It either gets them in or saves wasted time writing an estimate for work you will never do. Either way you win.

I agree. I'm in the rust belt too. I pay hourly plus a monthly bonus to my techs for achieving a specific sales number. I use a parts matrix to ensure proper parts margin and am now focusing on increasing labor hours billed. Everyone benefits. No arguing over who gets the best jobs.

There is always a mix of work to be done on every vehicle that comes in the shop. Since we only have these two great techs, who are happy to do the mix, perhaps it might be best to not complicate our processes by changing things up right now. I have been considering an incentive for improving billed hours. Any advice on incentives would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the clarification of tech levels. With that i would classify them as B and C techs. I have no doubt that our C tech will eventually be an A tech. Our B tech will likely always stay a B. Would you recommend hiring a C tech to do the oil changes and tires and keep the current techs doing repairs ?

What attributes/qualifications Earn a technician A,B,C status?

One tech is a veteran tech with about 30th years experience. While not a strong diagnostician, he has years of experience and does excellent with mechanical work like brakes, chassis, engine, transmission work. Our second tech has just graduated from Alfred tech, a great auto tech college. He's very intelligent but only has about 1 year work experience. Both techs have a great work ethic and really hustle every day. They are both paid hourly.

I have 2 great,hard working techs. Our car count is fairly consistent at about 45 cars per week. We use a worksheet to check out every vehicle that comes in and we sell a lot of recommended work from those inspections. We consistantly produce about 55 hours total per week. Is it really realistic to achieve 80 hours for these two techs?

Thanks, I contacted mitchell and they are sending a rep out to assist.