xrac

We could have been potentially scammed out of close to $3,000.00. Be on guard of anyone you dont know placing a large order for tires. This is commonly what they try to do.

Joe, I wasn't working so I got my facts more straight. See my revised post above. The time to order the tires allowed them to be caught. Made for an interesting day.

Got my story straight since I wasn't present. Thursday a first time customer wanted a quote on $3,400 in tires. Tires were ordered with Friday pickup scheduled. This was a ring making fraudulent purchases with stolen credit cards. The police had a license plate for a truck used in this scam. They had scanned it crossing from Kentucky into Indiana. The local police detective called all the tire shops looking for someone trying to make a purchase. When the police contacted us we worked with them to set up a sting for Friday when they came to pick up tires. Three people were arrested. Police said it was a crime ring they had been trying to catch for some time trafficking stolen credit cards. They had scammed three different business the previous day.

Joe, we had a similar experience. The results were just not worth it.

I think as owners and managers we have to not only approach things from a profitability standpoint but also an employee welfare standpoint. Having an intact happy family helps create more productive happy employees. Our decisions need to try to find a balnce between all interests. When is an employee with small children going to be able to take a family vacation other than when school is not in session?

That is a great way to deal with it!

Employee vacations during peak seasons is tough. However, when employees have children who are still in school or spouses who work places with mandatory summer shutdown it is not fair for them not to be able to take vacations with their families. I do not like it but we let employees take vacations whenever they want as long as they clear it far enough ahead. We just lived through being without one of our techs for two weeks since he is in the National Guard and they have two weeks camp every summer.

Never go against your first instinct. I interviewed a guy who was so cocky it was a turn off. However, we needed someone so bad we hired him. However, for a short while it looked like a good hire. He knew more than we thought he did and could give him bigger jobs. But it only took a few weeks for the worm to turn. He had a bad attitude, his jobs started coming back, and his productivity was non existent. He cost me a lot. What a huge mistake.

We will consider both options. I would prefer to lease the real estate.

I will be 70 in December and have ran a shop 24 years in March. My shop is for sale. Covid hit and killed a potential sale. Another sale was killed because another less expensive shop came up for sale during due diligence. We have had five shops or body shops change hands here in the last year.

We liked the look of Shop Boss. The two strengths of it that stood out was a very robust scheduling tool better than any we have saw on the programs we have evaluated. The other feature is the Digital Video Inspection which is a strength of Tekmetric. I haven't looked at Shop Ware but I have heard a lot of people that like it. We use a program called Omnique which also owns Shop Boss. Omnique is not one that I would recommend. However, it is being improved at a pretty steady clip.

Welcome. Good to have you in here and your perspective. Based on the various jobs you have done I bet you are fairly young and still tough as nails.

Business has slowed but is still strong. I think business will be strong until people are able to buy new and used cars again at a decent price and adequate selection. Then things may fall off the cliff.

You nailed it.

I am not close friends with any other shop owners but friendly with several. It is good to maintain good relationship within our specialized community. Could I benefit from a better connection? I think definitely yes!

First of all This is a great thread with a lot of useful information and wisdom from warriors who have been in the trenches. Car-x started as Car-x Muffler. I guess that was a pretty simple business model. Every technician sold their job while the manager priced it up, sourced parts (mostly in house inventory), and billed out customers. By the time I bought a franchise it was Car-x Muffler & Brakes. We did exhaust, brakes, shocks, struts, undercar, and starters, alternators, AC, etc. That was the store model I was introduced to with technicians selling their own tickets. After about a year I realized we would not make it by being a muffler and brake place. I hired a guy and he led us into being a General Repair shop. When we started we did not have any type of labor guide or any type of access to technical information. Everything was best guess and knowledge. It is shocking to me now that Car-X was selling franchise so unprepared. Of course as we went general repair we added subscriptions and scan tools and moved ahead. As we did that we dropped the technicians selling their own tickets. First of all that was an inefficient model as far as I am concerned. Like the medical field you have people trained in specific skilled. Most technician’s aren’t great service writers or great managers. They may be passable but usually it’s not their strength. People like Joe have became great through years of experience and training. Likewise great service writers or managers may not be able to fix cars. Our technicians are paid to identify problems and fix them. Our service writer’s job is to sell the job, deal with customers and allow the technicians to be as efficient as possible. We have done it both ways and the later is the only way to go in my opinion.

That’s one reason I do not want my technicians speaking to customers except in certain situations. Some technicians talk way to much. I have had guys that I have had to tell that I did not want them the talking to customers. They often say things that cause you to lose the sale or raising other issues that are unnecessary that leads to needless conversation and time lost.

First of all I love the how versus how much. That was a great way to frame it. The other point is well taken. Techs often underestimate the time because of their confidence In their own ability and experience. They do not considered the time involved in test drive, inspection, building an estimate, sourcing parts, or allowing for things going south, etc.

Good one Larry. You are very creative.

That was a great response and one that everyone should understand maybe except that idiot.

Waiters are a pain in the rear. Repairs never go as planned. Bolts brake. Guys take lunch. A projected 3 hour repair turns into all day. The wrong part is delivered. It happens all the time. Maybe waiting on an oil change is practical but that is about it. We encourage people to drop off by saying "we can get it in on Monday if you can drop it off". Can't drop it off we can't get it into till next week. We also offer rides home. I tried loaners for a while but now do not think the headache and cost is worth it. The more affluent customers always have options. It is the poorer customers and single individuals who most often want to wait.

One of the problem the mobile guys have is the employees that are loafing and not working because they have no visual supervision. My friend who was a manager said guys would go out and sleep in the truck. Then either the business eats the hours or the customer gets over billed. This was in a mobile fleet business where they billed by the hour not by the job.

None of the mobile service guys who tried it local have survived. Mobile serve seems to be the way a lot of guys boot strap there way to eventually having a bricks and mortar location.

That is a great idea and one I have never heard before.

By our response to negative reviews people judge how we handle issues and those reponses can be use to win over customers. Most people understand things go wrong and if they think you are responsive and concerned it goes a long way with them.