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On the commercial accounts I would personally call on them and offer the person in charge or owner a free oil change and an invitation to visit my business. This would include some information about who we are, what we do, and what we could offer. My conversation with them would be to ask if they are happy with their present service and what could be done to improve it. If you keep in touch on a regular basis you can gain some of the accounts when they decide to change and if they decide they are no longer happy. Although more geared to other types of sales a must read for anyone trying to understand how to sell against an established service provider is either How to Get Your Competition Fired (Without Saying Anything Bad About Them): Using The Wedge to Increase Your Sales or The Wedge: How to Stop Selling and Start Winning by Randy Schwantz. Those books have given me a better understanding.

Whether it will build traffic fast I can't say but I like to run an oil change with a free tire rotation offer. Not too cheap but cheap enough to be considered a bargain. I think this kind of ad accomplishes two things. First it gives me a chance to get the wheels off the car where I can find brakes, suspension, or tire related problems. We can then tell the customer we NOTICED these in the course of the tire rotation. If I don't get the sale right then I haved planted seeds for future sales and some of this I get back in the weeks and months that follow. Secondly, the person who is interested in a tire rotation and not just a cheap oil change is someone who is interested in taking care of their vehicle. They have the potential to be a good customer. The problem with so many cheap oil change coupon customers is they don't want ANYTHING but a cheap oil change. I have even had customers tell me to not look at anything else. I don't want these people as my customers.

I think you are correct. A PepBoys is near us and they are usually busy. They spend thousands on advertising and are always selling CHEAP tires. I have heard a lot of complaints about their workmanship and their personnel is constantly changing including management but they stay busy. Joe, how much do you spend on advertising as a percentage of sales?

Welcome! Good to have you join us. August for us was the slowest month we have had in a while. Where are you located and what size is your shop?

The other shop is an independent six bay shop with about 5 technicians. The owner is a top tech who has invested heavily in diagnostic equipment and pays his techs well. They do no tires and no alignments. We use to do his alignements but I think our shop has grown too much and is now seen as more of a competitor to his business. The funny thing is my personal dealings with him have been good and I personally like him. Our shop is seven bays and we have a large drive through area wide enough to work on a car if no lift is required. We do everything including tires and alignments.

We have a large local competitor that has always advertised free diagnosis and seems to always be completely full up and busy. We tried to compete by doing the free diagnostics briefly but couldn't find a way to make it work without being dishonest. They seem to throw bombs at every car that comes in. Most of their estimates are over $500 on just about everything. For example a vehicle where the owner complained of poor power and acceleration was diagnosed by them with slightly low fuel pressure and a fuel pump was installed. The same guy came to us still complaining. When we took it on a test drive we found that the lack of power was due to two locked up brake calipers which the man then did not have the money to repair. This tells me they didn't even test drive the vehicle either before or after the repair. We have adapted by offering a modestly priced basic diagnostic charge ($45.00) which has worked out better than free. It has enabled us to snag some of the customers who are reluctant to pay for diagnosis but still cover some shop costs. Not the best solution but it has been workable as we have extended our customer base.

I have been invited to some networking groups and attended a couple of meeings. The problem that I had was first the cost which is well over $400 per year and then the length of the meetings (1-1/2 hours) and they meet every week. If I would invest that amount of time calling on local business I think I could generate more buisness than the network group. Six hours per week seems excessive. By the way, this is my 100 post do I get any kind of prize?

http://eu.goodyear.com/home_en/images/flyo...tcm67-10063.wmv http://eu.goodyear.com/home_en/images/hard...tcm67-10072.wmv http://eu.goodyear.com/home_en/images/nuts...tcm67-10074.wmv

Glad everything is o.k. I understand being too busy, it happens but I was a little concerned since you never know what is going on.

Another thing shops do to each other is run each other down and criticize the workmanship of other shops to the customer. No matter even if it is true this is something we should never engage in no matter what. In the long run it gives us all a black eye and hurts all shops. It strengthens the fear in the mind of the consumer.

HELLO! Anybody out there? It has been over a week since anyone posted on this forum. Joe, are you still out there. Everything o.k.?

Joe, congratulations on being quoted in this article. Not a bad picture! http://www.tirebusiness.com/subscriber/hea...p;id=1254341182

I am not a fear monger but I thought you might want to be aware of this. As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123051100709638419.html http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=84884

Joe, do you do drug testing? We haven't but we reserve to right to do it on new hires and random. We have had problems in the past but not with the guys we have now.

Not a fun thing to do. If I were a betting man this tech's problems sound like either drugs or domestic. This past week we had to do something I have never done since we have been open. For the first time in 10 1/2 years we laid someone off. We like this tech but our business since August 1 has been very soft although it seems to be starting to recover.

I love this commercial: http://www.richhumor.com/wp-filez/Perhapst...rdCommercia.wmv

I found this opinion in Brake and Front End magazine a very interesting read and right on. Thought some of you might enjoy reading it. Dealing with Consumers Online Can Be Frustrating http://www.brakeandfrontend.com/Article/65...rustrating.aspx

Welcome! Glad you joined us and good luck.

The Marines Show You How ....There's a 'message' in this video. You might want to view it ASAP as it's not likely to last very long on YouTube

What do you think of this concept? Company launches 'Expedia' for auto repairs A new, free Web site, www.prundo.com, has been recently launched to help its registered users save money on their auto repairs. The patent-pending Web site includes tools to help its registered members in deciding where to take their cars for maintenance and repairs. http://www.prundo.com/

Evening hours after 7:00 Monday-Thursday or sometime on the weekend would probably be best. Does anyone use Skype?

Do you have any guidance on how a pay plan like that is structured?

For reasonable price software that does an adequate job look at Auto Repair Boss. http://www.palmer-products.com/ Welcome, where are you located at? How big is the shop you are opening?

The word from the Jiffy Lube chain is that in mid-August their sales tanked. Car-x was down 5.4% in August in the Chicago market. Our sales were down about 9% in August compared to last August.