xrac

No matter how hard you try if you get enough reviews eventually somebody will give you less than a five star. I had a really good customer who comes all the time give us a 3 star review. He thought that was a good rating. I have also gotten 1 star reviews from former employees I have fired and people who have never been a customer.

I never cease to be amazed at some shopowners who nearly have a heart attack because they got their first negative review. They even try to bribe customers to get them changed. I do not like to get a 1 star review but I know if I will get five new five star reviews I basically bury it. An active business will get bad reviews occasionally that you deserve, but often you will also get them from competitors incognito, from disgruntled employees, from idiots that don’t understand anything, or from people who wanted something for nothing. The answer to bad reviews is respond professionally and get enough good reviews to bury the bad reviews. As Joe says a rating in the mid 4s is good enough. Just don’t let it fall below 4.0 because Google search tends to ignore business below that level. Our current Google rating is 4.5. People come to us all the time because they saw our reviews. We have a few 1 star reviews but some of those have no message. When we get a 1 star review we always respond. It is easy for potential customers to read our response, and explanations and see that we are resonable people who own up to failure and try to solve problems. It is also easy for them to see some of the 1 stars are basically crack pots or frauds. The plus side is many of our 5 star reviews are so glowing they are almost embarrassing. It is easy to see that we have happy customers who genuinely love us. Here is one of our typical 5 star reviews. "The battery in my truck died and I was out of town. It was nearing closing time on a Thursday evening and I needed my truck the next morning. I searched Google for a repair shop near me and Car-X had a lot of good reviews. I called and asked if I got my truck towed there they would help me. It wasn’t easy for them to get me in on such a time crunch, but they did. Nate talked me through what was probably wrong over the phone, and then the owner Frank kept me occupied with good conversation while the guys changed my battery. I paid a reasonable price and the personnel was amazing."

One of the reasons we do not have air conditioning is our shop is well insulated so the exterior sun doesn't heat us up very quickly. We have no exterior windows so basically only our overhead doors. The way our shop is laid out it is positioned east to west with one large overhead door on each end. 90 percent of the time we have a prevailing southwesterly wind. Consequent;y we have great air flow through the shop. Our shop is amazingly comfortable except during days of high humidity and temperatures above 85 degrees. Fortunately that is usually only 40-60 days during the year. We do have large fans to move air as needed. Most of the time we are fairly comfortable.

I think the main attraction would be as a selling point with new hires. It might help productivity but I am doubtful. Spoken by someone who grew up without air conditioning and working on the farm on the hottest days of the year.

We’ve discussed it but haven’t implemented. The places here who have implemented longer hours haven’t seemed to be that successful with it. To me the main issues are supervision and parts availability.

True, Tesla could change thew charging set up like Apple did.

Joe I will be 70 in December. I think you have the best of all worlds. You have this website, you have Elite, and other organizations you are engaged with. Hopefully it is just the right mix of relaxation, personal time, work, and meaningful interaction.

Currently I favor Dodge Ram for towing but for my own driving purpose it would be Toyota Tundra. I am suprised you hate the Tacoma because that seems to be the most popular, sought after truck in my neck of the woods. My son drives a 2014 Tacoma. The resell value on Tacoma is obscenely high. I suspect you can sell the Tacoma for what you paid for it or more.

Currently, I am an important man around town. I know just about everyone and they know me as the OWNER of a substantial business and a fountain of information about cars. However, when I retire which I hope is soon. I will become a use-to-waser. I have already had that experience a couple of times from previous major career changes and I know it is a lonely feeling. I am sure that it will not be a totally easy or pleasant experience. I think the only way it would all positive is if a guy absolutely hates what he is doing.

We have very few EVs here in the hinderlands and no inquiries to speak of. However, a charging station might be an interesting idea. However, the best concept to me would be if I were an restaraunt owner. You could offer dining and charging at the same time.

You hit the nail on the head. If you are not invested in the real estate find something else to use as an accumulation vehicle.

Living in high cotton as far as I am concerned!

I have rehired numerous people simply because the labor market forced me to take who I could get. How has it worked out? Some were o.k. but none of it has been great. Some were down right horrible but I knew that when I took them back but I felt I had to do it our close up shop it was so hard to find people at the time. There are all kinds of reason people leave and sometimes good people can leave for good reasons. I think a blanket policy to not rehire is not a smart move.

Owning is the only way to fly. Our property is not paid off yet but isn't too far off. However, every month it puts about $4,000 cash in our pocket plus the indebtedness is reduced by over $2,400. This means the real estate is producing over $75,000 in direct income and increased equity combined.

That is dirt cheap!

Of course we are a franchise, Car-x Tire & Auto. This is not real helpful with warranty issues. We warranty stuff for each other and work out payment between stores at a reduced labor rate and can usually get parts warrantied when a car breaks down in one of our markets. We also belong to the Certified Auto Repai program through O'Reilly. This works pretty good on most out of town repairs (more than 25 miles from our shop). Their warranty is 12/12.

I put up with a lot of stuff but eventually have a breaking point. Then I set the customer straight. They usually never come back again or straighten up. Either way the problem is solved. In 23 year years I have told about 3 people tp leave and never come back. My style is to put up with a lot until you make me mad then I push back hard. My service writer usually will take no lip but immediately lets them know how the cow ate the cabbage. Both of our styles seem to work but I put up with more than he does.

Recently I lost a young guy that I invested a lot of extra time and money into because he and his wife had a complicated pregnancy and birth. Then surgery on the baby and then they lost her through tragic circumstances that they probably partially blamed themselves for. Needless to say his productivity was through the toliet. He then eventually went completely off the rail and disappeared and eventually quit. I guess he easily cost me at least $6,000 or more with all the drama, extra things I did for them, come backs, and lost productivity. Then I had to bring someone new in and start all over.

I thank God for the freedoms we have as Americans and wish a happy day to you Joe and to all that frequent this forum.

Some tires and sizes are in short supply. I had to order from 3 different warehouses recently to get a set of four.

I am coming back from a week at the beach with kids and grandkids. Great fun.

I had a similar situation once. It was a small amount of money. I gave the guy his money back and told him to never come back.

Selling big ticket repairs is easier for us than it has ever been.

I absolutely agree. Someone with a few hundred reviews is doing something to artificially prop up the rating if they are 5.0. They are paying for reviews or refunding unhappy customers. I have 1 star reviews from non customers, 1 star reviews from disgruntled ex-employees, and even 3 star reviews from happy customers. As long as you keep you rating average above 4.0 you should be fine. Tons of people tell me they came because of our reviews and we average 4.5. The positive is that many of our 5.0 review customers leave us raving comments.

We are definitely on shorter hours. No more Saturdays at our place. Covid was good for something. It made us cut out Saturdays.