PherBag

I keep it short and nice. I tell people I have to pay the technician for his time spent working and testing for the correct repair needed to your vehicle. If I don’t pay him, he wouldn’t work here. I haven’t got any bad mouthing from it, but sometimes they just say OK thank you and hang up.

Our car count last year to date 1/18/19 was 209. This year to date 1/18/20 is 177. Our ARO is up though, so we are only down 5K so far. All businesses around here seem to be slower than last year. Might be a regional thing.

I was being sarcastic when I said all guys are master techs in my earlier post. I reread it and know it didn’t come out right. You will find when interviewing candidates that everyone will consider themselves to be top shelf techs. The only thing is this knowledge can not be faked when thrown into the real environment. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I think your biggest hurdle will be finding good techs and knowing if they are good. All guys are “master techs” that know everything, whether they are a DIY, lube tech, or real auto tech. Without the experience you will not know what a good tech truly is. You will need to hire a good right hand man that is experienced in this business. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We use NAPA Legend batteries (75 month). They did the consignment deal when we started with them. 99% of their batteries are under $100. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

HerbC, in ShopBoss if you click “No Approval” in upper right corner and close RO, it will go away. We don’t use the estimate feature much, mostly make estimates as an RO since the vehicle is at shop anyway. It’s easy to decline the individual jobs if needed or click no approval for whole vehicle if every job was declined. Same goes for phone estimate, but I will delete it after about 30 days. ShopBoss is buggy depending on the browser used. Use google chrome on PC and everything should be ok. I sometimes use SB on my iPad and it doesn’t work as well as a PC. We used AllData Manage for 5 years and switched over to ShopBoss about 8 months ago. For me, it was the easiest to learn out of the ones I demo’ed. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Tire rotations are $19.95 On trucks with large tires and aftermarket rims, $37.95 We don’t charge anything for a brake inspection. I find when customers bring their vehicles in for a brake inspection, 99% of the time they get the repair done. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We switched to Shop Boss a few months ago. I think it may be what you are looking for. You can try it out for a month before deciding if you want to use it. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The tech shortage isn’t all about money. I think it’s a lot harder to do this work compared to 22 yrs ago when I started. Well, at least if you want to make good money. Knowledge wise, it’s way more demanding and physically it’s way more demanding. To make good money in this industry, you have to be an intelligent person nowadays, not just moderately skilled. A lot of young guys come into this industry and realize it’s not easy. On top of this we are talking about the snowflake generation. There is definitely a different mentality today with young people. They think they should instantly be able to work thier way to the top and be rich. I had a kid right out of high school with no experience what so ever tell me he wanted $12 per hr to start. That was the end of our chat. Minimum wage in my area is $7.35. I start lube techs at 10-12 an hr. Its a good starting point. I try to get guys from oil change places or tire stores. A person that shows promise will not be in a lube tech position for too long. I will usually pay them $5 extra per hour commission done on small repairs.

As for tire markup. Up to $75, $20 76 to 115, $25 116 to 150, $30 Anything over over 150 we play it by ear. Mount, balance, disposal fee, & DEQ fee is $ 25 per tire. We don’t sell a lot of tires, maybe 120 to 150 per quarter. I am trying to change this with banners, advertising, and posters in customer waiting area. We are on a main highway so it should catch on eventually. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I boost some posts, but have no FB ads. The posts that I boost are the ones I make. You can tell the difference between mine and Optimized. When I boost them, they will go to Instagram too. Boosted posts going to Instagram get a lot of likes, usually close to a hundred. The boosted post will not show up on the Instagram page though. I recently read that about 3% of people that like your FB page will actually see a post. The low feedback I think is normal. Well, I wouldn’t say it’s low bc we are getting a lot more page likes and some people tell me they see the shop on FB a lot more often now. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We use Opt Soc Media too. Only use the facebook plan. Cost is $150 per month. They do 1 post per day Monday thru Saturday. Working great! Worth the money for the time you save. I still post too. You can tell which posts are mine. Check it out at Facebook.com/RiversideAutoCovingtonLA Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We don’t take checks. No reason to nowadays unless they need to float it till Friday. It seems mostly elderly people want to use checks. I am sure they do bc it’s what they are used to it, but they are fine with debit cards when we ask for it instead of a check. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Square is way too expensive. I think the only places that use them are the ones that don’t research. I see small businesses using them, but they are not busy / high traffic businesses. We use Heartland Payment Systems for the last few years. My fee 1.59%, swipe fee is .05 or .10, and statement fee. After reading this post I am going to do some more research myself. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I hear 10% of the retail cost is what some places charge. We don’t sell a lot of tires, maybe 40-50 a month. I had 2 different ladies call to ask about RH after a tire was ruined from being driven on flat. I told them the tires didn’t come with RH, but I would help them out with the cost of a new tire. Both ladies were good with the offer and still come back for oil changes, so I know they are really happy. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Techs get 1 hr per axle. They usually do it in maybe 40 min. They do a good job, otherwise they wouldn’t be here. We have a really good reputation to uphold. I know it is a really good price. We don’t have a brake lathe, so I basically pass the price of the rotors onto the customer instead of making money on them. It would take a lot of brake jobs to pay for a lathe, plus replacing rotors makes it faster and able to get more jobs out in the long run. Just depends on how you look at it. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Forgot to mention. Car brake jobs per axle, $225. Truck brake jobs per axle, $250. I don’t really mark up the rotors. It just makes for a quicker brake job. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We opened 5 1/2 yrs ago and have been using Autozone gold pads with the cheaper rotors. We get a package deal. Car and some SUVs are $79.95. Tucks and some SUVs are $99.95. We almost always do pads and rotors together. We may have had a few comebacks for noise over these years. The gold brake pads are made by Bosch. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We are in Covington LA, about 35 miles north of New Orleans, LA. Our labor rate is $112. Have been $112 for 2 years and have been thinking about bumping it up to $115. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I looked into paid yelp advertising. I called some shops that were advertisers. They were in big cities and yelp worked for them. Yelp is not popular in my area though. I get 8-14 views a week on yelp. I focus on Google and Facebook. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We see gas stations attract people with low cost gas, but high on everything inside. The busiest gas station here has the lowest gas prices, but make up for it on items inside. It also has the biggest convenience store and it always has a long line inside. It's Race Trac, may be there's one near you. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Gross Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My daily goal is $1000/tech and $500/lube or GS tech. This doesn't include tires because that will mess up the profit numbers. The auto techs have no issues reaching goal, but the lube tech does. The lube tech is hourly and helps keep the shop clean and various other things. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk