Gerald Martin

Spot on, Joe. We all need to be humble enough to realize that not every experience, even in a great shop environment, goes off perfectly. Thank you for the reminder to look at our processes though the eyes of a customer. Gerald

Absolutely. The front desk can be a bottleneck. When advisors are overloaded time is lost between inspection and approval, which means missed part deadlines, jobs slip from today into tomorrow, and it snowballs from there. It's not hard to see how production suffers in this scenario. What are some ways to help? 1. Support staff. Offload some of the busy work - so advisors can focus on the the client. Vehicle arrival photos, QC checks, loaner cars, etc. 2. Parts staff. A good parts person can save advisors a lot of time on the phone. A great parts person might even be able to help prepare estimates. 3. Order parts proactively. This becomes a judgement call. But if a parts deadline is about to be missed, order the part you will probably need later today before getting the client's approval. If you misjudged and the client declines work deal with the returns. With time you will be right more than you will be wrong, and this will keep jobs from slipping into the next day. Great questions Joe and I will be interested in hearing feedback from shops who have mastered this one. We're still in grade school... Gerald

No one loves comebacks. But they are a part of life. They come in all shapes and sizes: 1. Faulty parts. We have more part quality issues than ever before, including (less frequently) OEM parts. 2. Tech error. A tech fails to properly tighten brake caliper frame bolts. A belt is installed with one groove off the edge of a pulley. Some techs rarely make these errors. But mistakes will happen. 3. Warning lights on or new symptoms noted "ever since you worked on it". Always needs to be taken seriously - sometimes issues identified are fall into category 1 or 2. Or further OBD monitors ran since repairs were made and other issues are coming out of the woodwork. And sometimes people will try to pin every new issue on the shop that last worked on the car. How do we deal with warranty cases? When tech error is involved, is the employer responsible to pay the tech's time to correct his own mistake? Does it make a difference if there is a pattern of carelessness? If the employer picks up the tab for everything, doesn't this reward the making of mistakes? It seems reasonable that the tech should not take responsibility for part failures not caused by tech error, doesn't it? And what about that follow up scan to see why the warning lights are on? Should the tech handle this as a courtesy until determined what area the fault is in? It may be, after all, that he left a vacuum line off the air cleaner box. But it shouldn't take too long to know if the advisor needs to request more testing approval from the client... And should any of these questions be influenced by whether the shop pays flat rate or hourly? I know that's a lot of questions. But I hope it starts a conversation, because it's an area we really need to develop an SOP and stick with it. Gerald

Great questions Joe. In my opinion, the future is bright for independent repair shops that embrace emerging technologies and invest in training. See you all at Vision 2024 in Kansas City! However, I can see the possibility that we no longer expect that every tech has the knowledge or training for every job that comes through the shop, as may have been expected in the past. There may be alignment and ADAS techs, diesel repair techs, driveability diag techs, etc. Oh, and high tech immobilizer and key programming work that requires locksmith level training. A certain amount of specialization is inevitable, isn't it? Wouldn't it make sense to have a goal of having two technicians in the shop that have competency for services offered by the company? Gerald

But the truth is more complicated than this. The reason so many good shop management systems exist is evidence of differing priorities in software choices. For instance, if you want a system with powerful inventory features and financial controls, Protractor is going to be a strong offering. If it's important to you that your shop management software runs in a browser on any device, then probably Tekmetric, Shopware, or ShopMonkey (or other similar browser based programs may be the best fit. If keeping your data off the "cloud" and on premise is important, then Mitchell or several other offerings may be the sweet spot. In general, I wish the shop management software companies would focus on improving shop management features - client and vehicle records, parts cataloging, inventory, estimating, reporting, invoicing, etc. It seems there is a bit of a trend for the shop management software companies to try to become some gigantic all in one leatherman tool that includes DVI's and more... There are other great companies innovating in the DVI area. Why not innovate on what you do best, and focus on integrating well with industry partners? Just my thoughts.

Well, @Joe Marconi, it sounds like everyone is happy with their shop management software 😉

You might check out https://paymatesoftware.com/ I talked to one of their reps because they integrate with Protractor. I thought their pricing was fair and their cloud software looked easy enough to learn. I hope this helps someone! Gerald

I was there. Joe was amazing, and so was the energy from the audience. Kevin Vaught did a great job of co-presenting. Joe, I hope our paths cross again soon! -Gerald Martin

I contacted AMS Protractor for a trial, and frankly I see some real potential, and the cloud part isn't as "scary" as I thought. The service packages concept (Intelligent Canned Jobs) seems to be well thought out. Sadly, Bolt-On Technology doesn't have an integration for them, yet. One thing we rely on is a caller ID function with Bolt-On/Mitchell. Is this available with protractor.net? One of the integrated DVI's we're looking at is autotext.me Anyone here using them or have experiences to share? Specifically, a workflow that's using Protractor and Autotext.me? Is there any other combination that would represent true progress from what we have now with M1/Bolt-On? Gerald

Almost 20 years with Mitchell. We know the program- but wish that Mitchell would demonstrate more ability to innovate. Using Bolt-On apps alongside helps. I'm still not quite ready for a management system in the "cloud"...