Joe Marconi

It is simply amazing how your stories can apply to each shop around the nation. I have been down that road too many times to remember. I once lost a customer over charging a diag charge for finding a faulty set of wires. He was handy and did a lot of work himself. He came in one day saying his car was running rough and feels like the plug wires need replacement. I did my anaylsis, confirmed the faulty wire set and installed a new set. The wires were under a warranty,(he had bought the wires from a local parts house and installed them himself) so the only charge was the analysis. He went crazy! He said, " I TOLD YOU it was the wires, why do you need to charge me"? In his mind I should have not charged him anything. Can you imagine going to your doctor because you think you have the flu, and after he confirms it you tell the doctor; " It was the flu, DON'T charge me"

I feel the same way about getting permission. State inspections are on CARFAX, which documents mileage. It's funny, when people ask for a CARFAX, they assume all vehicle history is logged. It's only the info that sent to CARFAX from participating shops. We bought an auction car with a "clean" CARFAX report only to find out later it was a flood car from down south.

I am in Florida until the middle of next week visiting the wife's family, if I can break away I will join you...

An Old Mule, How to Handle Adversity There was a farmer who owned an old mule. The mule fell into the farmer’s well. The farmer heard the mule praying or whatever mules do when they fall into wells. After carefully assessing the situation, the farmer sympathized with the mule, but decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving. Instead, he called his neighbors together, told them what had happened, and enlisted them to help haul dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery. Initially the old mule was hysterical! But as the farmer and his neighbors continued shoveling and the dirt hit his back, a thought struck him. It suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back, HE WOULD SHAKE IT OFF AND STEP UP! This he did, blow after blow. “Shake it off and step up…shake it off and step up…shake it off and step up!” He repeated to encourage himself. No matter how painful the blows, or how distressing the situation seemed, the old mule fought panic and just kept right on SHAKING IT OFF AND STEPPING UP! It wasn’t long before the old mule, battered and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall of that well! What seemed like it would bury him actually helped him… all because of the manner in which he handled his adversity! *********** A little different for me. I read this story on line and thought it would good to post it.

We had a 2005 GMC Yukon in the other day for a bucking problem under a load, particularly up hills. It felt like a misfire, but the engine had all the power in the world. Our initial thoughts were problems with a coil, plugs, wires, injectors, etc. But a scan of the computer showed no codes and the data looked normal. In fact, when the bucking occurred, the O2 sensors and fuel trim looked normal too. We checked fuel pressure and induced propane while the bucking occurred to rule out a lean condition, but the bucking did not change. When you applied the brake while cruising the bucking would get a little worse, but with the vehicle stopped, you could not duplicate the bucking by applying the brake and applying the gas. We road tested the truck again. When the bucking started we put the truck in Full Time 4X4 and the bucking stopped. Could it be something in the driveline? After driving the vehicle we could not get the truck to buck again, in or out of 4X4. The fluid in the transfer looked like mud and we suggested we replace it, which we did. Has anyone ever seen or heard of something like this? Remember, even though the bucking felt like a misfire, the engine did not seem to falter. And, all data looked normal with no codes.

What the heck is wrong with some people? This guy accuses you of stealing his radio and when he finds out the truth, he angrily calls you, not to apologize but to inform you of what happened and to let you know you still lost a customer. What gives? It makes no sense. A few years back I was closing the shop late on a Saturday afternoon. As I was walking out the door the phone rang and I debated whether I should answer it. Well, I did, which was a big mistake. It was a customer, that was in earlier for service on her Explorer, screaming and yelling at me that we stole her cell phone. No matter how I tried I could not get her to calm down. When I asked her, “I you sure you have not misplaced it”, the screaming intensified to a frenzy. The phone call ended with her yelling, “I WANT MY CELL PHONE BACK”. Then I heard the click as she hung up. I called the techs that worked that day and questioned them about the phone, they knew nothing. I looked around the shop floor, in the office, bathrooms and in the parking lot. Maybe the phone fell out of the car, but no luck. I felt horrible all weekend long. I resisted calling the customer until Monday afternoon. The phone rang a few times before she picked it up. I said, “This is Joe from Osceola Garage, unfortunately we did not find your phone. What do I need to do to replace it for you?” She said in a real cheerful voice, “Oh, I should have called you back on Saturday, I found the phone. It was never in the car, I put in my bag. Thanks and I'll see you soon”. I was speechless; all I could say was, Good bye. Emotionally I was spent. You figure it out, because I can’t.

Are Employee Reviews a Waste of Time? Yes and no. While I am a firm believer in spending one-on-one time with the people in my company, I am opposed to treating adults as if they are still in grade school, handing them a report card and grading them in certain areas. I do expect minimum levels of productivity performance; require employees to attend training, will not tolerate lateness, among other company policies. But what’s more important during a one-on-one meeting is to focus on the employee, not the company. The only way to truly create an atmosphere that cultivates high morale and loyalty is to get employees engaged and involved in the company goals. Employees must feel that what they do on a daily basis makes a difference and impacts the success company. And the only way to accomplish this is to insure that the company’s goals and vision is aligned with the employee’s goals and vision. Conduct one-on-one meetings with the intent to get the employee involved with looking for ways to increase sales, improve productivity and morale. Discuss company issues and make the meeting more about the employee than the company. Ask questions and be open to suggestions. Always thank the employee and always focus on the present and the future, not the past.

I want to wish all the dads a Happy Father's Day. Take some time off, spend time with your family or friends, or go fishing. Enjoy the good things life as to offer. The shop will still be there on Monday.

Welcome aboard Mark! Good Luck and stay active on the forums, we are here to help...

Could not have said it better. With three sentences you summed it all up!

Some of my fondest memories as a young boy in the 1960’s were the Saturday afternoons I spent with my father at Babe’s Body Shop in the Bronx. Babe and my father were old army buddies who served together in World War II. They grew up in the same neighborhood and remained friends their entire lives. I never knew his real name or his last name, everyone just called him Babe. As my father and Babe would talked about the old days and the War, I would wander off and watch the men in the shop perform their magic. I can still remember as if it were yesterday. I watched in amazement as these men took a wrecked car and pounded it back into shape. In those days, you didn’t just replace a fender or quarter panel, you fixed it. These guys had the strength of Hercules and the skill of a Michelangelo. I remember on one particular day, my father noticed how fascinated I was watching the guys in the shop. He knelt down beside me, pointed to the guys and said, “I call these guys, Men of Steel. These are tough guys that work hard each and every day. They can take a crumpled-up fender and with hammer in hand, work it back into shape just the way it looked when it rolled off the assembly line; and all by eye”. Before we left to go home, my father and I walked around the side of the body shop and pulled two sodas out of the Coke Cooler. Then we would sat down on a bench seat taken from of an old Desoto and finished our Cokes. Could an eight year old ask for a better summer Saturday afternoon? For many of us, childhood memories have served to create pathways to our careers. The auto repair industry is filled with shop owners and mechanics that draw upon past memories to shape their lives. The auto repair industry may have changed a bit, but we still perform magic every day. We are a dedicated breed and should be proud of what we, as a group, have accomplished. My passion for this business was born watching those “men of steel” back in the 60’s. I knew from a young age what I wanted to do in my life. I feel lucky that way. I often wonder how many people go to work every day hating their jobs. I am a mechanic and a shop owner. It’s the life I chose and it’s the life you chose. We all have a special bond. It’s the reason AutoShopOwner.com was created. Through the use of words, comments and stories we express who we are. We share, learn and become better at what we do. The glue that has bonded us together is our past. That same glue will help secure our future. My father encouraged me to open my own shop and we shared some great times before his passing in 1986. You see, he was also one of those “Men of Steel”. I’m not one to live in the past, but I would give just about anything to have one more summer Saturday afternoon, sitting on that bench seat behind Babe’s Body Shop sharing a coke with my Dad. View full article

Great points everyone. I just want to emphazise what xrac said, We don't just want to pay our bills and survive. That's not the point of being in business. We are not being fair to ourselves or to our customers if we are not making a return on our investment. We do no one any good if we do not generate enough profit to continue to grow our lives and our business. We want to be around next year, right? Well we won't unless we make a profit.

Common question and a big issue with all of us. We have Adanced Auto around the corner and they sell to walk-ins the same as they sell to us. It's for that reason I will not buy from them. There is always a balance between being profitable and being competitive. With that said, you need to charge enough to remain in business. You also need to do a Cost of Doing Business Analysis, which will determine the needed money you need to bring in to break even and to make a profit. Generally, most shops that I have spoken to try to get 45-55% on most parts, maybe a little less with dealer parts. Many shops use a matrix system where the lower cost price items are charged at a higher percentage and the higher the cost the less markup. In other words; a part the cost $11.00 may sell for $31.00 or more, but a part that cost $500 may only sell for $650.00. By the way I don't worry too much about people calling around, they are not my customers and I don't want them. (But that's me) Hope this helps, let me know...

I remember as a kid, the teachers would make a big deal over Flag Day. I think we need a little more of that today. In the United States, Flag Day is celebrated on June 14, 2011. It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened that day by resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1777. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day; in August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress.

Fewer Service Bays Mean More Opportunities! By: Charlie Polston, Dealer Magazine 06/13/2011 There are 50,000 fewer service bays in the United States than there were ten years ago. According to The Lang Report, there were 1,180,000 services bays in 2010 compared to 1,230,000 in 2000 Dealerships lost a whopping 33,000 service bays in the last decade…many of these as a result of recent closures and consolidations. In the big picture, dealerships have 25.7% of all service bays in the nation. In other words, the independent aftermarket has dealership service bays outnumbered three to one. I’ve been following these trends for as long as I can remember, and frankly, this is nothing new. Dealers have been losing market share for a long time. According to James Lang, publisher of The Lang Report, this trend will continue into the foreseeable future. Independent service centers have also been impacted, especially service stations and smaller garages. Despite this overall decline in service bay count, there has been significant growth in specialized repair facilities, tire stores and foreign repair shops. While service bays have declined, the number of cars on the road has dramatically increased! In 2000, there were 200 million cars on the road compared to almost 250 million in 2010. Therefore, we have 50 million more cars and 50,000 fewer service bays. Let’s apply some basic economics to this situation: the demand is way up (50 million more cars), and the supply is way down (50,000 fewer service bays). Therefore, the most valuable piece of real estate your dealership owns is a 12 ft. by 20 ft. piece of concrete called a service bay. This 240 sq. ft. chunk of ground produces more gross profit than the showroom, the parts department, or the front lot. If your Effective Labor Rate is $80 and your gross profit is 70% ($56), then your service bays produce a gross profit of $.23 per square foot, per hour ($56 ÷ 240 sq. ft.). Note: Since labor sales drive parts sales, this number will be even higher due to the parts sales, probably at least 50% higher. With the possible exception of F&I, no other department produces that kind of income per square foot for your dealership. Additionally, it requires very little upkeep, minimal climate control and the floor covering never needs to be changed. It is absolutely imperative that a service bay has four tires on it or slightly above it at all times. Of even more importance is service bay “turn over” or efficiency. If you tie up a service bay for two hours on a job, that only pays .7 flat rate hours, well, that’s not the best usage of this valuable plot of earth. The desired outcome would be having a vehicle in the bay for 30 minutes and flagging an hour or more. At the very least, you want to be at 100% efficiency. So how do you maximize the service bay? How do you make the most money in the shortest amount of time? It’s not gonna happen doing warranty work. It’s not gonna happen fixing broken stuff (repair). Even oil changes, while vital to long term retention, are not highly efficient or profitable. Maximum service bay utilization can only be realized through the performance of maintenance service work. Maintenance services are usually over 200% efficient; the techs love the gravy work and the service bays stay full. Of equal importance is the benefit the vehicle owner receives by having a much lower cost of ownership, because maintenance is always cheaper than repair. However, there is a catch, maintenance service needs have to be recommended by the technician and sold by the advisors. Most vehicle owners don’t know how to maintain their cars in such a way to prevent breakdowns. It’s the job of your techs and advisors to educate the vehicle owners, offer the needed maintenance services, and ask them to have the service work done while you have their car in the shop. At the risk of sounding simplistic, if you want more revenue per square foot of service bay, then hold your advisors accountable to sell maintenance services. Everyone comes out the winner: techs, advisors, management and most of all, the customer. More cars and fewer bays…what an incredible opportunity! My personal thanks to Mr. Lang for letting me reference his research. For more information on The Lang Report, you can visit his website at www.langmarketing.com.

Losing My Patience, Never My Passion As a shop owner, that began his career as a mechanic 36 years ago, the effort of building a business has taken its toll in many ways. While I have not lost my passion for what I do, I have lost my patience with many of the things I see around me. I have built a business from a small 2-man operation to a 2-facility company with close to 20 employees. It’s often said that you need great people around you in order to achieve success. But the truth is without leadership, vision, passion and a whole lot of determination, nothing will ever get accomplished. It also takes risk, with countless sleepless nights. All of which must come from the founder or owner of the business. Here’s my frustration. I hold myself accountable each and every day. If I screw up, I admit it and work twice as hard to rectify the issue. Why don’t others in the company hold themselves accountable? Not for me, for themselves. Take for example, a technician misdiagnoses a problem and costs the company money in lost time, wrong parts installed and an upset customer. Now, mistake happen, we are all human. That’s not my issue. My issue is the lack of remorse, the lack of concern, the lack of sense of urgency to make things right. I see too many times after a mistake has happen, that nothing changes in the attitude from the tech that made the error. He does not work any extra to make up for the loss. He does not come in early to try to make amends. And when I try to bring it up, I’m the bad guy and the tech gets upset at me! Upset at me? I have to suck it up and keep it inside me? And, Heaven forbid if I even suggest that the tech come back from lunch a few minutes early or maybe forgo his “natural birth right” of spending time on the tool truck. In their defense, my techs work very hard. They endure the cold, the rain, the sweltering heat of the summer and the daily bodily punishment of being a mechanic. I guess, what I want is just a little of the passion I have. That show of concern and the paying attention to all the details of the business. Also, I would love to see people have the same energy level as I have. I have more than 20 years on some of my employees and there are days that they can’t keep up with me! I guess, maybe it’s a lot to ask. My techs are great people. The morale is great and we are profitable. Some people tell me that it’s impossible for an employee to care like the owner cares. I don’t agree. Before I went into business, I took my work personal. When I worked for someone, I worked like it was my own business. But, that was me and to be honest I didn’t stay in the workforce long, starting my own business at the age of twenty five. Maybe I have been doing this too long, maybe I need to ignore some things. Maybe I just need a break. But, I am who I am and I can’t see myself changing. My passion will continue to be the force that drives me into the future. I will continue to work hard to bring out the best in me and in my employees. I am dedicated to my family, my business and to my employees. I will not push my ways on anyone. People need to show respect for themselves first. Only then can they truly grow with others.

Yes, I thnk you can write a really great story with that phrase.

We have a customer we call Mrs. Sincha. That's not her real name but every time and I mean EVERY TIME we work on her car, she comes back and says those most dreaded words we all hate hearing: "Ever since you worked on my car, now the radio is not clear". Or, "Ever since the oil change, the car sounds loud". Hence the name; Sincha. She an elderly lady, actually she was a nurse during WWII, stationed in Europe. Because of that, we tolerate it and try not to let it bother us. We now hold a contest to see who can guess what will be her new "sincha" complaint.

Gonzo, this is a topic that really disturbs me. Maybe it's because I'm from New York, but I think I have heard every con story on the planet. But the customer, in some cases, has been tainted by less-than-honest businesses too. Here’s case that comes to mind: Years back I failed (New York Safety Inspection) a Dodge Van for a rotted frame. The spring shackles were rotted away, and where the shackles bolted to the frame looked more like Swiss cheese than steel. The customer was angry, even though I tried to explain to him that the Van is not safe. Not safe for him or for others on the road. He drove off mad as hell. The customer returned about an hour later, drove up to my bay doors, beeped the horn and pointed to the windshield. He was pointing to a brand new State Inspection Sticker! Another shop passed it with a rotted frame. What I told him wasn't pretty....it was the one and only time I cursed at a customer!

From what I am hearing from friends in other trades, the problem of finding good, qualified people is an issue everywhere. Years back, in the early 80's I could hire a kid right out of a technical high school. He was far from being an Ace Mechanic, but he was light years ahead from the young people I see today. Back then, kids went to work early on, they pumped gas and worked with their father fixing the family car. They also fixed things around the house. Today, most kids don't really have a job, no one fixes anything anymore and everyone is geared toward "higher education". This country is filled with too many lawyers, too many accountants, etc. Our true work force is dwindling. We need to change that.

That reminds me of a Stephen King Story...or was it Twilight Zone? Either way, it's the life we live each day, right?