5 Star Auto Spa

We're in the same boat as Joe. We pay well over 20K for as well.......=(

I agree that you should not enter a price war but sometimes it is difficult for a business owner to lose business because you are "higher" priced than the dealer or a competitive independent repair shop. I do also agree that you have to show value and offer something that other shops do not offer that sets your business apart from other repair shops. This is key when pricing becomes an issue with customers.

Our labor rate is $80/hr. We are one that have not raised our rate but we have increased the price of fixed services that we offer (oil changes, fluid exchanges, etc.). We do a lot of quick lube style services currently.

Joe what is your typical hourly rate for your techs (A level, B level and C level) before any commission or bonuses?

We use a software called SAGE (along with All Data Manage) to process out our invoices. It has VIN decoding built into the software when you type the license plate. The reason we got the software was because although All Data is very broad in its scope of what it can do, it always seemed like everything took 100 steps to click and type to access. Sage has one click access to a lot of "quick" information we need to do oil changes (weight of oil, # of quarts, tire pressure, tire torque specs, wiper blade sizes, etc.) along with VIN decoding.

I can't believe you offered her a free car. You are a good man!

We are trying to start a plan to have the lifts inspected once a year as a preventative maintenance item for our lifts. Because they are used to lift vehicles that could injure our employees, we thought it might be a good idea to have a ALI certified inspector do the inspections versus one of our mechanics or someone who might not be as skilled to see potential issues that could arise from something that is wrong with the lift. I was just trying to verify if $150 is in the ballpark of the right price for this service as we have never had it done before.

This is a very slippery slope to go down. As a business owner, you want to try and help your customers and also not lose out on the job. The problem is not everyone is ethical and even though you are going out of your way to help this individual, they may not see it in this light. We have only put work on credit one time here at our shop and it did work out in the end but would not do it again if possible.

How do you all perform vehicle lift inspections? Do you have a certified vehicle lift inspector come out to inspect your lifts once a year? If so, how much does it cost to have this done. We want to try do this for our lifts this year and I was quoted $150/lift. Trying to figure out if this is reasonable?

This has turned into an interesting thread. I don't think that marking up parts is unethical to the customer in any way. You have to pay the CSA who orders the parts and you are having the parts delivered to the shop for the convenience of the customer, those cost something. We have a car wash attached to our auto repair shop and when we charge $8 for a basic wash, sure some of that charge is for the equipment and service but some of it is also for the chemical cost. We don't give the chemical cost to the customer at the same price that we purchase the chemical. At a company like US Foods that distributes food products, they don't sell you the food products for the same price they purchased them for even though they don't necessarily "do anything" to transform those products. Just my 2 cents.

I have run across more than handful of techs that almost can't seem to work without the radio playing. These guys not only think it is their god given right to have the radio playing, but that anyone who does not agree is from mars or venus and not earth. I understand just like the next guy that music in the background makes the work environment more pleasant but no one should forget that this is work, not home. I recently visited an Audi dealership and actually went into the shop work area and it was a sight. Completely spotless, no radio or music playing, and all techs had their shirts tucked into their pants. This screamed professionalism and this is the type of image that most independent shops OWNERs want in terms of public perception for their shop. At our shop we don't have music playing and that's that. We explain why and hope the newer techs understand.

About a month ago one of my newer general service techs ended up doing an oil change on a vehicle and did not fill it with oil and pulled it out. The customer ended up going down the block and had to stop the vehicle and call us. We told him to wait where he was and NOT to drive the vehicle and we would send a technician out to where he was located. He ended up driving the vehicle back to our shop. Our lead technician poured oil into the vehicle but noted that there was a ticking noise that sounded like it could be from driving the vehicle with no oil. Instead of trying to piece meal the repair, we decided to buy the customer a replacement engine with the same mileage that the vehicle had when it came for the initial oil change. We ended up replacing the engine and verifying that the sound was gone before returning the vehicle back to the customer. That happened about a month ago and just a couple days ago the customer called in stating the vehicle is over heating. From the way he spoke on the phone and interacting with this customer, it seems as though he believes anything that goes wrong with the vehicle, even if it is not related to what we replaced, should be covered by us. I know we made the initial mistake (that tech is no longer with our company), but I feel as though we have done our due diligence to give the customer back the vehicle in the same condition he brought it to us. Do we continue to fix this customers vehicle? Do you tell him that we have done everything we are going to do? How have you or would you handle this type of situation?

We also pay an hourly rate plus a percentage of labor and parts for jobs that were recommended and sold based off of a technicians recommendations. Joe, how is your performance bonus set up for your techs?

We currently don't have any smokers but the ones we have had in the past were told that they could only take their required breaks to have their smoke break. I think it depends on the individual in terms of productivity and if smoking has a detrimental effect on it. I think shop owners definitely need to set the tone in terms of when techs can go on breaks or not to smoke though or it can lead to a problem down the road.

I agree with Integrity Auto Care that it did not have some vehicles listed completely. I tried it for 2 months. It did have some features that All Data did not have but overall I think All Data had better vehicle coverage than MotoLogic. I think AA is still working on the kinks of the program and I was told that a management portion of the software is coming down the pipeline.

Thanks Integrity Auto Care for the compliment! We're actually a car wash with an auto repair facility on site....hence our name. I agree with a lot of what everyone has stated on this thread. I do believe ASE certifications are meaningful though. Its very much like a college degree. Because you have a college degree does not mean you are smarter than someone without one but it does mean that you are able to put your mind to something, study for it, and get it done. From our past experiences of dealing with technicians, the techs that do not have ASE certifications don't have it because they are unable to or not willing to obtain it. Not because of the money or because the general public is not as familiar with it, but because they are not willing to put in the time to study and take the test.

Do you actually show the customer on an IPAD the service review? Is this just an electronic copy of the service review that is normally on paper?

Did they tell you how the filter works? I would be interested in identifying exactly how the filter decides which reviews to filter and not filter.

Have you ever gotten any customers who are upset or annoyed that you are calling them? Do you call people that you have recommended work to after an oil change to see if they would like to schedule a time to have the service completed? We are attempting to start a call-back program here as well.

I think all of you have valid points. I do wish ASE as an organization did more to advertise the benefits of being certified to the general public so when they go to look for a mechanic, they have more than just a hazy idea of why it is good to be ASE certified. I also agree that I have met some mechanics that were ASE certified in some manner or another who were just terrible mechanics. But I also believe that I do not think the ASE certifications made those mechanics bad technicians, they had a host of other issues that were more specific to those individuals. I have never met a technician where I have thought they had too many ASE certifications or I thought it hampered them in any way. I hear from a lot of technicians that I interview that do not have ASE certifications that always say how they are worthless or so easy to obtain. I lean on the side of if they were so easy to obtain, why not get them?

Joe, How do you verify that all of your technicians are doing a "complete" vehicle inspection for all vehicles? Do you have a tracking system setup that you use? I would be interested in learning how shops keep track of which techs are doing a complete inspection and which are just skimming through the inspections.

I would be very interested in learning how you perform step 3 - creating a system to track all comebacks and errors in workflow. Is this done by your shop manager? Does it get recorded in a spreadsheet like MS Excel or is it tracked in your shop Management software? I would like to start this but do not know what the best way to track this efficiently.

Don't really sell any additives like that at our shop either. I do know that we have had some CSA's that had previous employment at Jiffy Lube and I've been told that they do sell a lot of those services though. I would be interested in learning how quick lubes such as Jiffy Lube have been so successful in selling those types of products as well. Here at our shop we sell the following mostly as add on services from oil changes: 1. Tire Rotations 2. Engine and Cabin Filters 3. Battery Replacement/Terminal Cleaning Services 4. ATF and Coolant Exchange Services

I am here almost everyday and sometimes find it difficult to run this type of business. I cannot imagine being an absentee owner and expecting someone else to watch over my business the way I do. With that said, many auto repair facilities are run in that manner and flourish. I think Joe give some good advice in regards to clearly defined positions and your expectations in regards to those positions. Make sure everything is written out, never assume, it is a killer~!

We have it built into our oil change prices and charge 5% up to $30 dollars for any repair tickets as a separate line item charge.