Tires Too

Very Nice Wes.

I don't think I've ever seen a percentage for that, but I gotta say that you have some awesome inspection process for your techs. That is an impressive number for found work! Great job. What are you using for an inspection process?

We are using Auto Vitals "Smart Flow" for digital inspections and technician tracking. I know many of you are looking for a less expensive option, but I think you are looking at this wrong. These tools make you money, the do not cost you. Since we've implemented Auto Vitals our ARO is up $55. This has been an increase of over $3500 per week, $14,000 per month. I think I can afford the $200 to $300 per month that Auto Vitals charges for their product.

Kenny, I sent you a note. I'll try to call you later Friday. Russ

They did call on me, but I was not impressed with their sales pitch. I did a little online research; not that online info is 100% accurate; which also did not give me any additional comfort. If you are serious about some type of management training, there are numerous industry specific firms that members of this forum have had first hand dealings with. I have been with ATI for 5+ years and it was the single best thing I did for my business. Many members have relationships with Elite Management and they are top notch. RL O'Connor is another well respected firm. Let me know if you want to know more about ATI. I am happy to discuss details of what they have helped me to accomplish. Russ

6.50% parts and labor, Max $34.63.

Northern New England AAA which is part of the California AAA group is taking a very different approach to this issue. They had a couple of stand alone repair facilities which they have closed. They have told us they have no intention to get into the repair business and want to partner with us to build our business. They had some interesting study results that showed AAA customers who had been into independent AAA repair facilities renewed their AAA memberships at a 6% (I believe that was the figure) higher rate. Each AAA group is handling this differently, so you may want to ask your group what their intentions are.

I've been struggling with this for some time. We are often doing O2 sensors or EVAP system repairs for vehicles that have fails emission testing. After spending the time to diagnose the problem, replace the faulty component, we still need to reset the monitors in the PCM and test drive the vehicle. On older cars where we can not run EVAP testing monitors in the bay, we may have to drive the car multiple times before the EVAP monitor will run. We often have a service advisor or myself drive the vehicle so the techs can move on to the next vehicle, but on some of these cars you can be looking at hours of time to get all the monitors up. We do sometimes let the customers take the vehicle and drive it for a few days to reset the monitors and bring it back in for emissions testing, but I'm not sure that is the best way to handle these situations. We have seen where an O2 sensor failure has caused a converter failure that did not set a P0420 until the O2 was replaced because the PCM would not run the cat efficiency code with the O2 failed. I want to know that everything is complete before I give the vehicle back to the customer, but charging an additional $200 for drive time not practical.

We tell them that we would be happy to get it in and do a free brake inspection. At that point we can quote an accurate price on what is needed for us to do and warranty the repair. Until we can inspect it we do not know what is needed and can only guess at a price. We really try to not get caught up in the game of giving prices over the phone, it generally does not end well. If your high they go somewhere else, if you give them a low price and tell them it could be more - they member the low price only. Many people are asking price because that is all they know to ask, those are the ones you need to work on to sell the value of your service. The ones that are truly looking for the lowest price are not my customers.

Sorry to hear about your troubles with ATI. I'm sure these are guys in the call center and are trying to make sales numbers(not that it makes it right), but my interactions with ATI have been extremely positive. I did go through their program and am still active in their alumni program and it has made a huge difference in my business and in my life. ATI is not right for everyone and Elite, RLO and others offer some great training for the industry and I would encourage you to take advantage of one of them.

I have spoken with RLO on the phone in the past. They were doing some training for NAPA Auto Care Centers, but I have never attended anything with them. I have signed up a new service adviser to go to a local 2 day class that RLO is putting on in September. I have always found something of value in any training event I've attended, even if it is just the interaction with other people at the event.

We are a NAPA Auto Care shop and I know several guys who work for the NAPA Corporate. I've let them bring their own parts in the past, but they are the worst about getting the right parts. We were doing a timing belt job for one guy. We have it all apart and there is no water pump. I call him up and he says, "Oh, you need that." YAA! We are refusing to do the work if the customer wants to supply his own parts. We have had too many issues with poor quality and/or wrong parts that cause delays in the workflow thruogh the shop.

Are you looking for industry specific books, business books in general or a general pick me up book? For industry books - Mitch's stuff is good. Elite has some good stuff on their website. George Witt's stuff from AVI gives you a different point of view. Gonzo's book and articles give you a laugh and shows you that we all face the same stuff every day. General business - "The E-Myth Revisited" is a great read for any small business owner."The Fortune Cookie Principle" and "difference" from Bernadette Jiwa are good reads for new marketing ideas. "Predictable Success" by Les McKeown is eye opening. "Lessons from the Mouse" is a great customer service book. The old standbys from Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill and Earle Nightingale are still relevant.

There are some standards being promoted by AYES - https://www.ayes.org/Home.aspx ASE is also promoting a maintenance and light repair certification with its G1 test. This allows young techs to be profitable for shops to employ as they gain experience in the trade by being able to perform these services. As shop owners we will have to invest in these young kids getting into the trade, it's a cost of doing business. You can continue to complain about the lack of talent coming into the trade or you can get involved in the local training programs to help mold some of the young kids getting into the trade. We also need to realistically look at compensation for all techs and make sure we are charging for the talent needed to repair todays vehicles.

There are some other posts about ATI on this site. We are an ongoing ATI client and have had great success with their program. The one day program a great opportunity to see what they have to offer. If you want my long winded version send me an email or give me a call. Russ

We have been using DF for 4 years. They have a good product that has, for us, been worth the cost. Having said that we are moving our customer retention marketing to Auto Vitals. Auto Vitals does CRM, Web Site Development, Social Media Marketing and Digital Inspection/Shop Flow Management software that is really cool stuff.

It's hard to second guess you without being in your shoes at the time he called. I have found that when I disregard that "gut feeling" on a customer I often regret it. You did what you felt was the right thing to do at the time, put it behind you and move on.

I don't know about that Gonzo. We still promote our shop as a full service shop. We do have "Technicians" with different abilities in the shop, it's my responsibility to have the skill sets needed in the shop to handle the vehicles that come into my shop. That might mean hiring a new tech or getting my current techs into some training classes to meet the needs of my customers. Having said that we do domestic and asian imports, but do not promote being a european car specialist.

A common bench mark in the industry is 3 to 4 cars per day per tech, ARO of $300 (but varies significantly on your vehicle mix and your area of work - Euro's higher - Transmission shops higher etc). I think that is a good goal for you to shoot for. We average 14 cars per day at just about that ARO.

Joe, LOL. Well if he does come back his expectations SHOULD BE reset.

I agree that you need to have a strong online presence, but marketing is about customer touches. There is some value in touching those customers when they first move into the area before they have established buying habits with another shop.

Joe, It takes some backbone to handle it the way you did, but I think you handled it the way that was best for you and your shop. I still struggle in that situation, but I've found that by trying to be all things to all people only makes me miserable. If we release these customers into the wild they often come back with a new found respect and appreciation for what we do.

I did not even touch on the management reports that the software generates. With Auto Vitals you will see which techs are finding and recommending what conditions and repairs. It lets you see if techs are "pencil whipping" inspections or possibly over recommending a particular service. It will track the techs time on all his jobs so you can see if a particular tech may need additional training on a type of job. With the integrated version the techs can see the cars repair history on their tablet. The list goes on and I know that Auto Vitals is committed to add more features to the product.

We took a look at several of the platforms out there; Clear Mechanic, E-instect and Auto Vitals. In addition to the monthly subscription you are looking at about $300-$400 per tablet for each tech. We purchased some Asus Tablets with Gumdrop cases(definitely need good cases). The Auto Vital forms are very easy to customize. You can use one of the many forms they have in their library or create your own. Changing the forms is very easy. Working with the people at Auto Vitals has been great, they "get it" in that they will work with you to get the most out of their product. We've been using the Auto Vitals inspection platform for several months and our ARO is up $20. If anyone is a NAPA Auto Care Center, you can sign up for the non-integrated digital inspection form for only $150, no monthly charges. For the integrated version there is a monthly charge of about $200. Auto Vitals has been very proactive in making this a usable tool. In July they will be releasing the updated workflow software, here is a link to it http://www.autovitals.com/shopflow-action/ The customer feedback from the inspection form, the pictures and the educational information has been all positive. The techs love it also, the drop down condition buttons reduce the amount of writing for them. The ability to email all of the information to a customer who is not at the shop makes selling the repair much easier. This is a real great way to show how professional a shop you are and differentiate your shop from the competition. I recommend that you guys take a look at some of these platforms. It sure sounds like I'm getting a commission from Auto Vitals, but I haven't been this excited by a product that can improve my business in a long time. Russ

mmotley, I'm not ready to agree with that conclusion ...yet. I do believe that you get what you pay for, but there are many aftermarket parts that I find superior to OE parts. We've replaced many OE wheel bearings, ball joints and tie rods at very low mileage. We use NAPA Adaptive One brake pads and get longer life out of them than the OE pads.