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  • Weekend hours

    Posted by acoliajja on December 13, 2015 at 1:26 pm

        I am looking for input / suggestions regarding weekend hours . I see most chain stores in my area now open full days Saturday and Sunday . Any thoughts ?

    jasonwhite72 replied 8 years, 3 months ago 7 Members · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • wswtech

    Member
    December 16, 2015 at 10:06 am

    I have found in my experience over the last 16-years consulting to automotive professionals such as yourself several things:

    One school of thought is that “if you can’t make your numbers M-Fri, that you’re likely not going to see much improvement in being open Saturday.”

    Let’s face it, ours in a tough business, and it wears out your resources, being your shop and staff. Once you begin opening Saturdays, their is no going back! Your customers will benefit, and SHOULD benefit, but you will likely find yourself doing very low ARO tickets such as LOFs on Saturdays.

    I would recommend instead focusing heavily on achieving your gross sales with a keen eye on your gross profit margins on each and every job throughout the week.

    Just another view point.

    Regards,

  • Jeff Graser

    Member
    December 16, 2015 at 10:49 am

    We have always been open Mon- Sat. Saturday is our biggest day of the week by far.  Most traffic, most dollars.  If you’re only open 5 days a week, maybe adding that 6th day will be the difference maker. This year we are running 28% higher sales and 27% higher car counts on Saturday compared to the average M-F.  Our ticket average for Saturday is right at our overall ticket average.  

  • pbrennan

    Member
    December 16, 2015 at 12:09 pm

    I’ve heard several schools of thought on this:

    1) Open Saturdays, because that’s what customers demand. Pros: It’s another day of production, depending on who is working. More capacity = more revenue, earlier deliveries to your customers. You capture more business from people who wouldn’t come in otherwise during the week. Cons: it’s tougher on your people, and not being open Saturday could be a good way to attract top employees away from competitors. (There might be ways around this – such as 2 employees on a Tues-Sat schedule). 
    2) “Half-Staffed” weekends: Only staff 1 Service Advisor & a mechanic. The goal here is to simply “capture” business that would come in so you can work on it during the week. You’re answering the phone fully, doing light diag, selling some work. Not necessarily a full production day. If you have more than 1 S.A., they switch off Saturdays, as do techs. This provides the convenience for customers, but gives employees a break. This might be the best way to go at first – until you have enough business on Sat. to justify adding techs or SAs to make it a full day.
    I know a general manager of a Firestone near me who knows it’s just part of the industry. He’s a top-producing guy for them, and he has Saturday & Wednesday off. They are staffed through the weekend.
    In general, I think you have to consider your team, and whether you can do it in a way that will retain the best people + provide balance for them still, while maximizing the revenue of your shop. Tough choice!
  • Joseph Van syoc

    Member
    December 16, 2015 at 2:58 pm

    Worked decades six days a week, and missed out on a lot of family time, just not worth it.  I do not make a habit of being open on Saturdays, and nor do any of my competitors around here.  I have been known to schedule work during the evening or Saturday for a customer that really needs it, or if I’m backed up or really slow, however that is the exception and not the rule.  The problem with working on the weekends becomes that people will start to expect it, and you will be doing a lot of oil changes and flat tire repairs, instead of watching your kids grow up, which happens all too soon.

  • whitneypassino

    Member
    December 16, 2015 at 9:28 pm

    I make 4 grand on sat and sunday-  depends how much you can afford to throw in the trash. balancing a budget is not for the novice

  • jasonwhite72

    Member
    December 17, 2015 at 4:11 pm

    I would say customer loyalty is a big concern as well. You never want to give your customers a reason to go somewhere else. A loyal customer will make you considerably more money than a casual customer. When that customer has to go somewhere else because your operating hours are not convenient for their schedule, you give someone else the opportunity to make them a loyal customer. There are ways to manage scheduling weekends without overworking your staff with flexible scheduling such as giving time off during the week for employees working weekend hours. In these cases it isn’t about gaining extra work from the employees, but convenience for the customer. If you want to gain shop capacity without overworking your employees you will have to add employees.

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