[Frank]

training will not increase your hybrid business, marketing does that. training keeps your techs safe. – we have trained some of ours techs and plan on all of them being trained by mid 2018

future tech does our training: https://www.futuretechauto.com/

[Frank]

The reason why I decided to work
with AutoVitals goes way beyond inspections. It’s the first time I can do all
of the following with one company:

• Inspections

• CRM

• Web Presence

• New customer
  acquisition

• Technician time
  keeping

• Shop dispatching

• Workflow management

• Reporting that
  includes:

  • Team effectiveness

  • Advisor performance

  • Sales by make

  • ARO by make

  • New customer sales

  • Conversation sales

  • Total number of visits

  • Inspections completed

  • Inspections emailed

  • Emails collected

  • ARO tracking

  • Technician recommendations vs advisor sales

• AND MORE, with just
  2 or 3 clicks in most cases . So, if a shop is only looking at
  “a digital inspection” that’s also available. and affordable.  If you are looking for a “true
  total shop management system” then the only company I have found that does
  it all is AutoVitals for a number of operating systems.  

[Frank]

Frank can I get a demo on Auto vitals ?   Thank you .  

yes, I’ll let them know – the number is 866-949-2848 ask for Kevin X154 or Tom X115

[Frank]

AutoVitals is a great program and works well with Mitchell Product. The training program is great and wont leave you wondering what to do, or how to do it. There is also shop workflow management and technician dispatching (not available on Bolt-on)  AND if you ever change operating systems AutoVitals will stay in place (bolt-on is an add on to Mitchell)  

If you haven’t seen the inspections, time keeping CRM and other features yet, you’ll want to take a look

https://www.autovitals.com

https://www.autovitals.com/godigital/

https://www.autovitals.com/digitalsupervisortraining/

Frank

[Frank]

Jeff,

Take a look at AutoVitals you’ll be surprised. As a trainer for them and an independent business coach for EliteWorldwide I’ve worked with several clients that have switched with great success. AutoVitals works well with many shop management programs including Mitchell 1.

And there is world class shop work flow management available also that works Hand in hand with the inspection process.

there is a great training program to make sure your getting the full benefit of the program, best practices for selling from the inspection and more.

https://www.autovitals.com/

https://www.autovitals.com/digitalsupervisortraining/

http://www.eliteworldwide.com/

[Frank]

try to change you sales presentation to include something like:

… there are a couple of options for this repair, we did find a less expensive part and can do it for $1.00, but that part is not very reliable, we have tried them before. in fact we wont even warranty it more than 6 months – the premium part for your car is only $5.00, it will last longer, and comes with our 3 year 36,000 mile warranty, if it were my car, this is the one I would use. …

What you have done is given the customer knowledge there are cheaper parts available and a good reason not to use them.

[Frank]

we have two Cobra systems, rated 10 – great customer service as well.

[Frank]

We did move 2 1/2 years ago. When we first opend in the old location in 2001  the surrounding area was pretty nice. It didn’t take to long to get around town. Fast forward a few years, crime increases, graffiti – cars broken into, difficult to navigate traffic jams to get to and from the shop.

We found a place closer to a “better” part of town with freeway visibility and easy access. so glad we did. better clients, customers we haven’t seen in a few years thanking us for being closer.

beware: its expensive to move – all the equipment, one years worth of dedicated marketing and more!

[Frank]

We take our tech pay x1.2 (to cover other costs) and divide by .30 to achieve gross profit of 70% 

example 28.00 per hour x 1.2 = 33.60 / .30 = $112.00  per hour (we pay flat rate)

32.00 x 1.2 = 38.40 / .30 = 128.00 per hour (we pay flat rate)

you’ll want to try to average 60% overall  parts and lobor gross profit .You need to know all of your  KPI’s (key performance indicators) Parts gross profit, productivity, efficiency, total expenses as a percent of sales, and so on. it all works together  

[Frank]

I highly recommend YES Management, by Pace Computer – I’ve used them for about five years (I own the program and pay small monthly support fee and I love the fact employees can call themdirectly, it’s worth every dime. http://pacecomputer.com/

Motive power is a good program, I did not use them because I needed more inventory control than they offered at the time http://motivepower.com/

[Frank]

Elite Pro service has help me more than I can describe, on a scale of 1-10 – 15!

[Frank]

ELITE 10+++++++++++

yes, I know I’m an Elite business coach, BUT I’ve sent two employees through the program as have many peers and clients all with outstanding results – Its more than training, there is 6 months of follow up the make sure the lessons stick check the link for more information: http://www.eliteworldwidestore.com/affiliate-details/46/elite-masters-program-1.html

World pac, 8, short class no follow up

Frank

[Frank]

Great idea, I would think if your going to license this you need to be familiar with and compliant with the needed federal regulations.

I also think you can get many shops to take advantage as well.

We use the Bosch credit card program and this does put our name on the credit card, with zero risk on my park – Here is the link to our website for you to look at: http://www.frankseuropeanservice.com/

The application is on the first page

[Frank]

Any tips on how to attach a picture?

[Frank]

When you take a tech from one day on the week all you’re doing is moving 8 hours of labor inventory from one day to another.

Consider a four day work week. On a correct rotation the employee will have a 5 day weekend every three weeks.

You can add staff, increase production and not need additional shop space

Frank Scandura.
Independent business coach, Elite Worldwide

[Frank]

Nationwide 3/36. We are starting to look at a premium service that would be 5/50 and a paid VIP service that would be lifetime.

[Frank]

Here is an article I wrote in 2012:

Let’s Clean Up 

Let’s talk about cleanliness. I mean really clean, not just
on the surface. Ever walk into a business that looked clean initially, but
really wasn’t? You could just tell. The next thing you know is you’re looking
closer at the places under tables and chairs and then it’s pretty obvious it’s
not very clean at all.

I have very fond memories of my paternal grandfather. I
called him Papa. He and my father were both barbers. I remember one time a
customer asking my grandfather if he could use the men’s room. It was only a
two chair shop with one small restroom. My grandfathers responded with humor,
as he always did, that there was no men’s room, but feel free to use the ladies
room.

After the customer emerged, he looked my grandfather in the
eye and said that was the dirtiest ladies room he ever saw and proceeded to
leave. I stood in shock and watched Papa walk into the restroom and come out
and announce “he’s right, it’s filthy.” He was actually embarrassed.

That day I saw this man do something I never saw before. He
got cleaning supplies and cleaned the restroom. This lesson was repeated when I
got my first real job, at age 14 or 15, at the Exxon gas station across the
street from that barber shop. My duties were clean up. And that included the
ladies room. I remember old Pat Beatty telling me how important it was for the
ladies to have a clean restroom to use.

Fast forward a few years and I’m at the Sunoco gas station
that had two restrooms, one for the owner’s wife and one for customers. Richard
Brady never let his wife used a dirty restroom, do you? I cleaned that one too.

I remember my mom visiting me at work one day and using that
restroom and then making the comment how it was the cleanest gas station
restroom she had ever been in. She asked who cleaned it. (I don’t think she
believed me when I told I did, after all she still remembers my bedroom growing
up).

Why did I bore you with my history lesson in a clean
restroom? Because it matters today even more than it did 35 years ago. Only now
I don’t stop at the restroom. The entire building inside and out needs to set
the tone for our customers.

We don’t call the landlord to paint the fire lane curbs red,
we get the paint and do it. Whatever we can control, we do. We clean the
exterior windows on a regular basis, not when you can’t see out of them. The
counters, the customer chairs, the coffee bar, everything should be spotless.
For us, we’re in a building with multiple tenants and it helps us stand out,
you can too.

Think about how easy it would be to hire someone part time
to help with the cleaning, or hire a professional company to come in after
hours, one or two times a week. Get the floors polished at least once a year,
or more depending on traffic. There should not be any finger prints anywhere.

Is your shop as nice or nicer than your dentist or doctor
office? It should be.

I challenge you to take a close hard look at your entire
shop. Pay special attention to the areas the customers have access to.  I always tell shop owners to take pictures of
every bench, wall, chair, door, nook and cranny. Get them printed so you can
hold them in your hands. Look at the pictures away from the daily grind and
pick a couple of pictures at a time to work on, that way you’re not spending an
entire day on housekeeping. Walk around and imagine what your customer is
paying attention to when you’re walking them to get something out of their car,
or when you want to show them what you found while working on the car.

When you bring a customer to the shop, your focus is on the
walk, the customer will be focused on everything else. The shop floor, the
equipment, parts shelves, and my favorite – technician work benches.  Ever notice how some parts get saved for
months, except the ones you want to show a customer when the car is picked up.
Are new parts on nice shelves and well organized or just thrown in there?  The oil drains and oil tanks should look
perfect, were about to repaint ours, they’re getting a little worse for wear
now. Paint the shop every few years. I prefer white walls, they reflect light
better and it just looks cleaner. If you must have some color add an accent
stripe, design or get some colorful metal signs from your venders. Oil
companies and battery suppliers love when we advertise for them. Make sure
they’re metal and they’ll last a long time.

Believe
it or not, the employees like a clean work environment, they may not admit it
but they like it. When equipment is clean and in proper working order, they
will be more productive. Let’s all do a better job showing our customers we are
professional and we care enough about them and our employees to proved a clean,
safe and inviting area for them.

Frank Scandura III

President
Scandura’s European Service DBA Frank’s European Service

Formerly Frank’s Mercedes Service

http://www.frankseuropeanservice.com/

Editorial
Advisory Board Member, ImportCar magazine

Advisory
Board Member, College of Southern Nevada (Automotive program)

Independent
Business Coach, Elite.  http://www.eliteworldwidestore.com/

[Frank]

___1__ Caller ID for customers in database

___1__ Email customer from the RO

____1_ Integrated paperless inspections

___1__ Instant view of all maintenance service history and services due

__1___ Job pricing (invoices display total prices only for individual jobs)

__1___ License plate to VIN decoding

___1__ Labor matrix

__1___ Oil sticker printing

___1__ Service advisor event reminders (call customer, check parts arrival, etc.)

___1__ Signature capture

__1___ Technician time clocking

___2__ Text customer from the RO

__1___ Works on tablet and smart phones

__1___ Other : __can scan vin with tablet and bring up customer information _________________________________________

[Frank]

I never attracted a “good” or “A” customer with a deeply discounted oil change. Most people want value, and the one buying on price are often more trouble than its worth

Instead of always trying to increase car count, we spend about 50% of our marketing on non traditional methods including customer retention.  

The good customer never complain, never leave bad reviews, they just go away when not happy – so you need to know who they are, and make sure they’re happy

Frank Scandura III

President Scandura’s European Service DBA
Frank’s European Service

http://www.frankseuropeanservice.com/

Editorial Advisory Board Member, ImportCar magazine

Advisory Board Member, College of Southern Nevada (Automotive
program)

Independent Business Coach, Elite.  http://www.eliteworldwidestore.com/

[Frank]

Location 1

__10___ Number of inside bays

___0__ Number of outside bays

___12,135__ Square feet (total of all square footage inside of building)

Location 2

___7_ Number of inside bays

___0__ Number of outside bays

___7100__ Square feet (total of all square footage inside of building)

[Frank]

look into this one, we got ours from MATCO – I don’t know if Renault is covered, but we really like this unit

http://www.autel.us/Products/ds708.htm

Frank Scandura III
President Scandura’s European Service DBA Frank’s European Service

Formally Frank’s Mercedes Service
http://www.frankseuropeanservice.com/
Editorial Advisory Board Member, ImportCar magazine
Advisory Board Member, College of Southern Nevada (Automotive program)
Independent Business Coach, Elite. http://www.eliteworldwidestore.com/

[Frank]

No one likes change. The only constant we have in life is change. Lay out the goals, and how they will benefit from any changes. Don’t change too much at once. Will they be able to work on better, newer cars? will they be able to earn more money? How will the customer benefit?

Have them read (or listen to) the book “Who Moved My Cheese” Its a great way to look at how to handle change in life.

With employees we have 4 choices when dealing with them:

Can they be retrained? Yes or No

Can they be transferred? yes or No?

Can you tolerate the behavior? Yes or No

Will you terminate if answer no to all of the above.

This is a good time to start recruiting (recruiting is having future employees ready to fill spots as you grow and people leave)

Frank Scandura III
President Scandura’s European Service DBA Frank’s European Service

Formally Frank’s Mercedes Service
http://www.frankseuropeanservice.com/
Editorial Advisory Board Member, ImportCar magazine
Advisory Board Member, College of Southern Nevada (Automotive program)
Independent Business Coach, Elite. http://www.eliteworldwidestore.com/

[Frank]

Aziz,

Welcome to the forum.
I can help shed some light on the mechanical repair side – if my conversion is correct you space is about 16,000 square feet, the cost per square foot seem in line with prices here.

 
Systems and procedures for work flow are critical – when written down, there is no excuse not to follow them. Then it’s all about production, correct gross profit and controlling expenses.

Parts/materials gross profit targets should be around 50%, labor gross profit 60%. 
If you have 15 production personal consider production based pay. You need to set a minimum level of acceptable performance, for example, what if the minimum number of hours produced in a day is 7.

7 hours per day times 15 men = 105 billable hours per day. 105 hours per day times five days is 525 billable hours per week.
525 hours times your labor rate, let’s assume 100.00 per hour. That’s $52,500 labor sales PER WEEK.

Your parts sales should be between 45,000 and 50,000 with the above labor sales.
Let’s assume you can do 50,000 parts, 50,000 labor – your sales should be $100,000 PER WEEK

Then the other expenses can be looked at separately (support staff around 12-15% of sales, service advisors 7-9% of sales. If you were doing half of that, you would be far better off – the goal I try to get my clients to is 15-20% net profit. I’ve listed minimum numbers above; it can really change the bottom line when you get the guys producing 115% (or 10 hours per day, per man)

 
One of my locations is 12,000 square feet (1115 meters square) with 4 technicians we average 32,000-35,000 per week in sales.
With that said – consider looking into coaching, as recommended so you can learn how to implement the correct strategies, pricing and cost control. 

Frank Scandura, President Frank’s European Service http://www.frankseuropeanservice.com
Business Development Coach, Independent Representative Elite Worldwide, Inc.
http://www.EliteWorldwideStore.com, Blog http://www.EliteWorldwideStore.com/blog
PO 9630 Rancho Santa Fe, CA  92067
(800) 204-3548 fax (858) 756-4781, Outside the U.S. call 1 (858) 756-3102
Direct (702)232-9592

[Frank]

What you need is to learn how to run your business correctly.

First thing you should do is read How to win friends and influence people (Dale Carnegie)

You need to learn financial management, cost control, recruiting and compensation, employee management and proper marketing. Check out the website for great information:
http://www.Eliteworldwidestore.com

Frank Scandura

Business Development Coach (Independent Representative)
Elite Worldwide, Inc.

http://www.EliteWorldwideStore.com

Blog http://www.EliteWorldwideStore.com/blog

PO 9630 Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067
(800) 204-3548 fax (858) 756-4781
Direct (702)232-9592
Outside the U.S. call 1 (858) 756-3102

The tail ought not wag the dog.

[Frank]

Jim Murphy with Elite pro service. another contact email

j.murphy@eliteworldwidestore.com

[Frank]

What I like about Bob , he puts people first. I think so much of him and

his program I have asked to be considered to be a coach.

[Frank]

Take the weekend seminar first you will get a lot of good information. Check with ASA for training, worldpac has very good training as well. We did Management Success, lots of cash – lots of information. You can get the same information elsewhere.

[Frank]

Have you considered flat rate tech pay?

[Frank]

check is likely bad, you’re under no obligation to give the car back with out payment – If this customer were to go home and find the water heater failed – do you think they would tell the family “sorry, we owe for the car repair and the hot water will have to wait”. No, the car is inn the driveway- fixed – they will use the funds to fix the water heater, or what ever emergency should come up before Friday. I don’t want to sound jaded, but I have been there- done that-

[Frank]

Do you clock the techs time to see what kind of work they are slower on. Major repairs here are promised a week or two out to allow for the better paying work to get done.

Do you used good time guides, or do you figure a job should take (x) or cost (x), What is you labor gross profit, should be about 60-70%, what is your parts gross profit, should be 55-65%. if theses numbers are not in line you will never be profitable –

I had a friend that owned a shop who refused to charge the customer more than list price for parts for fear of them thinking they would feel ripped off- they eventually ran out of money and closed.