larrybloodworth
Forum Replies Created
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WOW “jbrenn77” what management system that cost so damn much? Hell, I’m still using quickbooks 2011 Pro… its simple additions and subtractions, add “items” etc…
I agree with RS. We created our own invoice within QuickBooks and use it for EVERYTHING, invoicing, accounting, inventory, paying taxes, online banking, etc. We’ve been doing this since 2001. It avoids double data entry, i.e. entering data into the SMS and then into QB.
Within a few keystrokes or mouse clicks we have an up to the minute P&L, balance sheet, or reconciled bank statement. The checking account is automatically reconciled in real time. No guesswork.
IMHO, QB Premier Pro is the best business software on the planet.
Check out:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JlO7axYlEv06DoUvQZqQZeMdAYX4zRV241acMizbrIU/edit?usp=sharing
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Invest in ASE’s C1 Service Consultant study guide and have her study it. Who knows? She might become ASE certified if she takes the test.
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We are a transmission specialty shop. We simply text the customer from our desktop with the estimate attached as a .pdf. Over 50% of the time, we get an authorization via a reply text. The rest of the time, the customer calls us when it’s convenient for THEM, so we avoid playing phone tag. What a time saver.
I highly recommend Scott Osborne’s desktop app rsstexting.com.
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Bob’s on target once again.
My wife and I were suffering from burnout due to our inability to find qualified transmission rebuilders for our transmission shop. We sold the business for our asking price and have a very nice revenue stream from leasing our shop. We were too old (I’m 62, she’s 64) to put up with it anymore.
I now work at a shop as a manager, make a good income, and don’t have all the baloney that can cause stress.
Like Bob says, either sell or change, the decision is different for every situation.
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Smith,
That has to work fantastic for the General Repair industry! But I regret to report that doesn’t work so well for a transmission specialty shop like ours. There’s an inside joke within the transmission industry that basically says, (paraphrasing) “If it’s a repeat customer, it’s a comeback.” ?
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I don’t think it needs to be any more complicated than this.
- Percentage of sales inquiries converted to an appointment.
- Percentage of appointments converting into a sale.
- Gross sales.
- Gross Profit margin.
- Average Repair Order
I’m in a lucky situation with a 6-store chain of local transmission shops to where our rebuild center writes all major transmission estimates for me. If I can sell it at that price, then my numbers will work out perfectly. If I choose to discount the amount just to make a sale, I know that’s going to hurt my numbers. Last month, I only discounted 3 transmission jobs out of the 18 majors I sold. I still kept the GP above 60%. I only write estimates for minor work, and most of that has set prices.
We use a Conversation Analytics company name Convirza that runs the phone recording through an algorithm to score both the caller in quality of the lead and scores the service adviser, too. A lot of business is either won or lost over the phone. I know the phone is our most powerful sales tool.
We also have 104 Dynamic Number Insertion phone numbers that rotate for each website session and we know all the Google Analytics on each and every phone call. We even know which page they are on when they call. We also capture CallerID info too. If it’s a landline, we know their address, but most callers contact us via smartphone with a 60/40 split between Android and iOS.
I get all of this data on a regular basis from the owner.
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I have been using inspection videos for a decade to sell major transmission work. It increased my close ratio to over 95%.
Transmission Repair Channel -
They get paid 27% of labor, plus they only work on one carline unless it’s a multi-line franchise. Read more at http://www.autonews.com/article/20171023/RETAIL05/171029988/fixed-ops-service-work-boosting-profits
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From OpenBay.com:
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More than 70 percent of consumers indicated online service and pricing information is very important to extremely important when selecting a business to perform automotive services, according to a recent customer survey performed by Openbay. Additionally, more than 80 percent were satisfied with receiving service pricing online.
“The automotive aftermarket is in desperate need of modernization and alignment with the modern day digital consumer. The team at Direct Tire and Auto Service is working hard to expand its digital footprint for all of its five locations. We are also dedicated to researching and selecting new and innovative tools to meet the needs and expectations of online consumers with an immediate need for automotive services. Openbay Profile is one of the many solutions deployed by all Direct Tire and Auto Service locations to align itself with the shift in consumer buying behavior,” said Barry Steinberg, President and CEO, Direct Tire and Auto Service.”
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Whether it’s transparency or ‘transfarency’ (Southwest Airlines), the closely guarded price structure of the automotive business is about is about become irrelevant. It’s only a matter of time.
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We bought a list from our state’s (Utah) DMV for $400 of every registered vehicle in Salt Lake county. I put it in MS Access and created queries. The best query was to find out what zip codes have the highest population of vehicles 10 years old or newer.
As it turns out, all those zip codes were clustered together. We picked the geographical center of that area and that’s where we built our shop.
However, you can create a query based on any field. That sort of information is normally protected here and many other states. The work around is to tell the DMV that you want them to exclude the personally identifiable information. We got everything except name, street address, and plate number. You can create a query based on model to get to the information you want. Our data came to us as an Excel file.
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This lends credence to my new business model of a transmission shop forgoing the RDI process of selling. Upfront pricing online with free pickup and free delivery.
On another note, here’s a shop I consulted for a short period of time. The owner believed it’s best to “buy” E-mail addresses. Check this out:
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We’re all familiar with the used car lot that’s the “Buy Here Pay Here” vein, right? Here’s the lastest, Used Vehicle Leasing. Why don’t they call it what it is, as in “Rent To Own? Check out this article. I lost a sale to this activity a few weeks ago. I wasn’t aware this is going on till then. Now there’s an article on it. Check it out at https://goo.gl/YYYNgX
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[quote quote=29208]I’m guessing that survey will not come back “completely satisfied” [/quote]
I don’t think they send survey cards to jails. 🙂
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The Supreme Court will hear for the second time, a case on whether service writers qualify for overtime pay.
http://www.autonews.com/article/20170928/RETAIL/170929775/1147
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Mike Rowe of TV’s Dirty Jobs started a couple of non-profits, Profoundly Disconnected and Mike Rowe Works a number of years ago to confront the problem. https://youtu.be/wY8ode602_8 6:02
Here’s Mike Rowes full interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzKzu86Agg0 41:00
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I was watching CBS’s Sunday Morning this morning and they had a segment titled “Help Wanted”. It was about the ever-present labor shortage in the skilled trades has been brought front and center before the public eye. There’s simply not enough plumbers, electricians, carpenters, & masons to get all the damage that the recent flurry of hurricanes inflicted on the U.S. and its’ territories. Help Wanted 8:55
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Great topic.
I use overtime pay to keep the techs on time. The reason being is as follows:
Everybody punches a clock and gets paid strictly by the hour. -HOWEVER- We use flag sheets on the ROs just like a dealership does. We have the entire Reynolds & Reynolds flag sheets and punch clock that punches in tenth’s of an hour.
I have discovered when I keep track of the numbers and discuss them at the weekly shop meeting, the peer pressure on the slackers is pretty substantial. I don’t have to say a word. It’s like an automated scoreboard I don’t even have to manage. The techs manage it on their own.
It’s amazing to me how fast a slacker can quit because of the peer pressure. I don’t even have to say a word. 🙂
https://youtu.be/pn2KiX_1_2c?t=3m46s
Conversely, on the other side of the coin, techs have 5 hours O/T built-in to the work week. They are scheduled to work 45 clock hours per week. If they are 1 hour late, take a long lunch, leave early, etc. they lose OVERTIME PAY. It really hurts. Consequently, everybody is very punctual.
Build it into whatever system you are using and you’ll be as happy as I am.
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Average Repair Order (ARO) will vary widely depending on how your business is structured and marketed. I’d bet a shop that specializes in high-end cars like say hmmm… Mercedes would have an ARO quite a bit higher than $400.
Our shop is a transmission specialty shop and we have 2 main Key Numbers. ARO and MARO. You’ve already accurately described what ARO is. For us, MARO is Major Average Repair Order. In the transmission industry, the differentiator between major and minor work is defined as if the transmission has to be removed from the vehicle or not.
If the transmission has to be removed, that’s major work. Everything else, including in-the-vehicle repairs and services, are considered minor.
At our transmission shop, our ARO was slightly over $1,700. (All word divided by the number of vehicles.) However, our MARO (Major job revenue divided by the number of major jobs) was almost $3,600.
While it’s not uncommon for a General Repair (GR) shop to write 25 or more tickets a day, it was a rare event for our transmission shop to write 25 tickets A WEEK! Basically, lower volume was offset by higher ticket totals due to the nature of the business.
Something to think about. -
This probably won’t work for most shops, but it works super-great for us.
I’ve been a QuickBooks user since 2000. Before that, I had used 2 other SMS that I liked, but using them and then having an accountant was like running 2 sets of books to me. So, in 2000, I started using QB for everything and dropped my accountant.
Long story made short, I became very proficient at QB over the years. There’s nothing that QB can’t do that any other SMS does, except order parts. Estimates, Repair Orders, Inventory, Payroll, CC Processing, Online Banking, etc. It does it all. I can and do reconcile the checking account daily because I haven’t handwritten a check in over a decade; they are all printed and CC are automatically deposited. My checking account balances to the penny on a daily basis.
Some companies we write checks to vendors who have a corporate name DBA another name. QB allows for that with a feature they call “aliases”. On top of all the stock reports the software comes with, I can create my own reports based on my own criteria. I can print a P&L or Balance Sheet at will. We have no need for a SMS.
I can text, E-mail, or print snail mail letters to customers individually or in bulk. I created one report to tell me what types of vehicles and what types of jobs are the most profitable. The list of what you can do with QB is endless. Of course, I’m very computer savvy and a numbers person. Many shop owners are not and have zero interest in doing what I do.
I’m rarely out in the shop or on the front counter. There’s too much for me to do in my upstairs office, especially with marketing. I handle all of the online advertising and social media. I don’t mean to boast, but we’re the highest grossing transmission shop in the Salt Lake City market for a reason.
If you’re up to it, and want to quit paying monthly SMS fees, give QB a try. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
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I’ve managed all of my online marketing myself for the last decade. We are a transmission specialty shop. Any PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaign can seem like a waste of money unless you utilize keyword-level call tracking.
By knowing what keywords drive high-value phone calls, you not only can bid those keywords up to be listed at the top, but you can quit bidding on what I call “click-burners”. What I mean by that term are keywords that either generate clicks with no phone calls or low quality phone calls.
There’s a lot of companies that offer keyword-level call tracking. Just Google the term.
We used to have over 1,500 keywords. Over time, with keyword-level call tracking, we have reduced that number to only 27 high-value keywords that generate high-quality phone leads.
And yes, I manage my Google, Bing, & Yahoo accounts every day. Don’t waste your money putting your shop’s name on any other website like Angie’s List, RepairPal, and etc.
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We use “P&P” cards. Here’s where I learned about it:
http://searchengineland.com/forget-review-handout-use-pp-get-reviews-196525
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I give them a P&P (Postcard & Page) card. Here’s the article that turned me on to the concept about 3 years ago. It says it a lot better than I can.
A Review Handout Alternative: Try P&P To Get More Local Reviews
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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…
One of the most productive things a shop owner can do to grow their business is to handle ALL online activities, including everything that companies like MainStreetHub.com does AND Pay-Per-Click advertising.We grew out business from $389K/yr. to $1.1M/year by doing so. Personally, I believe outsourcing such important tasks is putting your business’s future into the hands of the millennials that know little or nothing about your business.In the words of Michael Gerber of E-Myth fame, “Work ON your business, not IN your business. -
Dear rlikis,
I can’t say about general repair, but for our transmission specialty repair shop, Google Adwords and MSAdvertising (Bing & Yahoo!) give us a lot of bang for the buck. I manage both for our shop and I have total control of the accounts.We geo-target our PPC (Pay-Per-Click) to a 5-mile radius around our shop. I know what keywords are hot and which ones are click-burners from 9 years’ experience. We pay about $12/click and currently, phone calls are costing us about $35/call for a highly qualified person who will set an appointment over the phone. The vast majority of the callers who set the appointment and show up, convert into transmission or drivetrain-related work. Great deal, if you ask me.PPC without call tracking is pointless. Call tracking is how you not only count calls, but how you put caller metrics and service manager metrics into play. While call tracking is widely available from many companies, hire a company that uses Conversation Analytics, like Convirza.com.My advice is to NEVER trust somebody else to do your online advertising and then charge you for calls. Nobody is going to mind the “PPC Store” like a shop owner will. Ask me how I know.J. Larry Bloodworth, CMATWest Valley City, Utah 84119 -
Ask Patty may be a great resource for General Repair, but as a transmission specialty shop, we didn’t receive any phone calls off our tracking number for AskPatty.com. Perhaps to help a shop with branding or some other perceived value, but we couldn’t correlate any sales inquiries by phone, let alone any sales.
We gave it a fair run, but in the end, the tracking phone number told the tale. We discontinued our relationship with AskPatty after we discovered we could not tie the monthly investment to any sales. Whatever you do with ANY website you are paying to put your name on, make sure you use a tracking number to tie offline activity with your online marketing efforts.Don’t get me wrong, I’m not disputing whether or not AskPatty is a good investment for other shops. All I’m saying is that we couldn’t justify the cost because of the lack of phone calls. -
We FedEx parts that have to be ordered as part of our S.O.P. and simply include the cost into the price of the part. The vast majority of customers have absolutely no idea that we received a part NDA and take the quick turnaround for granted. It’s what’s working for us.
I grew wearisome of the 2-5 day hassle places and we avoid those vendors like the plague. However, especially with some dealer parts, they have to go through their system and even if we do opt-in for FedEx, they won’t drop ship it directly to us, they ship it to the dealer. By the time we get the part, the day is all but gone.I’ve found that virtually every new car dealer is having SOMETHING FedEx’d in every day and we can often “piggyback” our order with a pre-existing NDA shipment and save a lot by splitting costs. Some of our local dealers have a flat $10 FedEx fee because they know they are going to have a FedEx order every single day and by combining orders, it’s even possible for the dealer to come out ahead, if there’s enough orders combined.I shop vendors in this order:1. Ease of doing business and service. (don’t keep me on the phone}2. Quality.3. Price.
