Home » Allison Holmes

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  • Allison Holmes

    Member
    January 10, 2020 at 3:10 pm in reply to: HELP! STRUGGLING SHOP!!!! ADVICE NEEDED!!!!

    Hi Allison,

    Look up a guy named Paul Maskill. Paul is a small business coach that specializes in service based businesses. I know Paul and his father from servicing their vehicles for years. I was kind of a “beta test” for Paul’s course when he first got started in helping small businesses. I’m a 3rd generation auto shop owner and a few years ago had some of the same struggles you are going through. I took Paul’s course and experienced an amazing transformation. My techs are happy and making more money than they ever have, My service manager and service advisors are killing it and making more money than they ever have, our customers are happy, I make more money than I ever have and we have a super star team in place that runs like a well oiled machine even when I’m not here. Do yourself a favor and take a look at Paul’s course. Then tell the shop owner to get off a little money to pay for the course:) Even if you don’t decide to take his course, the phone call with Paul will be well worth your time.

    Tell him Aaron Klosterman sent you!

    If you have any questions feel free to contact me anytime.

    Link to Paul’s website: https://www.paulmaskill.com/

    Aaron – Can Paul help with figuring out our finances too? That’s another problem added to all the others we’re facing right now!

  • Allison Holmes

    Member
    January 10, 2020 at 3:08 pm in reply to: HELP! STRUGGLING SHOP!!!! ADVICE NEEDED!!!!

    Thanks for the responses everyone! I’m getting some really good ideas on what direction I need to go in. I do have a question about finances too if anyone could help there…… we are pretty strapped and we can’t seem to figure out where the money is going. We can’t figure out if our overhead is too high, if we don’t mark up parts enough to bring us profit on the parts, if our labor rate is high enough to cover the cost of our techs????? We’re just stumped with the financial aspect of the business now too and I don’t know where to turn to try and get help with these answers either! The owner is willing to pay (not much of course) but is willing to pay for some help as long as it will actually help. We’ve been in contact with a few different companies and they basically want all the money we have now to tell us what we’re doing wrong and we just don’t trust them to pay that much money to find out if they really can help us or not. Like i said, these problems have been on going for years but I just haven’t ever found the right place to go for help. I am really glad I decided to talk to Tom and post on this forum because so far, all the responses that I have received have actually been really helpful in moving forward with our tech problem and this “free” advice has been more insightful than any paid advice that I’ve ever received!

  • Allison Holmes

    Member
    January 3, 2020 at 4:43 pm in reply to: HELP! STRUGGLING SHOP!!!! ADVICE NEEDED!!!!

    You guys have given great advice so far! Seems like we need to change the pay scale on these technicians and give them a little more incentive. Being honest with the numbers isn’t a problem here, we’re honest about everything with our employees and customers. And I know it may be a lost cause but I’ve invested many years here and enjoy the job. I really care about it all and I really want to help turn things around. The problems I’ve outlined haven’t always been there. The shop used to run very smooth and things were great, it just has seemed to get worse and worse over the past year and its really hitting rock bottom right now. I appreciate all the advice and look forward to more! Thank you very much!

  • Allison Holmes

    Member
    June 25, 2019 at 2:43 pm in reply to: WITH THIS WRENCH I THEE WED

    I haven’t really found a “good” way to deal with the customer of this kind. You could show them all the documentation in the world that their problem was present when they drove the vehicle in and they would still blame you for causing that problem. We just simply make notes of any issues on the inspection form, perform the approved repairs that the vehicle was brought in for, let them know of any issues and give them a copy of the inspection form and even sometimes show them before the leave the issues that were not repaired if we think they might be a problem customer. If the CEL or any other warning light is on in the dash, we scan the vehicle with a quick-scan feature with our scan tool and print out a copy of those issues as well just in case. And luckily, our scan tool saves history of each vehicle scanned so if they come back in and complain that any lights are on in the dash or any other issues that weren’t present we can scan again and show them if it’s the same or a different issue. One thing I have found that also helps, is that we do not give them an estimate on the repairs that we found additional that they did not bring it in for because to them that looks like we were fishing for more work and just want to take their money. We do go ahead and make up the estimate but we simply inform them of the issues and if they are wanting to have them fixed we then issue the estimate that we had on hand for the problems. Working in the public eye you will always have bad apples and it’s harder to weed out those apples than throw out the whole bunch!

  • Allison Holmes

    Member
    May 7, 2018 at 10:57 am in reply to: Fun and Games with Extended Warranty Companies

    I am currently working with this situation right now with an extended policy company! They are quarreling with me over an outside vendor charge for a reprogramming fee. We paid the vendor, they charged what they charged, which was fair, but yet this extended warranty company wants to tell me it’s too high! We didn’t even mark-up the fee when we billed it to them, even sent a copy of the invoice from our outside vendor with an explanation from the vendor for the charge and they are STILL arguing with me! I’m calling the customer today and having them pay me and letting them deal with the warranty company.

    It’s not often we get these in but we do every now and then. We’ve decided to not deal with extended service plans or warranty companies any longer. Any customer that wants a claim filed through an extended warranty will have to do it themselves if they want us to make the repairs. Like you said, any profit you may have made of the job goes right out the window when you have to deal with these folks! It’s definitely not worth it!

  • Allison Holmes

    Member
    September 19, 2017 at 8:28 am in reply to: Flat Rate / Commission Tracking

    That is also a wonderful idea Tom! But which software has those capabilities. The software we have now has no options like Ray or yourself is mentioning to me. I looked through a few of the options you listed the link to before but I didn’t see either of those options you all speak of with the software listed!

  • Allison Holmes

    Member
    September 19, 2017 at 7:58 am in reply to: Flat Rate / Commission Tracking

    OH, and another problem I have is with the guys keeping track of what they use. I understand it is the service manager’s job to over see what they techs need and what is ordered for the cars but for an example, say during a service the coolant needs to be filled and they use a gallon of coolant to top it off. Obviously that gallon of coolant should be charged for instead of charging it in the shop supply charge, but if the tech doesn’t write down that he used that gallon of coolant, how is the service advisor supposed to know to charge for it? And there our company just lost $8 for a gallon of coolant!

     

    The system we have used to work well but with a new group of techs and the younger generation that they are, the ways we have in place just don’t seem to work anymore for them. Seems like it’s too hard for them to understand that they have to give us their time they are on a job and the materials that they use.  It’s like we have to spell out everything to them instead of them using a little of their brain!

  • Allison Holmes

    Member
    September 19, 2017 at 7:09 am in reply to: Flat Rate / Commission Tracking

    rayrippey –  What software do you use? Our software doesn’t have any features like that, sounds like something that might work for our guys. They are always so worried about how much money they are making and if they are over billed time instead of focusing on the job. I’d like to look into the software you have.

  • Allison Holmes

    Member
    September 5, 2017 at 3:55 pm in reply to: Flat Rate / Commission Tracking

    Thank you Tom. I will definitely check these out!! I appreciate all your help.

  • Allison Holmes

    Member
    September 5, 2017 at 7:09 am in reply to: Flat Rate / Commission Tracking

    What we do is this . . . just an example. We use notebooks for them to write their time down everyday then they fill out the work order with what they did and what they used. They turn their books into me on Friday morning, they turn their work orders in after they finish each job.

    Tech A:
    09/05/17
    8:00-10:00 – RO#15489
    10:00-12:00 – RO#15492
    1:00-4:00 – RO#15492
    4:00-5:00 – RO#15492

    #15489 calls for 3 hours – tech did it in 2
    #15492 calls for 12 hours – tech has 8 in it this week

    Remaining 4 hours will be put on next weeks check but tech goes over next week by 2 hours so he still only gets the 4 remaining hours the job calls for because there were no problems tech just took too long.

    How can I show my techs if they are over or under on the hours so I can show them if they are making money or loosing money with what they are doing. I use Excel – I put the date, their time and each work order number they have listed. Then I go through what work orders they turned in that are completed check their time vs. billed time and list out to the side what they had in it, what the billed time is and how much they are over or under. I then look at what’s not completed and do the same thing. I figure all that out, print it out and give a copy to the guys in their paycheck.

    I only have 2 technicians that I do this for, I start around 8:30 and I usually don’t finish until 11:00 or so, it just seems like it takes way to long and it has to be an easier way.

  • Allison Holmes

    Member
    May 2, 2017 at 8:18 am in reply to: Is a 50 Hour Tech worth $75,000?

    So what do you do when you hire that tech and he under performs? You check his references, you look at his skill level according to what he’s telling you and what he’s listed on his application. Everything looks great on paper, his references don’t have a bad thing to say (legally they can’t say anything negative about his job performance anyway) and you hire him. He shows up for work with a nice sized tool box fully loaded, even has some specialty tools in there. He works his first week and things look good. The next week 4 of those jobs he did last week comeback for things that he did wrong and breaks 3 different parts for 3 different jobs in that second week that you now have to “eat” because it can’t be warrantied because it was the technicians fault it broke. Yeah, that’s happened to me – so sure a tech is worth that much, but only a tech that can prove he’s worth that much. I would / will never hire a tech at high pay again without a probation period because I lost way more money that I paid him those 2 weeks with what he didn’t know how to do, when on paper and from his mouth he said he did.