rhopp
Forum Replies Created
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We’ve used both. Switched from CL To DF looking for better social
connections. Worked ok. Garage management Software change brought us
back to CL. both treated us well, few complaints.
The New Cust Acquisition program was a flop for us though. Tried it
twice, several thousand dollars wasted. Followed their
recommendations to the tee. Zero to one response.
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My first response blew-up or disappeared waiting for the site to load. I
multitask a lot. Came back & poof it was gone.
Anyway, our response is “Will this be Visa or MasterCard?” Is it not
“fair” to charge for the Tech’s time?
We explain that we’re saving them money by taking all these notes
beforehand. If they truly NEED to talk to the tech, it’s billable at our
diagnostic rate.
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Thanks Joe,
Built in 1949 as a Packard Agency. Copper tubing through-out floors &
ceilings for hot water heat, tiny doorways & restrooms, Built on a peat
bog. Steel framework driven into bedrock. Building staying still while
the parking lot drops (approx 8″ in 60+ years) all in all has worked out
well for us.
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We have three currently between two locations. No logo’s (except a
small one on each back bumper, like on many clients cars (with
permission).
We NEVER refer to them as “Loaners”. We rent them. sometimes (most
times) for free. They fill out a standard rental agreement, with
overages, limitations etc. Then we discount it to the rental
department, then the service department pays the rental for lost
revenue.
Gets expensive fast. double edged sword that has me regularly thinking
I should just sell them. But then I regularly think about dumping it
all & going Galt.
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Hey! Who gave you the access codes to my Launch Control Room!
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Thanks Aaron for the nudge, even though this thread is over a year old,
you reminded me to get it earlier this year.
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Possibilities, however I’m more looking for a “How to win friends &
influence people” approach.
To be more diplomatic & constructive in criticism’s. To use positive
phrases rather than negatives. He’s a great man, just not tolerant when
his sub-ordinates don’t take to it as naturally as he has.
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X – More difficult
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One of the reasons I’m no longer allowed on the front desk…
My overwhelming desire at times to tell a clueless human “Please leave &
don’t come back… By the way, please tell all your friends because they
must all be a$$holes too”.
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First of all, we use the following on ANY CEL inquiry.
*************
OBD II Information for Check Engine Lights
Your vehicle is equipped with a sophisticated On-Board Diagnostic
(OBD) system. This is what turns on the Check Engine light or MIL
(Malfunction Indicator Lamp).
We are equipped and trained to handle the diagnosis and repair of
Check Engine light problems for most vehicles. However, there may be
more than one problem present, even though only one “trouble code”
appears in your On-Board computer.
The OBD system performs a series of “self-tests” to determine
whether all systems are working as designed. Once a failure occurs,
many of these tests are temporarily turned off. This means that once
we fix the issue causing the first trouble code to be stored in your
computer, we may discover other problems that could not be detected
until the first problem was corrected. This is especially likely if
you have been driving with the Check-Engine light on for several days
or longer.
Self-tests may require specific conditions to occur before they can
be run. One test requires the engine not be started for at least
eight hours and the outside temperature must be above 15 degrees
Fahrenheit. Another requires the fuel tank to be between one-half and
three-quarters full. Another requires the vehicle be driven at a
steady speed for several minutes above 50 mph. There are many
prerequisites for each self-test and all must be met before the full
cycle of self-testing is complete. Some tests must be run more than
once before they will register a failure.
It is not practical for you or us to keep your car and drive it so
extensively. That’s why we must rely on you to help. Each of the OBD
self-tests will eventually complete during normal driving. The Check
Engine light may come back on after a few minutes or a few days of
driving. If so, you may need to bring your vehicle back for further
testing and possibly further repairs. There is NO CHARGE for
retrieving codes within 90 days of a previous engine control related
service.
I have read and understood the above text and was informed about
possible risks, the possibility of additional problems and or repairs.
Customer Signature, ____________________ Date, _______
*************
The person you described may never be a customer, some are certifiably
insane.
The simple statement “Ms. ___ you chose us for some reason I don’t
know. Our goal is to give you all the information you need to make the
best decision for your current situation.”
“I can install the part, but I MUST advise you that it often does
nothing to resolve the problem”.
“Perhaps there’s another garage out there that would better fit your
needs”.
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Yep seems like more each month.
I propose a “Green Energy” surcharge on any vehicles that are adorned
with Obama, Greenpeace, Earth First or other Leftist bumper stickers.
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Perhaps an important point here is to avoid this in the future if
possible.
An SOP could be; if standard testing indicates an internal problem
requiring tear down for inspection, and the inspection reveals
nothing conclusive (no compromised gaskets, machine shop tests OK,
inspection of deck, cylinders etc is acknowledged by technician),
then vehicle owner is informed of the inconclusive results and made
aware that reassembly is at their risk. I wouldn’t have any
emotional baggage about offering engine replacement at this point.
We’ve bought several over the years after just such a mishap.
Communications and systems in place are keys.
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I try to imagine WWYD if the shoe was on the other foot. they bring
it to you for your expertise. Even if you were thrown nothing but
curve balls & struck out, you are the experts.
Stating the cost of the replacement engine & informing them of the
loss in parts & labor that you are absorbing (if you put no value to
it, it has no value in their mind), would be my starting point.
Asking them to take a moment to understand why we’re at this point
would be worthwhile. Most rational humans know problems aren’t
always black & white. This one was way off the reservation, with no
way of predicting & no practical way of diagnosing… It could be
explained as the need to do an autopsy on a living person, or simply
to do a complete overhaul of the engine to ever see where the crack
is and even then no guarantee.
As usual, after they have as much clarity of the situation as
possible, asking them what they believe to be fair is a good
question.
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Both… I have far too many broken customer cars, at way too high an
average RO to need the help of my peers.
I can barely keep up with counting the money, let alone the vacations,
bimbo’s & fine dining.
Come in lurkers… The waters fine… We won’t bite
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Administrator wrote:
> Do you heat your shop at any time during the year?
> __X___ Yes
> _____ No
>
> Do you air condition your shop at any time during the year?
> _____ Yes
> __X___ No
>
> Where is your shop located? West Michigan
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Update:
Be prepared for the car count… I think we did fair, but failed to
fully service some of the new customers due to being a bit
overwhelmed. I don’t have hard numbers, but in a winter month in
Michigan, we did 8% better than last year(& last year was well above
average), while most of the competition looked out at their empty
lots. Upsells and repeats have been good. The demographic coming in is
good, unlike the high number of bottom feeders that the new mover
programs have brought in in our past attempts.
We’re still seeing 1-2 cards per week. I plan on budgeting for this
next winter. Don’t have the extra cash to do it more than once this
time. Their strategy of doing it month after month isn’t one I can buy
into yet.
The Staff at Mudlick has been very helpful & professional.
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Hi Ken, Can you use a excel spreadsheet? If so, e-mail me & I’ll
send an example.
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_X____ Purchase order created by management software
(If you checked this one, which software _Protractor__?
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They ARE used car dealers, after all. We seem to be getting them
trained. We’ll negotiate a little, depending on current work load.
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For what it’s worth, we service import vehicles for many of the local
dealers. No discounts, just clear, priority service. Small town, no
import dealers, just the big three.
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Another one. Thanks to Tom & others.
Our business hours can be read from the road. We had our vinyl guy make
them in a straight forward font, large enough to be read from the street,
then placed them, not at eye level on the door, but at eye level from a
prospect seated in a car, then made sure they were visible at night.
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Hopefully my updated original is now more clear. Only “link” would be to
our appointment page.
If anyone wants the text to our auto-replies, send me e-mail.
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Weekly. Previously weakly.
I just started pulling bits off our blog & writing maintenance tidbits,
many borrowed from the web.
Right now we have a off routine one out for our “Sweetheart of a Deal”
specials.
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Questions come to mind: Was the vehicle delivered to the customer
with the fluid low? If so, we bought it. Did adding fluid solve the
noise? Where else did the fluid go?
Who recommended the boot? If it was CAS, would you normally note
that a compromised boot can allow damage that is unpredictable? If
not, we bought it. Might be dumb luck that the debris took out the
seal, just after you touched it, however the seal most likely
wouldn’t be damaged if the torn boot hadn’t allowed debris in.
Many crystal ball issues IMHO. I know that’s not an inexpensive rack
or install… Is there a chance of keeping him as a client? He’s
already questioning quite a bit. We’ve won several raving fans by
stepping up in a situation where the grey area couldn’t be cleared.
V/W 8 cylinder owners can be one of the strangest lot to work with.
Richard Zaagman wrote:
> 2003 Audi A6 4.2 comes in for a steering boot replacement. Boot
was ripped open. While there, we replaced the inner tie rod end.
No obvious wear from boot being open. Simple job, no problems,
standard every day proceedure. Customer picks up the car and has a
whinning sound that wasn’t there before. We looked it over, no
leaks seen, added P/S fluid and told him to keep his eye on it and
report back to us. Also ensured him that if we found anything
related we take care of it.
>
> Couple weeks later he calls and says he wants to bring the car in
and have the leak repaired referring to the seal that was damaged
during the tie rod end replacment. Apparently another shop and a
friend looked at the car and said that whoever installed the tie rod
end damaged the seal and the shop stated there were marks indicating
we had trouble when replacing the tie rod end.
>
> We looked at the car again. Pulled the steering boot back, it’s
leaking. No damage to anything, anywhere. The seal is not even
visible. The seal is almost a foot further inside the rack, beyond
the toothed section of the rack. Can’t even see the seal or get to
it if you wanted to. We showed this to the customer along with an
exploded view of an Audi steering rack showing him where the seals
are and how far they are from the inner tie rod end.
>
> So here’s the delemma. Customer comes in without a steering leak,
leaves with one after we replaced the left inner tie rod end. I can
find NO relationship to our work and his leak. I’m trying to work
out some coop deal with him, such as he pay our cost on the rack and
pay the techs wages, but we haven’t agreed on anything yet.
>
> WWYD and does anyone have any idea whether or not anything we did
could have caused this leak?
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Hi Ollie,
We just started getting results from the 7900 mailers they sent for
us. Easy to work with. A few interesting results so far. Not enough to
draw any conclusions. We mainly targeted 50K & up in specific
neighborhoods around our new location. An interesting one today with
an obvious “Whats the catch” attitude. Wife called & sent her hubby
down for an oil change. He was very skittish, could tell he was
waiting for the other shoe to drop, statements like “The guy across
the street has been taking car of it for the last two years”. Got the
rig done, sent him on his way. His wife called a few minutes after he
left & made an appointment for next week to address the small issues
we found, then put the hubby on the phone who apologized for being
such a pain…
It’s a great looking way over-sized mailer. They were very helpful
when I pushed it right to the deadline (as I tend to do). They ARE
very aggressive marketers, but it works for them, so…
For us, its about getting good prospects in the door. Once we do that,
we do our best to shine and have a pretty good retention rate.
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Hi Gary,
For the smaller stuff I’ve used Notebooks with the page sleeve thingy’s.
In the Trans business, I might consider a surplus draftsmans cabinet, I
see them at auctions every so often. Blueprint width, with a bunch of
approx 2″ deep drawers.
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Air gas called yesterday within end of season deal. 3 or more 30#
for $155 delivered.
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Thanks for the reminder Josh.
I bought this book years ago, after participating in a coaching
group with Dave. I loaned the book to somebody…
Now it’s on my iPad Kindle app & being re-read. $10 on Kindle.
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Not much you can respond to there. Boost your reviews (Ask EVERY coherent
Client) to drop it in the rankings is the best I can think of.
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Hi Wayne,
We’ve used the Cinron (modified to our specs) since about 2005.
http://www.cinron.com/CinRon.com/Marketing_Tools.html
http://www.cars4keeps.com/specials/car-care-club-card/ shows how ours
works.
We’ve sold 500 plus since then. Many Clients have purchased several,
at least one has bought five.
It’s been a great relationship builder, nice cash flow boost when sold
and has proven to lead to higher avg RO’s for us.
