shadowoods
Forum Replies Created
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Inspections are mandatory for us too. However, the techs don’t get any pay for them — it’s their future jobs! When going over the inspection, the service advisor needs to go over what’s good and bad with the car. Suggestions for future maintenance helps the customer plan for the future. Have recommendations for anything that is: 1. good for the customer, 2. good for the vehicle, and 3. good for the shop. Our customers appreciate them — I think it’s in the delivery.
Rich -
I agree with Andy about working together to get the process down. We have monthly meetings (although I do like the 5-10 minute morning discussion idea) where I bring up what we are trying to accomplish and why. We developed the courtesy check process as a team. I had a flip board, passed out several different versions before the meeting, then we all decided what we wanted. It was tweaked at the following meeting but we have “buy-in” and that’s what you need! Then FOLLOW-UP. When I go over the previous day’s invoices, there better be a copy of the courtesy check attached — if not, I find out why. No changes are going to stick if you don’t check and measure it.
Rich -
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day.
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We use Mitchell1. I would rate it 7.5. I’m learning how to pull info from the database using Excel and Word to do marketing/follow-ups. The canned reports are not user friendly when trying to accumulate customer information. They have a marketing arm that provides the customers with on-line access to their vehicle’s history, can add what service was done elsewhere, and recommends maintenance items based on the vehicles mileage. Still learning. The two services is almost $500/mth. I’m thinking this is expensive — what are other programs costing????
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You are absolutely correct — shopping like mad! The insurance auditor suggested to file a complaint with the state insurance commissioner which I am going to do. Thanks for you feedback.
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Our shop is really clean. We rotate the guys scheduled to close who scrub all the floors (we have 8 bays) and clean the work areas. There are always two techs who stay until 7pm and by the time one leaves half the shop should be clean. Then the tech who stays until 9pm (when we close) finishes up. We have a check out sheet that needs to be filled out and signed.
As the owner, I am serious about having a clean shop. We also sell gasoline so the final two to leave are the cashier and an assistant tech. Because we rotate the closings, the guys respect the amount of work that goes into closing and nobody wants to be the cause of having the first hour in the morning to clean what wasn’t cleaned the night before. There’s the peer pressure factor. In addition, the cashiers are responsible for cleaning the bathrooms every morning.
When times are a little slow we do extra storage room cleaning, machines, building maintenance, and outdoor maintenance. We never lack projects in our 50+ year-old shop!
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Does anyone have some experiences to share with specific financing companies?
Thanks,
RJT -
Here’s one: The vehicle is here and the customer owes us ~ $1,500. I filed and won (default judgment) in small claims. However, I can’t get the title to sell the vehicle. I never thought of the abandoned vehicle route. But the mechanics lien is really tricky with all the time requirements — which we’ve exceeded. Any other ideas?
