Alan Ollie
Forum Replies Created
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No it was tamper proof yellow paint Jiffy put on it.
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We use our remarks section and keep comments about many customers.If we
see they are not quality customers we make it hard for them to make a appointment or say i am sorry but we are backed up for a week. That usually works without to much hassle.
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In florida The DMV will give you year make counts by zip code no customer or address info for free.Sometimes it costs 1 cent ea . With
that info you can see the real dmw counts from the Company’s saying
they can get non merged vehicle specific info.
If you really want to get into big trouble you can sign a waiver stating the list will be used for statical use only and will not be
used top directly contact the record in the list .
I did find a way years ago .A large list company would sell 3 separate
lists as long as they were different corporations buying each list.
people , address , make modle . Than you merge them to get really accurate mailing lists.
Mailing the same 10,000 VW Audi owner 3 times each to get a 2% return.
Back 5-6 years ago. I cant seem to get a non merged list that is more
than 70% accurate.
I do not think i could get 2% nowadays because so many people use the
internet and chuck out junk mail.
If you do the numbers the cost per customer is about $200 each Yikes i
spend $60 each new customer now.
I asked a on a old post anyone had Mudlic mail send out mailers?
I am suppose to get car counts from Customer link i will compare and
post the results.
Thanks Ollie
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We always tell Used car dealer’s we are not very Dealer Friendly
and will only fix the car correctly. No half ass repairs.
Wow all the car dealers down here only bring us the cars they already sent to many other shops and could not fix them.
Thant we never get this “very easy to deal with and they don’t question our pricing”.
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i am my worst enemy.I hold up my sites. My web guy is pretty good.But
it is constant work on the shop owner side that will ultimately get you
into the top on many search terms.
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We are not dealer friendly. I have bought a bunch of broken cars from dealers who call and try to have us fix problems other shops made.
My friend once said If you want to loose money do used car dealer work.
There are a few dealers we do work for.Carmax has sent us 3-4 VW and Audis last year.
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ross tech for vw
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We used to reply .Many customers thought we manipulated our reviews.
We hear every day i chose your shop because you had so many good reviews. Reviews come and go it seems .I don’t know why. I am happy we have a ton of good ones. Ollie
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We send a newsletter about 1 every 3-4 months.
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24-7 we have close to 1000 reviews .
Check out this one that we got today.
She found us on yelp.
She gave us the best yelp review
I know that this is a repair shop, but they also sell a few VWs and it
was the first place I went that didn’t try to push me to get a car
totally took their time with me. ONLY place that gave me a 30 day
warranty on a used car, made sure any little problems were taken care
of before handing it over even little things like 2 of the VW logos
were missing off of the rims and they made sure to replace them. All
maintenance records were readily available I didn’t even have to ask.
Like an idiot the day after I bought it, since I wasn’t used to the
handling of a german car and was in an extremely tight parallel spot, I
hit the guy in front of me. After crying half the morning about my
stupidity I emailed them (it was a Sunday) and Alan got back to me like
within the hour. Monday morning as soon as the shop opened I had more
emails from Luis being like its ok we can fix it don’t worry (I broke
one of the reflector lights off). Any other place would have been like
“oh well” but not German Car Depot.
Seriously I’ll be taking my car there for any service now that I have
it and am more than willing to drive from south beach to hollywood to
do so. PLUS they have a drop box so you can leave your car there at
night in case you can’t bring it in the morning. I can not say enough
good things about how they have treated me, honestly, I can’t remember
ever getting service and kindness like this from any business, car shop
or other. I was so nervous being it was the first time I was buying a
car out of state without help from my parents mechanic and they made me
totally comfortable.
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My guys are spoiled. 2 SR 4 techs 1 Parts person She does marketing and
website link building,Mailers. 1 car wash parts runner.
On a good month they can write $55k each .
We did $65k each a few times.
What stinks if i had the car count we can do $70k each
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That’s why we work only on VW and Audi’s PS racks leak on Audi’s just from breathing on them.
I see the problem monthly that’s why we have a note on invoice on any steering or suspension jobs. Something like the note below.
*** The steering system could start seeping or leak in the future. German Car Depot makes every attempt to minimize the possibility of future problems.We will inspect your car at your next service.
We also send a reminder in 2-3 months. Next oil service watch for any seeping from the ______ system.
The reminder makes it easier to explain the next leak.
After all that is said we still get irate people every few months.
Audi… It’s not if the car will leak something it’s when.
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We wash about 45 customer cars a week and take out the mats to knock off most of the dirt.
We have a car wash person at the shop 4 days a week.
He cleans the shop cuts the lawn and does light maintenance on equipment when not washing cars.
It is expedited because the dealer is our main competition they wash and Vac every car.People often say that’s why they go to the dealer for oil changes.
I love it when it rains we don’t have to wash as many cars.
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We take Paypal .It is the about the same fees for a card taken over the phone. But it is much safer as far as charge backs.
Make sure your paypal invoice clearly states the charge is for service and parts rendered. For the person picking up the car.
We do not offer refunds for any reason.
If it is a first time customer we require a picture of both party’s DL.
We are in Florida and people have tried every scam in the book.
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Tom Piippo wrote:
> I’m with you on that Tom. Not all dealers sell parts by MSRP, some make up their own matrix and then discount to us indy’s. For example, a local GM dealer suggests a bottle of AutoTrac II smurf oil cost 9, list 12,an out of town dealer will sell at 6, list at 9. Some dealers discount 15% off list, some give 30. I have argued with insurance companys and won on charging more than MSRP on OE parts from dealerships. I noted that if the dealership did the job, they get paid and make 50% on parts plus their inflated labor rate; I only need 40% on parts with a lower labor rate. I have never had a customer say “I can get this at the dealership for less!” although we have heard that about the local parts store.
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> Parts is parts, and they all get marked up regardless of MSRP.
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> Tom Lund wrote:
> > Why does “list price” at a dealer make any difference to how you price your part? Why do you let some other company dictate what you need to charge to run your business? Ignore list price. Ignore it from dealers and ignore it from any aftermarket supplier. Use and trust your own price matrix. You will not get very many objections from customers. Don’t be scared.
We are hearing “the dealer is less on parts”. VW and Audi dealers are using OEM parts from worldpac. I find it hard that VW and Audi are letting the dealers get away with it.. The invoice just has a xx at the end of the part # and in small print on the back of the invoice it states parts ending with xx are OEM like most custmers even understand OEM.
So if we quote at MSRP we can be higher than the dealer if the job does not have a lot of labor in it.
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10-28 update getting better had the best week in months . marketing 24-7 Ollie
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Update 10-19-11 It looks like it is getting better .The customers are shopping for sure.We have been calling lots of customers on the phone to schedule recommended work that has not been done. The first thing people ask is how much does it cost. We never quote over the phone. But we have to make exceptions now. I find if you give a quote many people shop the price and call back and try to work a DEAL.
Our reply is compare the same exact service and parts brand we are will be very competitive and will get the job done correct.
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This person had cv boots and tie rod ends done.We did not charge him for rack boots they were fine.We did one rack boot for free to make him seem happy. He was talking loud on his phone and my service adviser asked him nicely to walk outside .He went off yelling i will talk inside the lounge if i want.
We should not of worked on his car it needed $3000 more work done.car was a POS
“This place uses old parts and they don’t talk to you about anything. I had to go back to this horrible place for a warranty. The replaced both tie rods, both drive axles, and bushings to my VW. I inspected the work at home and they used the same 5-10 years old rubber covers. I noticed both covers broken and went back to get both covers replaced under warranty. I waited almost 6 hours for my car and they only replaced one of the covers. WTF! Are you kidding me! They charged me almost 1200 for a full labor and new tie rods and they can’t even use new covers on them? F this place. Don’t go there. If you decide to go there; inspect the labor after they are done. Who knows what parts are they reusing. DO NOT TRUST THEM! “
This guy should not of told us he owns a pool supply store.He has 6 reviews all bad.3 say Watered down chlorine. His Business and will have lots more in about 5-6 months.We never forget a buthead .
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60-65 % We get 55-60% AVG
update 11-15-11 50-55 new avg as of the last few months
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Why not post everyone’s ideas and questions in the Marketing forum on this great site.
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7.00-7:15 what time does your shop close .Do your techS work more than 40 hr per week?
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Free is way to expensive.It gets bottom feeder’s and customers who want lower quality work in general .Why would anyone do something for free?
Most people who react to free are not that smart.
I do a A/C performance check for my own customers for a very very low price and includes freon.we sent out postcards 3 times so far this summer with nice return on investment. New customers get normal price but a coupon for $30 off first visit.
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We do VW and Audi only and stock most fast moving parts. We charge almost as much the dealer.Tom saved my life by helping me set up tech incentive pay.We went from 6 tech working at 40-50% to 4 guys working 100-110%. If you do only 2 lines when you are busy it should be easy to do over 100% Last year we had a few months every tech did 50+ hours in a 40hr week. Now that i fixed the production Problems and i need consistent car count.We are very spiky this year but still up over last year.PS: 8 lifts helps a lot 2 lifts per man.
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Good luck striking anything on the contract. You need to cancel in writing.
Why do many people think 300 per month is a lot.Every customer in my shop will spend $1800 in their lifetime and i might buy their car or sell them one.
If you embed the demand force scheduler on 25 websites sites you are bound to get a few new customers a month.
We get about 21% new customers(50)a month I can say that demand force has saved my car count.
Sometime before: This agreement shall automatically renew for another one (1) year term, unless either party provides notice to the other of its intent to terminate this agreement not less than thirty (30) days before the end of the then current term.
Sometime within: This agreement shall automatically renew for another one (1) year term, unless either party provides notice to the other of its intent to terminate this agreement within thirty (30) days of the end of the then current term.
Evoking the first example (the “sometime before”) clause is easy. Just send notice to the other party, of your intent to not renew the contract anytime before thirty (30) days before the end of the contract. For example, send notice right now. Make sure that notice is well-documented, and get the other party to acknowledge the notice.
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I see cars that have messed up carfaxes because the dealerships write damage on LF fender or undercarriage damage car towed.
How do you tell your customer 3 years later sorry .
One of our customers won a $4500 lawsuit from a local Audi dealership for this mistake .I advertise the fact that your data is private and will not be posted on the internet.
A few people have said they read about data sharing on my website and would not go to a dealer or chain type of re[air center ever again.
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You cant beat Demandforce scheduler interface with Mitchell, $300 a month would be a lot if your shop does not have a very tech savvy customer base and lots of email addresses.Why would you want to pay for someones email address. We get the email addresses of 80 % of our customers on the first visit.
I use I use customer link for direct mailings.I love the ease of downloading my customer data info into excel.Then you can sort your data and send promotions very relevant to your customers.
I contact my customers 2-3 times per month by email and every 3 months by a postcard. They can opt out very ez .We have a very low rate of people opting out of 2400 real email addresses with about 300 opting out,about 5 customers pissed about so much email and snail mail.
Tom teaches ,not to worry so much about the few people but focas on the masses.
Joseph Gibson wrote:
> Demand Force does have a good program, but it’s not for everyone. for some shop owners the 12 month commitment, high cost of email acquisition and lack of direct mail support make can be real issues.
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> The bottom line is that it’s critical that you have some type of program in place for customer retention and online reputation management (as well as new customer acquisition). Just make sure you do you your research before committing to anything with any marketing group. You have options, so make sure you explore them all thoroughly so you don’t end up stuck in a contract with a program you’re not happy with.
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target goal 55
we have 2 guys who do 50 all the time 2 that do in the 40’s
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20%
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Depending where you look we have over 500 real reviews .
We are using demand fores to get more customers to make appointments in advance ,during their current service. 14 day ahead of the date they will get the chance to re schedule and 4 day the same. The first thing they service advisers do is open the dashboard and do follow up calls, emails and check surveys and try to resolve problems. We also started to follow up every day and try to get them in. This is a new system that the guys are fighting me on. Lots of real phone work.
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after 5 days i can say i more than got my money back on the lost appointments alone. This tool makes it easy to get people to commit to their next service.
