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A favorite of many members – short, to-the-point management tips. New tips are added regularly. Premium Membership is required for access..

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#270 “FREE AIR” Marketing

Updated
October 30, 2019

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Not very long ago, adding air to a tire or inflating pretty much anything was a pretty simple deal. Compressed air was free and just around the corner for many of us. Today we have moved to air being hard to find, and you must pay for it!

If you have a repair shop, you have compressed air. Sticking a line through the wall to the outside and hanging a hose is usually a pretty simple task (bringing the hose in when closed is recommended). Add a FREE AIR sign or two. Mention it in your marketing. Offer to assist people when they pull up.

It won’t take long before everyone in the area knows where to find free air. What an opportunity for a shop looking to add some new customers!

#269 Get Rid of Your Website – and Your Email, Too!

Updated
October 12, 2019

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This tip is not for everyone. It is for the shops which have a website that boasts an air conditioning special – in January – in Michigan. It is also for the shops that check once every week or so to see if someone has used the contact form on their website.

All these shops are doing is irritating people and making the shop look incompetent. Websites need to be checked at least weekly to make sure all is current and working OK. Contact forms and shop emails should be monitored live during business hours so contacts and emails will be replied to quickly. If you have a website (which you should), keep it current and monitor it like your phone.

#268 Are You a Ghost

Updated
August 26, 2019

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Do you sometimes just vanish? Not literally, but do you do a disappearing act when you are expected to call, show up, reply, carry through, etc.? It has become one of the worst bad habits in people of all ages. If you are getting dozens of contacts from the guy trying to sell you an extended warranty for your car it’s perfectly acceptable to not reply. But most folks deserve a civil response. Return the call. Reply to the email. Do what you said you would do, and have it completed when you said you would. And show up! Everything is becoming trackable very quickly. Including your ghost performances. Sooner or later these will bite you in the backside.

#267 After Hours Customer Vehicle PICK-UP Simplified

Updated
July 29, 2019

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For after-hours drop-off, most shops have had some kind of a key drop-box for many years. However, when customers picked up their cars after hours shops commonly have hidden keys in various locations while often leaving the car unlocked. But now more and more shops have some kind of a dedicated box that is not unlike the drop-off box secured to an outside wall. One of the most popular is a type of cell phone locker that has combination locks so customers can pick up the keys at their convenience while their car remains securely locked. The six-compartment version can be found online in the $250 to $300 range.

#266 A $250 Marketing Tour of Your Shop

Updated
July 10, 2019

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If you have surfed homes for sale websites during the last few years you have watched virtual tours of houses. Realtors will typically spend $200 to $300 to have this done. The same companies who offer the service can come to your shop and do the same thing. The process takes about an hour and can be done when the shop is open in most cases. The tour can then be integrated with Google Maps and used on your website allowing potential customers to take a good look around at where they will be bringing their vehicle. Transparent and impressive!

#265 How to Fire Customers Who You Don’t Want to Return

Updated
June 28, 2019

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When you and I are asked how to do something we normally respond with an action of some kind. But sometimes inaction works just as well. The typical successful shop today spends a lot of time and effort marketing as does its local competition. If you stop marketing to someone chances are good that they will wander off to a competitor who is begging them to come in with their marketing.

However, don’t stop after checking the “no marketing” box in your software. Cut and paste phone numbers, emails, and addresses into the customer note field and leave the designated fields for them blank. Nothing more than their name needs to exist in the “visible” customer data. When customer info is pulled for any kind of marketing campaign they won’t be included.

Now all you need is patience. Some will disappear quickly while others will take some time. As for the ones that still won’t leave – use the traditional advice you’ve heard on how to make them go away. Odds are there won’t be very many.

#264 Toolbox – Have You Disowned Yours Yet?

Updated
June 6, 2019

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If you are a shop owner or manager attempting to run a shop the worst thing you can do is grab a tool and head for a car. But if you bring your toolbox (and common tools) home, or sell it, or give it away, or get it out of there somehow you will be spending more time managing as you should be doing. Talk to any shop owner who has done this, and I challenge you to find one who says it didn’t turn out well. The shop ends up being better managed which means profits increase. Plan to make that toolbox disappear this weekend!

#263 Management Software and Your “A” To Do List

Updated
May 21, 2019

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If you have that constant nagging feeling that your shop management software system is dragging you down, then quit losing money and do something about it. Maybe that means there are things that can be done with your current software. Or, maybe it means the relationship should be over. Since the software is (or should be) the hub of your entire operation if it is inadequate you are losing money. In many shops, great software is allowing for large sales and profit increases without adding staff. Might as well join them if you haven’t already.

#262 Efficiency in the Shop – Start Talking

Updated
May 4, 2019

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“It doesn’t work well. It’s too noisy. I look weird like I’m talking to myself.”

Voice to text. Incredible technology, but it does take a bit of practice to achieve great results.

1: Use a tablet or phone. Desktops and laptops often do not work well.
2: Talk at a moderate speed. Enunciate your words.
3: It will not work well with a lot of background noise. Try: In the car. In the parts room. In the tool room. In the office area. In the parking lot.
4: People are spending more time talking to devices of one kind or another, so it doesn’t look as weird as you think.

The potential for more technician produced hours is significant when you eliminate most or all the typing. The sooner you can get everyone on board the sooner everyone will be earning more.

#261 Certifications and Technician Tools

Updated
April 25, 2019

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You want your techs to get certified but getting them to do it is a challenge. How about every area of certification gets them $10 per week on the tool trucks? Techs like it. Spouses love it. For the typical shop today, there are about a dozen areas of certification that would be applicable. Nothing quite like having all your techs master certified – especially when you point it out to your customers.

#260 Employee Search – Don’t Stop Now!

Updated
April 17, 2019

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You succeeded! You finally found that tech or advisor or manager or another staff member who you’ve been searching for so long. Now you can move on to other things, right?

Unfortunately, those days are gone for the foreseeable future. Today you need to “always be hiring”. Always looking, always advertising in some manner, always making just one more contact.

As you make it a habit it will become easier and more natural. Develop a system that works for you and spend some time on it every week. Odds are this will make a huge difference as you move your shop forward.

#259 How to Get Great Photos for Your Marketing

Updated
April 9, 2019

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Odds are that a professional photographer can take far better photos than you. And the cost just might surprise you – lower than many would guess. Considering the impact that fantastic photos can have on your marketing efforts the fee will be a bargain for many. It’s the kind of thing that every shop should schedule every year or two to ensure their marketing has a professional appearance.

#258 Training – Techs Won’t Go!

Updated
March 28, 2019

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Unless a tech is a training addict, he (or his spouse) is thinking that I am taking an evening or Saturday away from home for zero pay. He’s right. It’s only fair to pay him an hourly rate for his time. It’s not unusual to see the attendance of local training skyrocket once a reasonable amount of money is added to the equation. Times have changed. Free mediocre pizza doesn’t cut it any longer. It’s time to step up and write that check.

#257 Blocking Spam, Telemarketers, and other Nuisance Contacts

Updated
March 20, 2019

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There is no perfect email or phone blocking or filtering system. There never will be one. That means that if you attempt to filter out nuisance contacts you are guaranteed to also filter out contacts that you would have wanted to receive. Contacts that may have made you money or offered some other opportunity that you would have liked to know about. Learn to accept the bad with the good. Remove all filters from your business emails and phones. And don’t believe it when your smartphone says “Scam” or something similar. Sometimes your smartphone is dumb. My phone recently designated a shop owner friend as a scam call and my son nearly missed a good job offer because he had a call blocker turned on.

#256 Employee’s First Day is Huge

Updated
March 13, 2019

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This is the day that you can save yourself many hours of management time and many thousands of dollars. If any of your policies are not followed, day one is the time to address it. For less critical things let them know exactly how it should work and make it crystal clear that you expect them to follow your rules. For more critical things – for example, showing up late – tell them emphatically that this is unacceptable and consider this to be their first warning. If you let things slide because you don’t want to get into a conflict right off the bat, then you can plan on constantly getting into conflict this person on the things you let slide for as long as they work for you.

#255 Yesterday’s Email

Updated
February 27, 2019

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One rule of being efficient is handling each incoming piece of information once and be done with it. That makes sense. However here is one idea that some folks find very helpful. Perform a quick scan daily of the senders and titles from all email that arrived yesterday. The point is not to go over things twice or rethink them. The point is that occasionally you will see something that somehow snuck by when it should have been handled in some way. Or new information may have arrived after that email which would change how you handle it. Occasionally, you might just prevent a disaster!

#254 Get Successful Faster

Updated
February 13, 2019

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As business grows, the typical approach is to gradually improve the look of the shop and when business is great, we make the shop look great. But what if we want to speed up the process? Change your allocation of funds so that more goes to cosmetics initially. Seek out the most successful shops in the area and work on making yours look better. This is the number one way that you will attract new customers. The best-looking shop is perceived as the most successful shop. Look like the shop you want to be – then you will become that shop faster.

#253 Auto Technician Help Wanted Ads That Work

Updated
January 29, 2019

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If you want to attract more applicants offer something no one (or almost no one else) offers in your market. Will your cost of doing business increase? Probably. Adjustments will likely be required somewhere to maintain your profits. Add one or two of the following to your ad title.

Childcare
Four-day work week
More vacation weeks
Student loan payoff assistance
Tool allowance

#252 Finish Eating What’s on Your Plate

Updated
December 30, 2018

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Running a small business – certainly an auto repair shop – asks you to be the ultimate multi-tasker. Don’t do it. It’s not efficient. It is highly stressful. Just take care of the one “A” priority item that is front of you right now (assign an “A”, “B”, or “C” to everything on your version of a “to do” list). Focus on that one thing. Get it 100% (not 99%) done. Then if there is enough time remaining today you can select another “A” item. Try it. It works.

#251 Marketing – Cheap. Effective. But Very Few Do It.

Updated
December 19, 2018

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Where we live in SW Florida not a week goes by that someone does not knock on our front door offering a service of one kind or another. Lawn care, pool maintenance, fertilizing, and roof inspection are a few examples. Most are polite, well groomed, smile and have a handout with information about what they do. They don’t do it because it doesn’t work. Auto repair is a perfect candidate for this type of marketing. The customer gets to see your face, hear your voice and get the impression that you are seriously interested in their business. At our shop we have an advisor, or another employee regularly visit more than a hundred neighboring businesses. It is by far the most effective marketing that we do. Maybe you should try it, too.

#250 Technician and Advisor Efficiency and Computers

Updated
December 10, 2018

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How many of your desktops and laptops have solid state drives? While the cost is higher the difference is like day and night with a speed increase for many tasks of X5. Really. At this writing the cost of upgrading a computer (that is not too old) is in the $300 to $400 range. If your current computers are dinosaurs anyway, then make sure the replacements have SSD. Add up all the time your entire staff spends in a week, month, or year watching the spinning wheel and you will see the efficiency benefits. Get your techs back working on the car!

#249 Does Your Shop Management Software Do Too Much?

Updated
November 26, 2018

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There are a few shops out there who have a staff of computer wizards, but not very many. In most shops the staff is average when it comes to computer expertise. So, when we give them software with what seems like hundreds of bells and whistles – especially if not very intuitive, they can get overwhelmed and overstressed. Every one of those features may have a fantastic purpose, but are there so many of them (maybe not all that well arranged) that they have a negative effect on shop efficiency? If reasonably intelligent employees cannot become proficient and comfortable with a software within 30 days, you may want to consider something a bit more user friendly.

#248 Simple Fix for Employees Coming in Late

Updated
November 7, 2018

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This idea works well with many employees. Shorten their work day. If they can’t make it in by 8:00, tell them you understand, and their new start time is 8:30. But don’t add hours on elsewhere. Try it for a week or two and if still coming in late make it 9:00. Sooner or later the problem will take care of itself. The tech will love the new lower paycheck as will Mrs. Tech when he brings it home. If not, she just might help him make it to work on time.

#247 Reduce Your Management Effort and Get Better Results

Updated
October 21, 2018

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A typical shop owner or manager spends far too much time reinventing the wheel. Some management decisions are unique and require a lot of thought and effort, but most do not. They’ve been made already countless times in other shops. Many of us do get input from other shop owners or managers, but then we spend far too much time reanalyzing it.

When you have an issue that has been thoroughly researched by successful shop owners, and decisions were made with decent results – why research it further? Just do it. Odds are heavily in your favor that it will work well and for the few times that it doesn’t you can reevaluate and make changes as needed.

#246 The Booked Ahead Problem

Updated
October 3, 2018

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Customers today are looking for prompt service. A shop that is well managed can normally get a car in and at least take an initial look at it the same day or the next. The most profitable shops are rarely booked ahead more than day or so. Which means they operate efficiently, they have enough staff, their prices are appropriate, and there is a lack of unprofitable customers. Shops that are constantly booked ahead several days or even weeks typically have one or more of these issues. That means less profit and all the other negatives that accompany less money to go around.