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#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.

#245 Once a Day EASY Marketing

Updated
September 17, 2018

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As you move throughout your shop during the day watch for anything that could be interesting to a vehicle owner. Which is not as complicated as one might think. Things you see everyday are things that many customers have never seen including almost everything on the underside of a car. Take a photo or two and load them on your social pages. Add a brief description. When you take the photos always make sure to have open or glass bay doors behind you to prevent glare. Once you’ve done it a few times you will find the whole process to be both quick and easy – and people will look at them!

#244 Dynamic Pricing

Updated
August 27, 2018

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Does it make sense to maintain a constant price on a service regardless of circumstances? Or would it make more sense to adjust that price related to a variety of factors? The latter is standard procedure at many businesses and we expect it. The best examples are hotels and motels.

Some shops today are doing something similar. Factors may include seasons, days of the week, weekends, holidays, weather – or any other factor that causes business to increase or decrease. Many shop management software systems allow for adjustments to be made quickly and easily making this one more option in your management tool box.

#243 Easily Improve Staff Communications

Updated
August 10, 2018

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There are several low cost or free programs available that can greatly improve the communications within your shop. One of the most well known is slack.com. It’s kind of a supercharged internal system of messaging and email and forums that gives you a single dashboard where it all comes together. Simple to learn. Uses are limited only by your imagination. “Channels” for low inventory, equipment needs, training, projects, suggestions, estimating, and announcements are some of the channels that we created. You can message one person or any number of people with one message. Access to areas can be limited to certain individuals. Send attachments. Easily find anything that was discussed days ago or years ago. Integrate with Twitter, OneDrive and a host of other apps. There’s much more you can do, but those are the things we did to get started.

#242 Losing Touch?

Updated
July 26, 2018

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Some owners and managers are regularly involved with the “front counter” but others are hardly ever exposed to all that goes on. If you are closer to the latter, once every 30, 60 or maybe 90 days get 100% involved. Get up there and do everything that your advisor does for a half or entire day. Everything. Odds are that each time you will come away with multiple ideas on how you could make the process better, more efficient, more profitable – and easier on your advisor!

#241 Pay Systems

Updated
July 9, 2018

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If I ask your technicians and advisors to explain their pay system to me could they do so accurately in less than a minute? Or would they need several minutes to show me a spreadsheet with a set of guidelines on how to do the calculations – maybe stopping occasionally to ask someone else at the shop exactly how to figure something out?

Many shop owners assume all the employees understand the pay systems as well as they do – but often they do not.

Remember that if they do not fully comprehend specific incentives you will lose most of the effect of incentives.

It’s very easy to over complicate pay systems and many shops do just that. Techs and advisors often hope the paycheck is pretty good because they don’t really know exactly what to expect once the pay period is completed. Most employees do not like overly complex pay systems. The best pay systems are ones where they can know at any point in time exactly what their pay is going to be with a handful of mouse clicks.

#240 How to attract Techs in a Way Almost No One Does

Updated
June 19, 2018

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Among the top 5 benefits that technicians want is a “generous tool allowance”. Less than 20% of shops offer any tool allowance at all. If we consider “generous” to be $100 or more per week, the number drops to less than 5%. Need we say more.

#239 Stock Orders – The 21st Century Method

Updated
June 5, 2018

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First, all parts should always be entered into your shop management system software and all stock orders should be determined solely by your software once you have it fully set up correctly. Sales reps should never do stock orders for you.

Second, for most vendors stock orders should be done daily first thing in the morning or last thing at the end of the day by the person most familiar with your parts inventory. This will allow you to reduce inventory quantities and expand coverage if you desire.

Remember, waiting for authorizations and waiting for parts are the two biggest causes of techs being idle. The parts issue can be improved easily with this method.

#238 Simplify and Increase Maintenance Sales

Updated
May 15, 2018

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Ask ten independent shops for maintenance recommendations on a certain car and you will normally get ten different answers. No wonder customers get confused. So, why do we do that? Instead, just go with exactly what the owner’s manual says, then add in anything that obviously should be serviced even though it is not yet due.

Typical results? Maintenance becomes easier to sell. Maintenance sales increase. Customer’s cars are maintained better overall. Your job is a bit easier while your profits increase.

#237 Imprinted Advertising Items – Yes or No?

Updated
May 8, 2018

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The point with any of these items is to have your name seen over and over – ideally for years to come. Think carefully about what typically happens with an item. Does it get used once and thrown away? Is it likely to get thrown in a glove box or drawer? We want something that has a good chance of ending up in a visible place on a desk, on a dashboard, or in a kitchen or similar location. Examples for a desk might be letter openers and cell phone stands. Another thing to consider – does it have a good size area for imprinting? Once you’ve chosen an item, your shop name in letters as big as possible is all you really need. The rest of your information should be seconds away on a device.

#236 Designing your Sign

Updated
April 30, 2018

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Ask yourself how often do you write down a phone number or website or other information off a sign that you see (other than for the used boat for sale at the end of the street)? Me too – almost never. Most people are going to enter the name they saw on your sign into their device, locate your website and then look for the information they want. So, use that space for something else. Make your shop name as big and easy to read as possible and skip all that other stuff.

#235 What Happened at the Other Shop?

Updated
April 19, 2018

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Whenever a question arises about what occurred or may have occurred with a repair at another shop the correct answer is: “I don’t know. I wasn’t there.” Because you weren’t there, and you don’t know.

#234 A Must Ask Job Interview Question

Updated
April 12, 2018

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Add this question to your interviews and make it mandatory – “Are you concerned that this job will interfere with your life?”

#233 How to Reduce Paying Unemployment

Updated
April 6, 2018

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Don’t hire them in the first place. With the increasing amount of information available today you can predict with a great deal of accuracy whether someone fits the profile. Make this one of your top considerations. Just like the best way to manage anything at your shop don’t figure out the best way to put out fires – figure out how to prevent the fires from ever occurring in the first place.

This doesn’t mean you never let someone go or that no one ever quits. If you hire carefully you can be reasonably sure that when an employee leaves they will have another job a week from now. You can be the shop that is forever paying claims. Or the shop that has a great won loss record of fighting them – a great feeling but can be time consuming. Or you can be the shop that says: “Can’t comment much on this since no one has filed on us in years.”

#232 Pain from Working at a Computer

Updated
March 28, 2018

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Sooner or later you will likely get back or wrist pain among other issues from keyboarding all day. If you haven’t done so already, put a first-class chair or stool at the top of your office equipment buy list. Advisors and other office employees are usually not as physically worn out at the end of the day if they have great seating. Some of the best ones are made by Herman Miller, but the price can cause sticker shock – typically in the $800 to $1,500 range per chair. Used and reconditioned ones are available, however be very careful as some of these are too worn to be dependable. After you make your purchase be sure to watch the videos on how to set it up properly. As time goes on you may find this is one of the best equipment purchases you ever made.

#231 Technician Back Health

Updated
March 13, 2018

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Lifting various items during a repair has always been an issue for technicians. As wheels and tires became larger and heavier the issue has become more significant. The good news is that equipment is available to greatly reduce the problem. Several companies offer folding arms attached to the lift arms, so wheels can be moved a short distance to the left or right onto the arm without placing them on the floor and having to lift them back up. For wheels that need to be serviced or moved away from the vehicle there are special carts (or dollies) that can hold one or more wheels again preventing the need to place wheels on the floor. Most techs love both items – odds are that techs at your shop will, too.

#230 Pricing Diagnostics Differently

Updated
February 26, 2018

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Have you ever thought of menu pricing your testing and diagnostics? This would prevent the need to call for additional authorization in many cases and allow you to quote quickly and easily.

Make an educated guess at how much time and money, on average, you believe will be needed to cover costs and make a decent profit on a specific type of testing. Don’t worry if you are off – you can change it in a few seconds at any time in your software. Sometimes you will be close, other times under a little or even a lot, and sometimes come up short. Track it over several jobs and adjust it as needed. Just make sure the average is close. Work with the technicians to come up with something that is fair to the customer, to the tech and to you.

The trick is to not to give in to temptation to reduce the price when it goes very fast and easy. You will need that to offset the ones that take a while to nail down.

#229 Reduce Sick Days

Updated
February 6, 2018

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You know how much money is lost when a tech or advisor is home sick. Before flu season each year hire someone from the local medical center or doctor office or pharmacy to come to your shop and offer to vaccinate everyone for free. Of course, it is voluntary but the odds of them getting vaccinated will go way up if it requires zero extra time, effort or cost to them.