In a session with a client last week, something I had been trying to teach everyone for a long time suddenly became brilliantly clear to both of us...and it's going to mean a HUGE difference for his shop this year.
It's really interesting to me how time after time, repair shop owners fall for the same couple of marketing "tricks" to try and fill their bays. The truth is, if there are "tricks" to marketing your shop, they're about how you run your shop and who you're marketing to...not about tricking people into bringing their car to you...
Should you spend time reading this article? Answer this: Are my net operating profits trending down over the last 3 years - in other words, am I bleeding and don't know how to stop it?
Whenever I am hiring a technician, I've found that it's critical to ask a few questions before I even identify my business. It's important to make sure that "the word doesn't get out on the street" every time I need to upgrade or replace a staff member. No one wants to work for a shop that they have "heard" is suffering from a turnover of people. When they hear from the tool guys, the parts salesmen, and others that the shop is having "personnel problems," or "can't keep their techs," your shop is suddenly plagued by the famous Can't-Find-A-Tech-To-Save-Our-Lives disease.
One of the oddest things I run into as a consultant and advisor to business owners, is the fact that so many just show up at work each morning like a security guard, and wait for the week to "happen."
There are certain times of the year that a bit of a slowdown in customer traffic seems inevitable. These times are the ones where many teams become unproductive and unhappy. If you aren’t concerned, maybe you should be!
Your employees may not always outwardly demonstrate their dissatisfaction, and you may think that they ought to know by now that some weeks are just slow, but it’s when we relax and think we know what others are thinking that we really get in trouble!
