Quick Management Tips from Automotive Management Network

BAre the people at your front desk too technical? Does your shop have a good incentive pay plan? Do you have options available for your customers? Check out the latest Auto Shop Monthly Management Tips from the Automotive Management Network to get inside secrets on managing your shop and increasing your bottom line.

Don’t Get So Technical!

It is often said that some of the worst people to have at your front counter are former or current technicians. Yes, it is helpful that they “know the product”, but too often they know it too well in the sense that they go into far more detail than most customers care to hear. When someone fixes your furnace at home, how interested are you in the detailed functions of a home HVAC system? A few of us are, but most of us just want to know that it will heat the house when we turn it on and how much we owe the furnace guy. Give customers the initial information in a brief summary and make it clear that you are more than happy to go into as much detail as they would like. We often do not realize that the customer on the other end of the phone is tapping their foot trying to get back to whatever they were doing while we drone on about fuel trim. It’s just not all that exciting to most folks…really!

Significant Incentive Pay – For Everyone!

One thing that you will typically find in successful repair shops is a good incentive pay plan. Sales and gross profit based for service advisors and parts staff, and production based for techs. A decent blend of a basic base with significant incentive works nicely for many shops. Often shops do have a blend, but in most cases the base is too high and the incentive is too low, which severely reduces the benefits of an incentive pay plan. Other shops have excellent success with 100% incentive pay. Generally, shops with little or no incentive pay have low production and therefore low profits. Spend some time creating a solid plan that is fair to you, your employees and your customers.

You Like Options – So Do Your Customers!

“Here is the fix and the price. Take it or leave it.” Hmmmm. Maybe I’ll just leave it. Or… “Here are your options. You can do it this way with the best warranty for $X, or this way with a good warranty for $Y”. There are multiple ways to do almost any repair or service, and usually more than one of them provides a reasonable repair without doing substandard work. You have a better chance of making a sale by offering yes or yes, instead of yes or no. If you do not already offer options, try it…you might just be surprised how much your customers will like it.