That Quiet Little Voice

With the best of intentions, almost every repair shop has taken a job that has not been in the best interest of the customer, and ultimately their shop. These types of "opportunities" start out well enough, but usually result in spending more hours than estimated and/or an unhappy customer if the repair fails. This usually happens when the service advisor ignores that quiet little voice that says; "didn't we have a similar situation that ended in disaster?"

Taking business that does not fit your strengths has at least three ill effects. The first two relate directly to lost profit: not only does the shop lose money on the ill-advised job in many cases, that unprofitable job ties up resources that could be spent on more profitable work. The third negative effect is bad word of mouth from a customer that won't be coming back to your shop. Knowing which jobs to turn away is as important as the work you decide to do, and will ensure that your quiet little voice won't become a dieseling squeal.

Understanding Your Strengths

Every shop wants to build a clientele that generates profitable repeat business. What separates the winners from the losers are shops that are able to determine which type of work and customers are most profitable, and then cultivating that business. This involves a shift from doing whatever work walks in the door, to proactively offering incentives to repeat customers, as well as, promoting the type of work that your shop can do profitable. This is a multi-step process, which involves analyzing your shop's capabilities and your customer base. After you understand the type of work you do best and which customers are profitable, your next step is to design a program that targets those customers with the kind of message that appeals to them.

Feel the Power of Information

Finding a shop management software program that can store your customer database and provide the business answers you need, is critical. One important area to consider when purchasing a management system is the reports that are generated by the program. A product such as Mitchell Management Solutions - Series I/II ® for example, provides well over 100 different reports that you can use to better understand your business.

This program lets users run reports that can help identify profitable areas of the business. The Series I/II Category Profit Summary Report can be used to find out which category of work your shop performs most profitably. The Invoice Profit Summary Report can then be used to look at those jobs in further detail by isolating the profitability of Invoices within those categories. Users can also run a Technician Productivity Report to find out the actual hours spent on a job verses the hours you charged the customer, identifying which technician are most efficient on which jobs. With this knowledge in hand, users can develop and implement a plan for promoting services with the highest likelihood for profit. A shop management software program can help you do targeted mailings to your customer base, or track coupon usage for any promotion you run.

What You Need, When You Need It

A good shop management program will also help you optimize the per-visit sales opportunities. To do this, shops need easy access to information such as parts/labor, maintenance schedules, and repair information. The Mitchell Management Solutions - Series I/II ®, for example, provides this type of information at the push of a button from within the program. This management system passes the year/make/model of the vehicle being worked on to their repair and estimating databases, saving the user additional key strokes. With this information you're able to quickly provide the type of information needed to sell more work.

Trust Equals Equity

Customers can sense when you're acting in their best interest and will respond by giving you their trust. This is what long term relationships and good business are based on. This process of cultivating profitable repeat business is a shift to a long-term view of the shop's business. This long-term view has the added benefit of building equity in your business. Maintaining a profitable customer database of repeat customers adds to this equity. If the time comes to retire and/or sell the shop, offering a database of loyal customers in addition to four walls, lifts and tools will be the key to getting the equity that you deserve from your business.

Brian Warfield is a Product Manager for Mitchell Repair Information Company. He has been in the automotive software development business for 8 years. He is responsible for steering the direction of customer oriented solutions related to Mitchell's Series Shop Management product line.

Management Article Archives:

• Setting Your Goals
• Identify your Customer
• A Killer Compensation Program for Techs
• Your Best Marketing Tool Only Costs a Quarter
• Why the Customer Never Came Back
• Enlightened Shop Management
• Still Shopping for the Best Price on Parts?
• The Seven Secrets of Skyrocketing your Sales!
• A Killer Compensation Program for your Parts Manager

Looking for a total shop management solution? Check into the industry standard: Mitchell Management Solutions Series.