Well, as we have studied and reported previously, it can cost a shop owner $450 to get a new customer…if they are just going to visit you once and then head off to the next shop when they offer something cheaper in the next coupon packet, what’s the point in spending all that money?

One of the most important things to understand is that GREAT advertising is only as good as the service received by the new customer who responds to your advertisement. Assuming your shop is already providing cutting-edge customer service, there is still more to accomplish!

How do I know? Well, my shop did $22,500.00 yesterday with only 5 technicians and two writers…

Want to know more?

The trick to making sure my shop is maxed-out month after month is making sure that the customer doesn’t get a chance to forget about us and why we’re special. We are different from other shops in the approach that we use…we educate customers, and never sell to them. But that is easily forgotten in today’s busy world…unless we make a POINT of keeping that information in front of them.

Are your customers excited as ours about their email newsletters?

We do this by using a fantastic, no-hassle, email newsletter product that people LOVE and that they FORWARD again and again.

That’s an important point: it has to be enjoyable and it can’t be annoying. Getting your message out there consistently can only work if people want to read it!

Now, this isn’t some sales pitch for OUR email newsletter…it’s my pitch for using one PERIOD. Ours increases visits from our best customers 1-2 per year each, and in this economy, you NEED a solution like that.

Here’s a way to narrow down your choices, no matter who you decide to use. Any newsletter you choose should be:

1. Professionally designed. This is not the time for an artistically-inclined family member to take over your shop’s marketing (that time is never, by the way)
2. Easy to read. I mean that two ways: it needs to sound professional and it can’t be overly technical.
3. Full of UNIQUE articles. Copying and pasting articles from a website is more than illegal, it breaks the golden rule: be entertaining!
4. About things people WANT to read…not filled with automotive info!
5. Fast! Your newsletter shouldn’t TAKE AWAY time from your business, it should make your business EASIER to run!
6. Inexpensive. (Ours costs $97 + a $25 art charge, no matter how many emails are sent.)
7. Designed to further the trust and the relationship you worked so hard to create with the customer on their first visit.
8. Something people find so valuable that they are compelled to forward it. What other kinds of marketing get passed along to their friends?

If you’re getting all of this from your current email newsletter provider, great! I hope you’re seeing the VALUE a great newsletter can produce for your shop, ESPECIALLY in a down economy. If you’re interested in learning a little more about what we provide, drop me a line in the comments or over on the contact page.

But most all, I hope that you’re finding success during these tough economic times. It’s hard for shop owners right now, but it’s still possible to survive and grow! (Wondering how? Hit me with those questions, comments and emails, too!)

The truth is, there’s no short-cut for the work that has to be done to correct most businesses that aren’t highly successful.

This is not to insult the hard work invested by owners to survive as long as they have…but that doesn’t mean that what they focused on was best, nor does it mean it was or is or will be right.

When it comes to the consulting that we provide, what we do is provide the most efficient and effective systems to owners that we possibly can, systems we’ve developed after 38 years of owning a shop.  (That’s consecutive years, not combined.  We’ve owned Keller Bros. since 1970.)

These systems are being used by shops from coast to coast, and those shops whose owners and staff fully adopt our program experience exponential growth and consistently beat the tar out of owners who are stuck believing that “they know best” what their shop needs!

It comes down to this: if your ego is too big to let somebody else help, and if you’re too stubborn to stop paying for old systems and let go of old opinions and beliefs (all problems that led you to look for consulting help in the first place)…consulting will never work for you.

It can work…in fact, for shops owners that can get their ego out of the way, consulting can mean huge growth.  But you’ve got to understand that there’s no quick fixes or short cuts.  If you’re thinking of working with a consultant or trainer, make sure you’re ready to leave your own systems and processes behind.

Your success and the rate of your shop’s improvement depend upon your ability to do this!

Remember, there are lots of auto repair consultants out there, and lots of automotive marketing companies…no matter who you decide to work with, make the decision to jump in with both feet before you sign on the dotted line!

Your results will be much easier to attain if the consultants know what they are doing, and it will all happen much faster!

The down side of this is that it usually didn’t last! It seemed we could not sustain the results from training for more than a range of a few days to several weeks…but almost always, the majority of the information was either lost, forgotten, or discarded within 90 days.

The good news is you don’t have to put up with wasted time and money…here’s how we’ve reversed that trend in our shop…

1. Constant training…every day, every week.  We never stop teaching our staff what we expect and how they can improve.
2. We got them onto WebTools™ so we could measure everything they do, and hold them accountable to our expectations daily. We also are able to better appreciate them when they are doing it right.  The key word is accountability…set benchmarks, track their numbers daily, and make sure that both you and your service writers can see their training turn into real dollars.  (You don’t have to use WebTools™ to do this, but I think you’d be hard pressed to find a better or easier-to-use tool.)
3. We make sure that ownership is on the same page by having owners attend the training with the service and sales staff. If the owner is above what we’re trying to teach, then he’ll never get the employees to do it 100%.  Why? Because he doesn’t even know what the training specifics were, so how can the owner hold the staff accountable to performing something he didn’t attend?

But before you can make that training stick, you’ve got to get to the training in the first place, and doing that comes with a whole host of downsides…seriously, how many of you have had to deal with some (maybe even all) of the following?

1. Cost of classes is often higher than the value delivered.  $199-$399 to pick up one little gold nugget of info is too much for most of us to afford on a consistent basis!
2. Cost of travel, hotels, food, planes, cars…makes the cost of the experience skyrocket!
3. The amount of time away from the shop is often harmful to the service our customers experience, because it means we have to operate short-staffed, usually for about 3 days while the writers are traveling and in class…not good.  Lowering the level of service for a few days, so you can raise it back up for a few days??? That’s never really made much sense to me…
4. If the training isn’t fantastic, or doesn’t stick (and like I said, it usually doesn’t for long) all our money and time have been wasted. And we might have even lost a customer or two because of the understaffing we endured for the three days or so the guys were out trying to get educated.
5. The same trainer doesn’t usually do a series of classes, so when our service writers go to another trainer for more education, they end up getting mixed messages from one so-called “guru” to the next…and often the info conflicts.
6. Almost NONE of the trainers in today’s market operate a shop we can all go and see…much less a shop that is performing at the level they say you can reach.  A lot of them claim to have had crazy successful operations, but there is no evidence to back that up… no any news stories, no local legends…  So who are they to try to tell you how to do it?

There’s no denying that service writer training is incredibly important for your shop, your profits, and your long-term growth, but before we as shop owners can get the most out of it…it seemed pretty clear that some things needed to change.

Which is why we’ve decided to do things completely differently.  First off, in order to help my clients, my staff, and other shop owners and operators out there, we have taken just about every aspect of what we do and how we do it in our own $3.5 million repair shop (hitting those numbers with 5-6 techs and two writers, mind you) and broken it down into to create our training classes.

This allows us to offer a different service writer training class every other week by telephone.  By doing it this way, we’ve found that teams can stay FRESH, be taught and pointed back on track CONSTANTLY, and develop a relationship with the trainer.  The last part is huge…when the trainee starts to feel comfortable with the trainer, they begin to get comfortable enough to ask the hard questions and get the answers they each specifically need…without feeling embarrassed like they might in a one-time class in front of a bunch of strangers.

I know…I’ve gone on long enough.  I’d really like to know what bothers you when it comes to service writer training.  Anything I missed?  Drop a line in the comments below.

And if you’d like to see what this service writer training is all about, click here to  join us this Thursday (Thanks to all the shop owners who joined us! – David), when we’re going to teach a LIVE tele-class on “The Critical Points of Customer Contact, and How to Maximize Your Results by Controlling Each One!” This class is free for our consulting clients, but is only $49 for everybody else…it’s going to be a very fresh perspective (nobody’s offered this before), and is good for any shop owner, service writer, counter professional, customer service person, drive greeter, or manager who will answer a phone, or talk to any one of your customers on any occasion!

Hit me with your questions in the comments below, and air those grievances you’ve had with past service writer training!

I mean it’s one thing to give an honest compliment, to say something genuine or sincere about an admirable effort or accomplishment…

In a successful business, flattery should get you nowhere.

But it’s another thing entirely to attempt to stroke my ego with one hand while the other is reaching for my wallet…especially if this is the “effort” I get from an employee in place of hard work, instead of sticking to what I’ve asked them to do, and as opposed to honest commitment and loyalty to our customers and company.

I am sure that many people find that being flattered is reason enough to keep a person around…I can’t tell you how many shop owners I’ve seen tank their business (or come close to, anyway) because they insist on keeping around employees like these.

In some ways, I can almost understand it.  I mean let’s face it, we’re bombarded by thousands of messages on a daily basis, all of which are designed to make us feel inadequate, underpaid, unappreciated, and, well, just too fat and not cool enough…

If a person is willing to humiliate himself (or herself) and ingratiate themselves to us by licking our boots, it IS a pretty enjoyable contrast to what we see in advertisements that attack us every day.  I can’t deny that it’s a much better feeling and experience…

But is it one that’s productive, or that leads to anything genuinely valuable for either party involved?

I don’t think it is…to me it’s just another form of deception, manipulation, and trickery designed to take the place of doing the job I hired the person to accomplish, and it does not lead to any profit – certainly not in cash, and not in a longer relationship with me or my company, either.

It’s as FALSE as it is EMPTY.

Yes…I hope that at least one person can come away from it with the commitment to STOP trying to fool people with flattery and just do the work you’ve been asked to do …or just as importantly, to stop being FOOLED by flattery, and hire somebody who is concerned more with making you happy because they’re making you money.

After all, we’ve got businesses to run!  What’s more important…having your ego stroked now, or making more money for you and your family?  I think that’s the real choice…

Have different or additional thoughts?  Please reply below…let’s start a dialog!

I call it the “first quarter” of the sales “game” concept. It’s the difference between a $15.00 oil change and a $350.00 average ticket!

The idea is this: when a person comes in for a quick service like an oil change, it’s important that we understand that we are dealing with an entirely different customer than the one who comes in on a tow hook, or who is seeking a diagnosis for whatever sound, smell, noise, or light that’s flashing on their dash.

The customer with the broken car KNOWS that he’s in for a process, perhaps even days. On the contrary, the oil change customer (think “fast-lube”) has an entire agenda already planned out for their day, and leaving their wheels with you for the rest of it just isn’t in the plans. So when there is a serious issue with the vehicle — be it a raw fuel link onto the exhaust or 3 broken wheel studs on the driver’s front — if you want the opportunity to capture that work at YOUR shop, there are a few things I’ve learned, (and that we teach) that you may like to adopt.

ALWAYS:

1. Tell the customer that you are going to perform a complete inspection on the vehicle when you first sign them in.

   It’s a courtesy, but it’s non-negotiable. If they try to refuse, simply advise them that you aren’t trying to “sell” them anything, but that due to the fact that the car is in your bay, you have certain responsibilities…one of which is to do your best to inform the customer of any and all needs (especially of a safety nature) and that your “regular customer” actually want and expect this valuable service, so it is policy.

   (Remember that letting them dictate that you do not do the inspection could open you up to legal liability if they then leave your shop and something falls off the vehicle and they have an accident or incur some expense!)

2. Be SURE that you begin asking questions about the HISTORY of the vehicle, and WHICH services have been performed as far as the PM goes!

   This is to open their minds to the sale and remind them that owning a car is much more than knowing where to put gasoline and where their keys are!

3. Get the vehicle pulled around and out of sight of the waiting customers IMMEDIATELY (even if you aren’t ready for it in the bay yet)!

   Customers want to feel that they are the only thing that matters to you, the second they show up…  Waiting will create doubt, feelings of neglect, and will delay the process and lower your sales!

4. Make SURE that your technician INSPECTS the vehicle FIRST, and that the customer receives the ADVISEMENT on what he finds within 15 MINUTES of signing in!

   If we wait til we have already filled the vehicle with new oil, and put the wheels back down on the ground, it’s TOO LATE! The customer is already thinking about the rest of their afternoon…their appointments, promises, shopping, etc…and whatever you say will bounce off their ears like they are filled with concrete. You MUST advise them RIGHT AWAY, BEFORE the “wheels are back down on the ground.”

5. TAKE the Customer OUT INTO the BAY to SEE what’s needed!

   Next to #4 above, this is the biggest mistake made in shops every day…people think telling someone about their needs is the same as SHOWING them…this is simply WRONG.  It will never work as well if you do it like that.)  We have found that by SHOWING the customer WHILE they are SEEING it with their OWN EYES, it is literally 5 times MORE effective in capturing the sale NOW.

Ok…now you have the 5 MOST important KEYS to CAPTURING the SALE in your Oil Change operations.  The only question left now is:  Are you a good enough LEADER to MAKE IT HAPPEN EVERY TIME?

It’s changes like these that can turn around your Average RO and start to make you some real money…and the good news is, this is only the tip of the iceberg.  If you’re ready to increase the average of EVERY RO, I want to help you commit…so I’m knocking the price of my Superior Service Advising CDs — a 3-CD audio class full of the meat and bones of EXACTLY what you need to do to increase every repair order –  from $187 down to $97.  Learn more and order now (this price is only for Twitter/blog readers, and you can only get it here).

One last thing…I know there are some of you out there who want to make small changes like these to turn around your Average RO, but you can’t find the right people to make it happen, or can’t find right customers who appreciate service like this or spend money.

I know because I’ve seen and helped hundreds of shops in the same situation…you’re not alone, and you’re not out of luck.  Take a look at some of the other ways we help shops like yours and then drop me a line…I’m here to help.

One thing that is true of all advertising is that your offers and claims must be sustainable…the customer must experience everything you promised, or you’ll lose trust faster than you can say “coupon.”

Small businesses are especially at risk here because they cannot afford to advertise at the level of the large chains and outlets.  Burning customers through mediocre or even poor service that you brought in through advertising is truly suicidal.

The other thing that I see so many people doing today, is trying to undercut each other with cheaper service and lower prices…this too will absolutely kill your business! The more people you bring in on cheap offers, the more money you lose!

Why? Because consumers who consistently shop for the cheapest prices are the least loyal…they do not typically respond well to the “loss leader” style of marketing. (“Loss leading” is where you offer a service or item at lower than your cost, in order to lure them in and try to up-sell them on other items. This works well in grocery stores, but in auto repair, it’ll kill a small business!)

Training your customers to come in for cheap things can absolutely fill your bays…fill them with NO-VALUE cars, and NO-VALUE customers!

I prefer targeting the more intelligent consumer, and I don’t try to “up-sell” them. Instead, we teach them the truth about what’s in their best interest and how to get more miles out of every dollar. We use visual aids and take them into the shop and SHOW them what’s going on and explain how it could’ve been avoided…then we show them other items on the vehicle and teach them what else they can do preventatively to avoid ending up again in the same situation they’re in now only with a another system on the vehicle.

We use a much longer-term approach to our marketing and advertising that results in longer relationships with our customers. Instead of using gimmicks or trying to trick them with offers that are too cheap to believe (or to be profitable for either of us…i.e. using cheaper parts to give a cheaper price ruins the experience and the chance of them trusting you over the long term, even though you capture the sale today), we focus on an ethical, educational, and sincere approach.

If you want to know more about the advertising we used to take our little $1.2 million operation to a $3.2 million business in under three years, check out www.LongTermFix.com. It’s all available there, and we’re still using it.

So, when I advertise, I never list the name of the shop, and I often use a service like www.evoice.com in order to help me handle the process confidentially…I have a friend who is not associated with my shop record the message, and we have them email their resume (part of the message), and leave a detailed voice message….all before they even know who we are!

That allows us to review their resumes and listen to their voices up front. This is very helpful! You might be quite surprised at how much more sharply you can focus when the person is not sitting right in front of you. Sometimes an attitude comes through in the tone of voice, a large ego is often revealed, as are many other attributes that might not be desirable for this position.

Once you listen to them, and rule out the candidates who are not easily understood (marble-mouths), people who can’t follow the simple instructions left on the message, and others-you can SAVE A TON OF TIME by not meeting those applicants and instead zeroing in on the ones that really sound like what you WANT your staff to sound on the phone…people who convey a sense of hospitality, happiness, energy, and positivity!

Once I do call the best of the batch back, I am going to ask them about 20 questions, but here are the top three!

1. Are you working now, and how long have you been at this job?
2. In which areas are you certified, and are all those certifications up to date?
3. What type of work do you prefer, and what are you least comfortable with/capable of doing?

Even if you don’t ask anything else before they come in, these three questions are necessary before I am identifying my shop, and certainly before I am inviting the individual to come and disrupt my schedule and busy shop for an interview!

Remember, every time you hire the wrong person, you damage your relationships and credibility with all the other staff, and you could lose some very valuable customers…quickly!

Never hire a warm body, and seriously…take the time and make SURE the applicant FITS your NEEDS!

Please comment below, and share with us your own critical idea for interviewing and hiring!

I mean, isn’t it crazy that we’d let something we’re putting off, sit in the back of our minds and eat away at our enjoyment of everything we’re doing until we get it done…just because it’s less fun than watching TV, reading your HOA rules and regulations, or cleaning the cat’s litter box?

What a nice feeling to have it done, though…I can actually  get more than one person in my Yukon XL now…

Now that you’re thinking about the things you are putting off and how they are affecting your well being, I’d like you to take a step further into this thought and ask you how this relates to your current financial life, and your future plans…such as retirement. We all know the stock market is a mess, and that it’s scary to invest out there…even banks we’ve long trusted have taken nose-dives.

So what’s a hard working earner to do? Well, I can’t be the one to tell you that, but I am willing to share with you a few of the most critical changes I’ve made in my own finances lately. I am not a financial advisor, I am not an expert. I am simply a guy in his 40’s who refuses to start all over again, or watch his 401k and other investments dissolve, dilute, or shrink…and I don’t want to work past 50, so I have no time to sit this out and hope things change. I have to be proactive and aware of what is going on around me or I could be in some real hot water, and that’s just not an option at this point in my life.

So…first of all, in order to understand what you can afford to invest, you must first take a real inventory of your situation. I know what you’re thinking… “What if I don’t have ANY money?” Or, “What if I am in serious debt?” Or maybe even, “Investing isn’t a reality for me!”  It’s ok…no matter WHERE you are in the list above, what I am going to share with you will help you snap out of your current state and into more control of your personal situation, so that you may pay off debt, reduce expenses, find better rates on your money, and help you feel free.

To get a clear picture of where you’re at, there are several resources I recommend! First register at www.Mint.com , it’s free and it could truly change your life if you are honest with yourself and take action on what you find there. This is a site that will allow you to see ALL of your money matters at a glimpse…every account in one place…and that’s just the start. I can’t begin to explain it all (and this is no infomercial), so just trust the author a touch, and go there and register…almost every one of you will be impressed, I am sure.

Second of all, consider setting up an electronic savings account with a good, solid, well reputed bank that offers superior rates to your local savings and loan. I am here to tell you, I have been investing cash into my ING Direct Orange Savings account for years at www.INGdirect.com , and have consistently earned rates far above ANYTHING my bank offers, and we run literally MILLIONS of dollars through the local bank every YEAR! I like to sweep about 3-5% of every deposit into a high yield savings account, or even a money market (as long as there are no fees).  That way I can sweep some or all of it back into my business checking when needed for the business (tax time, crises, etc.).  I also deposit a minimum of 10% — and try to push closer to 30% —  of my take home pay into a separate higher-yield savings account or money market checking account.

Third of all, consider investing in metals. I personally like gold coins. I do not recommend numismatic coins…instead I do “semi-numismatic coins.”  Those are the ones that are minted pre-1933, and therefore are not subject to government recall as they did with the gold bullion in the 1930’s (and could again)! I do not recommend how much a person should invest there, but have heard form very reliable sources that it should not be more than 5-20% of your total investments…so be careful. If you want a great broker that I have worked with for some time, email me and I’ll give you his number and name. The most important thing here, is to do a TON of research and talk to several people before you buy…be particular in your understanding of the “spread”, which is the commission you will be charged to purchase. It can be truly exorbitant, and ruin the chance of a decent return on your investment. Also avoid listening to all the hype on metals…find a good broker and start there.

Finally, I suggest that you list every budget item…all your monthly expenses and get RID of as many as you can. Start with the highest interest credit card you have. Take it out of your wallet or purse, and then begin to pay more off on that each month. Pay as much as you can while still saving some money in the savings account. You can find expenses that you do not desperately need every week…take the money you save form avoiding them and write a check every week to your highest interest debt. It will change your life and free you. I sold my ATV this year, which got rid of a $200.00 per MONTH storage unit! Now I can take that $200.00 and put it toward more important things, like SAVING and INVESTING in my FUTURE!

So…no excuses left…get at it, and PLEASE comment below and I’d really love it if you came back and commented over the next few months…lets help each other keep the commitment and make the recovery in our own homes!

No wonder so many businesses are struggling! I mean there are major brands out there disappearing! Wouldn’t you think that by now, people would start to realize that the old ways of doing things are not working for them?

It’s not enough to just come in on Monday and HOPE that things are going to work out this week. It’s CRITICAL that we take on the perception and responsibilities of WINNERS…and yes, I said RESPONSIBILITIES…

Crazy, huh? Well, let me put it to you this way…do you think that Lance Armstrong had to accept a greater responsibility to win all those bike races?

How about John Elway, when he quarterbacked the Denver Broncos to TWO Super Bowl wins? What if John or Lance just “showed up on Monday” and waited to see how things were going to “happen?”  Do you suppose either of them would have experienced the kind of fame, income, and admiration if they had just waited for a “lucky break?”

I think not.

I start out every week, (and every day for that matter), by taking a personal inventory each morning. By that, I mean that I wake up, stretch, and get into a mind frame of taking full responsibility for everything in my life. My health, my attitude, my income, my debt, and so on. Once there, I can easily see what I need to focus on personally, and I can make a short list of TODAY’S ACTION ITEMS.

It’s really important NOT to make a list bigger than I can get accomplished today…and preferably before noon! (It feels so GOOD to reach a feeling of accomplishment midway through my day, that it often fuels me to do another list at lunch time!)

I make my list in two categories. Items I need to accomplish myself, and items to DELEGATE to my team and staff.  Then, depending upon what time it is in the AM (I am known for starting a bit before the team arrives at the office, like say 4 AM…), I usually call the team and begin, one at a time, visiting with each of them. I always focus first on their lives (“How was your evening/weekend?”), and let them tell me about their life and what’s going on…then I gently point them back to the day and I let them know clearly what I need and expect from them today. I always try to take care to explain the “why” rather than just give orders. I find they are much more conducive to my ideas and directions that way.

Once we accomplish that, I then set out to work on checking off each item on my own list, as time allows! It’s a wonderful way to keep things moving forward and making sure that even if something isn’t right during the day, progress RULES!

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!

Even though we have become very adept at marketing and advertising our business, Back-to-School, Christmas, and Tax Week have never made it off the bottom of our “busy times” list!

Our secret to success, though, is that we actually have a plan for these tougher times that increases morale and helps prevent comebacks! By planning ahead while sales are taking a dip, we’re actually preparing our shop to make even more money once the slowdown is over!

We do this in three ways: internal/cross-training, to make sure that our shop is prepared to handle an influx of cars; image management and beautification, to make sure that our shop’s image gives our neighbors a great impression of our facility and staff; and by marketing on a seasonal plan, where we make our biggest push in the month leading up to a seasonal slowdown.

Internal Training/Cross-Training

The secret, we’ve found, is to focus on the areas in which our shop is most limited during the busiest periods.  By removing the bottlenecks and, as a result, increasing our capability (and therefore our capacity), we prepare to make more money every year!

How do we do this in our shop?

Say, for instance, you have a guy who flashes proms, and does your heavy diagnostic work.  Schedule the next most talented technician to spend a couple hours per day with that top diag guy.  By the time the shop is busy again, he too will be able to flash proms and confidently perform deeper diagnostics (You’ll likely be amazed what 8-10 hours of training like this can do.).

(And of course, great diag work helps your shop stay busy, even when car counts drop off!)

For instance, if you have an alignment machine in your shop, it’s likely you have one guy who is the primary alignment tech. Have each of the other techs spend an hour or two with him during slow times, so that every tech in your shop is adept at alignments.  The next time your alignment technician is sick or on vacation, your shop won’t lose that revenue!

In our shop, we train all of our staff to help us with estimating and parts sourcing and to do so in the proper way! Imagine how many more dollars you could push through your shop when you are buried in cars if, instead of sitting around watching his tool box rust, your tech would grab a work order and help with sourcing parts and building the estimate!

Just because your service writers are buried in recommendations and your techs don’t have approval doesn’t mean that your shop has to act like a clogged drain!

Image Management and Beautification

When our shop is slow, I pay my techs and other employees to paint, drywall, pour new concrete pads for lifts, hang Christmas decorations, pass out flyers at the local movie theater, et cetera, just to keep them productive and to get a handle on our image – all while filling the pipeline with work for next week or month.

There are two things that are important to remember and consider, however:

First, control the number of hours you can afford to pay for each job by creating a budget and sticking to it; and second, assign the guys to the work based upon: a) your budget and what you can part with (remember to spread it around!); b) their hours flagged that period (help out the hungry!); and c) their willingness to participate in this most important work! (Whiners and complainers move to the back of the line!)

If you plan for these things and undertake a minimum of preparation (such as having a few gallons of matching paint on hand, budgeting a few extra bucks each month when you’re busy, writing lists year round of things that need mending or maintenance, etc), you can turn slow times into times of personal and team growth . . . and you can improve your team’s trust in you to take care of them, even when things are hard.

At the same time, too, you are readying the business for the next rush period.  You’ll definitely see the team perform more quickly, more efficiently, and with greater teamwork – and, we’ve found, they’ll take better care of the facility and equipment when they have each personally worked so hard to make it nice themselves!

Remember: when it comes to running a successful shop, image is everything.  How your facility and staff look creates an expectation for the customers before they ever even reach your front counter or pick up a phone to call.

Marketing Before A Slow Period

Perhaps the best way to increase sales during period when you know your shop will be slower than usual is to ramp up your marketing before your car count starts to drop.

In our shop, we’ve set up a seasonal marketing plan where we stop any slowdown in its tracks by stepping up our marketing & advertising 1-2 months before sales normally start to dip.

For instance, we know that our shop’s car count typically begins to slow down in late November for the holidays.  To counteract this, we increase our marketing efforts in October (and earlier), so that when that typical slowdown comes around (while other shops are experiencing a drop in sales), the marketing and advertising from the previous month are continuing to bring us great customers.

Since we know that the big companies and chains will be investing a huge amount of money when it slows down so that they can be sure to grab as much of the available business as possible, we know we must beat them to the punch,  to be sure we get our share of those customers first!

Besides the timing of your marketing efforts, however, what those pieces say is just as important.  In our shop, we constantly focus on doing “replacement marketing,” where we aim to market only to customers that we want in our shop.  After all, if your shop is anything like ours, we don’t have time for the cheap, discount-seeking customers that typical advertisements bring in.

Instead, we focus on bringing in people who want to take care of their car, and who are focused on quality over price.  By concentrating on these customers, we guarantee higher sales year-round, and by stepping up advertising efforts in the month or so before a slowdown, we make sure that we have a steady stream of quality customers all year long.

Of course, finding great customers is a topic all of its own.  If you’re interested in using the right kind of marketing in your shop, I’ve written a free e-book which you can download on my website at www.autoprofitmasters.com. Drop by and learn how you can keep your shop busy and profitable all year!

David Rogers is the President of Auto Profit Masters, an active member of the National Speakers Assn., and is operator of Keller Bros, Inc., a CarQuest National Excellence Award-winning shop. David is the host of a weekly television program in Denver called “The Monday Morning Mechanic” and is also a published author.  David can be reached at coach@autoprofitmasters.com, toll-free at 1-866-826-7911, or online at www.AutoProfitMasters.com.