"The Waiter" Word Track

[Art_Mopar]

My intent is not to eliminate "the waiting" customer entirely. Obviously the first time oil change customer who only has 3000 miles on his 2008 Dodge Caliber should not have to drop off his car all day. Where I am at with the evolution of my shop is to get my service scheduling under control once and for all. It truly does not matter how many or how few technicians I have the schedule is always the same, load up a bunch of first thing in morning drop offs, sprinkle in a fistful of waiters (oil changes, state inspections, mil lights etc.) have a few more 9am or 10am waiters show up or drop off, blow off the 11:30 am or 1:30 pm oil change call (request) because we are too busy and then run out of work at 3:30pm. Sure in the summer months we are busy because we ASK people to leave their car with us and we will work it in when we can.

[nineball]

waiters do cost money..my shop can handle 275 hours a day,we only allow 15% waiters,and no waiters on diags,the word track does work for us.If the customer insist on waiting we simply explain the time it will take to accurately repair the vehicle and offer a ride,when they try to nail us down on a time frame we simply let them know with the other shop repairs we will need your car for about 5 hours.Then they say sure i'll use the shuttle.Our CSI is green so we must not making to many people mad.........

[WILD_BILL]

Here is a simple analogy. Go to a community with one restaurant on a friday night with no reservation. Nuff said.