DealersEdge Professional Forums

Is anyone offering Home and/or Office Repair/Service? I am looking into getting started but not sure which way to turn. Are there any franchise businesses out there?

Who ever is operating I would like to know what it took to get started, what services do you offer, do you bond your techs, what tools and parts do you stock on the truck/van, certifcations needed, liabilty, etc.
Anything would be helpful.

The best suggestion I can make is to call a Cadillac store that you know people at. Our Caddy store has a roadside truck that mainly does warranty work at houses and work, even on the side of the road. I have thought for quite some time that they should also offer maintenance from the truck as well, but they have not tried it. They could tell you what they stock on the truck now though.

Know a few that have tried it over the years. If done properly, it is an excellent customer satisfaction/retention tool. The only repeated problem I saw that caused the failure of these programs was profitability. If you can get the whole dealership behind the program as a marketing effort so that service alone does not bear the total expense I think it could be a great thing. It is certainly a way to put you a step above your competition.

Need to think this one all the way thru!

Phenominal CSI booster, and yes, it does have significant impact on retention. However, (don't you just hate the "but") depending on where you live, you most likely will need to consider environmental issues.

As far as replacing SOP and Campaign items as a convenience to customers, you cannot go wrong. Load up in the AM, take specific areas of your market on specific days, you could go a long way in CSI! Customers will love that. I don't think the guy doing it would need to be flat rate or a master tech. Look for customer skills etc and give him an hourly rate with maybe a CSI push and you would be fine.

I have done a lot of research into this, maintenance is not where I would go. There are several companies targeting this, for some time now. In Las Vegas the Car Doctor has had many years of success in this area. I am certain there are others. Even GM had a push for mobile business, but the investment was cost prohibitive. But if you were to just take care of minor SOP, campaign items and such, a guy could do it in a small pick up, or car for that matter. Give consideration to the image you want to display and have at it!

Just my thoughts!

flyboy has a very common sense approach...nice post.

Tom Hawkins

man does not live by bread alone; shops do not live by SOP and recall parts alone. If your shop is over 100% stall utilization, and you are busting out at the seams, then go for a mobile system. but be prepared to loose money at it. Mobile services are great. but if you have to have 30 to 60 minutes of travel time for a repair that pays .2hrs, this is hard to stomach. but if it frees up your shop to do more important repairs, then it vould be a benefit. I priced out a full blown mobile service, and in our area where traffic is a real probelm, you would have to bill out about 10 hours per day for break even. Make a spread sheet with all the costs from gas, cell phones, tools, vehicle expenses, insurance, workers comp changes, down time for getting parts, vehicle maintnenance, cost for down time, tires, etc, its a big chunk of money. You must do the math. If you are very profitable, and looking for ways to increase CSI and your not worried about the money, then go for it. But still do the math to know what you are getting into.