old topic, new survey

[Old Irish]

For those of you with flat rate techs...

We encourage advisors to promote "free safety checks". We pay the techs .5 hour. If they upsell more than 2.0 hours the waive the .5 flag for inspection.

What is everyone else doing ? Our general manager is leaning towards the tech to do this for free because "that's what everyone else does". I have a hard time expecting flat rate techs to do that.

Comments ?

Thanks
DD

[robc]

I would think the real percentage is closer to 50/50, but I'll do a survey and find out.

I do think that the waiver might be backwards, I would suggest the other way around, you get the inspection time after so much is upsold.

------------------
** Rob, Editor Dealersedge/WD&S **
Help is only a message post away!
robc@dealersedge.com

[Old Irish]

Now *there's* and idea. It would surely put some pressure on the advisors to sell some work......

Cheers
DD

[dadogg]

We DO NOT have out Technicians flag for the Inspection, It's part of what is to be done when a customer comes in, we are to protect their investment and the technician should be looking the vehicle over anyway. Firestome and Goodyear have been doing these inspections for years and it's part of the Technicians job responsibilty , if they DO NOT perform them they get written up, second time suspension third they go home. I know for a fact that they look at it as part of what needs to be done as for every technician that we have hired or interviewed from Goodyear or Firestone has excellent skills in doing a inspection.

Hope this helps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[fopsdoc]

I struggled with this for years until I hired a dedicated tech to do 100% of the inspections. He notes the RO number and reccommendations on a form and it goes to the Advisor. I pay him (them) based on the number of hours the shop (team) turns. There will always be issues such as trying to test drive 100% of the vehicles.
At first, there will be many "kinks" you will have to work out. I takes about 2 weeks to get the system working your way.

[Old Irish]

Just to clarify....does that include pulling wheels (and, when needed, brake drums) to inspect brakes ? That's where the bulk of the labor comes from. Checking lights, wipers, tires, etc is, of course, no effort....as is a visual inpection of belts, hoses, underbody, etc.

Also, would you differentiate between a car that is *already* in the shop for other repairs versus one that it written up for a "free inspection" only ?

In other words, if the car is in the shop for other work to begin with the inspection is very little effort...especially if it already on the hoist for other repairs. But if it is written up with "free inspection" as the only item on the ticket that may be different.

Thanks for the input

DD

[MIKED]

Just curious, You have one Tech do all inspection on all vehicles that come in your shop? How many does he do a day and how long does each one take? How many Ro's per day.. Thanks , Mike... I like the idea just dont know if thats possible.

[texaslp]

I'm not 100% sure, but it may be a violation of wage and hour laws to require techs to do free inspections.

Goodyear and Firestone may have employees on salary or time clock to do theirs.

[btk]

We let the technicians know that if a repair order is stamped on the service drive-free inspection - to perform the inspection at no charge. Not every car will want or need an inspection-we ask the customer is they would like one especially on older cars. We advise the technician that when they see this stamp they need to look at it as it is an opportunity that the customer is open to recommendations that they will make. That doesnt guarantee a sale today but if we do everything correct-the customer will return for the recommendation in the future. I have seen too many times a shop is slow and the technicians complain and then you review the repair orders and see so many lost opportunities by the technicians not inspecting vehicles. We probably inspect about 70 % of all cars that come in- we dont bother inspecting newer low mileage cars.

[fopsdoc]

MIKED and Old Irish,
We put together a list of inspection procedures based on vehicle mileage. We don't pull wheels on a car unless it has over 25K miles. Trucks are 20K. The higher the mileage the more we inspect. We inspect very little on vehicles under 15K. You decide how you want the system to work. I am sure items get missed on all levels but this is 1000% better than depending on a tech to do it. A tech will only report the items he wants to perform. Keep in mind that the number of Inspectors you need depends on the size of your store. At one store (Ford), we have six. At another (Toyota) we have one. All others are in between. As I said earlier, it will take a while to get the system down that fits your store.