Up sells ?

[chevyguy]

I'm from the old school of thought and came from the shop that you didn't fix it unless it was broke. 15 years ago we had more work then we could handle. Todays cars (even GM) don't need as much service and now they even want us to wait until the "Change oil Light" comes on for that. With that we increasingly have ro's with just an oil change billed out.

We promote tires, coolant flush, Trans service, filters, brakes and rotors. But we do hold back on tune-ups until 100,000 miles
What ever happened to the days of mufflers and driveability problems ?

Well I know there days gone by and we need to change our ways, but what do you sell on these new cars ?

Need some ideas !!!!

[Mike Vogel]

The bottom line is cars/trucks these days are built better and supposedly need less maintenance. The reality I believe is that we will need to do a better job of customer retention, will have to service more vehicles to make the same amount of money as before and be more competetive with the independents that continue to take away our customers.
Good processes, comepetetive pricing, the right personnel are the main keys to increasing customer retention.
The sooner service advisors and technicians realize that the past is just that, the past and move on to doing what's needed today the better off that store will be.
It can be done and is being done across the country, it's just not the free ride we all had in the 80's and early 90's.
As far as what to sell, stay ethical, follow the maufacturer's recommendations and your customer's will come back.
The days of 2.0 or 2.5 hrs per ro are gone and probably will never be seen again.
Focus on customer retention and those customers will spend money with you, they are loyal !

[flyboy]

Just a thought to interject in this discussion.

Since we have vehicles that need so much less "repairs", is it real to limit the number of high level, "A" level, techs? I have seriously been thinking about running with several UTI, WTY type of techs, and one or two "diagnostitions" to take care of the diagnosing and more difficult jobs.

In the end, their certainly would be more gross. Paying a group of techs 10-12 hour and a diag guy 25, the gross is definitly there.

But there most likely would be more turn over, as the green techs become better qulified and pay scales prohibit getting back into the same boat we are now, they would go to one of your stores to make the kind of maney a better tech should get.

I just wonder if the industry is leading us to such a compilation and if it would really work. Your thoughts?

[Mike Vogel]

I would tend to agree with you about techs. It seems like with all the new technology coming out combined with very little maintenance & repairs the future shops will probably be made up of master techs and lube techs. I feel sorry for the guys that are somewhere in between because there will be less work suited to their qualifications.