Labor Price Matrix

[RPMGeorge]

Does an6y body have a valid and working price matrix for labor? Something similar to the Matrix they use in the Parts departments?
I feel, that our effective labor rate is to low compared to our posted labor rate. How do you compansate for low labor intense jobs?

[MBailey]

You can have a labor matrix (a.k.a. a Labor Grid) prepared for you by Atcon. Go to their website at www.atconsse.com for ordering instructions. (The cost is nominal).

I have been utilizing a labor matrix grid for several years and it really will help to increase your ELR, but heed the following:

(1) Your advisors MUST NOT talk to the customer about how many hours the job takes, as the price for labor escalates with the amount of FRH the job entails. Instruct your advisors to sell work "by the job" (parts and labor without quoting the amount of FRH - just like plumbers and electricians have been doing for years). If the customer knows the hours involved and your posted door rate, simple arithmetic on their part will blow up your estimate.

(2) You must make sure your advisors are selling labor from the grid and not just continuing to sell FRH multiplied by your door rate. Daily R/O surveys will let you monitor this. Some dealership systems will allow you to load the grid into your flagging programs, which is great because it applies grid pricing automatically - providing the advisor sold the job at grid pricing.

Some advisors will resist the grid, as they feel it will make it harder to sell big jobs. Remember, as long as there is no talk of FRH time involved, it will make no difference in achieving the sale.

Good Luck - It Works! If you have any questions feel free to email me.

By the way - use the labor grid for Repair functions ONLY - not for Maintenance or Competitive work.
Mark W. Bailey

[This message has been edited by MBailey (edited 01-12-2002).]

[Doug]

Good advice from Mark, in my opinion.

Low effective labor rate is one of the knee-jerk reactions from the psuh in recent years to grab up as much maintenance business as we can----almost always heavily discounted. Great stuff for filling up a technician's flag sheet, not always so good for the department's bottom line !

Right now, believe it or not, I am running advertising for common *repair* jobs in an attempt to get some higher-billed-labor jobs into the shop.

Cheers,
Doug

[Louis]

I check out the www.atconsse.com web site and the matrix labor pricing system looks very interesting. How do you set it up in you computer system? We have Reynolds and Reynolds ERA system.

Thanks.

[petepuma01]

You need to be on Era release 4.3 or greater to use grid pricing-- you can check this in 6320, though most users (other than ADMIN) dont usually have access to this.

Grids are setup in 3626-- since this is a new executable, your sysadmin may need to give you access to this program.

This executable allows you to setup multiple grids based on a variety of criteria-- dept, sale type, op code type, model maint code and vehicle make.

You can then attach grids to individual op codes in 3625 or have the grid applied to all jobs by turning on the spec in 3621, spec # 51. You can set up multiple grids-- you may want one default applied to all jobs for all RO's and then other grids applied to specific op codes in 3625.

If you're on release 4.5 or greater, you can password protect the removal of grid pricing from jobs by setting spec # 52 in 3621.

This may be enough to get you going. If you need more detailed instructions, check out the Reynolds support web site at support.reyrey.com and search for the exectuables (i.e.; 3626) and you should find what you need. Or contact the Technical Assistance Center.

[This message has been edited by petepuma01 (edited 01-16-2002).]

[This message has been edited by petepuma01 (edited 01-16-2002).]

[robc]

Great helps!

by the way, that R&R website address is support.reyrey.com

[This message has been edited by robc (edited 01-16-2002).]

[flyboy]

Went to the ATCON website, looked over the info and thought it might be helpful so I ordered the matrix setup info. What I got, for $30.00, was a simple one page grid! I have one very similar to this that I was able to generate ten years ago on my own. Really dissapointed in ATCON on this one.

Needless to say, I would suggest saving your money and looking into another source. I will be requesting my money back.

[SJSABIN]

Want a great Excel Spreadsheet of a labor Grid? I have one that I will e-mail you if you want. Change the cell 1-0 to your labor rate, (or effective labor rate) and it will do the rest! All this for NO CHARGE!


Sandy@valleymotorsales.com

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[RPMGeorge]

Lots of great and usable advice. This will hopefully bring our averages back in to a profitable range.
Thanks

[rvc]

I have found no way to set grid pricing in the adp system other than hard coding it into the labor op anyone got any other suggestions.