Store hours rant

Ha! I had this rant 2 weekends ago up in Maine. My dad borrowed my truck to move some stuff and it broke down at his condo in ME. I spent two three weekends in a row going up there to fix it. While the parts store is right up the road and open on Saturday and Sunday, there isn't a shop or boneyard open anywhere on the weekends.

I needed a new spindle for my '94 F-150 and of course you can't buy one, and with none of the pick 'n pulls open, I couldn't get my hands on one.

I thought half-jokingly that if I wanted to make some money, I should open a shop in southern ME that's actually open on weekends - I'd probably have folks lined up to have work done at a time that was actually convenient for the other 90% of the population that actually works during the week.

In a nutshell, it sort of make sense that a business who's primary objective is service would be open/available to service customers when it is convenient for their intendend audience. I'm not a communist and I realize that people have lives, but at the same time if your customers have more availability on the weekends to have stuff done, wouldn't you want to take advantage of that - especially when all of your competitors aren't?

If would APPEAR that many auto related service businesses are NOT open on weekends because it is not possible to get folks to work on weekends and/or it is somehow not profitable. Another reason? Many folks travel on weekends and if they need repairs they get them done BEFORE the weekend.

Having said that, there have been 1 or 2 times when I didn't plan ahead and had to postpone a trip out of town so I could get my car worked on in a shop I knew.

skruffy wrote: I seem to have a lot of customers that will drop a car off 5 minutes till close on a Friday and then start calling me at 9am on Saturday to see if it's done.

Oh good, it's not just us then.

I especially love the customers that want to buy tires online and bring them to me, but don't want to pay more than $5/ea to have them mounted and balanced. Those same guys will also go over the rim with a microscope afterward and raise all kinds of hell about the smallest mark.

Or they'll complain about, well, just about anything. Price-point consumers are the worst as far as customer service is concerned. I dread when we run a $19.95 oil change spiff, because it brings them all out of the woodwork.

integraguy wrote: If would APPEAR that many auto related service businesses are NOT open on weekends because it is not possible to get folks to work on weekends and/or it is somehow not profitable. Another reason? Many folks travel on weekends and if they need repairs they get them done BEFORE the weekend.

A lot of parts suppliers are not open on weekends, or don't deliver on weekends. This is slowly changing.

In reply to Knurled:

I'm a price point shopper. If someone will do 5 oil changes for free (An offer to Saturn owners), I won't be changing my own oil for a while. While there, I do what I can to get them some warranty work, but I make an appointment and try to tip the tech and the service adviser a little for the trouble. It wasn't their fault that GM decided to make them do 5 oil changes for free.

That freebie or dirt cheap oil change is a 'loss leader'. The idea is to get you in the door so they can try to sell you something else. Problem is, as Knurled said, you now have brought out the cheapskates. But the manufacturers keep claiming that's what drives sales.

Ha. I don't think so. I have seen way too many obviously cooked sales reports (there is a reason they don't break those reports down by individual repair order, even though that would be very simple).

It is very possible to turn the average Joe around with those freebie and low priced oil changes. If you handle them right and gain their trust they will come see you when things really need fixing. But that happens down the road, the boss wants sales NOW.

I wish I could record the conversations I have every day with the people who have just left the local Mercedes dealer and come to see us, then play those back for the guy who owns the place. But on second though, naw. He sends me plenty of business.

Saturday business in no small part depends on the brand. The high end stuff: hell no, those people are playing golf. The place looks like a desert. The blue collar brands: they are busy as hell but you get a lot of oil changes and other small stuff. The biggest problem on Saturdays is generally the dealerships won't staff properly. I mean, one service advisor and 5 techs? Come on, now. Handle 40 or 45 repair orders in 8 hours by yourself sometime, then come tell me about it. That works out to 10.6 minutes per RO, including greeting the customer, writing stuff down, dispatching the work, completing the paperwork and collecting the money. Oh, and answering phone calls.

Lots of people find it more convenient to drop off their car during the week, get a ride to work then pick it up on the way home. That leaves their weekends free. Makes sense to me.

Everything Jensenman said is exactly true. Cheap service ploys are to get you in and get you to see your vehicle is a POS and how surprising it rolls down the road in such sad shape and needs much needed repairs.

I've worked the Saturday shift and it sucks even worse when you have incompetent service writers writing 3hr long "waiter" recall RO's in between the 6 waiter oil changes and tire rotations BS services. GRRRR.

As for the free oil change and some warranty work, take that E36 M3 and shove it up your ass. You aren't helping anybody "out", except to make yourself feel good. Warranty work is lose-lose for everyone on the dealership level, JMO.

Brian

I it was up to the average automotive customer I would work 365 days a year, 24hrs a day and for free.

Personally, and this is why I probably never worked food, if you are open to a specific hour then you should EXPECT to get a call until the last minute of operation. A properly run business should take this into account and schedule shifts accordingly allowing time after closing for cleanup and set-up.

The dealership I worked for paid a half hour time after closing for us to clean up our bays. They understood that we are working until closed and need the time to clean after the work is done. They considered it part of the job and so do I.

Am I way off on this?

Jensenman wrote: (much deleted, which I tend to agree with) Lots of people find it more convenient to drop off their car during the week, get a ride to work then pick it up on the way home. That leaves their weekends free. Makes sense to me.

We market to businesses in the area. If someone drops their car off early, we'll drop them off at work, and then pick them up in the evening.

vwcorvette wrote: The dealership I worked for paid a half hour time after closing for us to clean up our bays. They understood that we are working until closed and need the time to clean after the work is done. They considered it part of the job and so do I. Am I way off on this?

I come in on the weekends and straighten up on my own time...

OTOH, I'm not flat-rate, either.

The freebie sales are horrible, I never do them. It's much better to run an ad for $20 off a $200 service or something of that nature. That way the customer walks through the door thinking they're going to spend money, not just get something for free.

I also love people that want to have a major service the day before they leave for a road trip.

I really love the customers that have a bunch of high margin service done at a chain and then bring me the horrible nightmare job the chain store couldn't figure out. So I missed out on tires, brakes, trans service, etc... but get to spend a week tracking down an electrical problem (that the volume store didn't want to do because there's no money in it) and you expect it to be less than $200.

We've synergized with one of the local chain outlets. We buy tires from them, and they send us those "nightmare" jobs.

Actually, a lot of shops send us those "nightmare" jobs, including some dealerships.

It's actually kinda nice for us. The price-matchers keep going to the chain, the ones who understand that quality work isn't going to be bottom-dollar often just start coming to us...

As for "nightmare"... I keep putting that in quotes because tough nuts to crack are what make the job so interesting. We're pretty good at the tough diagnoses, so it's not unprofitable, either. (Decent test equipment, a scientific mind, and iATN are key factors)

A lot of it, too, is simply the other shop saying "it's German, we don't work on German cars". We don't specialize in anything in particular, but a lot of German machinery finds its way in our parking lot. (Not counting my cars of course )

CaptainSpaulding wrote: I it was up to the average automotive customer I would work 365 days a year, 24hrs a day and for free.

That's what I like about my job working on gas compressors. I may have to work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, but at least my customer is stuck out there working with me.