Does anyone use a Secretary or Business Assistant??

David Fermani

David Fermani

Forza Auto Salon
They can come in handy preparing invoices, answering the phone, greeting customers, helping with payroll, scheduling work, driving vehicles back to customers and QCing cars. Anyone use one?
 
Not busy enough with this business right now, but thinking about starting up another one...



(David, I will be calling you shortly to talk shop about it)
 
gmblack3 said:
Do you think its better to let a call go to VM or have my wife answer who does not know much about detailing?
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It's always better to talk to a live person, even if that person doesn't know much more than "I'll take your name and number, and let him know you called."
 
I "used" to have a, can't call them "secretary's" any more, so she was my Excutive Assitant.

Now days, since I retired, I do, on occassion have a part time "assistant", which is hired on a "need" basis for whatever is going on at the time.

Hiring is tough, so, since I am retired, I use a simple set of templates,(fit the templates, the interview is pretty well done) if they fit the templates, can pick up a phone, write down in capital letters, numbers, etc, and are not full of drama, they got a job for the time span I set.

Of course dinner and such is a bonus for them as well as how good they fix breakfast adds to their resume.

Am I not P/C?

Of course not, I am old, I am retired, and its my world.

Grumpy

(house cleaning is a different job description, and the French Maid uniform is a nice perk for them)
 
Just in case anyone cares, Charlie Harper was my hero!

Don't throw that stuff at me, I am old, can't duck as fast as in the past.

Grumpy
 
I'm starting to get to the point where I will be needing someone to answer the phone. When I'm running the vacuum or PC I can't hear the phone and sometimes have 5 VM's and some people that just hung up. The people who left VM's usually understand and still come in for an estimate, but the people who hung up might be gone forever.
 
David Fermani said:
They can come in handy preparing invoices, answering the phone, greeting customers, helping with payroll, scheduling work, driving vehicles back to customers and QCing cars. Anyone use one?
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They come in handy doing everything if given a chance actually. We have three gals, two that each take lead of a team of five techs from start to finish on each recon, anything more then simple sexist 'Secretary' work definitely needs to be called an 'Assistant' though. That's where the high school 'Receptionist' comes in, generally the phones ring constantly after 1-2pm...



Without Wendy, Ashly and Samantha nothing would get done at a shop our size. Best investment I ever made!
 
hogwash said:
We have three gals, two that each take lead of a team of five techs from start to finish on each recon...
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Would love to hear a little more detail regarding how they aid in that process and also how your techs divide up the work. This is something that I need to implement as well.
 
gmblack3 said:
Do you think its better to let a call go to VM or have my wife answer who does not know much about detailing?
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I would say your wife, let her take the message with some notes based on what the person says.



When it goes to voicemail you have to think of what the other guy is thinking "where is this guy?" - because remember some people think service industry folk 'should be available at all times'.







I ran into a situation this year where I absolutely no doubt needed more help that usual. I just didn't have the time for my little fingers to bang out all the emails and other stuff, so I enlisted some help for forum PMs and some other things.. and it was quite nice actually. Made the days shorter for sure.
 
I try to handle administrative duties, while slowly delegating some items to staff...

We've had tremendous success with females detailing...



New shop down the street has two 'receptionists'. That shop is crazy into Groupon, and have sold over 2500 deals this year. Yeah, 2500! That'll make your phone ring!



At the risk, of going off topic, that shop gets ~$50 from Groupon for a complete detail. That's really not enough to cover labor, let alone materials and overhead. Crazy!
 
Jimmy Buffit said:
I try to handle administrative duties, while slowly delegating some items to staff...

We've had tremendous success with females detailing...



New shop down the street has two 'receptionists'. That shop is crazy into Groupon, and have sold over 2500 deals this year. Yeah, 2500! That'll make your phone ring!



At the risk, of going off topic, that shop gets ~$50 from Groupon for a complete detail. That's really not enough to cover labor, let alone materials and overhead. Crazy!
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Yeah there was a shop here in town that ran a groupon this spring and I think they sold 450 full interiors for next to nothing. Were they busy for a while this spring? YUP......doing money losing jobs while we were packed to the rafters with full details paying full price. We're still very busy after they finished all their "deals" and they are dead.....maybe do another groupon? If you could confine the deal to your 3 slowest months they might be an alright deal but as I understand it you cannot restrict when they are used. Not interested in doing that - thanks but no thanks.
 
I have a client relations manager, and he checks in customers, writes estimates, answers phone calls, answers emails, sends out reminders, and thank you cards. He also goes out and finds more business. I would call him a whole lot more than a secretary, but I'm finally able to get some cars done during our open hours.
 
ShineShop said:
If you could confine the deal to your 3 slowest months they might be an alright deal but as I understand it you cannot restrict when they are used. Not interested in doing that - thanks but no thanks.
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Actually yes, you can restrict when they are used by setting an "expiration date" on the deal. I've bought a few groupons for restaurants and pretty much all of them have an expiration date of between 3-6 months.
 
Day calls go to voice mail. All calls returned that night. Not busy enough to justify the expense. This has worked for over 38 years! I do NO advertising other than my vehicles and my reputation. But would love a nice 38-24-36.....that might make the day a bit finer! I dont want my business any larger than it is. I am winding down. Thank GOD!
 
Shiny Lil Detlr said:
Actually yes, you can restrict when they are used by setting an "expiration date" on the deal. I've bought a few groupons for restaurants and pretty much all of them have an expiration date of between 3-6 months.
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Groupon is being sued big time over the expiration dates.
 
yeah because if you pay for something, you cant NOT use it! Thats like saying here, take my money, I dont need it.



They need to do something like what gift cards do...charge a fee deducted from the total amount if not used for a certain period of time
 
toyotaguy said:
yeah because if you pay for something, you cant NOT use it! Thats like saying here, take my money, I dont need it.



They need to do something like what gift cards do...charge a fee deducted from the total amount if not used for a certain period of time
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Groupon will refund the original purchase price of any groupon that expires. It's a coupon - not a gift card which is the distinction they are trying to make in court.
 
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