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I read your article. I taught everyone of those skills back in my days of managing Auto Repair Centers. Of course there were a couple of minor differences. We were a large entity that worked with both walk in and appointment customers. We didn't charge a fee to book an appointment but we did have the practice of a 24 hr. notification to verify the customers intent. If someone didn't show there was just one more happy walk in customer.

I managed 21 different facilities in three states and had as many as 750 employees working under my direction. I will say that when teaching these skills to those that work for you, you must follow up on the employees because even with these excellent practices they will start to develop short cuts.

Those you have listed should be considered bare minimums. I arranged anonymous shopper phone calls to evaluate each Auto Center (5 calls per Auto Center per week) for minimum standards. You didn't want to be an employee that would completely dismiss these practices and be called a couple of times during the same week. You would have much time back in practice session without the ability to make your commission, hourly without commission didn't equal a good paycheck. If you didn't like this you would either snap to or were welcome to find more comfortable employment elsewhere.

Both my mechanics and my sales associates were taught these very same skills. Managers of course were responsible for any of voice messaging services.
 
GearHead_1 said:
I read your article. I taught everyone of those skills back in my days of managing Auto Repair Centers. Of course there were a couple of minor differences. We were a large entity that worked with both walk in and appointment customers. We didn't charge a fee to book an appointment but we did have the practice of a 24 hr. notification to verify the customers intent. If someone didn't show there was just one more happy walk in customer. .
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Sorry if that was a little unclear. I don't charge customers to book an appointment, I only hold the appointment with a card and then IF I don't hear from them and they don't show up, they get charged. Of course when you are starting out and don't have a lot of walk in traffic, and someone books your day up and does not show, it's a loss for the day basically. This practice just helps eliminate that.
I wrote it geared toward people that are either on their own or have small operations. Of course if you have a large organization and aren't following these to some degree... well I don't think a person WOULD have a large organization if they didn't understand those basics.
 
GothamAuto said:
Sorry if that was a little unclear. I don't charge customers to book an appointment, I only hold the appointment with a card and then IF I don't hear from them and they don't show up, they get charged. Of course when you are starting out and don't have a lot of walk in traffic, and someone books your day up and does not show, it's a loss for the day basically. This practice just helps eliminate that.
I wrote it geared toward people that are either on their own or have small operations. Of course if you have a large organization and aren't following these to some degree... well I don't think a person WOULD have a large organization if they didn't understand those basics.
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Please don't misunderstand what I was trying to say. I think what you're doing is great and I understood at what point the card was charged. I was more or less noting the similarities as they are good practices regardless of business size.
 
GearHead_1 said:
Please don't misunderstand what I was trying to say. I think what you're doing is great and I understood at what point the card was charged. I was more or less noting the similarities as they are good practices regardless of business size.
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Ok, gotcha. It is one of the most mis-understood things that I do. Even customers as me "Didn't you already charge me $50?", so I was just clearing it up in case someone didn't get it completely.

Shiny Lil Detlr said:
Excellent article, Kevin!

Totally agreed with all of your points.
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Thanks!
 
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