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How do you deal with authorization of repairs when a vehicle is left for the diagnostic and a customer agrees to fix the vehicle over the phone? Do you ask the customer to come to the shop and sign off on the estimated costs of the repair? Or take the verbal agreement over the phone? We have had problems in the past with customers "claiming" the price we told them and which they agreed to over the phone is different than what we are charging them, which is not true.

 

Also, we had an incident the past week that a customers brought in their vehicle for a diagnostic. They filled out the work order form and left. The customers husband comes in about 20-30 min later and demands that we don't touch the vehicle and does not want us to diagnose anything, yet my techs have already spent a considerable amount of time searching for the problem. How would you approach this sitation? Would you still charge the full diagnostic fee?

 

Thank you in advance for your thoughts and opinions.

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Touchy situation. Almost all of our repairs are authorized over the phone and we do not have the customer sign anything but a receipt and we have never had an issue. Possession is 9/10's of the law right?

 

In your situation if they are not a good repeat customer which I'm sure they aren't I would charge them time involved. Why should you pay to have their vehicle looked at? I'd rather choose my charity.

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  • Have you checked out Joe's Latest Blog?

         5 comments
      I recently spoke with a friend of mine who owns a large general repair shop in the Midwest. His father founded the business in 1975. He was telling me that although he’s busy, he’s also very frustrated. When I probed him more about his frustrations, he said that it’s hard to find qualified technicians. My friend employs four technicians and is looking to hire two more. I then asked him, “How long does a technician last working for you.” He looked puzzled and replied, “I never really thought about that, but I can tell that except for one tech, most technicians don’t last working for me longer than a few years.”
      Judging from personal experience as a shop owner and from what I know about the auto repair industry, I can tell you that other than a few exceptions, the turnover rate for technicians in our industry is too high. This makes me think, do we have a technician shortage or a retention problem? Have we done the best we can over the decades to provide great pay plans, benefits packages, great work environments, and the right culture to ensure that the techs we have stay with us?
      Finding and hiring qualified automotive technicians is not a new phenomenon. This problem has been around for as long as I can remember. While we do need to attract people to our industry and provide the necessary training and mentorship, we also need to focus on retention. Having a revolving door and needing to hire techs every few years or so costs your company money. Big money! And that revolving door may be a sign of an even bigger issue: poor leadership, and poor employee management skills.
      Here’s one more thing to consider, for the most part, technicians don’t leave one job to start a new career, they leave one shop as a technician to become a technician at another shop. The reasons why they leave can be debated, but there is one fact that we cannot deny, people don’t quit the company they work for, they usually leave because of the boss or manager they work for.
      Put yourselves in the shoes of your employees. Do you have a workplace that communicates, “We appreciate you and want you to stay!”
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