shop time

[shootingarts]

Another thread started me thinking about shop time from the customer's viewpoint and the tech's. This is assuming a one man shop or that a tech has to be called from the back to look at a saw. By the way, this isn't something I have pulled out my rear, I have put the clock on this many times. We will talk about saws here but the same is true for small welding or mechanic jobs, all those things that you come into a shop for that "just take a few minutes."

Customer comes in. Tech puts down what he is doing and washes his hands. Customer often wants to shoot the breeze a "few minutes" before getting down to business. He wants to be buddies so he gets his work free or cheap. Then he explains what he thinks his problem is and the tech looks at the saw. Different problem, tech explains. More jawing, the customer disagrees or agrees but sure never would have thought it! Tech goes grab a couple of tools and comes work on the saw five or ten minutes, saw fixed. Customer is happy until he is charged fifteen dollars.

Customer's viewpoint: "That SOB charged me fifteen dollars for two minutes work!"

Tech's viewpoint: "I lost forty-five minutes work time. Happens every time he comes in then he wants everything free!"

Tech's make money matching or beating the book time or flat rate for a job. For them the time on something else starts from the moment they are interrupted and doesn't end until they are back working on the job that was interrupted. Next time the tech seems a little short or gruff, remember he is trying to make a living and doesn't have time to chat about the weather or how muddy it is in the woods. Every customer for the last week has been saying the same things. If he gives a friendly hello and a "thanks for coming in" he has done about all the socializing he really has time for.

Running my own shops I rarely came home before ten o-clock at night. With busy shops I spent over 75% of my time from eight to five or five-thirty running my business, mostly dealing with customers, but all the other things owning a business entails too. Once I got the front gate locked I put in any shop time on jobs I did myself. The biggest reason small shops of all kinds get backed up and have lots of unhappy customers is because the owners don't manage their time well. The biggest sinkhole is talking to customers at length instead of taking care of business expediently and moving on. When you spend thirty minutes or an hour talking with the good ol' boy at the shop or on the phone remember he does the same with other customers too. That is often why his bench is buried with work and your saw sat on his shelf for two weeks to get an hour and a half job done.

Hu

 

[opinion]

The remedy is simple. Have a shop minimum. Have the customer explain the problem, leave name and number, the money, and you'll call him back with an estimate once his unit has been diagnosed. Fix it or not? Deposit goes towards bill. And if a tech does a job fast, it's because he is skilled, experienced and has the proper tools. That's what you're paying for. Being efficient comes at a price. If you want a hack that's just guessing back there, then go there!

 

[angelo c]

thats when you decide how good of a customer he is...if he's a tree service buying new saws often then you fix it. if a tree service who buys saws often has a saw that you were working on that needs it fast...you fix that one first...not easy to decide who is most important but prioritizing your time is as important as efficient time management.

also have a young dumb cute girl at counter to do 'talking'...and make sure she knows how to fill out a tag and work order.

Also if its a small easy fix...tell the guy to come back next time with a "wendy's #2 " and a Elvis haircut....(.shout out to the big Stihl tech in VA) Tommy Can YA HEAR ME ????

 

[Milkman31]

I would tag it and make them leave it also have a 1hour min on all jobs.

 

[shootingarts]

The remedy is simple. Have a shop minimum. Have the customer explain the problem, leave name and number, the money, and you'll call him back with an estimate once his unit has been diagnosed. Fix it or not? Deposit goes towards bill. And if a tech does a job fast, it's because he is skilled, experienced and has the proper tools. That's what you're paying for. Being efficient comes at a price. If you want a hack that's just guessing back there, then go there!

I did have a minimum for some things. It became known I was a pretty fair welder when I had a mechanic shop. People started bringing in small welding jobs. After awhile I started charging a half hour minimum. A gentleman came in with a small job and like most thought that was excessive. I suggested he look at the clock on the wall. I went out and had to grind off the back yard efforts, clean and shape the area, and weld after bringing my equipment out to his implement that needed the pin welded on. Then I cleaned and left the area raw since he was going to prime and paint himself. Time start to finish: 40 minutes.

He had been with me the whole time and knew I hadn't petted the pooch so he acknowledged I was right. I charged him a quarter hour shop time and for a few rods since the ones I had used for that particular job were $15 a pound in the early seventies.

The story isn't over, he had broken this pin off repeatedly so I had told him I could use rods I couldn't burn back off, no way the weld would give but I couldn't move the pin either. "Are you absolutely sure this is the right place?" An hour later he was back. "I know what you told me, I know what I told you, but the pin is in the wrong place!" Ground and burned for an hour, destroyed a torch tip, built up the area under the weld I had to melt away to free the pin, and welded the pin where it belonged with the same rods. Another couple hours total time. Total charge? Nada! So it goes. He was a nice older gentleman with good manners.

Hu

edit: A quick note to Angelo. I never did a job out of sequence during shop hours. First in, first worked on. However for really good or special customers I sometimes did work after hours or got up a couple hours early to get something out for them. I figured business hours were business, my hours were my personal business. One really special customer, a personal friend and large account, I worked twenty-four hours straight through for.

 

[nmurph]

...have a young dumb cute girl at counter to do 'talking'...and make sure she knows how to fill out a tag and work order...

OTH, if she brings the saw in and tells you she couldn't find her batteries last night and winks, you fix it for free, immediately.

 

[Whiskers]

I've never owned a small engine shop, but been in a bunch of them. Seems like a minimum charge is the standard, and the customer always talks to the person at the counter, the person at the counter tags the item and it's put in line for the tech. Wasting the techs time backs everything up, so taking them out of the customer interaction loop makes the most sense to me.

 

[angelo c]

OTH, if she brings the saw in and tells you she couldn't find her batteries last night and winks, you fix it for free, immediately.

Murph...I'm not sure we're talkin about the same kinda "fixin".....but if she wants that kinda "charge"...i'll be her huckleberry !!!!



.."i ain't as good as i once was...but i'm as good once as I ever was ".... TK !!!

 

[angelo c]

edit: A quick note to Angelo. I never did a job out of sequence during shop hours. First in, first worked on. However for really good or special customers I sometimes did work after hours or got up a couple hours early to get something out for them. I figured business hours were business, my hours were my personal business. One really special customer, a personal friend and large account, I worked twenty-four hours straight through for.

HU,
thats one of the beauties of being your own boss...you do it your way...!!!
I do a lot of consulting for small biz start ups and tell them...its not always that you have the "best" plan..its that you have one written and stick to it. whatever your policy is make it clear and if you have to vary, let the staff know its your decision to stray and why.. nothing worse then having independent contractors on your payroll.

 

[discounthunter]

i paid a local shop $8 to pull a flywheel he gave me a stihl calander!

 

[sachsmo]

My Dad didn't work on saws, but in his shop there was a sign.

I went sumthin' like this;

Labor 7.50 an hour
if you watch 10,00 an hour
if you help 15.00 an hour
If you bring it in a box 25.00 an hour.

this was back in the '60s.

 

[eiklj]

I worked part time at a small engine shop for a number of years as a mechanic and can tell you a good counter person is valuable for filtering thru those customers that the OP described.
If every customer is allowed back in the service shop, then nothing gets done, too much BS'ing and not enough working.

 

[066blaster]

the shop by me has a parts guy/counter persons that know as much or more than the techs which is helpful. I would also say most small engine techs are paid hourly and not flat rate. and its nice when you ask for a part and they dont need to spend ten minutes on a computer looking it up, they just go back and get it.
this is also a huqsvarna dealer. the stihl dealer here is total sh$t

 

[shootingarts]

My Dad didn't work on saws, but in his shop there was a sign.

I went sumthin' like this;

Labor 7.50 an hour
if you watch 10,00 an hour
if you help 15.00 an hour
If you bring it in a box 25.00 an hour.

this was back in the '60s.

Most shops had similar signs around here. I didn't put up much in the way of humor in my shops back then but I made no bones about jobs other people had already started. "How much will this cost to finish? I have already done half the work."

My stock answer: "I don't know yet, more than if you had brought it to me to begin with though." That wasn't a hundred percent true, depended on how much they had done and the mess they had made but I always had them bring something in my shop expecting to pay more than my normal charges.

A favorite sign of mine that I left up for awhile when I bought a business:

Answers: $5.00
Right Answers: $10.00
Dumb looks are still free!

The "You want it when?" and "Our highly skilled and experienced staff are eagerly waiting to serve you" signs were favorites too. The one I wanted when it was the caption to a picture of a grumpy looking old cowboy was "There were a hell of a lot of things they didn't tell me when I signed on for this job." Now I just see it with a cartoon, don't like it nearly as well. I posted the "This ain't Burger King" sign for a few days, too close to the truth so I took it down!

About watching, my dad and I had just hocked everything we could and both signed on the dotted line to buy a commercial lot, build a new building, and open a mechanic shop. Things were slow opening a new business so a week or so later there were just a couple cars in the shop including a man who brought a car in to have the water pump changed while he waited. He came over to where I was starting work. Every time I picked up a tool he asked why I didn't use a different one. About five minutes of this and I walked over to the desk, reared back in a chair, propped my feet up, and started reading a magazine. Bear in mind I'm a long haired bearded teenager at the time instead of a long haired bearded old man like now.

I was watching out of the corner of my eye as the man and my dad eased up to the desk. My dad asked what was going on. "This man knows more about the job than I do, I figured I would let him do it!" Much embarrassment and apologies. I told the man for him to sit in the chair and I'd go finish the job. I had been helping run businesses including firing men since I was twelve, partners in businesses since I was fifteen, and my name was on the loan for this business along with my dad's. I didn't put up with much foolishness.

Hu

 

[discounthunter]

I would tag it and make them leave it also have a 1hour min on all jobs.

you would not get alot of return customers.