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The work of automotive technicians is highly skilled and sought after. As we are all painfully aware, there is a technician shortage and one way to solve this is to keep these bright, hard-working minds in our industry. Any good HR professional will tell you that pay is not everything, but when we are paying significantly less than other industries, our talented folks are sure to be lured away or never even consider our industry to begin with. How do we pay them what they deserve? We increase our labor rates and pass that cost along to the consumer.
I know this can be a scary thought, but it’s time to move past just thinking about it and rip off the band-aid. Many other industries are regularly jacking prices and many of you have not increased rates at your shop for years. I know many of you shop owners have not been paying yourself nearly enough either — and some, not at all. You are too hard-working to not get paid what you deserve.
I think Maylan Newton said it best when he was speaking at AAPEX: “They’re paying 30, 40, 50, 100-thousand for a car, and we are still offering $19 oil changes. That just baffles me,” he said. “We need to get out of the idea that we are the bottom feeders of our industry and start charging what we’re worth.”
Pete Rudloff, a member of the PTEN advisory board, pointed out that now is the time to raise labor rates since the automotive repair industry is in boom times.
“I don't care if they are already the most expensive in their area, it's a really booming time for auto repair right now which makes it an ideal time to thin out the shop's client base of clients that are price sensitive,” he said. “Higher labor rates will do this, the shop will net more profit even if they work on fewer cars.”
Customer service
Sure, your customers might be able to find a similar service slightly cheaper down the street, but they are unlikely to leave if you consistently provide quality work on their vehicle and excellent customer service. Rick White, president of 180Biz, said service advisors are key to ensuring stand-out customer service. They need to understand their role in the shop’s success, be well-trained, build relationships with your customers, and be passionate about delighting the customer every day.
“Recently, I was listening to an advisor saying, ‘I can email this document over to you.’ That seems fine but what if the advisor said, ‘It would be my pleasure to get this over to you,’? White said. “These little things make such a difference in the perception of how we do business.”
One tip from Eric Moore, a technician in Columbus, Ohio, and also a member of the PTEN advisory board is to be over the top with communicating to your customer. Get as many contact options as possible (text, email, phone call, social media messaging apps etc.) and communicate with the customer in their preferred manner.
Now, go take a look a hard look at your labor rate, refer to your service information subscriptions for guidance, and don’t feel bad for a second about increasing your prices — you deserve it and your employees do too.
