ACtion Magazine - July/August 2014 - (Page 6)

Productivity tool How a $5 piece of equipment can increase your productivity By Andy Fifﬁck C urious what it is? Think this is too good to be true? Before I reveal what this Wonder Tool is, you have to make me a promise. You have to agree to buy some and use them in your business. You must get your technicians to use one on every job they do regardless of how large or small. If you choose to accept this caveat, you will be amazed at how much additional money it will earn for you as well as your technicians and service writer. Are you ready to find out what it is? Here goes...it's an egg timer. That's it... a simple household digital timer. Before you turn away or think I've gone off the deep end, hear me out! In our business, what we sell is parts and time. While there is some latitude, we don't really control which parts we sell; the vehicle needs what it needs, and all we can do is try to find the best price for the quality we want and add a standard mark-up. So for now let's focus on the time we sell. At one of our shops, we have a technician who consistently earns 30% more than anyone else in our organization. In our business, Needless to say, he is the most productive technician working for us. How what we sell is parts does he do it? By managing his time! and time. He sets his timer on every job and tracks every minute. When he performs a preliminary inspection on a vehicle, he sets his timer and spends no more than 10 minutes, and that's all the time he gives away. After that, he reports back to the service advisor with how much time must be sold for a complete diagnosis or analysis of the vehicle. After receiving authorization to do the job, he again sets his timer and continues on. Over the years he's learned how long it should take him to complete certain standard tasks, but I'm not talking about beating flat-rate time. I'm talking about managing your own time. You see it's a game: like a sprinter at the Olympics, it's him against the clock, and he rarely loses. To win at the time game, you have to measure it. You need to know where every minute goes. This is true of many other professionals, such as lawyers, whose specialized knowledge enables them to sell their time. When something unexpected happens during the course of the repair - say a broken bolt - the customer needs to be made aware and sold more time. Begin today; you will be amazed how an egg timer just may change your financial future. I'll have mine sunny side up please! ❆ " Reader Reply Sincerely Andy Andy Fifﬁck Andy@RadAir.com 330-220-8384 6 ACTION * July/August 2014 http://www.meicorporation.com http://www.macsw.org/imis15/MACS/Publications/ACtion_Reader_Reply/MACS/Publications/ACTION/ACtion_Reader_Reply.aspx?hkey=ac24bddb-c045-442a-813c-cbf05f88ac4d http://www.meicorporation.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ACtion Magazine - July/August 2014

Fire truck A/C
The air we breathe
Outlook
Freeze Frame
Leonard's Law
Virtual View
Service Port
Last Watch
Member Profile
By the Numbers
Cooling Corner
Industry News
Association News
New Products

ACtion Magazine - July/August 2014