i will only put my car into a shop knowing the quality of the work the produce and a big one is that they arent going to drive my car around while I'm not their (a lot of shops do this!!!)
and they don't cut corners and have decent prices
also, I'm in the trade, but at a dealership, and we have found that... it's all the little things that keep everyone coming back, even stupid shit, like adjust the handbrake... and if they come in and a light is out or wipers need replacing doing it free of charge if they are a regular customer, unfortunately our spare parts department marsk shit up stupidly so we have to cut our labour times down which kills us. but yeh there's a few suggestions from me
i will only put my car into a shop knowing the quality of the work the produce and a big one is that they arent going to drive my car around while I'm not their (a lot of shops do this!!!)
and they don't cut corners and have decent prices
it's called road testing
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (dustyae86 @ Jun 22 2008, 06:31 AM) </div>nope some shops will take your car out to do skids/drift and rape your car.
like i say any "road testing" i want to be there
only place ill thrash a customers car is on the track, and thats cause they've asked me to, if a customer asks to be in the car while road testing, ok fair enough, but they have to understand that i am going to look for a problem, instead of waitin for it to happen. But no one should ever drive a customers car like it is their own.
Alot of times where people say they have seen someones car driven around, its usually going to another shop, for subletted work, usually its just jumped up wankers, with wanker mates, no offence to anyone, but ive been blown up for drivin a customers STi to the exhaust shop, he claimed that i was followed aound by his mate, I'm really going to cruise around with nothin more than a dump pipe ay, IDIOTS.
There is a reputable melbourne based business where the owner has actually thrashed customers cars while he had a party at his work shop.
That kind of shit shouldn't happen. just plain stupid.
and no i wont say who!
If you are starting a "performance" workshop, be prepared to do alot of normal oil changes on normal cars to get by. Unless you by luck get one or two really big jobs where the customer is actualy paying for your time. And the safety factor in quoting often has to be more then 20%, even for normal stuff.
I did a normal service in a normal shitbox Korean car. All good, but the customer broke their own door handle in the carpark when leaving. Claimed I had broke it... The new door handle we got them cost us more then we got for the service, and we won't see them ever again.
Also, don't go to cheap. Charge normal rates for stuff. If you do everything too cheap, it backfires bad. Cover yourself, but do a good job.
Thanks johhny, I know all about the bread and butter work, and i value my work, i like my work, I'm not gonna undercut myself, because i need the work or some dude asks for it.
You gotta hate those customers, they are as good as the "but my mate said" ones, I once had a bloke blow a rexy box 5 minutes after he got it back, but it was my fault he revved it to 7 in first, flat changed, and tottaly stripped second.
just a thought, another thing that i look for is the general quality of the cars in the workshop, if the place if full of nothing but crapboxes and its untidy i normally wont go there.
Another thought, take pics of all the hot cars you do (with owners permission of course) and put together a folder so when people are waiting to see you they can have a look at some of your past work. A shop i frequent does this, its good for showing what you can do and it may inspire the customer to do a little more than what they come in for.
That is a good idea SR, I would love to put together a port folio, but 90% of the cars i've done have been through a rather well known shop and I'm sure they wouldn't be happy if i started claiming they were my cars, when they came out of their shop.
But it is one thing i will do as some work comes in, I just need to get everything finalised, so i don't get shut down by fair trading.
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