There are many great business coaches in our industry. Many of them have come from the General Repair universe. With that said, like AAMCO, I have seen many transmission shops transition into General Repair over the last 15 years. Stand-alone Transmission repair shops are becoming harder to find. The majority of the owners of these specialty shops are aging, and so are many of their key employees. Is it game over for these specialty shops? No more growth, no more opportunity? My opinion – Hardly. Growth is around the corner. If you inject some smart throughput and marketing ideas, I believe you can quickly re-invent and re-invigorate your business. My Managers and I did this with a business we purchased in 2022. Jim Jennings Transmissions was a friendly competitor and was doing $1.8 million in revenue and still was not profitable. This year we will end with a nice profit and revenues of over $4 million. Here is how we accomplished this while keeping the same workforce in place as when ownership changed. Throughput and Marketing.
Throughput in the automotive repair shop is the amount of billed hours a shop produces in a given time frame. Whether you build every transmission that comes in your door, or not, there are ways to increase the amount of jobs you complete in a given month. Make a decision on what transmissions you may want to install a reman unit for. You can get that car out quickly, not tie up a lift and builder, and complete that job while your builder is working on another unit. Or maybe a customer who cannot afford a rebuild or reman transmission, but can afford a low mile used transmission, work that job in. In theory, if you have a builder that can supply 5 transmissions a week, how many transmissions can your R and R techs install in a week? If they can do more than what your builder can supply, get those transmissions elsewhere and get those jobs out that week. Do not carry them over. Start with another 5 the following week.
You might now say, well you make more money rebuilding a unit versus buying a Reman. True. But how much more of a profit could you generate if you delivered 2 to 5 more jobs a week? That’s the key, getting more billable hours out the door in a given week. If you have the installers that can add those additional jobs while they are waiting for your builder, it’s a slam dunk.
Next, look at your Marketing. Are you getting leads from your website? Not calls, but actual submitted leads from your online quote page that a potential customer can fill out on your website. If you do not have that form, why not? People understand they have a transmission issue when their vehicle does not go into reverse. They want to know ASAP how much it might cost to replace. Can they ask you after hours, and get an appointment to come in? How accessible are you? We have a retired employee who we use to answer our emails after hours and on the weekends. It is a very minor expense, that is easily covered by just getting in one job a month. Are you doing any Radio or Television advertising? If not, look at weekend rates. Do you have Podium on your site? Yes, marketing is expensive, but are your competitors advertising? If not, explore some of the new digital tactics out there, like geofencing. Get ahead of your competitors.
With all the newer 8-speed, 9-speed and 10-speed transmissions that are now in the market, and having high failure rates, take advantage of being that specialty shop that can handle these vehicles. Put it out there, that your Shop can offer your community quicker and kinder response times that those of the Dealerships, who many times are short on technicians and cannot take in vehicles for weeks.
I truly believe that tweaking your Throughput and Marketing, will greatly enhance your business. It’s our time.
