Automotive services
Automotive service owners are usually the best technician and the only person customers trust with a quote. That caps the shop at their hours. We build the front office around the owner: a service manager seat, a follow up system, a marketing department for reviews and local search, and processes that keep quality when the owner is off the floor.
How the work gets done today
- Margin is made on labour hours sold and lost on comebacks and idle bays
- Reminders and follow up produce repeat visits more cheaply than advertising
- Customer trust is personal to the owner, which makes delegating quotes hard
- Technician hiring and retention is the constraint on growth
The moves we make
- Put a service manager in place so quoting and customer contact leave the owner
- Build the reminder and follow up system for maintenance, declined work and reviews
- Run marketing as a department: reviews, local search, fleet outreach, a weekly car count
- Write inspection, quoting and close out playbooks so every technician works to one standard
Seats usually missing
A service manager who owns the schedule, the quotes and the customer conversation at the counter. A marketing owner who keeps reviews, local listings and reminders working. A back office seat that handles parts ordering, invoicing and bookkeeping handoffs. The owner holds all three and turns wrenches in between. We fill the service manager cadence fractionally, build the follow up and marketing systems, and help you hire a permanent service manager when the car count supports the salary and the owner is ready.
Getting the owner out
Customer follow up first, through automated reminders, declined work follow up and review requests, because that fills the schedule without the owner on the phone. Quoting second, through an inspection and quoting playbook with photos and standard pricing, so a service adviser can quote with the owner's standard. The floor third, through close out checklists that reduce comebacks. The owner moves to quality, key fleet accounts and growth, and stops being the bottleneck at the counter every morning and every closing.
What to outsource first
The follow up system and marketing, because they produce car count without adding anyone to the floor, and because Ali's agencies have run local service marketing across Canada for years. Then the playbooks, which protect quality as the owner steps back from the bays. Hiring support for technicians and advisers follows, with your employment lawyer on contracts. Licensing, environmental and safety requirements stay with the relevant authorities, and our processes are written to meet them rather than to work around them.
Questions from automotive services owners
Can you help us find technicians?
We design the role, scorecard, interview and onboarding, and build the recruiting pages and referral program. We are not a licensed recruitment agency, and contracts go to your employment lawyer.
Will automation annoy our customers?
Not when it is done on their schedule: a reminder when service is due, a follow up on declined work weeks later, a review request after a visit. You can stop any of it.
What does it cost?
A $499 Strategy Session, then a follow up system or marketing department on an Advisory Retainer from $8K per month. Proven demand may qualify for Growth Partner terms.
Tell us which seat is empty.
A 30-minute call with Ali about the business and the people running it. You leave knowing which role to fill first and whether fractional, outsourced or a hire is the right answer, whether or not we work together.