 Hey there, what's happening YouTube? Thanks for tuning back into the channel today right here with the Rust Belt mechanic So today we're going to have a little bit more of a candid conversation About an issue that we're having here in the automotive industry and that's us as technicians being rushed Why are we being rushed so much to do the specialized work that we are trained to do on everybody's vehicle? We're going to get into a couple of those questions today as well as hopefully some insight for me on how to help get around that So one of the biggest issues we have in the industry today is that everybody is on a right now kind of a time frame and That really just does not work right now the automotive industry We've got all kinds of issues from parts delays to recalls to manufacturers Having technical service bulletins that aren't prepared yet or something along those lines And this is just in the automotive market for dealerships when you're talking about the automotive industry for independence You know those manufacturers and issues are compounded by 10 because you're working on cars that are so much older So you've got a right now mentality out of a customer You've got their cars coming in left and right Everybody is competing these days to have the better prices for their shop Hourly rates are going down. They're going up You have to keep competitive in today's atmosphere if you don't then you're going to get run by the wayside Or if you don't manage it correctly, you're going to get a Way bigger wave and an over influx of customers coming then your shop will be able to handle One of the shops that I've been talking to recently They've been having an issue with having too many customers and that is just as bad of an issue as having Not very many customers at all When you've got too many customers going on here You their cars tend to sit a little bit longer and as I said with everybody having that I want my stuff right down now Kind of mentality then you're going to have a whole lot of upset customers The customers these days are not wanting to wait for their cars for over a week anymore so if you guys are having these over influx of Customers and you aren't able to keep up on their vehicles and get them in and out of your service department within a week Then you need to make some changes in the industry So in your section of or your area you're getting too much of the flow So what do you need to do you either need to be specialized and you need to go on a case-by-case basis to where you know We really don't have time to work on your car today or this week and we might have to put you off Don't tell them just bring it here and bring it and set it in the back lot And we'll get to it when we get to it because you're just going to get upset customers at that point you need to either Work on managing the flow of incoming service by telling those people up front or you can cut this off real quick By doing another thing you can just adjust your hourly rate higher when you adjust your hourly rate higher That's going to keep out some of the customers Unfortunately the ones that are smaller cost smaller people that are coming into the shop But that's going to be able to weed out a lot of that over influx also You do this without having to tell people or turn them away You raise your hourly rate and that's going to bring some of that workload down to a more manageable level Now if you're just in the point of being a technician You may not have any handle on that when your shop becomes too overcrowded with work You're going to be the one who comes on the short end of the stick your manager or service writer it's going to be pushing this jobs on you and Pushing you to get more done in a quicker time frame get these things in get them out Maybe even working overtime now if you're a younger guy and you're really efficient and you really want to work extra hours Yes, that's nice being able to have that extra work there to be able to get done lots of hours Rack up all the work you can while you can while you really enjoy it when you're younger working all that overtime Me personally, I'm already here for 43 hours a week Maybe up towards 50 55 if I have to work on a Saturday once every month or so I don't like working an extra three hours a night because well I've got the YouTube thing, but I also like enjoying my time at home with family So having your manager or your service writer push you to do more overtime That's one of those things you guys need to nip in the butt Really quick because the more you guys push over to be able to do in those things It's going to be just implied that oh, yeah, he's fine He's going to be able to stave after and catch up on everything What happens that one week when either you get sick you want to go on vacation Things back up and when you come back from vacation things are even worse So having that work back up on you just because you decide to take on more work You need to think more down the line to be able to see am I going to be able to handle this work in the future? The biggest piece of advice that I can give you as a technician is don't let anybody rush you When you start getting rushed either by the service manager Maybe even the sales staff is rushing to say oh I've got to get this car out and done by five o'clock because I've got somebody that is Coming in from Indiana and they have to buy it tonight. It has to be done Do not get rushed when you start getting rushed especially as newer technicians and you may or may not know this you start getting rushed you do more and That long list of things that needs done on the car ends up missing one or two things and then later down the road It's going to come and bite you in the butt and you start making mistakes mistakes in this industry are Way way worse than anything else not getting hours or being behind on some of your productivity Or just you know not getting the kind of jobs you want, you know, those are bad things But they're not nearly as bad as negative feedback or making mistakes when you have to do these comebacks That is the worst thing a technician can have is a comeback Because not only have you done this job once you're going to do this job again You're going to have to diagnose it a second time because you probably didn't diagnose it right the first time and You're going to have to fix that job for free I might add you don't want to be in this job doing anything for free So when you get rushed by anybody whether it be the service manager service writer sales person Uncle Joe standing at the back door, which is another big pet peeve of mine Don't let customers hover over you while you work. Just stand there staring them nicely and say I'm doing my best Please have a seat up front be as nice as you can be. I know it's those technicians That's not really our job to do that, but it's one of my biggest pet peeves Don't be rushed by anybody today was one of those days I had one of the sales staff come up to me at the very end of the day and say hey, I've got this vehicle It's sold. This is at 515 by the way. We close at 530. I've got this vehicle sold. It's got a recall on it we're trying to sell it as a certified vehicle inspection and It needs to go out tonight. They're visiting with people from out of state. Alright, so I look at it I go through it and I do the recall now I'm also looking through the vehicle and noticing a couple of other things haven't been done yet So I note that and I point that out and they come back and they're rushing me to go through my inspection process Quickly because the people are done out of finance and they really need to get on the road I have to simply reply to them if you guys want this vehicle sold as a certified pre-owned vehicle I have to put my signature onto this repair order if you don't let me get through the repair order and through this Inspection process exactly how I see fit then it will not be getting my signature If you guys don't like that then you can either give it to another technician tomorrow because there are no longer any other ones here in the building or You can just suck it and that's pretty much the mentality that you have to have to some of these people in the The fact that they're wanting you to rush to do your job faster than you really need to do it There's plenty of work to do. There's no need to rush in this industry I know the flat rate system kind of has you pushed from time to time to get things done Faster and faster more efficient, but you know what? Don't make mistakes know your limits on how fast you can do things efficiently and get them done without mistakes And if anybody's trying to push you like the sales staff was me today Tell them that you weren't going to be rushing perfection and that's what they get when they get the quality of work For me when I go through these vehicles I have to go down through this checklist and it has to literally meet everything Because like I said if there's a mistake down the road, who's it going to go to the last person who's put their Signature or their stamp of approval on anything that that car has had in the Aeronautic in industry with airplanes and such they have very very specific logbooks with all of their airplanes Every single piece of maintenance that gets done if one of these planes happens to have an issue It's not like they can just pull over off the side of the road No a plane is going down and somebody's probably gonna die so everything is documented Who do they go back to the last technician who touched that plane is the one who's getting blamed for literally everything? That's where the automotive industry is going to their logging system is getting more detailed and more detailed people are getting you know more Strict with what's going on with their vehicle, so they're gonna be coming back to the last person who touched it Lawsuits might happen. Don't make mistakes. Don't get rushed One last piece of advice I might have for you is to make some peace with those people who might be the ones rushing you in Your specific job go to your service writer go to your service manager or the sales staff One of those people who are rushing you all the time and have a sit down with them Sit down and say hey You don't like it when I come up to your position You've got a customer in front of you and I'm trying to get an answer like hey I need an answer on this ticket like right now, you know, I have to be able to get these vehicles in and out I'm working flat right here. Hurry come on come on come on I don't do that to you these vehicles that are back here in my bays These are my customers you guys are my customer who gives me a repair order to fix this vehicle You guys hired me for what I do and how I do it That's why you pay me the money If you don't like how I do things the kind of service that I give this dealership or give this shop Then maybe you should find somebody else if you trust me to do my job Let me do my job in the way that I do it now everything in between Feel free to come up and have a conversation in the off points But don't be rushing me to do my job the way you think that I should do it Stand your ground and do your job the way you think it should be done the right way the first time without mistakes Well folks, that's about enough ranting from the rust belt today Hopefully you guys enjoyed this little rant and this little content coming in between a couple of the other videos We've got all kinds of other things coming out here over the next week or so All kinds of nifty tools coming your way duramax content Maybe even some more shop comparisons We're going to be going up to schwarz creek michigan this weekend be able to pick up my duramax Finally get that thing back home so I can enjoy it And then i'm also going to be talking with matt the owner of diesel pros up there again And we're going to be going over some differences between automotive shops like this one And then a big diesel shop up there in michigan Showed you guys some of the differences between the two maybe if you're wanting to get into the industry Maybe you'll like to see the differences between the automotive side standard cars or the diesel and heavy line side Hopefully you enjoyed this content if you did hit that thumbs up make sure you turn on the bell notification So you get notified when I come out with cool awesome content. Just like this one I appreciate it. Thanks again. And as always you guys stay awesome