Business coaching for mechanics to take your business to the next level

Mechanics are drawn to their trade. It’s a calling, really. Being a good auto technician takes more than skill; the best mechanics are curious and precise. Scaling up from a single technician to a workshop with multiple service bays and hoists is a serious business, with serious costs and very little room for margin of error. Repeat business is the lifeblood of a successful automotive business. So you have to make sure that all the resources you’re putting in, including your time and the physical effort of your technicians in the workshop, pay off.

Independent workshops have to compete against manufacturer-backed dealer service centres, and that challenge is made harder with the perception of new car buyers that they must use dealer service centres to uphold their warranties. Smart strategies are required to compete against these dealer workshops.

And the competition over clients isn’t the only battle ground. Recruiting apprentices is tough let alone qualified mechanics. When you do recruit them, you then need to retain and develop them further. The repetitive nature of servicing suits some mechanics while others want to tackle more variety of complex jobs.

The pace of change of vehicle technology is a factor you can’t ignore. Automotive servicing is much more technical than in the past; there’s more fault finding and replacement of units and parts than repairs. Modern mechanics need to have the diagnostic tools and the technical knowledge to use them to find faults. Lead times between bookings and payment can challenge the cash flow of even the most efficient workshop. And unlike other trades such as plumbers or electricians that can quickly expand their capacity to suit increased demand, an auto repairs businesses growth is constrained by the size of the workshop and the number of hoists and service bays. In the meantime, the costs don’t wait.

Tenfold business coaches have experience in coaching mechanical workshops.

We’ve been delivering business coaching services to automotive businesses for over 20 years. Our clients provide services across the range including rebuilds, restorations, major repairs, diagnostics and servicing.

From increasing prices to reducing cost and improving communications between the workshop team and the customer service team, our coaching focuses on what the business needs to perform better.

We adapt our strategies to get results that count. We measure what matters, like parts margins, rebookings, labour utilisation, service bay utilisation, job efficiency, rework and actuals vs estimates. Ultimately, we prioritise the profit drivers. With a commitment to delivering positive ROI on coaching, our effort shows where it counts: on the bottom line. No doubt.