Has anyone else found this to be a particularly slow starter season? We are at 50-70% below where we should be this time of year!...weather hasn't helped...

[ December 01, 2004, 03:30 PM: Message edited by: RDub ]

We're doing about the same from what I know: 2-4 a week on average [img]tongue.gif[/img] :cool:

This month we seem to be a little slower but we are up over last year. Last month, October we were way up over the previous years.

It seems that the Visions are doing well from what I have heard, we were slow in Nov. but so far Dec. is crazy.

About normal for me with 4 a week.

for us in t bay we are swamped and working o.t to make more space for extra jobs. doing about 5-6 starters a day with 3 guys, then some car audio in between.

we do about 4-5 starters or combos a day with HU installs mixed in.

Most of the starters are full load, 2-way, combos with door locks, starter kill, anti-grind.

I really wish the dealership and their salespeople would educate their clients about the on-board security systems most new vehicles come with.

It's tiresome trying to explain that the $149 installed price for a basic starter does not apply to a vehicle that requires a security integration module.

Customer gets mad, says something rude and stupid to save face and goes elsewhere only to realize that what he was told was indeed true but won't come back since he now feels dumb and embarrased.

10-12 a week with the odd 50k job chucked in the mix, just to keep it interesting

We average 4 a day so far. Management won't approve OT to do more.

That is gay.

They don't want you to make them more money.

4-8 per day myself.
1-3 for my junior tech.

still getting lots of decks installs, stillwater can attest to that.

we've done over $2500 in labour in the last two days. It's only going to get worse this year.

I don't know what is wrong with us and decks last month.

all the deck promos are craaazy. I am still trying to talk the ragin croatian into opening the install bay on Sunday/Mondays just for deck installs.

We are booking about a week-and-a-half in advance and the local FS iare doing sameday. It's part of their sales guys' pitch. I did a competition shop and the first thing their salesrep said to me when he walked up is "What can we do for you? I can install it right away."

Everyone else in town is back logged and they have 1.5 installers.

P.S. Ryan and Shaughn see my Stolen thread and keep an eye or two out please.

supp to be -22 this weekend
that should jostle the phone abit
but on average we are 20 starters a week when its slow
when its busy we get on avrerage 10-15 per day

DAmmit, supposed to get to +11 here today.

I think we're averaging around 3-5/day here. That figure would probably double if people actually started showing up for their appointments. Word to the wise: get customers to prepay if they're booking an appointment, especially if it's in the distant future.

USe block booking, the only way to do this time of year.

we have are customers pay in advance to get into the books, so that paying customers come first. then you get those people who call in and try to book over the phone and don't understand why we require the job to be prepaid then don't frickin show, now i have an empty stall in the bay. that really pisses me off!!!!

Well even if people don't want to pay the full amount, they can at least do a layaway deposit for a show of good faith. And then there's the people that want you to "set aside" a starter for them when thay call and make an appointent. You tell them you can't do that, and they want to make a payment over the phone...

Bah, full payment or no appointment. I've even had people who've paid not show up. But I've had far more who havn't paid just "forget".
I make no exceptions except for my dealerships, because they pay no matter what.

I book two starters first thing in the morning, then two in the afternoon, if one doesn't show, there is always another car to work on.

me to no exceptions. The only people who don't half to pay up front are my dealerships and referals from them.

they make the commitment on their part by paying and taking the product home
(so there's no chance of selling out or over selling and not having available for install day)
and I (on behalf of my installer) will make the commitment to book the necessary time needed to complete the installation. If an appointment is missed a $25 fee apply's and re-booking will be made at the next available time.....no squeeze ins.

too many customers call all the shops in town and make appointments until they get the soonest one but neglect calling back and cancelling with the other shops.

And using the "but I'm from out-of-town" excuse is getting really old, really fast.