An
interesting pattern we noticed of late. We’ve been having an unusual number of
vehicles come back for oil leaks we had previously repaired.
As we began to
put the data together, we could see the cars were not coming back for the work
we had done, they were coming back for other oil leaks we may have missed. Oil
pan and valve cover gaskets were the familiar culprits, an occasional timing
belt cover or the rear main seal, transmission front pump and tail shaft seal,
even an occasional differential pinion seal. We asked ourselves what we could
as a business do to prevent the client from having one oil leak fixed, yet still
having to come back for other oil leaks.
We went back
to basics and started at the beginning. How we intake the vehicle and what
questions we ask. From an office perspective, all seemed okay, the right
questions went on the repair order and the tech got to work.
And that’s
when we noticed the weak link in the process. You see, advice is only worth as
much as you pay for it. And we were not asking anything for the oil leak
advice. We expected our mechanics to
spend a great deal of their time trying to find the oil leaks when in fact,
they would stop at the very first sign of oil and blame the apparent source.
We expected
them to spend their valuable work time without the possibility of reward. The
message we sent was that their time was not valuable.
We decided
to try a pilot program. To charge a fee to the client for the advice on oil and
coolant leaks, and to reward the mechanic with a half hours’ worth of time
paid. We did have the expectation the mechanic would spend the half hour checking
the vehicle for oil leaks, and not to stop at the first sign of oil.
Once we did
that, the mechanics started to remove panels, covers, shields, air cleaners,
snorkels and all other necessary items to come up with the correct answer. Why?
You ask, because now, they are being paid for their time. That’s why!
A lot of
unnecessary work is being done on cars simply because mechanics did not take
the necessary time to check and inspect things properly. And why would a
mechanic not take the time to do the inspection correctly you say? Because the
client wasn’t paying for it,
