Why So Few Shops Break $3 Million and Why That Number Matters More Than You Think—Part 3
Happy fall everyone, and don’t give up on this year; we still have one more quarter to make big strides in our shops. Let’s get real: The jump from $800,000 to $1.5 million comes from the obvious moves. You finally get inspections done on every car. You learn to ask for the sale without apologizing. You start saying “yes” on the phone. You hire a service advisor or a tech so you are not doing it all yourself. That work is real. It is difficult, but each step changes your life.
The climb from $2 million to $3 million is different. It is fine-tuning, and it is second-order thinking because every decision has a reaction somewhere else in the business. You do not win this stage with one big change. Rather, you win it by stacking small, tedious improvements until the shop runs smoother and at a higher load than it ever has.
Begin the Communication Climb
Here is what that looks like in the real world.
At $2 million, the phone still runs you. At $3 million, you run the phone. Install a VoIP phone system with call recording, ring groups, and a live queue so you can see when you are underwater before you lose calls. Pair it with wireless headsets so advisors can talk hands-free while moving. Teach one rule the whole team can remember: Never say “hold.” Say, “I can help you.” Pause the call, then route cleanly or take a message and ensure each problem has a resolution.
Every week, pull three recorded calls per advisor. Listen to the greeting, the needs discovery, and the clear request to book the visit. Do not grade with a microscope. Pick one behavior to improve and coach it. If your advisors learn to ask, “Is today or tomorrow better for you?” your calendar fills and your stress drops. If they learn to capture first-time callers on the first call, your marketing dollar doubles in value.
A Broader Brush
Now that you’ve got your communication dialed in, move on to more global changes.
Give your advisors dual monitors and watch productivity increase. One screen is not enough at volume. Put the point of sale on one screen and parts lookups, labor guides, digital vehicle inspection, or the schedule on the other so there’s no tab flipping or scribbling on sticky notes. It feels minuscule, but it changes the rhythm of the counter. An advisor with two screens builds estimates faster, checks in customers without tapping a keyboard like a court reporter, and maintains eye contact longer—all of which build trust and speed. Speed is a service, and people will pay for it.
Build canned jobs for the top 100 services you sell instead of typing them from scratch each time. Build tiered diagnostic packages (level one, level two, level three) with clear language that customers can understand. Identify what is included and what is not. Each one is price and time-boxed, allowing your advisors to click, personalize a note, and move on. This creates two immediate payoffs. First, estimates go out quicker, which means more approvals. Second, you can finally measure what you sell without needing an MBA in analytics. You can run usage reports on diagnostic levels sold, brake packages sold, and fluid services sold. Now your marketing, training, and inventory can align with reality instead of guesses.
Write the handoffs so they occur the same way every time. In a busy shop, most problems begin in the handoffs—advisor to tech, tech to advisor, and advisor to customer. Fix that with simple checklists and stick to them. Write the intake checklist and keep it on the counter. Write the advisor to tech handoff so the concern, the promise time, and the special requests are all in the work order and said aloud before the key hits the hook. Write the quality control checklist and make it non-negotiable. If your team checks torque, fluids, lights, and warning lights the same way on every car, comebacks will decrease, which increases net profit goes up without the need for additional cars.
Set routine meetings or your whole day becomes an unstructured meeting. Set a 10-minute morning huddle before the doors open to discuss yesterday’s result and today’s car count—the two promises that cannot slip. Make it a standup meeting without story time unless it’s positive feedback for a teammate or something positive a customer shared. Also run a weekly 45-minute leadership meeting to examine a simple scoreboard: sales, average repair order, car count, labor hours produced, and comebacks. Pick one constraint to improve for the week and agree on the smallest move that will help. This helps to train your team to solve today’s problems without your shoulder at their elbow.
Install an online scheduling system on your website to make it easy for customers to say “yes.” People book flights, haircuts, and groceries on their phones without talking to anyone, let them book your services, too. Keep the form simple: name, car, desired date, and reason. Show available windows and confirm by text.
Offer a shuttle or two loaners. Most people do not have the margin to be without a car all day. If your average repair order is $1,000, a $20 ride share is a tiny cost to save the job and the relationship. Call it what it is—a courtesy car, not a freebie. You are removing friction and raising approval rates.
Use direct mail with purpose. Digital matters but print still has a place. In a world that lives on screens, a relevant postcard still gets seen, held, and kept on the fridge. Mail monthly to customers you have not seen in six months. Mail seasonally to your zip codes before the holidays and before summer road trips. Keep it simple with a clear promise, a clear call to action, a phone number, and a link to online scheduling. Measure response with a unique number or code so you are investing instead of guessing.
Use a scoreboard to report what matters and make it visible. Use a whiteboard or a monitor to include sale today and month to date, ARO today and month to date, cars today and week to date, comebacks, and Google review count. Pick the numbers that drive behavior and update them daily. Do not use it to shame people, but to keep score and focus effort. When a number is off, talk about it in the huddle and in the weekly meeting. Ask what changed. Make an adjustment and follow up on it the following week. This teaches your crew to think like owners.
Invest in comfort and care for your team. If your bays are 100 degrees in August, you are paying for it in speed and turnover. Cool the bays. Improve lighting. Keep the floors clean. Add a break room that does not look like a storage closet. These choices tell your people they matter. When people feel cared for, they care more. That shows up in how they treat customers and how long they stay. Add benefits as soon as the math works. Health insurance and a simple retirement match send the message that you care, and you are building something serious. Great techs have options, so make yours the obvious one.
Small Changes, Big Results
Here's a simple one-week sprint to begin now:
- Install dual monitors at every advisor’s station.
- Turn on call recording and commit to three call reviews per advisor this week.
- Build five canned jobs you know you write every day.
- Add a 10-minute morning huddle.
None of these moves make headlines, but together they make capacity, buy back time, and reduce stress. And they push a very real flywheel. A few seconds were saved on every call and every estimate, and a few approvals were won that may have slipped while a few comebacks were avoided. That is your path from $2 million to $3 million. It’s not magic, it’s by design.
As I put in my July column, remember: “The more my business needs me, the less it is worth.” Build a machine that works because of you, not only with you.
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts: [email protected]
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