Shop prices per hour

[prometheus578]

Thanks, John.
You get a lot more referrals and repeat business by treating people as you would like to be treated, and by showing them step by step what is all involved with the repair in order to justify the hours charged.
Regardless of why the bike was brought in, I always give it a once over with the owner present.
"Your fork seals have leaked oil all over your brake pads. I know money's tight, but I'd rather fix the seals and the brakes first, and then you can bring the bike back next month for the valve adjustment instead of doing it now."
Showing a little concern and understanding will always bring them back.

[don07tncav]

prometheus578,
Sounds like you know how to treat your customers right.

The guy I use for my bike does the same thing, he goes out of his way to take care of my XS and has done some adjustments that I would have never though of, generally with little or no extra charge. His rates are fair and I'm happy with his work so far because he walks his talk. He's even given me lifts to work after I drop my bike off so my wife wouldn't be put out. Thats what I call going above and beyond for customers.

Now I am glad his kid is smart and a great student so she gets excellent grades!! I might be in trouble if I had to give her a bad grade!!

[RS Thornton]

I do a lot of my own work, but I was fortunate enough that my father was a mechanic. He mostly worked for the county works so he never had to deal with retail customers and was always able to fix the problems without having to explain the cost and parts. He also road tested the equipment, one of the most cool things as a kid was to come home and have a fire engine in the driveway because dad was roadtesting it, school bus, large dumps, sometimes grading equipment were neat, but the fire truck always got comment from the other kids.

Anyway, we moved when I was in highschool and dad went to a retail place, and hated it. Said there were too many bosses, mostly it bothered him that he had to sometimes not be 100% sure he fixed it, but he also hated to run up the bill. He is happier now as he has retired and does minor maintenance for most of the neighbors. A lot of them are retired and seems there is a lot more gabbing then actual work going on when I have gone by.

I also have a brother in law with his own tranny shop and hear the other side as you hear from Prometheus. So I also know that margins are thin, good help is hard to get, and the owner can never really go on vacation.

So my advice is this, get a Clymer manual and the general troubleshooting tools listed in the front section. Learn to use them and practice when the bike are working properly, then you know what right looks like. Do the minor maintenance and troubleshoot your machine, if the problem arises that is beyond you at least you can avoid the first 4 hours of shop rate by telling the mechanic what it is not.

Oh and remember mechanics are people, so most will be just like you and me, helpful, honest and caring, but there will also be some that would steal from their own mother, the trick to know which is which.

now excuse me, I have to got stick my hand down the toilet again.