Your Labor Rate Isn’t the Problem — The Profit Leaks Hiding Behind the Numbers
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About this episode
This episode launches the Auto Repair Profit Leak discussion with a simple idea: knowing your numbers is only the beginning. Real transformation happens when you…
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Stop Marketing for Car Count: Are You Attracting Customers—or Just Work Without GP$?
Is your marketing actually bringing your shop great customers—or just creating more car count without the GP$?In this episode of Auto Repair Profit Leaks, Dave Schedin and Mike Cooper flip Ask Dave Anything around and start asking the kinds of hard questions they use when coaching auto repair shops.They dig into one of the biggest misconceptions in automotive marketing: that getting more people through the door automatically means your marketing is working.It doesn’t.Dave and Mike explore the difference between discounts and incentives, why dollar-driven advertising can attract customers who never return, and why your Service Advisors are every bit as important to your marketing as your website, SEO, emails or postcards.They also discuss customer attrition, referral marketing, relationship intelligence, ideal customer profiles, communication styles and why independent shops need to stop positioning themselves below the dealership.One of the biggest questions from the episode:What is the biggest message in your marketing—the dollar sign or the relationship?Because the goal isn’t simply more work.It’s better customers, stronger relationships, greater retention, more referrals and more GP$.If you're spending money chasing new customers while existing customers quietly disappear, this episode will give you a very different way to look at marketing.Learn more about the Auto Repair Profit Leak Challenge and Profit Leak Bootcamp at CompuTrekSystems.com.
Your Team Isn’t Unmotivated — You Just Haven’t Found Their WHY
Why can one Technician/Specialist suddenly go from producing 8–9 hours a day to consistently producing 10?The answer may have nothing to do with better tools, more training, different vehicles, or another bonus plan.You may simply have never discovered what actually motivates them.In this episode, Mike Cooper and Coach Dave Schedin dig into one of the most misunderstood challenges in an auto repair business:**How do you actually motivate your team?**Dave shares real examples of shop owners who stopped assuming money was the answer and started learning what their people genuinely cared about.For one employee, it was gaming and the dream of owning a better computer.For another Technician/Specialist, it was cycling and raising money for a cause that mattered deeply to him.When leadership connected shop performance to something personally meaningful, performance changed.Not because the employee suddenly became more skilled.**They became more motivated.**Dave challenges shop owners and managers to go deeper than simply knowing what their employees like and dislike.Do you actually know their hopes?Their dreams?Their passions?Their WHY?Because there’s an enormous difference between **knowing about your people and truly knowing your people.**The conversation also explores why motivation isn't only an owner-to-employee issue.When Service Advisors, Technician/Specialists, managers, and other team members understand each other’s dreams and goals, mistakes begin to look different. Instead of:“You screwed this up and now you made my job harder.”The thinking can become:“How can I help you become better, because your success helps all of us reach what we're working toward?”That creates an entirely different shop culture.Dave also breaks down:• Why incentive plans are only one part of motivation • How to uncover what truly drives an employee • Why every leader needs to understand their own WHY first • How to support employees when they’re having an off day • The difference between a mistake and defiance • How accountability can become part of a healthy team culture • Why everyone in the shop is a leader—starting with leading themselves • How a simple “Word of the Day” can intentionally shape shop culture • Why being open to feedback is essential for growth • The difference between excuses and results • How personal responsible choice affects leadership and performance • Why your business systems are actually leadership tools • How stronger leadership and motivation ultimately show up in measurable GP$One of the biggest questions Dave asks is deceptively simple:**Do you really know your people—or do you just know about them?**If your shop has talented people who aren’t consistently producing at the level you know they’re capable of, the answer may not be another incentive plan.You may need to find their WHY.**Find the leak. Change the thinking. Build the system. Keep the GP$.**
Your Training Isn’t Failing — Your Shop Is Stuck: Coaching vs. Training That Transforms
Why does great training so often disappear once your team gets back to the shop?Coach Dave Schedin and Mike Cooper unpack the difference between training, accountability, coaching, and true transformation.Training can teach the how-to. Coaching goes deeper—into blind spots, purpose, leadership, personal responsibility, resistance to change, and the thinking that created your current results.Dave explains why sending a Service Advisor to training isn't enough if they return to the same systems, why shop owners must be willing to transform alongside their teams, and why some of the biggest GP$ leaks aren't mechanical at all.You'll also hear how hours per RO, labor rate, inspections, team communication, leadership, and profitability connect—and why getting different results often requires more than simply learning another process.If your team knows what to do but still isn't doing it consistently, this episode is for you.
Stop Blaming the Techs: Your Efficiency Problem Starts at the Front Counter
Your Technician/Specialist efficiency is all over the place. So where should you look first?In this episode of Auto Repair Profit Leaks | Find the GP$ Hiding in Your Shop, Mike Cooper asks what sounds like a simple question about technician efficiency—and it opens the door to a much bigger conversation about leadership, communication, hours per repair order, Service Advisor systems, pricing, canned service packages, and the hidden GP$ leaking out of the shop.Dave challenges shop owners to stop treating efficiency as just a Technician/Specialist KPI. Efficiency is a leadership tool. Before pointing fingers in the bays, look at what you're giving the team to work with.If your shop is averaging only 2.2–2.4 hours per RO, how much opportunity are you really giving a Technician/Specialist to become efficient?Dave breaks down why he looks first at dollar hours per repair order, and why getting toward 3.5–4.0 hours per RO can completely change the efficiency conversation.They also dig into CompuTrek's three labor categories and the efficiency standards Dave teaches:Diagnostics: 200% efficiencyPreventive Maintenance: 150% efficiencyRepair Labor: 135%+ efficiencyBut the conversation goes much further than labor.You'll hear why efficiency can begin before the vehicle ever enters the shop—from your website and marketing to the appointment call, RO preparation, customer intake, Canned Service Packages, technician communication, active delivery, and booking the next visit.Dave explains why the Service Advisor should be one of the most efficient people in the business—and why they can only be as efficient as the systems supporting them.You'll also discover:Why every Technician/Specialist question at the front counter may reveal a broken communication systemHow strong Canned Service Packages can become the "fiber optics" of communication inside the shopWhy prepping tomorrow's repair order today can save significant time laterHow Dave used an assumptive close and range pricing to dramatically improve workflow and customer authorizationWhy selling peace of mind creates more value than simply presenting parts, labor, and priceHow discounting can reveal a lack of confidence in the value being presentedThe difference between command leadership and leading through commitmentWhy simply raising your labor rate may be covering up a much bigger operational problemDave shares an example of a shop whose numbers suggested it needed a $229 labor rate at 2.4 hours per RO. By improving hours per RO to 3.5, the same model supported the shop's existing $186 labor rate.The lesson?Your labor rate can't fix every inefficiency in your business.Sometimes the GP$ isn't hiding in your price.It's hiding in your communication, your systems, your leadership—and what happens before the Technician/Specialist ever turns a wrench.Find the leak. Change the thinking. Build the system. Keep the GP$.