Run Your Shop By The Numbers

Shop owner Judi Haglin runs Haglin Automotive by strategically monitoring her shop’s automotive metrics.

I have an Elementary Education degree from the University of Colorado Boulder (CU), and my husband, Dana, has a Saxophone Performance degree. I know, random combination, right? Well, once my husband and I graduated and we got married, I worked at a kitchen in a retirement home. After that, I got a job for a few years managing a McDonald’s.

Both of those jobs really taught me about policies and procedures, but they also helped me a ton when it comes to numbers. They helped me gain the ability to put all of that together and learn how to run my own business.  

I operate Haglin Automotive by the numbers. Knowing how the business is doing on a daily basis is great. And it’s amazing when you share the things that you gain. I share my knowledge of numbers with other shops through 20 Groups so they can run their business by the numbers, too. I believe that when you get to a point and you're successful at one thing, whatever that one thing is that you do really well, share it. Share it with the world. 

8 Metrics and Reports That Judi Haglin Uses To Run Her Shop  

I could go on and on about how metrics and reports have helped me run our business. I could also go on and on about which specific reports have helped us get to where we are. But there are a select few that I will make a point to check weekly, if not daily. 

1. Effective Labor Rate from Tekmetric’s End of Day Report 

2. Labor Hour Inventory   

3. Gross Profit from Tekmetric’s Profit Details Report  

4. Realtime Service Writer Report

5. Customer Lead Source

6. Lifetime Visits from Tekmetric’s Customer List Report 

7. One Time Visit Ratio

And finally…

‍8. The “Closing The Back Door” Report

We have a policy in our shop called “Closing The Back Door.”

Here’s how it works: if you have 500 new customers that have come into your shop and you’ve serviced 1,000 repeat customers, in reality you should have serviced a total of 1,500 customers for that year.

But a lot of the time it’s not 1,500 because a lot of your previous customers didn’t come back. 

So, you get 500 new people in, but some of your existing customers have gone away. Maybe it’s somewhere between 900 and 1,100. It’s important to ask yourself, “How do we close that back door?” on those new and existing customers so that your total service amount for the year can be 1,500 customers. 

Of course, it’s always great to say, “Yay! We have all these new customers,” but if you’re not taking care of your current customers and your new customers, then some of them won’t return.

‍“I believe that when you get to a point and you're successful at one thing, whatever that one thing is that you do really well, share it. Share it with the world.” 

‍3 Tips From Judi Haglin on Closing the Back Door: 
‍1. The biggest way to close the back door is based on your front personnel and the service they received. We make sure each service advisor focuses on value for each customer.

2. We are using the Tekmetric integration with MyShopManager for following up with customers. This has been a gamechanger for communicating with our customers. We reach out to each of our customers at least 12 times per year.

3. We have a seasonal savings card that each new customer receives. The savings card will give them $25 off a repair each quarter. 

‍“I can access my shop from anywhere, and I can access my shop’s numbers from anywhere.” 

The reason I made the switch to Tekmetric in the first place is the fact that it’s an online, cloud-based program. I can access my shop from anywhere, and I can access my shop’s numbers from anywhere. 

Just yesterday, we were traveling back from our trip to Indiana to visit our daughter, and it was payroll day. We were in the middle of nowhere in Kansas and I was able to pull up all of my reports on Tekmetric in the car, on my phone. 

Prior to Tekmetric, I would’ve had to stop somewhere, find a Starbucks or somewhere with Wifi, pull out my laptop, log on through another connecting software, and run the payroll that way. It would have cost me over an hour. 

Now, I can access my shop anytime, anywhere, and keep an eye on the business whether I’m working from home, at a conference, at my Leading Ladies 20 Group, or on vacation. 

It’s a game changer.