Scheduling can be a major headache for auto repair shops, but embracing flexibility can turn challenges into opportunities. Chris discusses the importance of a 'say yes and figure it out' approach, encouraging shop owners to adapt their scheduling strategies to accommodate customer needs while avoiding overpromising. He shares insights on managing no-shows, utilizing technician capacity, and the value of tracking metrics to optimize workflow. With practical tips and a focus on building customer loyalty, this episode offers valuable advice for running a successful auto repair business.
Topics:scheduling strategiesflexibility in servicecustomer loyaltyno-show managementtechnician capacitytracking metricsproblem solvingteam communication
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📓 Show Notes
Topic: Scheduling in auto repair shops
Theme: Controlled flexibility—saying yes while staying efficient
Key Points:
Appointment-based industries struggle with no-shows
Overbooking isn’t reckless—it’s strategic
Teaching a “figure-it-out” mindset builds customer trust
Flexibility is a skill, not chaos
Action Steps:
Review your average show rate and build a 10–15% overbooking buffer.
Designate one “flex” bay per day.
Empower advisors to say “yes” within reason.
Part of the Automotive Repair Podcast Network:
🎙️ Remarkable Results Radio — Carm Capriotto
📈 Business by the Numbers — Hunt Demarest
🔧 Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z — Matt Fanslow
💬 Speak Up! Effective Communication — Craig O’Neill
🚀 Auto Repair Marketing Podcast — Kim & Brian Walker
💥 The Weekly Blitz — Coach Chris Cotton
Thanks for listening to The Weekly Blitz, brought to you by Shop Marketing Pros. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a fellow shop owner and help them figure it out too.
Want to be on the show or suggest a topic? Email me at chris autofixsos.com
To listen to more episodes, make sure and go over to iTunes and or Spotify.
Remarkable Results Radio Podcast with Carm Capriotto: Advancing the Aftermarket by Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion
Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z with Matt Fanslow: From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life.
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This is the Automotive Repair Podcast Network. It's your weekly blitz with Chris keeping you in the game. Welcome back to another episode of the Weekly Blitz, the podcast where we cut through the noise and talk about what it really takes to run a profitable well-led auto repair shop. Before we jump in, I want to give a quick thank you to all of you.
If you want to learn more dedicated listeners, I appreciate every shop owner, manager, and team member who tunes in, takes notes, and does the work. If you've got a topic you'd like to hear about or you'd like to share your story, shoot me an email at Chris at autoficssoles.com.
The title of this one isn't going to get everybody twisted out of shape, bent out of shape, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I don't know why this is such a hard topic to figure out. Every shop does it differently, and that's fine if you found something that works for you, but for those of you that are out there struggling and can't do it.
This title is, say yes and figure it out the art of scheduling in an auto repair shop. If we're serious about scheduling, one of the biggest headaches in every auto repair shop, right, is the scheduling.
Doctors, dentists, restaurants, we all fight the same problem. So it's not like it's unique to us. People make appointments and just don't show up in our world. That means open bays, wasted hours, missed opportunities.
I'll be honest, I've always been a say yes and figure it out kind of owner. If a customer needs help, I want to find a way to make it happen in that mindset, built my shops, but it also means we've got to stay flexible and smart about how we schedule.
Okay, I believe that this is the thing strict scheduling doesn't work in real world auto repair. And what I'm talking about is I have some shop owners that they're like, okay, we're having 10 cars come in tomorrow car A's four hours car B's three hours car C's going to be two hours, et cetera, et cetera.
The next day shows up and two cars don't show up. They have parts issues on three and they knock out two and a half the time. Then you're sitting there looking at each other, not knowing what to do.
Guys, we're not talking about cookie cutter problems. Cars don't show up broken on a time table.
If you try to lock everything down to the minute, you end up either with empty bays or chaos when walking is rolled through.
This is why doctors double book appointments. They know 10 to 20% of people won't show auto shops have to think the same way, but with a twist, you can't just overbook you need to a plan to absorb the chaos.
When I say say yes and figure it out, it's not about burning your team out or making promises you can't keep. It's about teaching flexibility. It's about understanding your shops rhythm, your technician capacity, your hours, your car count.
And using that to make room for opportunity, if a customer calls and says, I need breaks today, I want my advisors to look at the board and say, hey, we're booked, but let me see what I can do.
Because here's the truth. If you don't say yes, they're going to find somebody who will, I don't know of anybody that couldn't fit a break job into their schedule.
One of the things that I laugh at in our community, and you know, we're kind of laughing all the way to the bank. If you call every shop in town, the manufacturers, the independence.
Oh, we're booked two weeks out, or shit. That's the dumbest thing I've ever seen and heard. And I would never tell my customer, oh, we're booked three weeks out, because I would never call you back if I was in that shape.
And two, if you drive around at the end of the day and look at most of these shops, about four or five o'clock, every one of them's got half their base empty and people just sweeping or cleaning up, which is great.
I like to be clean, but I'd rather be full. Really, when I tell our service advisors to say yes and figured out, but you have to watch and make sure you're not over promising.
I want our technicians to go from vehicle to vehicle to vehicle and not wonder about, okay, the parking lot's empty.
I want a full parking lot ready locked ready to go with cars to pull in. Okay, we finished that one car comes in parts issue, push it out next car comes in.
That's that that's my mindset. And I think when you do figure it out when you squeeze that job in, you're building loyalty.
You're showing the customer that you care more about their needs than your own comfort. And I think that builds trust that build your brand.
If you haven't listened to go to episode 233, no like and trust. And while I was at planning with the pros shop marketing pros, I created a whole campaign called yes, we can or yes, we do.
So all of my guys are getting ready to get a crash course in telling the customer yes and figuring it out because we're getting ready to have a huge campaign.
That that's all anybody in our town's going to see on Facebook, Instagram, et cetera. Yes, we can. Yes, we do. We are going to say yes and we'll figure it out. But the key is not to over promise.
Okay. And again, I just mentioned shop marketing pros shop marketing pros is the only company I trust when it comes to marketing for our auto repair shop.
I've been talking about planning with the pros and what a great event it was.
The next thing I'll say is I don't worry about the leads. They send the leads and we say yes, that's what we're going to do.
Our bays are full. We got people coming in all the time and it's because shop marketing pros does such a great job.
But now I feel so super excited for next year because I went, spent three, four days with them and helped enhance that plan.
And so they're going to send the leads and we're going to say yes, shop marketing pros, everybody telling my sent you.
You know, you can't just wing it every day. The keys control flexibility.
If you want to do it this way, you can wear a four bay shop so we can't really hold back a bay or too waiting for people to walk in. We also get a lot of walk ins.
You know, if you wanted to, you could hold back a bay or two each morning for same day things.
You need to set expectations early tell customers, hey, we'll do our best to get you out today.
If not, we'll be first up tomorrow. If you're able to bring it in and leave it with us today.
Soon as we get a chance, we'll get a look at it and let you know what's going on.
Like we don't ever tell anybody, hey, bring it in today and you'll get it back today.
The other thing you need to know, remember, what do I say? If you track it and measure it, you can fix it.
I'm track your show rate or track your, your no show percentage and build that cushion in.
If you know that 15% of your customers don't show up, then add extra 15%.
You know, if you need to schedule an extra two cars a day to make sure that everybody in the shops busy, then I think that's great.
We had a crazy classic example of this just the other day.
We had a person that went in, made an appointment online, brand new customer never been in before.
I'm like, awesome, new customer coming in tomorrow happened to run by the shop to talk to the guys a little bit.
And while I was there for an hour, that person call back, cancel the appointment for tomorrow, switch today,
then call back again, switch it from today back to tomorrow and then did that like three or four more times.
Like people are wishy-washy, they forget.
Also, some people just make appointments to keep your schedule full and then never have a plan of showing up.
Track a measure, no, no your no show percentage and build that cushion in.
Reward flexibility. If a customer can drop off and leave the car great, that's gold for your schedule.
Have loaner cars, all kinds of stuff you can do.
Your team needs to understand that yes, doesn't mean panic.
It means problem solving, it means teamwork, it means communications still happens like it always should.
And using the systems you already have to make things happen.
At the end of the day, scheduling isn't about filling boxes on a calendar.
It's about managing energy and opportunity and the best shops don't run perfectly, they run adaptively.
One more quick thing on scheduling before I pop out of here.
I like to look at the board every 20 or 30 minutes when I'm doing it and see who's going to finish first.
What's the best technician for this job? Did something happen to parts? What are we doing?
If you need to look at the board every 30 minutes every hour, I'm kind of nervous anyway, not nervous, but I pace a lot.
In the shop, I walk through the shop every 30 minutes, 45 minutes and like, hey, how you doing?
How's the car going? Is it going to take longer? Is it going to be less? Like, what are we doing?
Because in my mind, I'm trying to figure out how to put the Jenga puzzle together to get the most amount of customers out in a day.
And so really, you know, we're just looking at that. I teach a lot of classes and shop owners are like, well, this technician wrote up that car.
I'm like, I don't give a damn. All these customers belong to me, me and me first.
And my job is to get them out as quickly as possible. So just because you wrote up something doesn't mean you're going to get to work on it.
Period and a story. I don't care.
The best thing I can tell you and then people are like, oh, my God, flat rate, you're taking work away. My ass.
My job is to make sure we have the most cars through there. And if I'm getting cars through there, you will have another car to work on.
Because guess what? I shuffle the board. That means everything gets shuffled.
So every car in there, I paid the marketing for those cars belong to me. They don't belong to anybody else in that business at all.
Okay. So I want you to teach your team to say yes, and then give them the tools to figure it out.
That's how you win the day, the week, the month, the year. Okay.
Thanks for listening to the weekly blitz brought to you by shop marketing pros.
If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a fellow shop owner and help them figure it out too.
If you want to be on the show or suggest a topic, email me, Chris at autofixsos.com.
Have a great day, everybody. Remember to rise and grind and keep your minds that positive.
You've been listening to the weekly blitz with Chris Cotton on the Automotive Repair Podcast Network.
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