How can I shield myself from the public?

[fastfredracing]

The telephone and people walking in and out of my door throughout the day have been the very most nagging, and difficult problem to solve for me since I closed my big shop and went solo. I swear to god, that I work 10 hour days in 5 minute intervals. I have been doing this for 9 years now, and I think I have reached my breaking point.
The phone is easy enough to manage , I will just simply not answer it, or take it off the hook. I bet I answered 25 phone calls today,made 15 calls, missed 10-15, and had at least 12-13 people walk in to question me about work, or for advice. This is not including delivery drivers, and suppliers.
What I am thinking of trying is to train my customers, and leave an appropriate message on the machine that says I will only answer calls between certian hours of the day. The people who walk in, however, are a tougher problem. They way my building is laid out, most people just walk right into the shop, my office is in the rear of my building, upstairs. I will sometimes lock the door, but people just do not get the hint and you would not believe how long some people will stand there and pound on the door. Unfortunately , I have windows in the front of the shop , and you can see me in there.
I know some of you are going to say hire help, but I have been there , done that, have the shirt, and am never going back.
So what do I use for a gate keeper?. I can lock up the shop , and make them enter through the office, but how can I let people know that I am unavailable at certain times? A sign?, maybe leave a note pad or something for messages?
I don't want you guys to think I am a whiney beotch or anytihing, but just imagine you are in your garage trying to assemble your 915 and you get interrupted 10-15 times, well that is every minute of every day of my life, and I cannot seem to turn it off. It makes my work life complete misery and chaos, and I find myself frustrated and angry most of the day, and that is not the person I am at all. I don't want to live like this anymore.
Long post, hope the brain trust has some good ideas. Thanks for listening.

[Rick Lee]

You need a gatekeeper. You'll say you can't afford it, but it sounds like you can't afford to not be with one. Your time is precious and should be spent maximizing revenue. Get some car-knowledgeable front office person to deal with the phone, deliveries and walk-ins. I bet you'll make more money this way too.

[Jagshund]

Start an appointment policy for existing customers, post office hours and stick to them. After 2-3 months, the only reason people would come during off times is if you've let the rules slacken by answering their pounds.

People do what they can get away with.

[onlycafe]

big, loud, shop dog.

[jyl]

What Rick said.

Or, paint your windows black.

[Bill Douglas]

Charge them for your time giving advice or information.

[WolfeMacleod]

Not sure how to answer this, but I can say... I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one having operational issues.


Big Dog, and a "GO AWAY" sign?

[Jim Bremner]

Raise your prices 40%?

[cbush]

I think you can train your customers to a point. I am one of those whiny customers that likes to hear how the work is going- you know, an update every two weeks or so? You can get them to communicate with you on emails or set specific times for them to call. Might take a while, but will eventually help. Not hearing anything causes them to call--and keep calling.

[dennis in se pa]

I had a mechanic that just locked the door. You left a message on the phone-he called you back, but the door was locked.

[cashflyer]

Could you use an answering service to handle the phone calls?
That's usually cheaper than hiring a receptionist.

[Rick Lee]

The local BMW bike indep. wrench had a very strict appointment policy. This was made apparent by the multiple signs throughout his shop. And since his shop was in his home garage, you couldn't get him by knocking on front door of his house and you didn't want to walk past the gate to the back if he wasn't expecting you. But he recently opened a retail shop nearby and had to hire a front office guy. He's now busier than he ever was. He has a lounge out front with a tv and fridge, sells lots of parts and tires and he and his asst. wrench are always very busy. As long as you're going to be busy, you might as well be working on paying jobs instead of BS'ing with people on the phone or in the front office.

[kaisen]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

You need a gatekeeper. You'll say you can't afford it, but it sounds like you can't afford to not be with one. Your time is precious and should be spent maximizing revenue. Get some car-knowledgeable front office person to deal with the phone, deliveries and walk-ins. I bet you'll make more money this way too.

I agree with Rick. Hire someone.

[mossguy]

Do what Rick suggests!

Best,
Tom

[stealthn]

Hire a handicapped person; you get subsidized and they are grateful to have a job. everyone wins

[john walker's workshop]

post a sign out front with your contact info and a big "do not pound on the door" sign. i am in here working and i do not want to be disturbed. i will respond to your message as soon as i can. sorry for the inconvenience, but i need to get work done. just be up front and see how that flies. not much you can do about the phone solicitors, other than don't pick up any 800, blocked, out of area calls. if it's important, they need to leave a message.

[GH85Carrera]

Set up an answering machine. All phone calls get answered by the machine. If they don't leave a message it was not an important call. You will probably want a personal cell phone with a separate number that only trusted friends and relatives get. If they have an emergency they can call that.

Put a sign on the front door that you see customers by appointment only.

Lock the front door.

[MRM]

Freddie, it should be apparent from your many, many complaints about how hard your business is to run, that you are pursuing a broken business model. Your business plan just doesn't work. You have the choice of taking real stock of what you do and why you do it that way, and then make fundamental and meaningful changes.

You decided to go the route of having the absolutely smallest overhead and lower prices with fewer services. This is a good and valid strategy, but it's not working. Here are a couple of points that you should consider.

First, I can tell just from reading your posts that your pricing is out of whack. You need to raise prices and reduce your work. You are killing yourself doing work that costs you money to do. Raise your prices and get more selective on handling work. Don't confuse working with making money. Many small business owners (I suspect you included) think they have to be busy all the time or you're not going to make it. This is not true. You need to be [I]profitable[I] all the time - not busy. If you chase away half your customers but make twice as much on the ones that remain, you will make twice the money with half the work. Don't be so afraid of having down time that you fill your time with unprofitable work.

Second, figure out where you make your money. Then focus on that. Specialize in what you are most profitable at.

Third, do not be penny wise/pound foolish in saving payroll. Pay someone to do stuff that frees you to be more profitable. Your most valuable comodoty is time. You only make money if you're working. If someone takes you away from working, it costs you the amount of your hourly rate. If you pay someone ten bucks an hour to cover your phones and do your books, but you're able to bill an extra two hours a day at $80 an hour, you're foolish to not take on the additional overhead.

Fourth, consider repositioning yourself into a specialty independent shop of some sort that charges a premium but limits your work to something difficult or unusual. Increase your rates to make up for the reduction in work you see. Spend enough to make your place professional and look nice enough to atract the higher dollar work, but don't go crazy.

Above all, raise your damn rates. There is nothing worse in this world than not getting paid for the work you do - except when you pay someone else to work for them. If you do work that is not profitable, you are paying someone to let you do their work. You are far better off doing nothing than taking on unprofitable work.

[Rick Lee]

What MRM said. If you're that busy, raise your rates.

FWIW, the only Porsche shop I ever trusted when I was in VA told me they make most of their money on fluid changes and valve adjustments. I knew that made me one of their least valuable customers, as I only came to them when I had a real problem I couldn't tackle like OBDII diagnostics, emissions and fuel injection issues. When they saw me coming, they knew they'd get nothing more than hourly billing and asked me how long I wanted them to work on something before calling it quits in case the answer wasn't apparent by then. In fact, I only asked them to do diagnostics for me and then I took the car home and fixed whatever they said was wrong. Hey, it's not my fault their main guy liked to talk with me on the phone and explain every little thing he had done and was thinking. I sure referred them a lot of work. But I just like DIY'ing too much, so they only got the hard stuff from me.

[kaisen]

Originally Posted by MRM

Freddie, If you pay someone ten bucks an hour to cover your phones and do your books, but you're able to bill an extra two hours a day at $80 an hour, you're foolish to not take on the additional overhead.

There it is again