Daily dutys / staying organized Motorcycle shop

[Motorsports_One]

Hello everyone! I have been browsing here for awhile and first off want to say you have a nice community here! My name is Treacy and I own a Motorcycle Service shop, selling parts and apparel as well. We do everything from custom bikes, factory service, to selling a clutch lever. I opened up in 2005 and have been growing since.

My main question is how do you guys stay organized and what systems do you have to do this? I use quickbooks and on average only have a couple walk ins a day. We have plenty of business I just cant stay organized enough. I am a superb mechanic but had to teach myself the business aspect. I now find myself quite the salesman, which I never was! I currently use a notebook to keep track of all calls, parts I need to order, to do lists I have to perform etc. I dont have a secretary but the wife wants to help out. What daily system do you guys function on? To keep track of orders, customers, bills etc.? I know it a little vague but any input is greatly appreciated. Its getting to a point where I need to make a huge change here, I feel like i am loosing business/profits because of this. I am not made of money (yet lol) so a coach is out of the question for now.

I also wanted to say that what has happened to good customer service? The main reason I continue to grow is great communication and honesty with the customer. I am always told of this and am surprised of the lack of this in the world.

[mcfarldr1]

I agree that quality customer service is very important in maintaining and expanding customer base. Great work! Keep it up and you will have no problems in the future.

[Patrysha]

I am no expert on the operational end of things, as I tend to keep my focus on marketing - but from what I've observed it is fairly easy to get a full POS system that includes a contact database. You can store practically everything in there except your finances which can be easily ported over to your Quicken software.

I wouldn't use it for email though...that should be kept separate...and that can easily be done by your wife or outsourced depending on her talents and interests...but that's a marketing thing, not organizational.

Since you don't have a receptionist, you may want to have your wife handle things like follow up, including calling suppliers and booking appointments. If you use an online POS system, she doesn't even have to be on site to do this.

[Blessed]

Patrysha has some excellent ideas.

My husband operated a paintless dent removal shop with a buddy of his for a time - they used whiteboards in the shop to help them remember what they needed to do, when jobs were due, who needed to be called back, etc... they were especially great for when they had a phone call while they were working that they needed to write info down from so they wouldn't forget before they got to their desks.

I'm not saying that the white boards are the key to organization - not by a long shot, the bookeeper/receptionist did the books and etc... and organized all of that, did call-backs, etc.. but the white boards did help - and that way everyone knew at a glance what was going on without having to ask.

[Steve B]

Here's my advice- Hire someone to do the things you are not good at. If you're not good at keeping your daily things organized I seriously doubt you ever will be. But, the good news is that there are lots of people who ARE good at that stuff. This will free you up to do what you do best, sell and fix the motorcycle. If you spend your time trying to learn some computer program you'll be taken away from the thing that makes you money.

[phanio]

Agree with Steve B - it will allow you to focus on growing your business and providing service - just make sure you have some checks in place to monitor those who you hire.