There are two basic ways to run a shop and I've worked in both of them. One way works and one does not.
Version #1: Everybody in the shop has it made known to them that when they get out of bed every morning their singular overarching goal is to have a back alley knife fight over every nickel, and if somebody's car accidentally gets fixed along the way then, well, shit happens I guess. Mops and brooms and kitty litter will not be provided because those things cost money. Your bathroom breaks will be logged for frequency and duration and evaluated against a table provided by outside consultants, because hiring outside consultants is a totally normal thing to spend money on in this situation.
Version #2: Everybody in the shop has it made known to them that when they get out of bed every morning their singular overarching goal is to fix every single car that comes in the shop, no matter what, and everything else will happen on its own after that. If you need stuff to fix the cars, you must have it, or else the cars don't get fixed. When the customers figure out that you are able to actually fix their cars, you can charge whatever it takes to remain profitable, and the vast majority of them will happily pay. No one has to fight over anything, because fighting over nickels on the ground is not fixing cars and fixing cars is what makes the money appear.
Well said!
Amazing what a shop can do if techs are provided with the things they need to be efficient and correctly fix cars.
There are two basic ways to run a shop and I've worked in both of them. One way works and one does not.
Version #1: Everybody in the shop has it made known to them that when they get out of bed every morning their singular overarching goal is to have a back alley knife fight over every nickel, and if somebody's car accidentally gets fixed along the way then, well, shit happens I guess. Mops and brooms and kitty litter will not be provided because those things cost money. Your bathroom breaks will be logged for frequency and duration and evaluated against a table provided by outside consultants, because hiring outside consultants is a totally normal thing to spend money on in this situation.
Version #2: Everybody in the shop has it made known to them that when they get out of bed every morning their singular overarching goal is to fix every single car that comes in the shop, no matter what, and everything else will happen on its own after that. If you need stuff to fix the cars, you must have it, or else the cars don't get fixed. When the customers figure out that you are able to actually fix their cars, you can charge whatever it takes to remain profitable, and the vast majority of them will happily pay. No one has to fight over anything, because fighting over nickels on the ground is not fixing cars and fixing cars is what makes the money appear.
this lesson applies to all service industry operations as well. i'm in large scale commercial construction and the parallels are unreal.