ReCap on past discussions
We’ve had some great discussions on The Workshop over the last few months, so we thank everyone who
participated for your feedback and insights.
We want to hear from more women in auto!
Thanks to all the women that participated in The Workshop's discussion in October. We had 112 visitors
and 54 contributions to our forum. The comment below is reflective of the majority:
“
M
y roles are business manager, bookkeeper, marketing, admin, customer service,
cleaner, a bit of everything really, like most small business people! I am a wife and a mother
as well. Information is available, not always easy to find...I attend training when I can. Support to help me
be more effective - working in a male dominated industry it would be nice to connect with other women in
the industry and help each other out. I am part of a networking group for women which I love and benefit
enormously from, however none of them are in the same industry as me. Getting together with other women
going through the same issues, sharing information and supporting one another
would be amazing.
How can Capricorn help?
”
We recognise the need for further networking and training opportunities for the female Members of
Capricorn. We will be exploring ways that we can facilitate this, including the use of platforms such as
The Workshop. We are also investigating the feasibility of a product that will connect you with tools to
help you with your administrative and marketing operations.
Are your customers bringing in their own parts?
Last month we discussed a budding trend – customers bringing their own parts into workshops. Here is
what the community thinks of this issue, and how they deal with it:
“
Y
es, we are getting more and more people wanting to supply their own parts . We won’t fit parts
that are bought off the internet and such . As for people who like to think they're getting
their parts cheaper than us they often end up paying more than if they had bought them off us anyway. If
everyone refused to fit parts supplied by owner, this would stamp out the problem. We just had a lady late
last week who bought a power steering pump online and was pleading with us to fit it because no one else
would. There is just so much rubbish in car parts out there. We flat out refused. It may seem mean at
the time but as a business you have to protect yourself.
“
A
sk if they take their own steak to hogs breath too? The way I deal with it is explain to the
”
”
customer if you supply a part and I fit that part and it fails, warranty becomes an issue. As they
will need to pay me again for the job and then chase their supplier of the faulty part to cover labour costs
and for any other damage the part may have caused. I tell customers that no warranty is given if parts are
supplied. Generally I avoid fitting any customers parts…I would rather lose the job than have the
warranty issue.
6 CAPRICORN IGNITION HOLIDAY EDITION