Interesting thread !

Most of what I come up against has alresdy been covered in earlier replies, I am currently running at 10 weeks plus in advance bookings which leaves very little time for the inevitable " this has broken and I need it fixed yesterday " brigade, I am expereriencing the busiest time now that I have ever come across since I went on my own in 1990, strangely enough , this also ties in with the big main dealers around me saying they have not really started to get busy since before Xmas last, Um, I wonder why that is?, their labour rates is the answer,I am in sleepy Suffolk and dealers around me are charging £80 plus per hour, I am sure it will be proportionally more in Peters area, people will not pay this sort of money nowadays as they percieve that they are not getting value for money, and I would agree.I was in a Honda dealership yesterday and they had a menu pricing list up in reception, the one that caught my eye was a £200 charge for a cambelt change, blanket model coverage, what about if the water pump is knackered,what about the balance shaft belt?, did a Honda recently when the pump was £80,do they replace the rollers and idlers, no,yes, Jap stuff is manufactured to a very high quality but would anyone here just replace a belt only bearing in mind the car will go another X ammount of miles before the belt would be due for another replacement, even Vauxhall dealers do not replace the water pump when doing a belt change and my nearest dealer charges £300 just to change the belt kit !

My solution to the original question is to pre-alert my customers to an imminent job that I know will be due in soon, I would never use an impersonal message like a text, too easy to delete and forget about, I ring them up a month before reminding them that their MOT or whatever work is due is coming up shortly, most punters don't even realise they are coming up for a MOT so are grateful for the call,and it gives the personal touch and also shows that you are in advance of their upcoming appointment, very often in my experience, this call will be made on a Sunday night quite late, that seems to be the only time I get free nowadays !

Tony