Most shop owners know when something feels off. The bays are full, the team looks busy, and everyone seems to be working hard, but the numbers still aren’t where they should be. 

The problem may not be a lack of work or even a lack of good technicians. It may be that the shop is operating nowhere near its actual capacity. 

I recently sat down with Chris Cotton of AutoFix Shop Coaching to dig into the latest Auto Shop Benchmark Report and what the numbers actually mean for shop owners. One of the biggest takeaways was surprising: fewer than 10% of shops are operating within even 40% of what they’re truly capable of. 

That’s a lot of opportunity sitting inside businesses that already exist. 

Find Out What’s Slowing the Shop Down 

When productivity is low, it’s easy to point to the technician. But Chris breaks the problem into three areas: the technician, the environment, and leadership. 

Sometimes the technician really is the issue. Other times, they’re losing hours walking across the shop for tools, waiting for parts, dealing with inefficient processes, or working around problems management hasn’t fixed. 

Chris shared an example of a diesel shop where technicians were walking thousands of unnecessary steps every day. The employees weren’t working too slowly. The shop itself was slowing them down. 

That’s why measuring matters. Before assuming you have a people problem, look at what your people are being asked to work around. 

Small Changes Can Unlock Serious Growth 

Improving productivity doesn’t always require hiring more technicians or bringing in more cars. 

Chris shared one shop that grew from roughly $180,000 a month to $350,000 by improving what was already happening inside the business. Another went from under $200,000 to nearly $400,000. 

That kind of growth doesn’t happen because everyone suddenly starts working twice as hard. It comes from identifying where time, capacity, and money are being lost and fixing those areas one by one. 

Even something as simple as how you charge for diagnostic work can make a difference. If your technicians are spending valuable time diagnosing vehicles without the shop properly charging for that expertise, you’re giving away capacity that could be generating revenue. 

Pay Isn’t Always the Productivity Problem 

Another interesting finding is that roughly half of top performing shops use hourly pay rather than flat rate. 

That matters because compensation is often the first place owners look when they want more production. But changing the pay plan or offering more money won’t automatically fix a broken workflow, poor leadership, or an inefficient shop. 

Chris also points out that fewer than 20% of technicians today are primarily motivated by money. For some employees, flexibility, culture, schedule, leadership, and quality of life can matter just as much. 

Before assuming your team needs a bigger financial incentive, figure out what’s actually keeping them from performing at their best. 

The benchmark report gives you numbers, but numbers only become valuable when you do something with them. Track what’s happening inside your shop, identify what’s holding your team back, and fix the problems you can control. 

You may have far more capacity sitting inside your current shop than you realize.