The weekly playbook for shop owners who want to own their market and keep their bays full of high-value repair jobs.
Issue #2 · Tuesday, August 26, 2026
The most valuable 3 minutes of your week
Pit Board
Most owners have never seen their shop the way a stranger does. So this week I pulled the real numbers on one. A full visibility audit, the same one I run before every strategy call, and I'll show you exactly where the jobs are leaking out.
The Audit This Week's Feature
I ran the audit on a real shop: a two-bay import specialist in a mid-size metro. Good techs, fair prices, loyal regulars. Here is the scorecard.
Not named once when I asked ChatGPT and Gemini for the best import shop in their city.
F
Profile & Website
GBP missing half its services, site not mobile-friendly.
C
Biggest leak: AI and the map pack. When the top of Google and the AI assistants don't name you, you're invisible to every driver who doesn't already know you.
The fix this quarter: load every service into the Google Business Profile and fix the hours, turn on a pickup-counter review ask (a newest review that's 9 weeks old is a red flag to both Google and AI), and add service-specific pages so Google and the AI have something real to quote. This shop does great work. That was never the problem. Being findable was.
This Week's Play: Run the 30-Second Version on Yourself
Open an incognito tab and search "[your top service] near me." Are you in the top 3? Then ask ChatGPT: "Who is the best [your specialty] in [your city]?" If your name isn't there, that's your number one leak. Not your prices, not your ads.
★
Do this today: run both searches and screenshot what you see. That's your starting line.
The Question
“
Ask your marketing company: Where do we rank in the Google map pack for our top 3 services, and can you show me?
A straight answer: they pull it up live and show you the numbers. A dodge: "rankings move around a lot," with no numbers at all.
Get Yours
Want this exact audit on your shop? Free.
Send your shop name and city. I'll run the scorecard and send it back. One shop per market, and I only take a handful each week.
No pitch on the audit. You keep the scorecard either way.
Got it. Your audit is in the queue. I'll email your scorecard shortly.
Crew Chief's Call
You can't fix a leak you can't see. The audit is where every win starts.
Veteran, local business owner, and founder of Reputation Pit Crew. Over 20 years helping local businesses get found and get chosen. I work with one shop per market. Never your competitors.
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