You open on Saturdays to improve customer convenience. You do not want to reject Old Tim’s request to fix his business van window. You have known each other for many years.
The problem: your best techs do not work weekends. Which leads:
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Quality drops.
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Comebacks rise.
Why it matters: A comeback costs roughly 3× more than doing the job right the first time.
The Mistake: Treating Saturday Like a Normal Workday
Most auto body shops and collision shops added Saturday hours for one reason: customers asked for it.
The logic felt right:
Customers drop off cars on Saturday → Repairs happen during the week → Pickups the car next Saturday
Everyone wins……Except the numbers tell a different story.
When auto body shops track comebacks by completion date, Saturday-finished jobs show higher failure rates.
Why Saturday Breaks Down
Saturday looks like a workday, but it is missing key pieces:
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Your A-team techs are off (most likely)
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The estimator on intake is often new
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Parts departments are closed
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Missing clips or fasteners get pushed to “Monday”
By Monday, the tech doing the repair has no idea what was promised while they were gone.
The Real Cost of Comebacks
A comeback is not just rework. It creates:
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2–3 hours of unpaid labor
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A frustrated tech fixing someone else’s mistake
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A bay tied up with rework instead of revenue
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Ongoing anxiety that the issue will happen again
One Thing to Do Now
Track comebacks by completion date for 30 days. If Saturday leads, the decision is already made.
Bottom line: Saturday hours only help if they do not damage quality. Doing nothing is the most expensive option.
In Part 2, we break down how to rethink what Saturday is for and how to run it without creating comebacks.
