Tip#30 – Take a look at it for free?

[theperfectday]

This is a great way to start a relationship with a new customer. 

It’s a proven fact that only 17-19% of the population are purely price shoppers. The other 81-83% are value shoppers. The problem is sometimes a value shopper will appear to be a price shopper because they will call and ask for the price of a service. The reason they are asking for a price is because that number is the only concrete thing they have to compare you to other shops. 

In cases like this I would always try to get the customer to come by my shop and experience our level of service. I was not looking to make money on this visit I just wanted this prospective customer to experience everything we had to offer so that we were not judged based on our price (because we were usually most expensive). The best way to do this is by offering a free check. 

Now here is how to protect yourself and weed out the time wasters, because it makes no sense giving something away for free if you wont ever get something back. 

I always say that “we perform a courtesy inspection on all our clients vehicles at no charge. I would be happy to have my technician perform this inspection for you free of charge. If we find the problem during this inspection… Great, if not and we have to remove parts or perform special tests there could be a charge up to x. Do I have your permission to move forward if we don’t find the issue during the courtesy check up?”

9 times out of 10 if the person is a value shopper they will agree to you moving forward if you don’t find the issue durring the “free” inspection. In their mind it makes sense that if you actually have to perform work like removing parts or going through specific tests, you would charge them. But most people think that you bring the car in the back pop the hood hook up the computer and then you know whats wrong. 

Offering the free inspection like I just presented takes away the thought that they are being charged for nothing.

Awesome tip.