Tips

Someone from the outside will notice things that you and your staff may
never notice. Not only the little details; but huge things sometimes.
Think of the places that you do business with, and think of the things
that you see time after time and wonder “Why don’t they do something
about that?” Because no one there is aware that it exists. There are
things like that at every business…including yours.

Customers generally have some kind of timeline in mind when they deal
with automotive service.

How fast do you answer the phone?
One ring?

How fast do you say “Hello!” to people entering your front door?
Before the door closes as they enter?

How fast do you reply to emails?
Within minutes?

“No one does that!” you say.

Exactly.

Not you, not your techs, not your office staff, not your shop where
their car is being serviced. Make all of this as easy to view as
possible. Very few customers will just sit and stare at these things
anyway. Most will take a very brief look or often none at all. But, they
know that they can take a look anytime which makes all that you do much
more believable.

In most cases folks are not looking only for auto service, but a
relationship with someone who they can depend on to make this area of
their life something that they do not have to worry about. How well do
all of your employees understand this? How well do you communicate to
your customers that they can find a good relationship with you?

Have you ever decided to try a product or service, started the process,
and then just gave up because it was too much of a nuisance to buy it?
How sure are you that doing business with you is easy? How many hoops do
you make customers jump through? I promise you that there are customers
who wanted to buy from you, but found it too confusing or time consuming
or inconvenient.

It’s a good time of the year to do the same things at the shop that many of us do at home. Take a good look at where the heating and air conditioning is leaking out. Many shops are like Swiss cheese; holes everywhere! Check the insulation, weather stripping, overhead doors, service doors, windows, and any other spot that might be an issue. That infrared gun in your tool box is a great tool to find leaks. It’s the basic stuff like this that the expense hawks do to keep more money for themselves (and also end up with a more comfortable workplace).

It could be either or both. The largest plus is the “association” with others who also belong. Far too many shop owners live on their own little island either by themselves or maybe with a couple of others. Association members often interact with dozens of others not unlike themselves. Beyond associating, belonging can go several directions. You can’t just sit on your hands and wait for something to occur. When you jump in, you tend to get a whole lot more out. If you are not a member of your state’s automotive trade association, get off your island and try it for a year. If nothing else, it will give you access to some of the top shop owners in your region.

That should be a frequent comment from your customers when you give them a ride, give them a loaner or just talk about your personal and company vehicles. Owning newer low mileage vehicles suggests to your customers that you don’t follow what you often say to them. Today it is not very difficult for shops to own extremely clean cars with over 200,000 miles (one owner high end cars are cheap to buy and fun to drive). They make fantastic selling tools; and can save the shop a lot of money, too!

For quite some time now shops have regularly taken photos of various failures or the different stages of larger jobs. Then, when the customer is at the shop someone grabs their smart phone or digital camera with those photos to help with the explanation. Some will also load the photos on a shop computer for a better look.

The problems are that the camera and phone screens are small, and it can be inconvenient to get the customer to view a computer monitor. A big improvement can be made by using a tablet to take the photos and show the customer. Nice big screen and very portable. Try it…your customers will love it!

See if you can find one or two things that stand out as being good. Low miles, extra clean, no rust, sharp body style, great fuel mileage, never towed in, etc.

It’s far too easy to focus only on the negative when discussing car repair. By balancing it with some positives the tech, the service advisor and the customer will see things a bit differently which can often increase the amount of sale.

Of course you are already using regular mail, email and phone calls to remind your customers when their oil change is due. But, are you texting them, too? Something like the following can be quite effective:

“Hi Fred – According to our records, the oil change on your Pinto should be due about now. Reply to this text or call us today at 555-1234 to save $X off your oil change. Thanks from Harry at Main Street Auto!”

The technology keeps on coming and some of your competitors are always using the newest things. Keep up with them, or better yet, watch for those new things and be the first shop in your town to use them.

You received an estimate request by email or phone or someone just walked in and asked. You decided to provide one (good idea if handled correctly). So, now what do you do after they said “thanks”, but made no appointment? Do you call or email them one or more times over the next few days? If you do, at least some of them will respond and make an appointment since you are likely the only one to show interest and follow up. Remember, not everyone asking for an estimate by phone or email is looking for the lowest price in town.

If you are a typical shop owner, a lot of information comes to mind as you go through your week. Much of it is about things that you would like to communicate to one or more of your employees – projects, questions, ideas, etc. Keep a document on your computer for each employee where you record those thoughts, then email it to them once each week. Think of it as just one more way to prevent a few fires and get a few more things accomplished.

Did you know that Google reviews are not always listed in dated order? That great new review can get buried on page three while that old nasty review stays on page one. This is one more reason to post highly professional replies to all reviews, especially the bad ones.

Also, several shops have had their replies to reviews disappear although the reviews remain. It is strongly recommended that you save your replies in a document so you can repost them easily if this happens to you.

In many shops about the only reason the fax gets fired up is to receive parts diagrams, usually from a new car dealer. But today many shops can bring up complete OE parts cataloging for many makes on their computer. Some even transfer the parts with all information right to the RO and allow parts to be ordered from the RO. Cost to the shop is typically zero. Turn the 30 minute fax dance into a two minute done deal just like you do with your aftermarket suppliers.

If there is little activity at a shop, many people believe that the shop can’t be very good. Your parking lot and your shop should normally be at least half full both when the shop is open and closed. No, not with the junkers you should be making disappear. You can acquire cars with reasonably decent bodies for not a lot of money. How road worthy they are is really not important as long as they look decent (detail them to make them look even better). Also, make sure your employees know to put a few cars inside when the shop becomes empty.

For many business owners today, the reply is not near often enough. A customer emails a request and waits hours or days for a reply. Someone at your shop should be constantly monitoring the business email and replies should occur within a few minutes. If you really want to be in the lead, then have someone monitoring and replying to your business email on their cell phone when the shop is closed. If you are thinking that you do not get all that many customer emails, then plan on it staying that way as your customers wander off to shops who respond to them promptly.

Make it mandatory that when writing up an appointment RO, the customer is always asked what time they will be coming in. Of course you do this for waiters, but also do it for every drop off. Just “dropping it off Wednesday” invites inefficiency in your work day. Every incoming appointment RO should have a specific time (or at least a time range) noted. This will cause your customers to do a bit better job of keeping their appointments, plus it is guaranteed to reduce stress on your front counter…and every shop can stand that!

One common problem with night drops is getting initial approval for a specific dollar amount. Even though you ask customers to make sure to include a dollar amount (increasingly becoming a legal requirement), many still seem to forget. A statement asking for a dollar amount with a line to fill in helps, but it is still often left blank. A better approach is to also include several specific amounts for the customer to select. Please circle one: $100 $250 $500 $1,000 $_____. Add something like this to your after hours drop off envelopes and your response rate is sure to increase.

You absolutely must get those customer emails. Forget that you may not have had much success in the past. Remember that there was a time when it was very difficult to get cell phone numbers, yet today it’s automatic. Email is moving that direction rapidly. You don’t need gimmicks or contests. Just ask with confidence like you are asking for their phone number and you will likely get the vast majority to cooperate. Shops which have made it a regular practice have most of their customer’s emails…some with over 90%. That makes fast, low cost marketing a snap!

“Here is the fix and the price. Take it or leave it.” Hmmmm. Maybe I’ll just leave it. Or…” Here are your options. You can do it this way with the best warranty for $X, or this way with a good warranty for $Y”. There are multiple ways to do almost any repair or service, and usually more than one of them provides a reasonable repair without doing substandard work. You have a better chance of making a sale by offering yes or yes, instead of yes or no. If you do not already offer options, try it…you might just be surprised how much your customers will like it.

One thing that you will typically find in successful repair shops is a good incentive pay plan. Sales and gross profit based for service advisors and parts staff, and production based for techs. A decent blend of a basic base with significant incentive works nicely for many shops. Often shops do have a blend, but in most cases the base is too high and the incentive is too low, which severely reduces the benefits of an incentive pay plan. Other shops have excellent success with 100% incentive pay. Generally, shops with little or no incentive pay have low production and therefore low profits. Spend some time creating a solid plan that is fair to you, your employees and your customers.

It is often said that some of the worst people to have at your front counter are former or current technicians. Yes, it is helpful that they “know the product”, but too often they know it too well in the sense that they go into far more detail than most customers care to hear. When someone fixes your furnace at home, how interested are you in the detailed functions of a home HVAC system? A few of us are, but most of us just want to know that it will heat the house when we turn it on and how much we owe the furnace guy. Give customers the initial information in a brief summary and make it clear that you are more than happy to go into as much detail as they would like. We often do not realize that the customer on the other end of the phone is tapping their foot trying to get back to whatever they were doing while we drone on about fuel trim. It’s just not all that exciting to most folks…really!

Of course you send them to customers who had you change their oil. But, what about everyone else? Almost every car in your shop has an oil change sticker on it. Get the due date and mileage every time on every car. Then use that information in your software to make sure that they receive a reminder from your shop about when that next oil change is due. The point here is to do everything that you can to keep those cars out of any other auto service shop of any kind; especially the ones which tend to siphon off those simple and profitable services.

The reason that many shops say no is little more than a bad habit learned from people who worked in the past where customer service was not as critical as it is today. All that this potential new customer (or maybe existing good customer) usually wants is for you to show that you are interested in helping them. You do not have to diagnose and fix it on the spot. Just take a brief look and let them know what you suggest they do next. If the shop is full, take that quick look outside. Better yet, designate one bay for quick service so it can be made available in a few minutes when needed. You spend a lot of money and effort to get new customers. When they show up, make sure that you don’t send them to the shop up the street.