Tips

A second big impact will occur during the last few moments of a customer’s visit. What is the feeling that you want them to have as they leave your shop? How they feel when they leave will significantly affect how well their car was repaired and how great the odds are that they will be back. What lasting impression are you leaving them with?

While they are being checked out, does another person clear the car of any ice and snow? Is the car started in order to warm it up or cool it down? Is the car brought to the front door and pointed out so no backing up is necessary? Does someone act as a “doorman”, opening the shop’s front door, and then opening the driver’s door for the customer to enter, and finally wishing them well as the door is gently closed?

A big impact is about to occur

An image of what your shop is all about will be engraved in a first time customer’s mind within the first 3-5 seconds of walking into your shop. Really – it happens that fast. Once engraved, changing it is next to impossible. Walk in your shop’s front door and see what they immediately see (better yet, take some photos and view them on a large monitor). Is this the image you want them to recall? Is it the one you want them to communicate to others whenever your shop is mentioned?

Advertising is for losers who don’t have great word of mouth

This is a bumper sticker found on the back of pick-ups as they haul away what did not sell at auction from their boarded up shop. Consumer’s decisions today are not based on word of mouth nearly as much as they used to be. At one time, word of mouth was everything. But today we live in a house for years and can’t name the neighbors. Families are often spread from one end of the country to the other. Job changes are frequent so the long time coworker is becoming rare. The bottom line is that the sources for word of mouth referrals have been significantly reduced. Many shops are finding that most of their new customers are now coming from the internet and from driving by. Of course you still want good word of mouth, but don’t think that you can depend on it as your primary marketing tool.

Name or rename your shop very carefully. Your name is who you are. Many businesses have average names. Many have weak or terrible names. Just a few have excellent names. In our town we used to have “Northtown Movie Theater”. Now we have “Celebration! Cinema”. Names that stand out in customer’s minds make your marketing easier, cheaper and more effective. How about Celebration Auto Service? How does that compare to your shop’s name?

Take risks. Virtually all successful businesses do. No risk, no reward. Growth and success always involve a certain amount of calculated risk. Sometimes you need to “break the rules”. Don’t be foolish, but also don’t be afraid to do things out of the ordinary, outside of your comfort zone, and outside of “what auto repair shops are supposed to do”.

Then act like one in all that you do.

Talk like one.
Look like one.
Smell like one.
Write like one.
Spell like one!

Many customers will judge your car repair ability by your spelling and grammar ability. How is yours?

When the repair is not done on time, when a finger mark is left on the car, when the repair does not fix the problem, why is the customer upset? Seems obvious, but is it? In most cases it’s not the incident itself, but their perception that you don’t care about them. If they were important and mattered to you, those things would not occur. This is why just taking care of the problem often falls short of addressing it properly. It’s critical that you show that you care.

Thoughts on customer follow up. Phone calls are interruptions today. The sentiment is nice, but I really do not need a thank you about car repair when I am juggling three other things. Use email (which means you must get the addresses!). Never use any kind of form letter or form email. I can smell them a mile away. Always be specific. “Is the leak OK now?” Contact must be from the same person who waited on them (signing their name does not count…I can smell that one, too). Add a personal comment. “Hope your trip goes well!” This is not difficult to do if you properly interacted with the customer during their visit.

Describe your least desired customer and put them at one end of a line. Describe your most desired customer and put them at the other end. Now look at all of your marketing efforts. Determine what type of customer they are most likely to attract and place each one at the appropriate spot on the line. Do the spots reflect who you want to attract? For any that do not, alter that marketing effort or eliminate it. Place any new marketing idea on that line before you launch it. This goes far beyond your advertising. It also includes your shop both inside and outside, employee clothing and grooming, and anything else about you and your shop that customers will experience in some way.

Tell me how you feel about your brake job.

You will feel better in the lobby of a high end hotel than you will in the lobby of an economy chain motel. You will have a better sense of well being in a 5 star restaurant than you will in the local burger joint.

I am about to spend an hour in your customer lounge, or maybe several hours, or maybe even (gasp!) all day! How will I feel?

If I feel better, I will like your brake job better. Price becomes less of an issue. Complaints decrease. Referrals increase.

Go ahead – make my day

What could you do when a customer walks in your front door that would make their day?

Forget that you have an auto service shop or even a business of any kind. Someone is about to enter the room. How can you improve their day? How can you make the experience that they are about to have the high point of their day?

Everything in their day so far, and after they leave, will likely be just OK or maybe not so great. It would not be all that hard to beat out all those other experiences if you put a little effort in it.

So, what could you do? Do it consistently and you will lock in many customers.

What is the most prominent and popular event in your community?
What is the one that virtually everyone knows about?
Which one draws the largest crowds?
Where is there a potential for a lot of visibility?
Become significantly involved, participate in a big way.

Just what makes you so special?

I need my car fixed and you all fix cars. Why not just flip a coin? I
need a good reason (or two) to try you. What is that reason? If you
can’t easily come up with an answer, do a close examination of your
business and either find the answer or make the necessary changes so
there is an answer to be found. You need to be special in some way. Once
you figure out what that is, tell the world in everything that you do.

He’s everywhere! He’s everywhere!

Get exposure; the more, the better. Where can you place your logo? Where
can you post it large? Where can you post it often? Engrave it in the
minds of everyone in your community. The more well-known your name is,
the more customers will come. The shop with its name in the most places
is often perceived as the best shop in town.

That’s as clear as mud!

Your marketing messages should be immediately and abundantly clear to
everyone. Try them on your kids. If they say: “Huh?” then rewrite it
until they get it the first time. How often do you read an ad a second
time because you are not sure exactly what it means? Those ads are not
very good. They frustrate and confuse people. The same goes for all of
your customer communications. Make all of your messages simple and
crystal clear.

Your situation is exactly the same as…

…as no one else. What applied to someone else does not necessarily apply
to you. Every shop is unique. So, the results at your shop will not be
exactly the same as they are at another shop. Dont be disappointed when
that sure fire idea backfires when you try it. Also, dont throw out
ideas only because they did not work elsewhere.

Offer them what they want, not just what you already have.

We tend to assume that what people want is what we are offering. How do
we know that? Might there be ways to package things differently so they
are more attractive? If you have certain services that never or rarely
sell, they probably should be changed or eliminated. For the ones you
want to keep, how can you alter those services to be more similar to the
ones that you sell often?

People want to see you, not your stuff in your Ads

Photos of you and your employees are what will get people to really
notice you. Not your building or sign or equipment. Take a look at a
group of ads for just about anything. Assuming size and colors are about
equal, which ones do you tend to look at? The ones with people. People
are interesting; stuff usually isn’t.

Of course we are all unique to some extent. But, how can you be significantly special? What can you do to make your shop jump out of the list of potential shops that a customer could choose? Think of other businesses that you go to and ask yourself why certain ones stand out.

Make it the best auto service experience ever

What can you do to make that first visit exceptional and memorable? Then
what can you do to consistently improve things so that each visit is
just a bit better than the one before? By making this your standard
approach, you are far more likely to be perceived as the best shop in
town.

What risks or negatives can you remove to lessen fear?

What might worry a customer about doing business with you? What might
seem to be a negative? Whether the worry or negative is true or not is
irrelevant if it keeps customers away. Figure out what those things are
at your shop; then figure out how to reduce or eliminate them.

How would you compete against you?

If you were opening a shop across the street from yours, what would you
do take business away from you? What would you offer? How would you beat
you? Make a list and then address those things. Not because a shop will
open across the street soon, but because there are other shops in your
area which to customers is not all that different from being right
across the street.

We all ask this question from time to time. Most of us can come up with
a number of things. There are likely excellent reasons why you can come
up with this list. Why not do those things now? Usually the answer is
because of how difficult it would be to make those changes. But, the
sooner you make them, the sooner you change your trajectory and reap the
rewards.

What impressions do customers get when they meet your family of
employees? Is this a family they would like to see move in next door in
their neighborhood? Do they get along with each other? Are they polite?
Are they friendly? Not just the people up front, but everyone who works
there regardless of what they do. Is there anything that you need to
address?

Lots of ideas seem dumb. Maybe they’re not. Maybe you should try them.
Many incredible successes began with dumb ideas that no one else would
think of, consider or try. Avoid worrying about someone else thinking
that your ideas are dumb. Worry about whether or not they have a chance
of increasing your income.