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Do You Use Discounts or Brand Awareness Marketing?
I do a lot of marketing and have broken it into 4 categories:
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Presence Marketing
- High Visibility Location
- My Website (poor SEO - no spending on SEO)
- Two other group websites with great SEO rankings
- Business cards - Transmission shop and Tire Store referrals to each other (quite effective)
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New Customer Acquisition
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Monthly Mailers via RedPlum (two sides about 14"x12") Front Quick Lube, Rear Auto Repair
- Vivid colors, consistent format
- Marketers say that you must be seen 7 times to be remembered and most effective (Brand Awareness)
- Targeted Plastic Post Cards mailed to people who have never visited my location. (Quick Lube)
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Monthly Mailers via RedPlum (two sides about 14"x12") Front Quick Lube, Rear Auto Repair
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Retention Marketing
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Postcards to customers, reminding them to return for service (Quick Lube)
- Send up to 5 postcards reminding them to return, before giving up
- Monthly newsletter via email
- Emailed survey after each visit
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Postcards to customers, reminding them to return for service (Quick Lube)
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Targeted Online Advertising (this is also new customer acquisition)
- Google Ads Focused all on Auto Repair
The Quick Lube business is all about the discounts. Much as I hate it, you have to play the game. What is interesting is that only about 30% of the customers use coupons. I'm sure that many do like I did last night. Grabbed a coupon to use at a new restaurant and then forgot that I had it. It went unused. I also take competitors coupons, but cap these at my discount level. While we are running discounts, they are NOT loss leaders. The discount is priced into the service.
Auto Repair is not really discount driven. It's mostly a trust business. But, there are some that are looking for the lowest prices and we have other local shops advertising to them. There are always people hunting for a repair shop. So, advertising is trying to attract them.
I don't spend any money on Social Media advertising. The managed services that do this work are very expensive.
All of the above is done thru various marketing companies. My involvement is mostly limited to picking the strategy. I do track spending and redemption stats. As best I can tell, my advertising has positive ROI, but I don't feel that it can be truly proven. I mix blind faith and some signs that it is working to keep doing it and I'm too scared to try not doing it.
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I agree we are mostly a trust business. Yet most of the articles for service advisors re calling to get approval for additional work is to be ready with a list of benefits, value and safety. I don’t. I tell them what their car needs and why. Sometimes an explanation of how that system works. Maybe a benefit or two. Then I pause. There’s an implied request to go ahead with the work. My mental outlook is: “of course they are going to say yes. The car needs it.” It’s a bit harder for them to say no since I haven’t asked them to do anything. So there’s nothing to say no to. And yes, they trust that I am looking out for their best interest, all while making a profit.
I’ve only worked at shops that specialized in German cars, especially Porsche. Only one offered a discount. And it was 10% off to new customers. Then I remember a regular customer asking: “Why are you giving discounts to new customers and not your good customers?” Ouch!
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Trust from a long time, loyal customer is almost a given. The trick is to create that trust earlier. I believe it takes a few steps to get there.
First, become a friend of your customers. I don’t mean a beer- or coffee-drinking friend, but that is not out of the question. There’s a general belief that friends don’t take advantage of friends. Find out about their kids, their interests, their vacations. That is, find out about them. It helps if you share something about you. Seek to learn something new at every phone call.
Second, don’t try to sell every repair recommendation now. If you’re worried about no work, there’s probably a customer coming in tomorrow with work you recommended several months ago. This builds huge trust. It shows you’re looking out for their pocketbook (and their family) and not just yours.
Next, transparency: explain everything. I like this loose template. Put in layman’s terms: here’s what’s wrong, here’s how it’s supposed to work, here’s how this will fix it. You aren’t hiding anything nor hiding behind technology or jargon.
There’s more, but let’s end with: demonstrate customer commitment, integrity, quality, respect for people, teamwork, personal accountability, and the like.
In addition to building the all-important trust, all this makes it much easier for them to refer new customers to you.
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On 2/28/2022 at 2:59 PM, newport5 said:I agree we are mostly a trust business. Yet most of the articles for service advisors re calling to get approval for additional work is to be ready with a list of benefits, value and safety. I don’t. I tell them what their car needs and why. Sometimes an explanation of how that system works. Maybe a benefit or two. Then I pause. There’s an implied request to go ahead with the work. My mental outlook is: “of course they are going to say yes. The car needs it.” It’s a bit harder for them to say no since I haven’t asked them to do anything. So there’s nothing to say no to. And yes, they trust that I am looking out for their best interest, all while making a profit.
Great tip! I shared this with my manger this morning. We're similar in presentation, but using the power of silence / pause is the real magic that I see.
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Have you checked out Joe's Latest Blog?
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By Joe Marconi in Joe's Blog5 commentsI recently spoke with a friend of mine who owns a large general repair shop in the Midwest. His father founded the business in 1975. He was telling me that although he’s busy, he’s also very frustrated. When I probed him more about his frustrations, he said that it’s hard to find qualified technicians. My friend employs four technicians and is looking to hire two more. I then asked him, “How long does a technician last working for you.” He looked puzzled and replied, “I never really thought about that, but I can tell that except for one tech, most technicians don’t last working for me longer than a few years.”
Judging from personal experience as a shop owner and from what I know about the auto repair industry, I can tell you that other than a few exceptions, the turnover rate for technicians in our industry is too high. This makes me think, do we have a technician shortage or a retention problem? Have we done the best we can over the decades to provide great pay plans, benefits packages, great work environments, and the right culture to ensure that the techs we have stay with us?
Finding and hiring qualified automotive technicians is not a new phenomenon. This problem has been around for as long as I can remember. While we do need to attract people to our industry and provide the necessary training and mentorship, we also need to focus on retention. Having a revolving door and needing to hire techs every few years or so costs your company money. Big money! And that revolving door may be a sign of an even bigger issue: poor leadership, and poor employee management skills.
Here’s one more thing to consider, for the most part, technicians don’t leave one job to start a new career, they leave one shop as a technician to become a technician at another shop. The reasons why they leave can be debated, but there is one fact that we cannot deny, people don’t quit the company they work for, they usually leave because of the boss or manager they work for.
Put yourselves in the shoes of your employees. Do you have a workplace that communicates, “We appreciate you and want you to stay!”
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Hi! I got a bunch of engine and cabin filters - leftovers from my store. What's the best way to get rid off the inventory? eBay sales are slow and not an option due to the time it takes to list a filter and due to expensive cost of shipping.
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