Did you know there’s one simple question you can ask that will benefit both your customer and your shop every time? That’s right – it’s a few words that will translate into higher customer satisfaction rates and an increase in work on each vehicle – without seeming pushy or high pressure.
“Is there anything your car is doing that you haven’t thought to mention?”
Two things that have beautiful synergy are the customer’s desire to have their car in the shop as few times as possible and the need for billable hours at your shop. Ask any shop owner what they sell and you’ll usually hear “We sell customer service!” If that’s the case, then why don’t we sell more of needed repair and maintenance work?
According to the Car Care Council, for every 1 dollar a customer spends in repair and maintenance there are 7 dollars in work that need to be performed on the vehicle. In a lot of cases, somewhere in the sales process the shops put a higher value on the customer’s money than their time.
Other than value-conscious customers, our prime customers value their time over their money. So how can you bridge that gap at your shop? When that one simple question is asked of your customer during the drop-off process, it can be the source of a lot of additional work.
Ask it right near the end of the writeup process – then wait for them to speak! You’d be surprised at how much additional work will be requested as a result of that question. Here’s why.
In most cases, a customer will only come in when a noise or other concern has gotten bad enough to cause them to come to your shop. Remember, time is the most important thing and life is pretty busy for most people. So they wait until it’s critical or intolerable. It’s not that they don’t want to have other things looked at, it’s because the primary concern is what’s gotten them to bring the car to you and in a lot of cases, the other items just aren’t top-of-mind.
Hockey great Wayne Gretzky said “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
Using that one simple question has helped me score additional service work at my shop, so consider adding this question to your interview process. You’ll be glad you did.
This video is presented by Auto Value and Bumper To Bumper.
