Business

If you’re looking to increase your repair shop’s exposure in your local community, a cause-related event is virtually guaranteed to get some much-desired exposure, help you earn the trust and respect of your current and potential customers – and, not to mention, help out a great cause.

Starting a business is expensive and the capital that you’ve poured into your company can disappear in an instant if a major weather event damages your offices or one of your products injures someone.

Imagine choosing a car repair shop. The shop’s ad caught your eye in the newspaper by the clean, attractive look. You checked it out on the shop website, and not only found easy directions to its location, but also saw pictures of the people who worked there, along with a sparkling clean shop.

You’ve just repaired a vehicle and your female customer seems pleased with the quality of the repair and the service you provided. You deliver the vehicle, hand her the keys and send her on her way. But does that customer really belong to you? Is she really yours?

Financial subjects are dry and usually at the bottom of the shop owner’s list of desirable activities, but, typically, they are the number one reason for poor performance or failure.

Testimonials from customers who are raving fans of your shop are among the best methods for gaining new customers. And a major segment of that word-of-mouth promotion is made up of your female customers.

Have you ever considered the fitness level of your sales and customer service efforts? I’m not talking about some sort of employee exercise program. Rather, I’m asking if the employees who provide sales and service to your customers are functioning at peak performance.

Imagine a form of marketing that’s 95% guaranteed to drive new customers to your shop’s door without any upfront costs. Believe it or not, there’s no catch. On-line group discount websites are making this scenario a reality for a variety of businesses, including automotive repair shops.

I heard a statistic years ago (can’t remember the source) that stuck in my head and my experience working with shops over the years has reinforced it. The average shop owner makes 3% net operating profit. Meaning that the shop that does $1 million in annual sales nets about $30,000 at the end of the year, before taxes.

In the January/February issue of Shop Owner magazine, I discussed why I believe direct mail is the most effective advertising tool for shop owners. This month, I’m going to provide some guidance to help you measure your direct mail campaign efforts.

For repair shop owners, advertising was once as simple as buying a large advertisement in the local Yellow Pages. Those bulky directories were the best way for customers to locate a shop when they needed repairs.

If you talk with my wife or my clients, you would quickly learn that I have issues regarding control. I want to have control of my life and my future, and knowing the individuals who run automotive service businesses as I do, I know that control of your life, control of your destiny and control of your property is very important to you as well.