Many years ago, when I was still working on cars, I came to the realization that I would someday own my own shop. I also realized that in order to do so, I would first have to learn how to sell service. At that time, I didn’t know how to sell, and I also had
Since the first radio commercial hit airwaves more than 90 years ago, large and small businesses alike have often turned to the medium to deliver their messages to consumers. This may lead to the assumption that radio advertising works – after all, longevity speaks for itself, right? – but we all know that the digital, mobile and social age has brought about some major marketing shifts. But have radio commercials gone the way of Yellow Pages or newspaper ads?
With each passing generation, our population landscape gets more diverse. The majority of communities throughout the U.S. and Canada have a makeup that is very different from a few decades ago. With these ever-shifting demographics, business owners are faced with the challenge of constantly reinventing their marketing and customer service efforts if they want to cater to all potential customers.
In 2012, Matt Curry, former owner of Curry’s Auto Service shops in Virginia, founded The Hybrid Shop to solve an emerging problem in the growing hybrid automobile market. “The only solution for hybrid vehicle owners experiencing poor vehicle performance is to go to the dealer and have the battery replaced,” says Curry. He adds that the cost of a new battery can run as high as $4,000. “That’s the only solution that a dealer offers.”
Most shop owners will start pumping more money into their marketing campaigns when they are looking to increase their car counts. This can help bring new customers into your shop, which is certainly important, but the value of your new customers diminishes if you’re unable to keep them coming back. There will be no greater key to your success in the coming years than your ability to create a memorable customer experience that shows your customers you genuinely care about them, so here are seven tips that will help you deliver extraordinary service, and keep your customers coming back to your shop for years to come.
There’s a lot of talk about the importance of providing quality customer service and superior customer experiences to improve customer loyalty and sales. In fact, these topics are the primary elements of my training and consulting practice for the tire and auto service industry. On the flip side, there’s relatively little dialogue about the aspects that turn customers off, harm customer relationships and can ultimately have customers not only leave your business for a competitor, but do so while complaining about your business to everyone with whom they come into contact.
In the second of a two-part series, we delve deep into the process of selling a business by interviewing Art Blumenthal, nationwide automotive aftermarket business broker, who provides business valuations, exit planning and buying and selling adviser services. Part one of the executive interview appeared in the November/December issue of Shop Owner.
Having spent 25+ years in the sales industry myself, I have seen a wide variety of salespeople, from dreadful to truly great with most somewhere in between. Of course, top-performing salespeople are invaluable to any business as they typically represent the 20% of the team that generates 80% of the revenue or thereabouts.
If anything good came out of the recent recession, it’s that many people have learned to budget their finances. We are all well aware that there are times when the customer can’t afford all of the services and/or repairs that we are recommending. For example, a customer comes in for a 60k service and you discover that the car needs brakes on all four wheels and tires. The customer, due to budgeting reasons, declines the 60k service, but authorizes the brake work and tires.