Brakes off! It’s time to accelerate…
Six top marketing tips for garages from Kalimex’ retained marketeer and the international #1 bestselling marketing-on-a-shoestring business author, Dee Blick
Published: 07 September, 2020
With the country gradually emerging from lockdown, now is the time to forge ahead with your marketing. What should the message be though, and how should you deliver it?
1: Let customers know you are open for business
Your commercial customers and motorists alike should be aware of your opening hours, the PPE you are using and the new measures you are adopting in line with government social distancing guidelines. Have you enhanced your customer service to offer safe contactless pick up and drop off? If you have, explain how it works. This will instil confidence in those customers in self isolation, and commercial customers looking for a smooth, safe, and streamlined service – to contact you.
What steps have you taken to ensure your unit is a safe, clean, disinfected, and welcoming space? Manage the expectations of all customers with regards to how long it will take to complete a repair, service, MOT etc. Is it likely to be longer than usual because of the new guidelines or you have (as is more likely) been swamped with work? Have you had to change any aspects of your service? For example, all customers must now contact you by telephone or email rather than calling in which is currently on hold. Inform customers, answer their most common questions and make it clear you are looking forward to welcoming them back and making their experience with you as good, reliable, and friendly as ever.
2: Say what new services are you now offering
Vehicles have been stuck on driveways for weeks only taken out for short runs. DPFs are likely to need cleaning and attention. Services are overdue. MOTs delayed. The list goes on. Make a list of your new services/additional vehicle checks with any corresponding offers. You will naturally distinguish between commercial customers for whom vehicle downtime means lost business and motorists keen to keep their vehicle in good working condition for longer than anticipated as they return to work. What are the specific vehicle problems each group may be facing? When you have your list of services and special offers plan the dates for releasing them, so you have a steady stream of enticing campaigns running over a 12- week period. Be sure to pull out all the stops for commercial customers. Can you offer them guaranteed early booking dates?
Stuck for what to say to commercial customers by way of an introduction? Try this: “As one of our VIP commercial customers we are welcoming you back with an exclusive VIP offer this month… plus an important update on the new services we have launched to keep your fleet safe and, on the road.”
3: Use the phone
You should contact commercial customers by telephone to let them know you are open. Be organised though. Rather than just asking a team member to make the odd call here and there, treat this as a campaign – the goal being you want to ensure that every one of these customers has been contacted personally within the first five days of you opening. Make the call as much about listening as well as informing, letting them know of your services, your welcome back offers and the changes you have made in line with the new guidelines. Use the call to update details and make corrections. What is the email address of the person you should be sending information to? Is the trading address on your system still accurate? (Do not assume anything given the pandemic and the effect it may have had on a customer’s business).
4: Get flyering
Create an A5 flyer, or flyers, combining the details of a new service, or services, and any corresponding special offers together with the information I shared in the first tip. Printing costs are at an all-time low so take advantage of this. Put the leaflets through the doors of homes in the postcode areas where most of your non-commercial business comes from now. Do likewise for your commercial customers with a different wording to reflect their needs and the services you have launched specifically for them.
5: Get vocal on social media
Promote your activities and offers on social media. Take some nice photos of your workshop with the message ‘Open for business.’ A picture of your team will go down well too. Add some human interest to your posts to encourage sharing and support. Send the picture to your local paper. They are looking for good news stories so an accompanying message along the lines of the following will go down well: “The team at John Smith’s Motors are open for business with a freshly decorated workshop, full PPE and offering new services including contactless drop off and collection of vehicles plus a range of pre-service vehicle checks.”
6: Use your calendar well
Ensure campaigns are scheduled in your calendar so at a glance you can see: who the audience is (i.e. our VIP commercial customers), what you are offering (i.e. special offers on Kalimex six workshop products), what your message is (book your vehicles in for pre-service checks including a DPF check) how you are going to promote this campaign ( telephone call and two emails; one email to launch the campaign and one as a follow up) When it starts and ends (1 July – 31 July), and finally who is responsible for ensuring this happens (i.e. Colin our apprentice). If you can plan in this simple but effective way, workshop bookings will increase. Not only are you leaving nothing to chance, you are ensuring that shoestring marketing is driving those enquiries and bookings on a consistent basis – week in and week out.
Good luck!
Please do not hesitate to contact us at Kalimex if you want to know more about our Accelerate campaign for professional motor mechanics and the details of your nearest stockist. We are here to help and support you. Email colin@kalimex.co.uk or call free on 0800 783 3717.
- Eurorepar launches Service Plan
Eurorepar Car Service (ERCS) has launched a new Service Plan payment option that allows customers to spread the cost of their next two services and MOTs using direct debit payments. The ERCS Service Plan also incentivises garages by offering £20 for every plan sold.
According to Nick Taylor, Head of Network and Business Development for Eurorepar Car Service, with traditional payment and its Drive Now Pay Later scheme, the new Plan completes the company’s ‘three ways to pay’ strategy: “The launch of a Eurorepar Car Service Plan is another prime example of the customer-centric approach at the heart of the network. Customers of ERCS now have three ways to pay, and this flexibility will help drive footfall to our garages and improve customer retention. We encourage all centres to take full advantage of this new business tool and look forward to seeing the positive impact it has on our members’ profitability and customer satisfaction”.
To support use of the system, ERCS’ Service Plan partner, EMaC, will be hosting online training to ensure that ERCS centres get the most out of the initiative.
- Dealing with customer complaints
Running any business, and perhaps more so a service business like an independent garage, you have to learn to recognise there are different types of customers with different expectations.
How we deal and adapt our services, the customer journey to meet and exceed these expectations are essential if we are going to succeed in having a healthy profitable business. This function must be adopted by everyone in your garage regardless of size.
Occasionally however, we are faced with challenging customers who complain, usually in a passive aggressive manner. These customers feel they have a reason to be upset. I always used to say to my team at Brunswick Garage, that there will always be a small percentage of customers that we will never be able to please, and importantly we must not let these handful of customers taint our view of all customers. When you find yourself having to deal with a disgruntled customer, remembering a few simple techniques can help to defuse the situation. Both parties being upset and defensive will not amount to anything positive.
Listen
In my experience running independent garages, I came to the realisation that in virtually every case of an unhappy customer, all that was needed to resolve the customer concern was to listen to the customer, or recognise actually they weren’t being listened to.
The customer isn’t always right, but it’s not always okay to tell them that, sometimes you have to act as if they are right. Active listening, eye contact, nodding your head in agreement, being on the same level with them, expressing empathy, and relating to how the customer is feeling can be incredibly helpful. Remember to place yourself in the customer’s position or frame of mind and never patronise a customer or look for excuses. We are working in an industry where many aspects of the customer journey have to come together from the initial phone call to returning the customers vehicle keys, so we have to accept that sometimes things go wrong however much we try to avoid mistakes.
Rapport
Once you have been able to establish some rapport, you may find a mutually agreeable resolution to the problem, and you must do whatever you can to achieve this outcome. Explain to the customer what you are going to do to help the situation. It could be engaging the customer in a test drive to better understand the complaint, admitting the garage made a mistake, or if possible, offering the customer a lift back home, work or a loan vehicle while you resolve their issue. You must assure at all times the customer feels that you are truly trying your best to resolve their concern and provide them with the least convenience as possible.
Research indicates that customers prefer the person they are speaking with to instantly solve their problem. However sometimes complaints have to be moved up the chain of command, but make sure they don’t add to the customer's frustration. So, wherever possible, resolve the issue yourself. This has the added advantage of demonstrating to those senior to you that you are willing to manage difficult situations yourself without resorting to escalation.
If you really can’t solve the customers concerns, take ownership of the issue and ensure that the complaint is effectively escalated and that you follow up to see what the outcome is.
It’s also worth mentioning that if you say you are going to do something, you should always do it. Don’t be tempted to tell customers that someone will get in touch with them in an hour when they might not get a call for a few hours. The customer won’t thank you for it in the long run. Always be sure you can meet the promise you make.
Perspective
Many of us have worked in the automotive sector for so long we forget what it is like to bring our vehicle for repair. Knowing what your competition is doing can also pay dividends in other ways too. It can help you set yourself apart by creating a business experience, an atmosphere that is different from any other garage locally and far beyond.
Keeping perspective when it comes to the customer experience will help you to create a positive customer experience and maintain a solid customer base. At Brunswick Garage we were of course never happy to receive complaints, however we used it as a prompt to better our service and if a customer made the effort to write or email us with a concern, we displayed their comments in reception with the thank you letters. We wanted to show our customers that we were not perfect, but also show them we took complaints very seriously and we always aimed at achieving a positive outcome. Learning to handle challenging customers will build respect for your business and ultimately result in higher customer retention and profits.
Positive/negative
When we receive complaints, we often look upon them in a negative way. However, complaints can be really useful to any garage and although it doesn’t feel like it at the time, the complaint is extremely positive in that it helps highlight problems with our service and procedures.
The alternative to receiving customer complaints is not receiving them and carrying on just the way we are, oblivious the negative impact our actions are having on customers who perhaps won’t return or will be complaining to their friends rather than to us. This is extremely damaging as we never get the chance to put right the errors that we don’t hear about. It’s a bit of a cliché, but complaints really are a gift.
- Customer care in the garage business
Customer care is vital to the survival of most companies. Without customers we do not exist. This is extremely important in the independent repair sector as we are the
service providers.
In the face of ever-growing competition, it is very important for us to portray the image of a professional efficient business that cares about its customers. If you deal with customers and you represent your garage, it is vital that you look after all of your customers, all of the time.
Positive relationships
Without positive relationships with our customers no business can survive in today’s competitive marketplace. Just consider the number of customers you have had up until now, imagine what things would be like if they all disappeared overnight!
Customer care has changed immensely over the years. Customers have become less tolerant and more demanding. It is a huge challenge for us to meet these demands. However, the answers are within us all.
We all know that customers who are happy with the service we provide are more likely to purchase again and recommend us to others. You may even know that customers that are very impressed with our service rather than just satisfied are willing to pay higher prices for our service. You will certainly have awareness of the fact that when you treat customers in the correct way and display a positive and pleasant attitude, you will usually receive the same back from them.
The best form of advertising
Businesses that have developed an excellent level of customer service will usually find themselves in a situation where customers become advocates for their business. In many cases this becomes their best form of advertising. The alternative is a situation where customers feel they must let people know of their negative experience and are quick to do it. The implications of this can be extremely damaging and many businesses struggle to overcome the negative label.
The basics of customer service are actually very simple. We know that being polite, smiling and making the customer feel good about themselves and their service/repair purchase is at the core of creating a good customer experience. However, tthese days that is no longer enough. Customers have become much more discerning, they have a much greater awareness of what is going on in the world, what they should expect from a garage and that it is very simple for them to take their business elsewhere when their high standards are not being met.
Customer care breakdown
Customer care includes the following elements:
- I love it when a plan comes together
Payment plans are not a new idea. Washing machine? Boiler? There’s a service plan for that. If you buy a new car, or even a used car, from a franchised dealer, many will have a plan set up to keep the customers costs down, and keep them coming into the service department. The one area where it has not really gained traction in a major way is within the garage sector.
Will the unique circumstances of 2020 and 2021, change that though? With many people still on furlough on 80% of their usual income, and many more wracked by seemingly endless financial uncertainty, looking to control spending on vehicle repairs could look like an attractive option.
A number of established organisations in the sector have already set up schemes that you could take up, effectively an off-the-peg solution. We spoke to some of them to see what is on offer.
Footing the bill
“35% of consumers say their income has taken a hit as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak,” said Colin Cottrell, Marketing and Central Operations Director at LKQ Euro Car Parts. “Many might find it difficult to cover the cost of repairs to their vehicles as a result, but when access to a car is vital to the livelihoods of a lot of people, they need to find a way of footing the bill.
“Giving customers the option to take advantage of short-term financial support is critical to ensuring business continues to come through the workshop doors – and so that cost doesn’t become a barrier to drivers accessing the services they need to stay safe and mobile.
“That’s why we’ve partnered with Payment Assist, which provides plans for drivers to spread the cost of a one-off bill or purchase over four equal instalments, with no fees attached. This is something we proactively promote to garages, so they can offer interest-free loans and help to relieve the financial burden their customers may be under, while ensuring they can still get the job done. There’s no credit check required for any jobs under £1,000, and only 25% of the total bill needs to be paid upfront.”
Explaining how if works, Colin added: “Garages just need to visit www.payment-assist.co.uk and enter their unique business details, before setting up their agreement with the customer. If the application is successful, the garage will receive confirmation that the customer has been billed for their first payment, as well as confirmation of future payment dates, helping them to carefully manage their own cashflow.”
Three ways
According to Andy Robson, Parts Operations Director at PSA Group, Eurorepar Car Service is committed to offering customers three ways to pay: “It’s good to see that the motor trade is moving with the times and keeping up with the consumer trends that are shaping other sectors. A good example is the growth of flexible payment options to meet the growing expectation that a customer should have a choice of payment methods to suit their financial situation.
“Our national network of Eurorepar Car Service (ERCS) centres, for instance, is offering customers the ability to pay the old-fashioned way when the work is completed, or pay in more manageable, regular instalments as part of the Drive Now Pay Later initiative. Later in 2021, we will also be giving customers a third way to pay: by signing up to a service plan. Having three ways to pay means that customers will not be left battling an unaffordable one-off payment, even if the work itself has been carried out to a high standard.
“ERCS centres have so far reported an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the Drive Now Pay Later initiative. Essentially, the idea is that customers can spread service and repair bills of more than £50 across four equal payments. This flexibility means that vital repair work, which might otherwise have been delayed or cancelled, can be carried out at the right time.”
Andy added: “What it boils down to is adopting a customer-centric approach to the way you do business and taking pride in offering customers something that is truly of value to them. With Drive Now Pay Later, we are giving people the peace of mind that their vehicle is in a safe state of repair, while affording them the flexibility to pay their bill over a manageable period. That’s exactly what people need in these uncertain times.”
Preferred
Commenting on their experience with Drive Now Pay Later, Craig Williamson, a Director at Cheshire-based ERCS centre Ignition Autos said: “The initiative has proved very popular with our customers so far. It’s been essential for many this year, but we have also seen a lot of people use it as their preferred method of payment regardless of whether they could afford the up-front cost. It makes a lot of sense really. It’s interest-free and people are used to paying things like credit card bills and subscriptions on a monthly basis. It’s been a great addition to our offering.”
ERCS has partnered with EMaC to deliver the Drive Now Pay Later initiative.
Liam Finney, Director of Commercial Partnerships at EMaC, said: “Our Drive Now, Pay Later+ product is a flexible, interest-free monthly payment option that allows consumers to spread the cost of unexpected vehicle repairs. It not only enhances business revenue and profitability, but also builds lasting relationships and increases consumer satisfaction.
“As the UK’s leading Service Plan provider, we immediately noticed the similarities with our core Service Plan product and welcomed the opportunity to add a complimentary solution to our portfolio.”
Liam added: “Our network love being able to offer consumers the option to spread the cost of vehicle repair work – so much so that many now use DNPL+ as their primary payment option for red/amber work, service, accessory and value-added product purchases.”
Timely
There is more than one shape for plans. For example, Servicesure offers its 554-strong network of member garages the option to sign up to Auto Service Finance (ASF), an interest-free credit payment facility.
The nationwide garage programme, run by The Parts Alliance, launched its partnership with ASF in 2018 and since then has financed more than £1.2m in repair costs.
ASF enables customers to cover the expense of vehicle repairs by spreading payments over six months and is available to customers making transactions between £60 and £3,000.
Commenting on the offering, Servicesure Head of Garage Programmes Paul Dineen said: “We know many people in the UK are suffering financial hardship after being impacted by the pandemic, so 2020 was a very timely and significant year for us to have the partnership with ASF in place.
“It allows our garage members to offer what could be a crucial lifeline to customers who may struggle to pay for essential repairs in one go. Safety is the most important aspect of any vehicle and we don’t want people putting off necessary work because of inflexible payment options.
“Offering people the opportunity to spread the cost of repairs through interest-free credit could be the difference between keeping their vehicle on or off the road, so it’s a tremendously beneficial scheme for our Servicesure members to able to offer customers.”
Paul continued: “Those whose economic situation has been negatively impacted by the pandemic are most likely to benefit from this option of interest-free credit in the short term. In addition, it represents an important step forward in the industry.
“With most transactions in our lives, we’re now accustomed to having the flexibility to choose how we pay for them. Furniture, cars, holidays, mobile phones, boiler servicing; these are all common outgoings that we associate more with flexible instalments than rigid lump-sum payments.
“This level of flexibility isn’t currently part of the culture in the automotive aftermarket. However, we expect these kinds of payment solutions and interest-free credit to become far more common in our industry in the years ahead. Why would people shell out big payments for vehicle repairs in one go when they could approach the transaction the same way they’re used to in every other element of life?”
Tremendous
The average invoice value of an ASF transaction with a Servicesure garage is currently £639 and 62% of its transactions are for vehicles over nine years old.
“From a garage’s point of view,” observed Paul, “there’s no disruption to cash flow because ASF pays them in full within seven days. The main challenge for a garage comes in a customer not necessarily expecting to have this option of flexibility, but reservations around trust are typically easy to overcome in conversation.
“Any customer driving away from a garage is doing so with total faith that their vehicle is safe to drive. That’s a tremendous amount of trust placed in the professionals in our industry and it’s a strong foundation for a garage to build on when it comes to the payment options they offer.”
Paul concluded: “The number of new vehicle registrations dropped significantly in 2020 and we know the UK car parc is only getting older, so the automotive aftermarket has a strong future. What’s important is for independent garage owners to put themselves in the best possible position to win this work, so offering flexible payment solutions can only benefit them in that respect.”
- Trick or treat? Eurorepar Halloween promotion launched
Eurorepar is running a Halloween-themed offer of £99 service for customers of its network until the end of November.
