Are You Changing Along With Your Automobile Repair Shop Customers?

By Author: Greg Sands
Total Articles: 40
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Business owners need to be aware of the constantly changing tastes and preferences of their consumer’s. The problem is that most business owners do very little changing themselves. Most business owner’s stick to what their own false sense of security in an otherwise unfamiliar economic environment and they are slowly letting opportunities slip past them that could mean the difference between making their business a success and having to close their automobile repair shop. A steadfast hold to the old axiom that “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” could mean the repair shop could go broke.

The first step: Listen closely and pay attention to what’s going on with your customers. Your customers will speak to you in many different ways. It is not always what your customers say to you that is most important but it is often what they do not say that matters the most. There is a generally true, old wives’ tale that says when a person that has a good experience they tell one other person, but someone that has a bad experience they tell ten people. And to make matters worse, the business owner is usually not one of ...
... the ten people they tell. Thus, there is a fair bit of guesswork involved in trying to figure out what it is that your customers are telling you. The answers, however, are in the numbers:

Sales Figures: Daily, weekly and monthly sales figures provide an early indication of what is really happening with your business and in most cases are the most closely watched barometer of how healthy or how potentially anemic your business may be. While this is a great place to start, it is not the only place to look for ways to improve performance or identify potential problems that might exist.

Customer Counts: Take a look at daily, weekly and monthly customer counts. Generally speaking consumer buying behavior does change over time. It is not unusual to see shifting trends in customer counts throughout the year due to seasonality or slight decreases in demand over time, but if you are noticing steep declines in customer counts or unusual buying trends there may be a greater underlying problem. This might include product obsolescence, wrong target market, pricing pressure from the competition or shifting buyer interests.

Average Ticket: What is it that your customers are buying? Average ticket volume and average ticket totals will provide an indication of how much or how often consumers are buying your products or paying for your services. Shifting trends from higher volume to higher average tickets is not always negative. What it’s really telling you is that your customers are either waiting until they need what you have as opposed to buying your products when they want them or your market is changing. In either case, there is a way to make changes to your business in order to accommodate changing customer demand. While analyzing the numbers is important, you must also be prepared to adapt to what that review reveals. Times are changing and many of the old techniques are no longer effective. The harsh reality is that some business owners will be able to make necessary adjustments while others simply will not be able to make the change. Here are a few things to consider when your business is experiencing a transformation:

1. If the target market starts moving, move with it. While this may be somewhat intuitive a large majority of business owners simply have no idea where to begin. The first step is to identify prevailing trends in your business. In the case of the automotive repair shops, shop owners have to make an adjustment to their service offering(s) to accommodate customers who needed preventative maintenance rather than major repairs.

2. Focus more attention on creating “lifetime customers.” Taking your car in for repairs is a bit like going to the doctor, you only make an appointment when something is wrong rather than taking the time to get routine check-ups. If you create a relationship with your customers and educate them on the benefits of routine maintenance, customers are more likely to visit more often.

3. Focus on customer service. Consumers have lots of choices and tend to speak with their wallets. They are not always fixated on price and are more likely to return to a place where they have had a favorable experience regardless of how much it costs, that is within reason. Too many business owners have forgotten what a significant impact great service has on consumers and how it influences their behavior.

4. Communicate regularly with your customers. Smart-phones, text messaging and email alerts provide an efficient, yet relatively inexpensive means to facilitate communication between shop owners and consumers. It’s now possible to send alerts notifying a customer that they have a scheduled appointment or perhaps are due for an oil change. It is however important to note that these electronic messages must be timely and relevant or they will quickly become just more electronic marketing clutter.

5. Audit your automobile repair shop marketing strategy, materials and messaging. It is important to periodically assess whether your marketing efforts are producing the right type of results. All too often business owners’ first inclination is to provide a coupon with deep discounts to drive traffic through their doors. The net result is that you attract a budget minded customer that may only visit your store one time, unless of course you continue to offer additional discounts. The fact is that if you target the right type of customer and develop messaging that resonates with them it may not even be necessary to offer discounts.

Change is not always bad; with change comes tremendous opportunity. So embrace change, prepare for it, be open to it and your business will grow, even during times of economic uncertainty.

Article Source: Mudlick Mail blog