It’s That Busy, Fun Time Of The Year Again!
It’s one of the busiest times for auto shops (particularly in the North) as it’s once an again-tire season. it’s that time of year where we alert customers to the danger of under or over-inflated tires. We must let customers know that they must be extremely mindful of their tire pressure. Nobody wants a tire blowing out over such a small thing!
We also want to ensure our customers are actually using safe tires (and a safe car) as well. Unfortunately, many customers just brush our concerns to the side. Tell us if you’ve heard this one before “you’re just trying to sell me unnecessary stuff!”
Hearing this can be so very tiring… Especially when the service you’re recommending is to help your customers drive in a safer car, and provide a safer road for everyone else.
So what do you do? Do you let them drive off? How often do you convince people like this that they NEED this service? Not only is it dangerous for everyone on the road, but it also costs shops tons of money every year. Just imagine what it would be like if you were able to sell service to just half of these tough customers.
In this blog, we’ll give you tips on how you can use in getting more customers approving work. Settle in, you won’t want to miss this short blog!
1) Getting Approval like it Ain’t 1990 anymore
A surefire way to get more service approvals is through using digital vehicle inspections. Paper inspections are ancient, and more and more customers are beginning to see this.
With digital inspections, you can do full reports on phones or tablets saving time. You can also include photos and video explaining why service is necessary. This effectively gives the customer a view into what the tech sees while working on their car!
This gets a lot more people approving work they didn’t expect. It goes back to the old saying “a picture is worth 1000 words.” So much so that we discovered shops that use AutoServe1 see their average repair orders jump 25%!
These people aren’t tech wizards either, they’re normal everyday people who want to understand what’s happening with their vehicle at the shop. We recently talked with Jayne and Keith after they got their inspection report sent to their phone. “It was absolutely awesome! I love that idea!” said Jayne. Going back to the example of safe tires, Keith was able to learn about the status of his vehicle’s tire tread thanks to AutoServe1. You can watch the full interview with these lovely people by clicking here
Not only are digital inspections so much more informative, but they’re also a big time saver! With AutoServe1 you can actually send the report right to the customer’s smartphone! Your customer can then view the entire report and approve work straight from their smartphones!
This gets more work done faster, thus allowing your shop to take on more customers! No more will you have to wait for your customers to call back only to say “no” to your work recommendations.
A nice bonus is not having to deal with annoying voicemails and hard to understand phone calls from people in loud environments. This is also great for customer convenience! Customers with social anxiety, quiet people or folks too busy to make a phone call could approve work with the tap of a button.
2) Have the best team possible
When your business has the best, you perform the best. It’s as simple as that. Don’t skimp and hire underqualified technicians or service advisors. You really do get what you pay for here.
Now we aren’t saying “don’t hire fresh grads”! These grads are fresh out of school where they would have learned the latest in the industry (some stuff your most experienced techs may not have even heard of!
As any business is reviewed on the quality of their work it’s important you stand behind your work. When you have a good team behind you, you can give your customers the confidence they need to put faith into you.
Already have a great team? That’s awesome! This is still an area you should focus on though. We should never stop learning new things and keeping updated on industry trends. For this reason, we highly recommend incorporating a training program for your team. They don’t have to be extensive, even once every 2 weeks is good. The goal here to show your team new tools, new methods and more efficient ways to work.
3) Work Guarantees
What we see a lot of shops starting to offer work guarantees. When you have a team you trust, and one that is committed to excellence this is something you may want to implement.
Hang the work guarantee with pride in your shop for customers to see. If your team is as good as you think you can rest easy in knowing the work your techs do for customers will last. Customers really appreciate this commitment to excellence. When you offer this for customers they’ll remember who to go to for their next auto service job.
This is also a prime opportunity for you to get more referrals. When you are committed to consistent, quality work your customers will advertise for you-FREE OF CHARGE! When their friends or family are looking for a reputable shop you can be sure your customers will drop your name.