Longtime workshop professional Dan got in touch with PMM recently to express his dismay at workshops expanding at the expense of the values upon which they were founded.
For most people, a garage is built on trust long before it’s built on bricks and ramps. Traditionally, independent garages grew through and depended on their reputation. Word of mouth was all they had to win new customers and that relied on handling customers honestly and assuring them that the person handing you back the keys actually cared about the outcome, not just the invoice total.
Yet across the motor trade, I believe many garages have drifted away from those foundations, often without even realising it. Expanding your business, setting systematic processes and targets, improving your branding, all whilst carried out with the best intentions, can risk demolishing the fabric of the small family business. The mindset that provided a solid base to grow on is often reduced to little more than a sign above the door. Inside, however, customers find something more corporate and, in my view, far less personal.
I previously worked for a garage that proudly presented itself as a high-end, premium operation. It had a smart reception, polished processes, strong branding – all the hallmarks of a modern, upmarket workshop. The business started life as a family concern, sown from the same honest principles as most independents. As the business grew, however, something changed.
Losing sight of the customer
Decisions that were once made with the customer at the centre became decisions driven by structure, pricing matrices, and a need to justify overheads. Experience, which is arguably the most valuable asset in any workshop, became something to bill for rather than something to use in the customer’s favour. Here’s the thing though: Experience should reduce cost, not inflate it!
Let me describe to you a real-world example that, unfortunately, became rather common. A vehicle arrives in limp mode. As technicians, we’d seen the fault ten or twenty times before. We knew full well what the likely outcome would be: An oil service, an oil dilution reset, and the vehicle would be back on the road.
Instead of using that experience to resolve the issue quickly and fairly, the process demanded a paid diagnostic assessment — typically £125. Only after this would the customer be informed that the vehicle required a service and resets. By the time the job was complete, the bill would often be approaching £400.
The justification was always the same: investment in training, tooling, and systems has to be recovered somewhere.
I don’t disagree that training and tooling matter – they absolutely do. But I strongly disagree that the cost of that investment should be passed to the customer in situations where experience already provides the answer.
This is where professionalism and procedure don’t always overlap.
Following procedure or a set process certainly has its place. Following a diagnostic process, for instance, is intended to protect customers and businesses alike from individual error or oversight. But when processes override common sense, they surely stop serving their purpose. Charging a customer for a diagnostic path when you are already certain what the end result will be might earn you bonus points within the four walls of the garage, but externally it erodes trust.
Customers aren’t naïve. They may not understand fault codes or oil dilution values, but they do understand fairness and they certainly remember how a business made them feel.
Finding a new formula for success
At my current place of work, the philosophy is different, and it feels like a return to something the trade is at risk of losing for good.
Experience is used as a tool to reduce cost, not inflate it. If we know the likely fix, we explain it clearly, confirm it sensibly and get the customer back on the road quickly – often for less than half the price they might expect elsewhere.
Yes, we still invest in training. Yes, we still buy tooling. But we see those as the foundations for doing the job properly – not as a justification to overcomplicate straightforward repairs.
This isn’t an attack on growth, professionalism or success. Garages should evolve. They should invest. They should improve. But evolution shouldn’t mean abandoning the principles that built the business in the first place.
Independent garages have always had one advantage over main dealers and large chains and that’s our capacity for humanity. Humans are not uniform creatures and nor are their needs. And whilst many will say that processes are designed to account for just that – finding a different outcome based on each individual’s needed – there must also be an option for circumventing process and procedure. Flexibility and experience must play their part if we are to continue to serve our customers well. The ability to say, “We’ve seen this before, let’s sort it properly and fairly” is simple but important.
If the trade loses that ability, it doesn’t just lose its identity – it loses the trust that keeps customers coming back. So perhaps it’s time we ask ourselves whether our experience is being used to serve the customer… or simply to justify the invoice.
