In the fourth part of his series of exclusive business building articles, Andy Savva explains why the customer should be high on the list of priorities when you’re planning improvements to your workshop.
Now that you have your mission/vision statement in place and you’ve defined your goals (as covered in the last issue), it’s time to start thinking about the person that is ultimately going to dictate the success of your business – the customer.
Andy Savva is a former multiple independent garage owner who boasts over 30 years’ experience in the automotive repair sector. In every issue of PMM he’ll be sharing his advice with workshop owners who want to improve their business’ bottom line, but simply don’t know how to go about it.
So who are these people and what do they want from us? What is the right kind of customer and where do we find them? And what do we do with them if we’re fortunate or persistent enough to develop the skills necessary to bring them to our door?
There are garage owners out there who may well be asking themselves the following: “Isn’t the primary purpose of my business to service, maintain and repair cars? If so, then why do I need to focus on the customer?”
If you’ve been in the automotive industry for a long time then there are probably many things that you will take for granted. All the noise, chaos and things that can go wrong will be familiar to you and your staff, as this is ultimately an environment that you know and understand. But can the same be said for your customers?
It would be safe to surmise that our industry doesn’t have the best reputation among consumers. Many customers show up at your door expecting less than a positive, courteous and transparent experience.
In the majority of circumstances they’re not comfortable in the garage environment, usually as a result of a previous experience in which they walked away feeling like they didn’t get all the answers, the repair wasn’t properly carried out, they felt that they were treated poorly, or that they were taken advantage of.
It’s important to remember that in most cases a customer handing their car over to you is a big deal, after all their vehicle is probably one of the most expensive purchases that they’ve made and is something that is very personal to them.
Their pride and joy is then to be taken behind a wall into a loud and (sometimes) dirty workshop and they’re simply expected to sit and wait patiently for the news. That’s why at Brunswick Garage we focused enormously on the customer experience – that first phone call, answering any calls quickly, introducing ourselves by our first names, smiling on the phone, being attentive when listening, or acknowledging customers straight away when they walk in, even if we were dealing with other customers.
We also realised the value of taking the customer experience further by offering refreshments as well as somewhere warm, clean and tidy to wait or be served. Making sure that customers had a place to park was something that was essential to our business, yet many workshops still don’t always take this into consideration.
And what about the often thorny subject of communication during the servicing and repair process? Firstly, it’s imperative to ensure that you call customers back when you’ve promised; this enables you to update them regularly through the repair process and can help you to make sure that the final invoice is always less than agreed – a pleasant surprise for any customer.
Taking the time to explain the repair or service and their invoice on collection can really enhance a customer relationship and you can foster that culture of transparency in your bu siness by offering to show them their old parts, or giving them the opportunity to talk to the technician that worked on their vehicle. Having the car ready before the given time previously agreed will also win you many brownie points.
All of the aforementioned processes were things that we managed to embrace at Brunswick Garage and these were carried out every day, every time. When our customers visited our workshop we wanted to leave an unforgettable impression with them from the very first second that they engaged with us. It was our chance to be different from our competitors and to give them confidence that their vehicle (and custom) was going to be safe with us. When they left the premises we wanted them to feel that they ’d just received the best garage experience they ’d ever had.
So when you’re looking at ways you can improve your customer relations, always aim to give them a ‘wow’, rather than ‘woah’, experience.
