Car Count Daily | Edition #1
Hey shop owners! Welcome to Car Count Daily. Let’s say you’re looking at your shop’s appointment book, and you could stand to use a few more cars in the shop today. That’s probably most of you that are watching this video right now. You need to know how to get cars in the shop right away.
Well, I’m going to give you three very quick, easy, and cheap ways to get your phone ringing, and get that appointment book filled. Would you like to know what they are? Well, great:
Idea Number One
It’s not earth shattering. It’s using email marketing. If you’ve collected and have current email addresses for your clients, all you have to do is just come up with a terrific offer. Now, remember, we’re trying to get them in your shop today. So, we want to give them a great offer, to show up today. Let them know that they’re getting this special offer, because you need more cars in the shop today, you need them to respond right away, and you need them to bring their car into your shop today. So, the offer is very, very important. A wishy-washy offer isn’t going to get somebody to respond. Come up with a kick-butt offer, and email it to them.
Now, the problem with email is, not everybody looks at their emails every single day, and you don’t have emails for everybody in your database. But, hey, look, it’s easy, it’s simple, it’s cheap, so go ahead and do it. And hopefully, some people are going to see it, and they’re going to respond today. For idea number one, if you’ve sent emails before, then marketing via email shouldn’t be a difficult thing to do.
Idea Number Two
This is the way that I love more than anything else, is using a mobile phone and text message marketing your offer to them. So, if you’ve been collecting and getting permission to send them texts (which you should be doing), you can just simply send a kick-butt offer to them, and get them to respond immediately via text. Now, you can do them one by one, just grab your phone and start texting people individually, or there are some services out there that you can group text everybody, and get them all done in one sweep at a time.
But the important thing to know about text message marketing is, it’s a brilliant way to contact people, because 99% of texts get opened. And even more importantly, 95% get opened within the first five minutes. So, you send out a text, people are going to look at it, and they’re going to respond within five minutes. Now, if you put together a kick-butt offer, you will get your ringing right away. I love that idea, and on a separate video we’ll kind of go into detail on exactly how to do your texting and everything. That’s a much larger subject to cover. Certainly not one I’m going to be able to cover here.
Idea Number Three
You’re going to hate this idea. I know you’re going to hate it, but it’s a tool you already have, and most people under-utilize the tool. And that is using one of these. A phone, okay? Just a regular old phone, and you start dialing for dollars. I mean, think about this. How many people have been in a shop that declines services? Well, wouldn’t it be a great idea to call them up, and just kind of look at all the people that decline services, and come up with a kick-butt offer to get them in the shop today. Let them know, “Hey, we have a few slots open, I’d like to fill it. This is once in a lifetime offer. I’m going to give you an offer you can’t refuse.” Dial for dollars, and that will get people in shop.
Now, I know you hate it. Nobody wants to get on the phone and start calling people. But, hey, you want to put people in your shop today? You’ve got their phone numbers, you’ve got their buying history, you’ve got their unsold service history. Dial for dollars, and you will get people in your shop today.
Now, those are three quick and easy, down and dirty, inexpensive, almost free ways, to get people into your auto repair shop. Pick the one you want, and do it.
We go through our records of service or repairs diagnosed on prior visits but deferred. Our conversations go something like…..”Good day **** Hope life is treating you well today. I’m calling because we noticed you hadn’t been in to complete the ****** repair on your ******. I’m wondering if you are in a position to get that done now?”
If the particular repair has safety repercussions that gives you an added level of influence. If they say no thanks, we wish them well and sign off but in the majority of cases, the repair has only slipped their mind and they are grateful we’ve reminded them.
We have our service advisors make the calls – not someone who is not knowledgeable because the customer very often has technical questions as to why the repair was needed &/or has questions regarding new concerns.
Doing this on a daily basis keeps technicians and service advisors busy and our cash flow less affected by seasonal changes. We make the calls during business hours so that we’re not invading customers’ personal time after work. No one likes that.
I’ve found that if we only do this sporadically or when it’s slow, people become jaded to our “level of concern” about their needs and are less likely to respond positively.
I enjoy your daily input Ron. I don’t watch, but read as I have time to get through it. Very often your input reminds me of things I’ve neglected.
You rock Beverly! Most shops would never pick up the phone to call a customer to pick up some business.
Captain,
Were out here in Louisville, Kentucky with 4 shops what would be a “kick butt” offer to get cars in the shop today? Oil Change special? AC Special? What do you recommend?
Chad, my best advise is to look at what has worked well as an offer for your shop in the past, but when in doubt, make it irresistible and make it general.
First off, a whimpy offer won’t capture your client’s attention and may even be seen as a waste of their time.
Second, I like offers that I would categorize as more general because if I don’t need an oil change, your oil change offer won’t help me. But if you offer $20 off my next service, you’ve caught my attention.
Remember, your offer is just to get them in the door. Once there, do a complete inspection, advise them what additional services are needed (and why), and then (if you do your sales presentation properly) you’ll have additional work for your techs.
Hey Ron, I already use EZ Texting, what’s the best way to send group emails?
Wally, there are a lot of solutions you can use that don’t cost a lot of money and are fairly easy to use. Check out this article for a rundown on the top 7 (according to them): http://www.wpbeginner.com/showcase/best-email-marketing-services/