Car Count Daily
Hey Shop Owners. Captain Car Count here, sometimes known as Ron Ipach. Welcome to yet another edition of Car Count Daily. Now, on a previous episode, I talked about the number one group of people that you should be marketing to. Now this is the low hanging fruit. The people that know, love and trust you, and people that are willing to give you more money, more often. As you might have guessed, it’s your current clients. These are the people you should be spending your money, time and effort to get back to your shop, so they come in more often. But as I suspected, I knew I was going to get a lot of push back because I typically do from shop owners. Because, look, you do a great job for your customers, you do exactly what they want you to do, and provide a phenomenal repair and you maintain their car, so, of course they’re going to come back to you, right? That’s the argument I get all the time, and I’m here to tell you, no, that’s not enough. Okay?
I’m going to take the viewpoint of a customer here. Now I get your business, okay, I know all you do to do a great job and maintain the vehicles and fix the cars, and all the busted knuckles and the bloodied hands and all the stuff you go through to do a great job for your customers. But the customers don’t see that, you see that. If I’m Joe Customer here, and I’m bringing my car to your shop and it’s broken, I am paying you to fix it. So, when you bring it back to me fixed, you’ve done the job I’m paying you for. Okay? I paid you to do that job. I don’t know how difficult it was. I don’t know how awesome you were at doing it. I paid you for a service and I got the service.
So, that’s what Joe Customer thinks, or Jane Customer, is it’s … You’re doing what I paid you to do. So, of course, you should do it right. Of course, it should be fixed. Of course, it should be maintained ’cause that’s what we’re exchanging the dollars for. I’m giving you money, you just give me what I asked for. So, the fact that you did a great job means absolutely nothing to me because I don’t know about the bloodied knuckles and how difficult it was to do that repair, or how well trained you needed to be to do that repair because I paid you for that.
Okay, now don’t get mad at me. I’m just taking the viewpoint of your customers. So, doing a great job, and simply just saying you did a great job is enough to bring them back, I’m going to argue with you all day long because if they’re just paying you for that, you’re providing a service and that’s it.
Write this down, and you might want to remember this at all times, it’s not what you do, when it comes to repairing the cars, it’s what else you do when it comes to repairing the cars. Okay? I’m paying you to fix my car. What else are you doing to develop a relationship with me? What else are you doing to ensure that I’m going to come back to you versus going to the next shop down the street. Because, again, Joe Customer here, all I want is my car fixed and maintained. I’m paying for that service. So, no matter how difficult it is, I’m going to assume if it was real tough, it’s going to cost me more money. Okay?
It’s what else are you doing. What else … Why are you inviting me back to your shop? Why do you want me to come back to your shop? What offers are you going to give me? What incentives? Why should I come back to you versus going anywhere else? Now, keep that in mind when it comes to your marketing.
Understand the most important person you can have in your shop, as a customer, is one that’s already been. It’s that repeat business that will build your business. Simply doing a good job isn’t good enough anymore. It’s a matter of what else you’re doing. Impress me, give me outstanding customer service. Market to me, let me know that you care to have me back in your shop, and I will come back to you. That’s why it’s the most important group of people that you want to market to.
Keep that in mind and you will blow your car counts through the roof. I guarantee it. That’s going to do it for today’s episode. If you like what you hear, if you don’t like what you hear, if you got suggestions or comments, please scroll down below this video and leave your comments down below. I’ll see you on the next edition of Car Count Daily.
Ron , can you be more specific as to what to do .
Jeff, I’m going to cover your answer in more detail on an upcoming video, but here’s a good start… Make each and every one of them feel like family and treat them like they are your most important client. (If they were your most important client, what would you do to insure they knew how much you value them?)
Ron,
This is absolutely true. Anyone can fix a car (almost) but it is the relationship that will keep them coming back. I personally call my “star” customers if I feel like they have had any doubts about our service. Otherwise I have my CSR make a follow up call and also send a hand written “Thank-You” card. I have also found that more then I thought read my monthly newsletter. Cookies on the seat when they pick up their car is also very helpful.
Steve
Hey Ron,
I just wanted to give you props for doing an awesome job of helping us view things through our customer’s eyes! We all need to think like this on a daily basis and realize that even though we pour our hearts and souls into what we do, unless we build a relationship with our customers, they never know what’s involved and they look at just as you said “it’s a transaction…they pay us to perform a service”…without the relationship, there is not necessarily any reason for them to return…they can always go somewhere else next time and pay someone else for a subsequent “transaction”!
Thanks for the kind words Jason.
Sometimes we rely more on the shop down the street than our own shop personality. We are hoping that Joe down the street is a terrible guy and does poor work. Then they will come back to us all happy and grateful that we are here for their automobile needs. Thanks, Ron.
“its not what you do but what else you do.”…..print it big and put on inner office wall and shop wall……