By Bob Cooper Looking to improve your service business? Here are 5 practices used by many of the most successful shops in America to dominate their market. #1. Generating New Customers The top shops realize that auto repair and service is a community-based business. With that said, I advise shops to invest at least 50% of their advertising budgets into non-traditional marketing campaigns. This includes involvement in charitable events, fundraisers, car care clinics and social media campaigns
In the world of auto repair, one thing is for certain: Every shop in your community has their eye on your customers. So in order to keep your customers, there are a number of things you will need to do. Here are 6 tips that will bring you amazing results: #1. Make sure that you deliver on the customer’s expectations, and whenever possible, that you exceed those expectations. Simply put, fix the car right the first time, make the experience as pleasant as possible, help your customers see the va
By Bob Cooper I have found over the years that despite all their good intentions, there are 5 mistakes that most shop owners make not just sometimes, but every single day. The first mistake comes the very moment they walk through their door. 1. They forget to say two simple words. We all have tough days, and as business owners we have many of the same challenges our employees have. Yet when we come to work, we need to put all of our troubles aside, and smile. We’ve all heard that before, righ
By Bob Cooper Now that we are coming into the holiday season, there are a number of things you can do to drive up productivity, sales, customer satisfaction and profits. Each one of the below tips worked wonders for me when I was still in the auto repair business, and they are still effective today for many of our coaching clients, so I know they can work for you as well. 1. End of Year Performance Bonuses – All that you need to do is set a sales goal for the end of the year, and then tell you
By Bob Cooper If you are looking to drive up your profits, you need to ensure you have service advisors that have the right attitude, aptitude and ethics. They will need to have the natural talent to sell, they will need to be well trained, and they will need to have the proper support systems in place. And lastly, you will need to have the right compensation and incentive plan in place to help your advisors excel. Here are some tips you can use to drive up your sales, profits and customer sati
By Doris Barnes of Elite We can all agree that generating happy customers is critical to the success of your shop. Below you’ll find 5 tips that are going to help you do just that. Apply them, and you’ll be pleased to see the positive results that come from making just a few simple changes! 1. Find as many things in common with your customers as possible. Think about your closest friends for a minute. Why do you connect? You connect with them because of the things you share in common, right
By Bob Cooper Henry Ford once said, “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” Clearly one of the keys to success in building an auto repair shop is having your entire staff working together as a team. The question is, how do you create an environment that fosters team spirit? Here are six easy steps that will not only help you create team spirit, but will help you build a more profitable, successful auto repair business at the same time. Step
The Digital Shop® takes shape in Schools Lindsay, our trainer extraordinaire went back to school. Not as a student but being a professor for two days at the Career and Technology Center Fort Osage. Based on the initiative of SmartFlow users in and around Kansas City, MO, Bill Lieb, and Bryan Compton – teachers of the Automotive Classes at CTC – AutoVitals provided equipment and training for the next generation automotive technicians. It has been an honor to support this initiative. The technicia
By Bob Cooper Every shop owner has a number of important responsibilities. First and foremost, they are responsible for setting the goals of the company and hiring the right people. They are also responsible for creating the plan, managing their employees and ensuring the success of the company. But there’s another major responsibility that every shop owner has, and that’s to bring ethics into every decision making process, and to let their moral compass guide them. This checklist is certainly
By Bob Cooper If you want to build a successful auto repair business, you will need to have a number of things in place, yet nothing is more important than having service advisors who can sell in a professional and ethical way. In today’s competitive environment you’re seeing vehicles less frequently, customers have greater access to information, and they have choices unlike ever before. So here’s a guide to help you hire the superstar advisors who will take your shop to the top: 1. Look for
By Bob Cooper With vehicles being built better than ever before, and with service intervals continually being extended, you are going to see your customers less often. This means that your service advisors have to be razor sharp when that phone rings. Although there is no silver bullet that will allow you to bring in every first-time caller, there are a number of things you can do to get more appointments. In this article, I would like to share some of the best practices we teach in our service
Thousands of Shops Can Be Wrong
Over 100 of the most used service categories
Hundreds of pre-built jobs, service descriptions & labor notes
The most accurate reporting possible
More effective appointment scheduling
More accurate estimates
Your shop needs a powerful management system to produce the level of efficiency and accuracy necessary for growth. To achieve this the old manual way, you need considerable time and patience when learnin
By Bob Cooper Not long ago it was easy to beat your competitors. All that you needed was more equipment, a healthy advertising budget and the ability to fix cars right the first time. Well, those days are long gone. Today, cars are being built better and require service less frequently, customers have more choices than ever before, and they are able to do a tremendous amount of research online before they even pick up the phone. Additionally, this industry is experiencing an extraordinary short
I had a shop owner say this to me recently: "Why is it I run an honest shop, but I'm still struggling?" If you've ever wondered the same thing, this video is for you:
Technology is affecting every single area of the auto repair industry. It's impacting what tools and skills your techs need. The use of the internet by any customer with a smart phone in their pocket is also presenting challenges in the tools and skills your service advisors need. Shop owners who want to take advantage of this huge opportunity, are going to want to read this: Click here.
By Doris Barnes In a world where service advisors don’t want to be considered salespeople, we need to search our souls. Why is it that “selling” has become a dirty word? Why is it that we cringe at the term “sales?” It’s simple! Most service advisors do what they do each day because they care about people. To become a “salesperson”, in their mind, means to become pushy and overbearing. To most, it means that their interest must shift to one thing and one thing only… The customer’s Visa card
By Bob Cooper I am sure we can all agree that our industry, and society, has been going through quite a transformation. One of the changes that’s had an extraordinary impact, and will have an even bigger impact in the coming years, is transparency. Not only do today’s consumers have an expectation of transparency, but they have access to pricing information that was beyond our wildest dreams just a few short years ago. Just look at all the major retailers. With rare exception, you can walk int
The top shops in America realize that in order to build a successful business they will need to have team players that are self-starters, who can produce, and who will never compromise their ethics. Over the years I’ve not only been fortunate enough to hire many of our industry superstars, but I have seen hiring mistakes made every day by shop owners all across America. In order to help you with your business, I’d like to share what I believe to be the 5 most common hiring mistakes that shop own
In the world of auto repair and service, one thing is for certain: You are going to lose customers. They will move, no longer have a need for their automobile, turn to one of your competitors, or buy a new vehicle and then take it to the dealer for service. Accordingly, you need a consistent stream of new customers, and since you more than likely have competition in your community, you need to help those potential customers see that your shop is the right shop. The way that you accomplish this g
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