By Bob Cooper You don’t have to be in the auto repair business long before a customer asks you if they can supply their own parts. Although there is no one technique that will work in every case, here’s one approach you may want to consider. First of all, you’ll need to bear in mind that a customer is making this request because they feel it’s a legitimate one. They are simply trying to save as much money as they can, which is perfectly normal. With rare exception, these customers are unaware
By Bob Cooper Anyone who has been selling service for any length of time will agree that there are two kinds of customers. The first is the customer who has a history of making good decisions, not just with auto repair, but with most decisions. And then we have the other kind of customer: the kind of person who more often than not makes the wrong decisions. Let’s use maintenance service as an example. When you’re dealing with a relatively intelligent person who understands the value of mainten
By Bob Cooper
There was a time in our industry when shop owners were the only ones who knew the cost of their parts. Additionally, the amount they charged for their repairs and services was typically not public knowledge. If customers wanted to know how much it would cost to perform a specific repair, they had limited options; they would have to either call for an estimate, or visit a repair facility. The service advisor would then page through a catalog, find the price, and then share that
By Bob Cooper
Over the years I have had the pleasure of watching hundreds of shop owners go to the top, and truly become industry leaders. I have also seen thousands of shop owners that struggle from day to day until they finally either try to find someone that is willing to take over their business at any price, or they simply close their doors and walk away. There are many reasons why shops fail, including lack of business skills and the unwillingness to reach out for help before it’s too
By Bob Cooper Over the last 22 years I've been amazed to discover just how many shop owners are lost when it comes to knowing and understanding “the numbers". In order to build a successful auto repair shop, you are going to need to know two sets of numbers: Your “financial" benchmarks, and your “operational" benchmarks. Without a clear understanding of these benchmarks, it becomes quite challenging for shop owners to pinpoint where they are falling short of their goals, and where improvements
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 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 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 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
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 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
By Bob Cooper When it comes to setting your long-term goals, you need to make sure that they all align with your core beliefs and that they are challenging enough to inspire you. As the leader of your company, it’s your job to inspire your entire team, and I’m sure you will agree that you can’t inspire others if you are not inspired yourself. With the changes in automotive technology, and the explosive growth in onboard vehicle infotainment systems, you can rest assured that vehicles will offe
By Bob Cooper of Elite Over the years I have seen hundreds, if not thousands of shop owners do irreparable damage to their businesses. This damage occurs when they are mesmerized by the management trainers or consultants who tell them that they can solve all of their problems by raising their prices. At first they are pleasantly surprised to hear that their services are worth more than they are presently charging, because it plays to their ego. They are also told that they have nothing to worry
By Bob Cooper In today's competitive environment you need to make the most of every opportunity that you have at your disposal to generate more sales. Follow these 5 tips to convert more first-time callers into happy customers. 1. While your competitors are trying to sell their first-time callers on the repair, you need to take a different approach, and sell them on you. If the caller doesn’t believe you’re the right person to help them, then regardless of whether or not they believe the repa
By Bob Cooper Far too many shop owners hire service advisors who they feel are good at what they do, and then prefer to “get out of their way and let them do their thing.” Unfortunately, that’s a mistake. Now I am not suggesting that you need to micromanage your advisors, or any of your employees. However, over the years I have employed many of the top advisors in America, and through our service advisor training courses I have had the opportunity to meet hundreds of the industry superstars, so
By Bob Cooper If there is one thing most shop owners have in common, it’s that they have big hearts. They typically start their careers as technicians, and as soon as they have their very own shops, they want to help as many people as they can. To achieve this goal, they network through their family and friends, and do everything in their power to get the word out into their communities. And then the inevitable happens; they wake up one morning, and decide it’s finally time to advertise. With l
By Bob Cooper of Elite Without question, it is getting harder and harder to find the really great technicians. We just need to bear in mind that they’re out there, and that they’re more than likely relatively happy where they are. So how do you reach these superstars? Well, you may want to consider what your competitors would never dream of doing, and offer a referral reward that gets the attention of everyone in our industry who resides in your community. Most shop owners will try offering a
We all know it’s getting harder and harder to find the superstar techs, but finding those stars is just the beginning. Once found, you need to interview them like a seasoned pro. Here are some interviewing tips that we share with our Elite Coaching clients:
#1. Impress the applicant with your professionalism. When you are interviewing a real superstar, they will be interviewing you at the same time, so you need to really wow them. One way is by being well prepared, and ensuring you have a
By Bob Cooper
If you want to generate more repeat business, then there are a number of things you will need to do. You’ll need to deliver an extraordinary value, exceed your customers’ expectations at every touch point, and stay in touch with your customers after the sale. Over the years I have discovered that most service advisors have the right intent, and make their best effort to do all of these things. They want to do a good job, and they know that a part of their job is to help their
There are a number of changes that are occurring in our industry, and there is no question, some of them will have a profound, long-term impact. To name just two, automobiles are being built better, and as we all know, service intervals are constantly being extended by the manufacturers. Although this is all good for consumers, better-built vehicles means they’ll need fewer repairs, and extended service intervals means you’ll be seeing your existing customers less frequently in the coming years.
When car counts aren’t what they need to be, most shop owners will pump more money into their auto repair marketing efforts. But before you invest one more dime in your marketing campaigns, you should first make sure that you’re doing a good job of converting your current leads into customers. At Elite, we’ve discovered that the number of phone leads lost by most shops is staggering. They’re lost by not having enough staff available to properly handle the calls, by having poorly trained receptio
By Bob Cooper
A few years ago I had the opportunity to interview over forty people for a panel of customers that I moderated. My intent was to discover what drives their decisions in choosing an auto repair shop, and how they make their purchasing decisions. I spent well over an hour with many of these prospective panelists so walked away with some truly surprising and noteworthy insights, but the most profound discovery was that we as an industry have an expectation of loyalty from our cus
By Bob Cooper
Many years ago I read an article that featured an interview with Herb Kelleher, the co-founder of Southwest Airlines. In the article he stated that he and his mother (who was a Harvard graduate) would often debate who was more important: He argued that it was the employees of a company, and his mom argued that it was the customers. With all due respect, I would argue; why does it need to be one or the other? From my point of view, this debate is like having two children and be
By Jen Monclus
1. Make sure your advisors schedule car deliveries with first-time customers whenever possible (The point is to try). If an exact time won't work, provide the customer with a window of time. This is considered an 'active delivery', and will allow your advisors to spend a few minutes with each new customer to personally thank them, go over the paper work and sell them on the next visit.
2. Ensure you have backup in place so that your advisors are able to take the time ne
By Bob Cooper
In building a successful auto repair business, most shop owners feel that what they need to do sell is more parts and more labor. Although both of those items are a part of your business model, one thing is for certain: your customers don’t look forward to buying either of the two, at any price. Yet thousands of shop owners are having sleepless nights trying to find ways to squeeze more money out of their part and labor sales.
While I was still operating auto repair shop
