RepairPal

[Truett]

Has anyone tried RepairPal? What were your experiences? Cost? Did it work? I am thinking abut tiring it for my locations. Just need a little information to base a decision on.

Thanks,

Richard Rollilns

[risingsunmotors]

We use, have been for about 6 months +/- it is 199. monthly plus if customer comes in via repairpal , towed or off their website they get a 10% fee of invoice amount, we have gotten a handful (one handful ) of new customers in this span of time , I don't think we will continue much longer , don't really see the value. A lot of bargain hunters ....we are not a bargain shop, we are better than that.

 

jeff

[Joe Marconi]

I have tried Repair Pal, I gave it six months.  Repair Pal did make the phone ring and we did get work from it. My only issue is that the type of customer Repair Pal brought in did not match my profile customer.  They were very price conscience. So we ended the program.

Repair Pal does have a great phone recording feature, which I really liked. 

I have spoken to many shop owners about Repair Pal, some love it and others don't.  Sometimes you have to bit the bullet and try it to see if it is something for you.

[bantar]

So, what you are really saying is that the callers looked at the price range of $179-$429 and then went looking for the $179 guy?   😁   

[Joe Marconi]

14 minutes ago, bantar said:

So, what you are really saying is that the callers looked at the price range of $179-$429 and then went looking for the $179 guy?      

Well,  not always.  I am not an expert in the science of the Internet marketing thinking, but from my experience, consumers shop online to get a deal and to find out about a business in a non-threatening way.  In a business such as ours, we need to build strong community-based relationships.

Repair Pal brought us people from 20 miles away. These people were looking for the best deal by a reputable shop. Not a bad thing, but when your concern is with price, price will always be a forefront of the conversation.

There is something about being associated with a "Repair Pal" or other online companies that gives you some accreditation, so the customer is always left with one question: "How much does it cost?"

 

 

[Jay Huh]

I just became "RepairPal Ceritifed" this month and haven't seen anything from it yet. $199 is really cheap to the $425 I spend on Yelp (which I'll probably cancel soon) and $2000+ on google (which is the best so far)

[mspecperformance]

I'm not sure if its really catching on where I am at. When we launch our General Repair I will look into it a bit further. I would need to really see some ROI.

[ScottSpec]

We have been with RepairPal for a little over 2 year.  It has brought us some decent work and with the towing program we get a car towed in every now and then.  About $22,000 worth of work.  Not a huge number but it helps.  They are now involved with CarMax and another warranty company.  We are listed on the Carmax website as a recommended service facility, and have had 2 new customers come in recently from there.  Plus we can add that we are RepairPal certified to our marketing,  Having said all that, if we got busy enough tomorrow, it would probably be one of the first things I would drop from our marketing.  We waste a lot of time with calls from people just wanting a price, and a lot of them are shocked that you don't know the price instantly.  Not even sure I would call them price shoppers.  I think it is more of an extension of the site.  People go there to find out what something should cost, then they call to get a price as part of further research or curiosity, not necessarily because they are going to get the work done.  If you need more work in your shop, I would say give it a try and see how it works for you.  At $199 per month, it won't break the bank to try it out.

 

Scott      

[Andre R]

We did it for a year. At the end of the year we added up what we made from all Repair Pal customers and what we paid them.

It was roughly the same amount. Very few ever returned because they were towed in and from a different area. We cancelled them and didn't see

any drop in profits the following year, didn't even miss them.

[Robbie@Jewell]

Great feedback on this thread.  We are considering RepairPal.  From what the salesperson says, it seems that have dropped the 10% discount for referrals.  I'm not sure if that makes the service more appealing, but I would be very interested to hear feedback if anyone has used them more recently than 2017.  

[JerryK]

We have been with RepairPal for years and honestly, their reach has really fallen in our area. The last tow-in from them was Sept 9, 2020. 5 months ago! The customer spent all of $142. Not our clientele, not our ARO, NOT worth it. I will tell you that you can negotiate the monthly fee with them. We have not paid the $199 monthly fee for about 4 years which is why we are still in their program. If it cost us the monthly fee, I would kill it today. HTH.

[alfredauto]

We tried it for about a year. Repair pal did a great job gathering reviews for my shop and generating calls. I'd say over 75% were calls from people who self diagnosed and wanted us to install their parts that they determined would fix the problem. Well it got old steering them into a proper repair so we dropped them. And some of the requested repairs were insane like "I want you to replace the timing chain guide on my Mercedes, the chain is still good according to the forums and you don't need to replace the coolant because it's less than 3 years old and the book time is wrong you can sneak it out in 3 hours not the 28 hours Mercedes wants and I insist on watching so I know you are doing it right and" so after a while it just got old. 

[Joe Marconi]

I too tried Repair Pal, got ALL the wrong customers and mechanical breakdowns.  The vehicles towed in were badly maintained vehicles; again not my customer.  

[xrac]

I tried RepairPal too and got nothing from it. It was just a waste of money. The other thing that is a total waste is Yelp. People send me request for quotes and it’s just a waste of time. 

[xrac]

11 hours ago, alfredauto said:

We tried it for about a year. Repair pal did a great job gathering reviews for my shop and generating calls. I'd say over 75% were calls from people who self diagnosed and wanted us to install their parts that they determined would fix the problem. Well it got old steering them into a proper repair so we dropped them. And some of the requested repairs were insane like "I want you to replace the timing chain guide on my Mercedes, the chain is still good according to the forums and you don't need to replace the coolant because it's less than 3 years old and the book time is wrong you can sneak it out in 3 hours not the 28 hours Mercedes wants and I insist on watching so I know you are doing it right and" so after a while it just got old. 

That is a hilarious one. 

[Joe Marconi]

I think the biggest reason why Yelp, Repair Pal and other similar companies don't work for the majority of the shops is that they don't find the profile customer for the shop. Think about, would YOUR customer contact Yelp or Repair Pal if they needed a repair?  Maybe if they were on the road, far from home, and the Googled auto repair. Most shops have a clearly defined profile customer.  Repair Pal and Yelp send us those that are not loyal to anyone.  For the most part, our customer perform their due diligence and we then cultivate the relationship. 

Just me thoughts...Yours?

 

 

[xrac]

On 3/8/2021 at 7:59 AM, Joe Marconi said:

I think the biggest reason why Yelp, Repair Pal and other similar companies don't work for the majority of the shops is that they don't find the profile customer for the shop. Think about, would YOUR customer contact Yelp or Repair Pal if they needed a repair?  Maybe if they were on the road, far from home, and the Googled auto repair. Most shops have a clearly defined profile customer.  Repair Pal and Yelp send us those that are not loyal to anyone.  For the most part, our customer perform their due diligence and we then cultivate the relationship. 

Just me thoughts...Yours?

Joe, you are right.  The people on those sites are the bottom feeders of the bottom.  They are uninformed and looking for the cheapest and are often very reluctant to spend any money at all.  I think people who know they have to have something fixed are more included to using Google search and looking at reviews.   

 

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[Reynas1]

I had thought about giving Repair Pal a try and am glad it was brought up.

As it is now with the majority of customers nowadays using YouTube as their Tech School. Most want to bring in their own parts and try to tell me the procedure and time it will (not should) take.

Since starting in 1974, my best means of advertising has been HAPPY/APPRECIATIVE Customers who will spread the word of the GREAT WORK they received.

Still in BUSINESS...