"Opportunity Generators" Wolf in Sheeps Clothing

[Charlie]

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Edited January 15, 2018 by Charlie
Added additional research

[Dux]

I think it's all going to depend on what shops will be willing to participate. I think the problem they are going to have is getting shops to want to accept their coins as a form of payment.

[Robert Crawford]

I responded to the R&W article with the same feeling. Someone else " pimping " us out and telling us what we should charge without having a clue what our overhead is. I would like to go to the grocery store and tell them what my groceries will cost. Same principle. 

 

Edited January 15, 2018 by Robert Crawford

[AndersonAuto]

Isn't it fantastic when someone who knows little to nothing about our industry decides that shops are "cheating" our customers? And these software guys should be the ones who decide what a fair price is? I know for a fact that many auto repair shops undervalue their work and the owners barely scrape by. Are these companies who want to decide what I'm going to charge going to use starving shop owners as their data point for the "correct" price?

I'm going to keep running a good business that's profitable enough to stick around to honor our warranty, and I'll let people like Vladimir run other shops out of business.

[3PuttFever]

Just read the article. Thanks for the giggle Vlad. You're going to find out exactly how much that complete brake job on the 2008 Chevy Tahoe costs so consumers can compare? Sure, knowing that the truck has been abused, neglected, and is rusted to sh%t underneath your little 'program' can tell that the bleeder is going to break off, need replaced, then the brake line is going to bust loose at the next weak spot. Let's face it, Vlad, you're an opportunist preying on consumer fears of being taken advantage of. A pure deflection move meant to distract consumers from the real thief. Our industry despite having a reputation that isn't deserving of the honest shop owner and Technician will survive just fine without you or your little algorithm. Some people will never trust us because they have trust issues with just about everyone and everything. People naturally are skeptical with what they don't understand especially if that means shelling out money they don't want to spend and haven't planned on spending. The hugs I get from my customers, the cards and gifts of food at holidays or just surprises are all the proof I need to know I'm doing it right. And if I miss out on a millennial or two's business because I refuse to outbid another shop without even seeing the car for myself I'll sleep well at night still. I just don't see the benefit in Vlad's concept. 

[Charlie]

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[jeffa1958]

I tried repair pal for over a year. Brought in people we didn’t want as customers. Dropped them. No change in business except more money in checkbook. My old policy for over the phone estimates was to take down their information on a piece of paper and do nothing. If they called back and bitched they had not gotten their estimate I would apologize and make out the estimate and call them back. Now we do give the estimate but it is when we have the time. People go down the line in the “phone book” they have no idea the cost of estimates. 

[JustTheBest]

In short, if you give up your marketing strategy to somebody else, it's the same as handing over the keys to the front door of your home. Would you do that? 

Didn't think so.

The only strategy (I know this is going to sound "boring") is to take small steps and track everything. In other words, if you can't track it - don't do it. Plain and simple. 

So now the "blow back" is the simple fact that you've actually got to do a little work. I know - pain in the butt, right? 

Hope this helps

Matthew Lee
"The Car Count Fixer"

Join me on a new free training webinar
 

[pam]

We refuse to work with any of these "companies". Yes, in quotes because I think they're just thieves preying on the hard work of others. I'm not lowering my profit margin for a price shopping customer who will just move on to the next cheapest shop for future repairs.

[gandgautorepair]

On 1/21/2018 at 6:59 AM, JustTheBest said:

In short, if you give up your marketing strategy to somebody else, it's the same as handing over the keys to the front door of your home. Would you do that? 

Didn't think so.

The only strategy (I know this is going to sound "boring") is to take small steps and track everything. In other words, if you can't track it - don't do it. Plain and simple. 

So now the "blow back" is the simple fact that you've actually got to do a little work. I know - pain in the butt, right? 

Hope this helps

Matthew Lee
"The Car Count Fixer"

Join me on a new free training webinar
 

So how do you track brand awareness marketing. How do you track the effectiveness of social media marketing your brand. How do you track community involvement and sponsorships. Sorry, I get kind of tired of hearing the "track everything" stuff, as much as I would like to know how to do it. We talk about limiting offers and discounts, and talk about promoting our brand, and then talk about tracking everything. Which one is it?

[gandgautorepair]

We're doing RepairPal. Not sure we want to keep doing it. This subject discussion pushes me to drop it. Through RepairPal we get CarMax warranty work, and we've had a decent amount of it. The CarMax work has really pissed me off. They get they're 10% fee of every RO and they limit us to list price on parts. We're right in the middle of deciding if we're going to keep doing it. At least RepairPal only gets the fee on the first visit, and if we look at it as a cost of new customer acquisition the cost is in line, and they don't limit our price as long as we can justify it to the customer, which we haven't had a problem doing. RepairPal may be outta here.....CarMax is definitely outta here.

[JustTheBest]

Hi gandgautorepair! With respect to your first comments, "So how do you track brand awareness marketing", it's actually easy. You DON'T DO BRAND AWARENESS. Sorry, but that's the blunt answer. Building a "brand" is expensive - and you can't track it. You're trying to do what the "big boys" are doing - but you don't know why they're doing it. Do they have to satisfy egos? Make shareholders feel warm and fuzzy?? You'll never know. 

But what I can tell you is that when you do stuff you CAN track, you will build a brand as a result - not as the focus of your efforts. And what better way to invest your money in marketing knowing that you'll send out $1 and get it to come home with it's friends!

Just for openers, start with creating a "title" for yourself. No, not the CEO and President stuff - I'm talking about a title that your customers will relate to. I have a client where in a testimonial, a customer called him a "5 Star Auto Repair Genius!" THAT became his title! 

Then, use your picture EVERYWHERE. I know, I know, everybody hates their own picture - but you've got to get over it. Really. 

Next, get your picture taken with EVERYONE that you can. Happy customers, local celebrities, anyone who will stand still long enough to get a picture. The smiling customers go a long way. 

Then, you get those customers to give you a review or testimonial. I know, that's a problem too! But if you only followed my "One Question Review" you would get a ton of "perfect reviews" (Sorry, I don't make that public, but I am happy to share it with anyone who PM's me)

So, pictures of smiling faces - killer reviews - put them in simple (read that as cheap) document frames that you get at Wal-Mart - (a couple of bucks each) and PLASTER YOUR WAITING ROOM with them - and keep adding! ( I know everyone wants that new fancy coffee machine... but it does NOTHING! Your waiting room should be YOUR SHINE TO YOURSELF!)

Why all the pictures?? Because it's FACT "familiarity breeds trust" - and when you think about it - what's the biggest hurdle you have in getting new customers?? THEY DON'T TRUST YOU! Now, I am NOT saying that you aren't worthy of their trust. NO! If you're like most shop owners I talk to - you're hard working and trustworthy. BUT NEW CUSTOMERS DON'T KNOW THAT!

So there you go - build THAT brand - as you continue to do stuff that you can track. ONLY Send out your marketing dollars when you know that they will come home with their friends!

Heck, start with a simple stupid thank you cards. I know... that's a waste of time - but every client I have that started them keeps telling me they ALWAYS get comments from customers. Do you know why?? Because the average American receives between 0 and 3 of those small thank you cards a YEAR! 

Then put that on "steroids" and add a small "special gift" coupon. Now, the caution I have is that this is a little work! I know, that's a DIRTY WORD! I get it. But if you want to make more money, you've got to do work. 

Actually, I did a video about this and included LINKS below to help you get the right stuff - You can see that "Thank You Card video here"

So with all that said, tell me, how well is your Facebook and Social Media marketing doing?? How many jobs did it generate? 

Okay, don't tell me here in public.... because I am thinking that it's just about the same as every other shop that spends a ton of time posting... and getting nothing back. 

Sorry if I am a little "abrupt" here - but I've dug deep into stats - and if you knew the typical "click thru" and "responses" from Facebook - you would CRY! Instead of wasting time there - why not do a little research on how you can better present your shop - and the tiny little things you can say to customers to influence them to buy more - or buy the "upgraded" offers you present. 

Now THAT'S DEAD EASY TO DO - and produces results. I could go on and on... but start with things that you CAN TRACK. Then, as they evolve, YOU BUILD YOUR BRAND AS A BY-PRODUCT OF YOUR MARKETING. 

Hope this helps! If you want any details, don't hesitate to PM me on this forum. 

Matthew Lee
"The Car Count Fixer"  

Join Me On This New Training Webinar

 

[gandgautorepair]

I will respectfully disagree with what looks like you're boiler plate response. I think you're outlook will go the way of the dinosaurs. Don't have enough time to invest in a long response, but a couple of comments. The whole picture and review idea is wonderful, but the people who see it are already in the shop and so are already "new customers", does nothing to attract new customers. Sure, it can add credibility along with everything else we do to add credibility and get our first time customers back in. BTW, we have a 60% return rate on first time customers. I get constant comments from customers who saw us on Facebook, they love the info and interaction. I've made a bunch of videos, and while the dollars are difficult or impossible to track, the word of mouth response is frequent and very good. This is a social media world we live in, to say it has no value or is not worth some investment of time is to have you're head stuck in the sand. I find you're comment about branding inaccurate. Building a brand is not expensive. You include your branding in everything you do, including all those things you do that you can track. If you don't brand all those things you can track then you have a very short sighted, immediate profit view of marketing that in itself will be more expensive over time. Branding through social media is extremely inexpensive, and effective, and while it can take some time it can also be fun. While we don't have hard trackable numbers, from asking people when they come in how they heard about us, we have determined that the dollars we spend on Facebook and Instagram have the same dollar for dollar return as the dollars we spend on Adwords. I'll continue to do my periodic mailers, which work, and I'll continue to do my mailers and follow up with my existing customers, which work very well, and I'll continue to do Adwords and social media. BTW, we averaged 28% new customers in 2017, and like I said previously we're getting 60% of those to return. I'm sure if I watched your video it would be valuable and I'd learn something, but at this time, no thanks.

[Charlie]

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[alfredauto]

The retail car sales side is even worse. The companies selling leads for cars are the same ones promoting fear, doubt, and distrust. Everyone knows that all used cars are lemons and you will get scammed unless you pay XX to prove you are a smart shopper with the report. We as an industry would be better off without most of it. 

[Hands On]

Couple snippets form the article:

a. "We partner with the repair shops, and when we are on board with our partner, we agree with them on the fixed labor costs and labor hours."

b. "We have developed an advanced software that enables us to find, in real time, exactly how much it will cost for a particular job. "

So which is it, b. the software determines the cost, or a. you and the shop come up with an agreed to cost?

"Based on our contractual agreement, the repair shop will have to provide the services at the price we’ve calculated. "

"We control and agree with a repair shop on how much the shop can earn from the service. "

So do you control the shop, or agree with the shop? I don't think you can agree with the shop and control the shop at the same time, unless, by huge coincidence the shop already charged what you calculated.  If the shop did already charge what you calculated you provide no service to the consumer and just add cost to the shop in a different form of marketing.

"When we come to a repair shop, we show a simple calculation of how much they will earn with us, and that they will be able to increase their capacity rate because we provide stable traffic."

I read all of these sentences and my brain translates it into one sentence:

"We talk to shop owners to see how much they need to make for a service, then we tack on a fee and advertise it to customers guaranteeing the price."

The guy is selling a form of crypto currency to generate 12 Million dollars to start this. We are all doing life wrong.
 

Edited February 7, 2018 by Hands On

[carolinahigear]

On 1/18/2018 at 11:57 AM, jeffa1958 said:

I tried repair pal for over a year. Brought in people we didn’t want as customers. Dropped them. No change in business except more money in checkbook. My old policy for over the phone estimates was to take down their information on a piece of paper and do nothing. If they called back and bitched they had not gotten their estimate I would apologize and make out the estimate and call them back. Now we do give the estimate but it is when we have the time. People go down the line in the “phone book” they have no idea the cost of estimates. 

When non-clients call us for a quote we act like we're taking down their number and then do nothing. We are too selective and too busy to waste time on somebody we'll never see.

[Charlie]

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