Follow Up On Unsold Work

[Joe Marconi]

Follow Up On Unsold Work

 

Marketing is all about creating a customer’s experience so positive and pleasurable that they will want to return to your shop again. If you can accomplish this, you will ensure a steady stream of cars into your bays. But, the strategy does not end with the experience.

 

Every car you service will need some sort of future work. It could be anything from a basic oil change to a brake job or a timing belt. The point being, if you are not informing your customer of the services or repairs that are due next, you are probably missing out on a lot of potential work.

 

We all know that money is tight these days and some of the repair bills can be expensive. Your customers may accept that they need the work you are recommending, but it just may not fit into their budget. Work with these customers, give them options. Inform them about the importance and benefits of the recommended work. Work out a time line for certain services and reassure them that you are looking out for their best interest.

 

For unsold work, book the future work; spread the work over a few weeks or months if needed. Make sure you call the customer to remind them. I see too many shop owners, enter the recommendations on the invoice, but that’s not enough. You need to take a more proactive approach. And, don’t worry about being too pushy. If it’s in the best interest of the customer, you owe it to your customers to take care of all their car care needs.

 

What about post card or email service reminders? They work great for state inspections, factory scheduled services and to remind customers who may be overdue for an oil change. But for important unsold work that needs more immediate attention; I have found that a phone call reminder works best. Try it, you will not be disappointed.

[5 Star Auto Spa]

This sounds like a great piece of advise! What is your current process on following up on unsold work? Do you have an individual (or yourself) go through your computer system to identify work by day and then look to see if a recommendation was made to call the customer? How do you keep track of this information? I would like to start something like this at my facility and was looking for some helpful hints on the process you are currently following.

[LinconlnAutoRepair]

I find that people have the best of intentions of doing future work, but like most things in life they just simply forget about it. I have a separate calendar and will put down the customer and quote and will usually hit them up again with a phone call. Sometimes I'll even just send a text. Now a days, a lot of people won't even check their voicemail (me being one of those people lol). Between family, work, life, and kids, remember that the mechanic told me I'll need brakes soon falls short in the memory/priority list. People are busy, so call call call.

 

It seems to work well with a follow up phone call just to remind them about what was needed. You can't make money if you aren't aggressive and calling and following up. I personally don't like the email approach as I tend to not really open/read letters from people that I don't regularly talk to. I believe that Mitchelle has a text option as well which would be nice.

 

Nice topic Joe, Thanks!

[Joe Marconi]

This sounds like a great piece of advise! What is your current process on following up on unsold work? Do you have an individual (or yourself) go through your computer system to identify work by day and then look to see if a recommendation was made to call the customer? How do you keep track of this information? I would like to start something like this at my facility and was looking for some helpful hints on the process you are currently following.

[Joe Marconi]

Each advisor must keep track of his follow up, they make a reminder in Mitchell and will hold aside in their personal file all unsold work that needs attention right away. They will plan out as budget and timeline for the work. They ask the customer for future dates to do the work and ask permission to call. For routine services they set up a post card or email reminder.