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Ron Ipach

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  1. Ron Ipach
    Car Count Daily | Episode 14
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    Car Count Daily | Episode 14
    Click Here To Subscribe For DAILY Car Count Daily Tips Straight To Your Inbox
    TRANSCRIPTION:
    Hey Shop Owners. Captain Car Count here, sometimes known as Ron Ipach. Welcome to yet another edition of Car Count Daily. Now, on a previous episode, I talked about the number one group of people that you should be marketing to. Now this is the low hanging fruit. The people that know, love and trust you, and people that are willing to give you more money, more often. As you might have guessed, it's your current clients. These are the people you should be spending your money, time and effort to get back to your shop, so they come in more often. But as I suspected, I knew I was going to get a lot of push back because I typically do from shop owners. Because, look, you do a great job for your customers, you do exactly what they want you to do, and provide a phenomenal repair and you maintain their car, so, of course they're going to come back to you, right? That's the argument I get all the time, and I'm here to tell you, no, that's not enough. Okay?
    I'm going to take the viewpoint of a customer here. Now I get your business, okay, I know all you do to do a great job and maintain the vehicles and fix the cars, and all the busted knuckles and the bloodied hands and all the stuff you go through to do a great job for your customers. But the customers don't see that, you see that. If I'm Joe Customer here, and I'm bringing my car to your shop and it's broken, I am paying you to fix it. So, when you bring it back to me fixed, you've done the job I'm paying you for. Okay? I paid you to do that job. I don't know how difficult it was. I don't know how awesome you were at doing it. I paid you for a service and I got the service.
    So, that's what Joe Customer thinks, or Jane Customer, is it's ... You're doing what I paid you to do. So, of course, you should do it right. Of course, it should be fixed. Of course, it should be maintained 'cause that's what we're exchanging the dollars for. I'm giving you money, you just give me what I asked for. So, the fact that you did a great job means absolutely nothing to me because I don't know about the bloodied knuckles and how difficult it was to do that repair, or how well trained you needed to be to do that repair because I paid you for that.
    Okay, now don't get mad at me. I'm just taking the viewpoint of your customers. So, doing a great job, and simply just saying you did a great job is enough to bring them back, I'm going to argue with you all day long because if they're just paying you for that, you're providing a service and that's it.
    Write this down, and you might want to remember this at all times, it's not what you do, when it comes to repairing the cars, it's what else you do when it comes to repairing the cars. Okay? I'm paying you to fix my car. What else are you doing to develop a relationship with me? What else are you doing to ensure that I'm going to come back to you versus going to the next shop down the street. Because, again, Joe Customer here, all I want is my car fixed and maintained. I'm paying for that service. So, no matter how difficult it is, I'm going to assume if it was real tough, it's going to cost me more money. Okay?
    It's what else are you doing. What else ... Why are you inviting me back to your shop? Why do you want me to come back to your shop? What offers are you going to give me? What incentives? Why should I come back to you versus going anywhere else? Now, keep that in mind when it comes to your marketing.
    Understand the most important person you can have in your shop, as a customer, is one that's already been. It's that repeat business that will build your business. Simply doing a good job isn't good enough anymore. It's a matter of what else you're doing. Impress me, give me outstanding customer service. Market to me, let me know that you care to have me back in your shop, and I will come back to you. That's why it's the most important group of people that you want to market to.
    Keep that in mind and you will blow your car counts through the roof. I guarantee it.
  2. Ron Ipach
    Car Count Daily | Episode 13
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    Car Count Daily | Episode 13
    Click Here To Subscribe For DAILY Car Count Daily Tips Straight To Your Inboxv
     
    The people that have just given you money are the best group of people to get the money from the next time. It's the low-hanging fruit, and I want you to really start paying attention to marketing exclusively to them instead of trying to get a new customer in the door to replace them.
    It costs a lot of money to replace a lost customer, so we want to make sure that we stay in contact with all of our good customers all the time. So that's actually what we're going to be covering today on today's video. We're going to be talking about how often do you market to them? And I'm going to give you an answer that you may not be expecting. I'm going to say that you need to market to them every single week.
    Now you might be saying, "That's too much." Once a week is what I want you to be in front of them so they remember you, so they ... because you don't know when they're going to need service, right? There's no way you know exactly the time that they're thinking about auto repair, so you need to be there when they are thinking about it. So every single week you need to be hitting them with some sort of a marketing message.
    When you think of it, the average consumer right now on a daily basis, I've seen estimates as high as ten thousand marketing messages every single day that they're being bombarded with. So don't think that you're going to be marketing entirely too much to them by touching them one time per week, four times per month. That's hardly going to make much of a dent in the universe of how many people are trying to market to them. So four, don't get carried away and say that, four is entirely too much because chances are they're not going to see most of the marketing messages.
    It's important we stay in contact with them as often as possible, because when they're looking for auto repair, that's when they're going to notice that you're there, so I suggest you mail at least twice a month to them. I like mailing a newsletter on the first week of the month, and some sort of a postcard mailer or something on the third week of the month. Then use the power of the new kind of marketing, the electronic marketing, either, and it's not new, the emails. But send them an email on the second and fourth week, or send them a text message on one of those weeks, or maybe pick up the good old phone and call them.
    That's how often you need to stay in contact with them. You don't want a week that goes by where they lose sight of you. You need to be there when they're ready for you, and there's no way you know when they're going to be ready for you. So don't think this is too much. You know, I actually have clients that are marketing to their clients a lot more than that. But on a minimum, once a week you should be marketing to all of your clients, okay?
    You either take the information and run with it, because I know it works, or think I'm totally crazy, and I'm marketing entirely too much, but I can tell you, I do know, when you get in the habit of marketing once a week to your current list, your car counts do go up substantially. So take my advice, don't take my advice, either way I wish you the best of success.
  3. Ron Ipach
    Car Count Daily | Episode 12
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    Car Count Daily | Episode 12
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    TRANSCRIPTION: 
    Hey shop owners, Ron Ipach here, sometimes known as Captain Car Count, and welcome to yet another episode of Car Count Daily. Now on today's episode, I'm going to be covering the most frequently asked question that I get as an expert marketer for auto repair shops. And that question is, "Who should I market to?"

    The answer I always give seems to disappoint shop owners, because it's a lot simpler than what you might think. Everybody thinks there's some secret society, or this secret group of people that you have to really attract to your shop to be successful and get more customers to your shop. And it's not anything special. Really, it is your own customers, the people that you've already done business with, the people that know, love and trust you. The people you've already done good service for. Those are the best people that you should be marketing to.

    Why? Well, let's face it. They're not coming back to you as often as they really should. Most shop owners tell me that the average car should be in the shop at least three times a year. But I'll bet, if you look at your database and count how many times each car's been in your shop, it's not three times. So what I'm telling you is you need to encourage them. You've got to give them a reason to come back to you more often.
    And let's face it. There are more cars sitting in the driveway than that one car you might be seeing. They may have two or three other cars sitting in the driveway that you're not seeing. They're being taken somewhere else, and maintained or repaired. They're not happening, it's not happening at your shop. So by marketing to the people that you already know, you know what they're buying habits are, you know if they're good customers or if they're bad customers. You just need to get your message to them.

    I mean, think about it. You can go and spend a lot of money to attract somebody new to your shop, and you have no idea if this person is interested in fixing and maintaining their car. You have no idea if they're willing to spend the money it takes to keep their car running properly. You do know that about your current customers. So why not take any money that you're spending to attract a new customer and start paying attention to your own customer.

    You know, I've heard the only reason why you're going to lose a current customer is because you're not paying attention to them. You're allowing other people who are advertising to spend more time and energy and effort and market to them than you are. You're just kind of letting them go. Don't let that happen any more. The best customer to get in your shop is the person you already have a relationship with.
    So take all those marketing dollars that you're using to attract new customers and start marketing to your own customers and I absolutely guarantee you're going to get a lot more car count. That's going to do it for today's episode. I hope it helped. If you like what you're seeing, if you like what you're hearing, leave me a comment down below this video.
  6. Ron Ipach
    Car Count Daily | Episode 8
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    Click Here To Subscribe For DAILY Car Count Daily Tips Straight To Your Inbox
    VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION
    Hi, shop owners, Ron Ipach here. Sometimes people call me Captain Car Count. Welcome to yet another edition of Car Count Daily. Now before I get started did you know that you can go down below this video and leave me a comment, leave me a question, maybe a suggestion? Yes, you can. As soon as this video is done, please go down and tell me what you think about these episodes, ask some questions, maybe even give me some suggestions for what I should be covering on future episodes. I would really appreciate that. As soon as we're done with this, please go down and type something in that bar down there, so I could read it. I will respond to them. I try to respond to every one of the questions, comments and suggestions that I've been given.
    On today's episode we're going to actually be addressing a question from a shop owner named Dave who's been in business for 28 years. He asked, "Is there anything new in the automotive repair industry?" In a word, yeah. A lot has changed in these 28 years. If we look at the car itself, obviously, you know the cars are made a whole lot better than they used to be. You're more in a maintenance business than you were in a repair business. That has changed drastically over these 28 years. Also, what's changed is the consumer, the consumer habits. The way of contacting them has changed enormously. The buying habits of the consumer have changed drastically. Your share of their attention, trying to grab their attention when they're being bombarded by all the advertising that's out there has changed drastically.
    When we think about it, millennials, which is now the largest group of people that are out there, they grew up with cell phones in their hands. Everything is online. They're doing mobile searches instead of looking through the yellow pages. They buy things differently and at different times. You and I have changed a lot as well with that. When was the last time that you did some online shopping? I know I did a lot of my Christmas shopping online. I didn't even have to leave the house to whittle down that Christmas list. A lot of people are driving less because they can simply go on Amazon and have it delivered in a couple hours. That's changed drastically, the amount of miles that people are driving as well as people are using services like Uber and Lift for other people to drive them. It's very inexpensive for people to get driven around. Their driving habits are changing a lot.
    The one thing I can tell you is the marketing principles have not changed. The way we contact people have changed. The messages we give them have changed. The people we're marketing to have changed. All of those have changed drastically over the past 28 years, but the main principles, the core competencies of marketing really haven't changed much at all. What am I talking about? First off, we got to find the right person to market to, the person we want to attract to our shop. Second, we have to give them a very compelling message. We got to grab their attenton. As I said before, there's a lot more competition for those eyeballs. People are looking at email, they're online. They're seeing advertisements bombarding from all these different areas. We have to be a lot more savvy in how we try to attract their attention. That hasn't changed.
    Then we need to give them a very compelling offer. That's a good core competency and make sure that you have that in all of your marketing as well as you got to give them a sense of urgency. We got to have the right target. We have to have the right message. We have to have the right offer, and we have to give them that sense of urgency, so that they come in right now. That all has been the same. Everything else about running the business has totally changed. If you're not keeping up with that, you're going to be left behind. Again, the marketing, the core competencies haven't changed, but everything that layers on top of that, how we deliver that message, that's changed drastically. Who we're delivering it to has changed drastically.
    -- Ron Ipach (a.k.a Captain Car Count)
    President/Founder of Repair Shop Coach More articles and content like this and originated through Ron Ipach's Car Count Daily campaign Auto Repair Shop Owners, Managers, and Automotive Industry Professionals are invited to join 'Car Count Daily Boosters' LinkedIn group to provide resources and gain insight on boosting car count DAILY and filling up the bays in their shops.
  7. Ron Ipach
    Car Count Daily | Episode 9
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    Car Count Daily | Episode 9
    Click Here To Subscribe For DAILY Car Count Daily Tips Straight To Your Inbox
    --------------------
    Welcome to today’s issue of Car Count Daily. Now, you’re probably wondering why am I driving a car, and not only doing something so stupid as driving a car and recording a video, but I’m drinking an iced coffee at the exact same time. In other words, why am I multitasking here, doing something vitally important which is driving a car safely, while talking to you, and sipping on a coffee? Well, it’s actually to talk about something that you’re probably doing every single day, which is multitasking during probably one of the most important things that you could ever be doing with your shop every single day, which is marketing your business.

    I’m Captain Car Count, so of course I’m talking about auto repair marketing. This really goes into all areas of your business. I mean think about it, how many times are you being pulled in all these different directions. As the auto repair shop owner you’ve got a lot of things that you need to do. You have a lot of employees talking to you, you have customers, parts vendors, the phone’s ringing, and you’re trying to do a lot of things at once. Oh by the way, you’re going to try to squeeze in a few minutes here or there to do your auto repair marketing. I’m going to tell you, stop doing that. That is a recipe for disaster. You’re never going to do everything really, really well.

    Now fortunately I’m at a red light here, so I can stare at the camera. When we start rolling, I have to focus on the one thing, the most important thing, which is right now, which is navigating this beast down the road safely so I don’t hurt anybody, or hurt myself. Think of it that way when it comes to your marketing. Focus on marketing, and nothing else. The best way to do that is get the heck out of the shop. Chances are you’re going to be really busy in the shop, people pulling you different directions, and asking questions, and the employee comes in with that one really quick question that turns into a half hour task that you just put on your back. Then if you get time, you get back to doing some marketing.

    I hope you understand what I’m talking about, is just get focused on the most important task, which is marketing. Now, how do you do this when you’re in a busy environment? Well the best way I know, is get the heck out of that environment. Get away from the shop, and get to a quiet place. If it’s a matter of staying home, if you can be left alone at home, then by all means stay at home. If not, go down to the public library, or find some place, a hotel lobby where you can be left alone to work on your marketing. If you’re trying to multitask while you’re doing your marketing, just like I’m trying to multitask and drink my coffee here doing this, you’re not going to do really well at any of that stuff. Marketing is extremely important.

    I hope I kind of drilled that idea into your head for today, so you do find the time to focus on marketing, and be 100% present with just marketing, and not doing everything else at the exact same time. You’ll get a lot more done, you’ll get a lot more cars coming to your shop, which is going to help you make a lot more money, okay? That’s going to do it for today.

    Before you discontinue reading, please, I’d love to hear your feedback. What do you think about car count daily? Do you like them, do you hate them, are there some suggestions you have for me other than not driving while I’m recording a video? Which okay I get, I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to say never, but I’m not going to do that a whole lot. Leave a comment below this video, shoot me an email, send me a carrier pigeon. However, just get the message to me. Let me know how you like these videos, and if there’s anything else you want me to touch on with these videos in the future.
  8. Ron Ipach
    Car Count Daily | Episode 8
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    Click Here To Subscribe For DAILY Car Count Daily Tips Straight To Your Inbox
    VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION
    Today, I'm going to show you how to make at least $1,500 an hour. Would you like to know how to do that? It's not enough? How about $3,000 an hour? How about $5,000 an hour? Still not enough? Okay, how about I should you how to make $15,000 an hour? Would you like to know how to do that? I bet you would. Simply and easily make $1,500 an hour on up. It's totally up to you. Depends on what it is you're doing. What that is that you're doing is marketing. Of course. What else would I be talking about? I'm Captain Car Count after all.
    What I mean by that is you can make $15,000 an hour simply by spending two hours of your day just 100% focused on putting together a kick-butt offer and sending it to the right people using the right kind of media. In other words, do some really kick ass marketing today. If you just put your nose to the grindstone and worked on this, figured out what's going to really get people excited to come in and do business with you, how are you going to get that message to them, and what is that message going to say. If you would spend two hours putting that together, and then you sent it out and you brought in let's say $30,000 worth of business, which is not unheard of if you know what you're doing. If you know good marketing, you can bring in $30,000 from just one marketing campaign. If you spent just two hours working on that campaign, and it brought in $30,000, that means each one of those hours you spent marketing brought in $15,000.
    You might be saying "There's no way I'm going to do $30,000 off of one campaign." Let's cut it in half. Let's say you only made $15,000 off of that marketing campaign, and you worked two hours. That means you made $7,500 per hour. Or let's say the whole campaign only brought in $5,000. Okay. A very modest sum, but totally achievable and totally believable that you can make $5,000 by putting together a marketing campaign. If you spent two hours doing that, that means you made $2,500 an hour.
    See, all the work is done upfront when you're doing your marketing. It takes time to find a really good offer that's going to excite people and choose the list of people that you're going to send that offer to, so whoever see it so they can respond to it. That's where all the work is. It's all the way up front. Putting that together. But you know what? It only take a couple hours out of one day to put together a marketing campaign. And when you send it out, then the marketing starts working on its own and it starts bringing people to you. So if you only made $5,000 from that marketing campaign, yet only spent two hours, effectively, you've made $2,500 per hour doing the marketing.
    I hope you're getting a little excited about this because you sure as heck can't make $2,500 an hour turning wrenches. You're not going to make $2,500 an hour managing the store. You're not going to make $2,500 doing anything else in your store other than working on the marketing. That's how you make a lot of money because without the marketing, you don't have the customers. Without the customers, you don't have the business. So just find two hours today to start putting together a really good marketing campaign and get it out. Look, the worst that's going to happen, if you make $500 from that marketing campaign, and you took two hours to do it, that's still $250 an hour. There's still nothing else you could do in your shop that's going to make $250 per hour.
    I hope I've got your greed glands and your juices flowing over getting this marketing done because I love marketing, and I can show you a lot of ways to market, and that's what this Car County Daily video series is all about, is to give you a lot of ideas on marketing. All you need to do is take action on it so that you can start reaping the rewards of being an auto repair shop owner. Take this information, spend those two hours, and make thousands of dollars every single hour.
    -- Ron Ipach (a.k.a Captain Car Count)
    President/Founder of Repair Shop Coach More articles and content like this and originated through Ron Ipach's Car Count Daily campaign Auto Repair Shop Owners, Managers, and Automotive Industry Professionals are invited to join 'Car Count Daily Boosters' LinkedIn group to provide resources and gain insight on boosting car count DAILY and filling up the bays in their shops.
  9. Ron Ipach
    Car Count Daily | Episode 7
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    Click Here To Subscribe For DAILY Car Count Daily Tips Straight To Your Inbox
    VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION
     Today, I'm going to talk all about collecting the right information from every one of your customers while they're in your shop. What do I mean by that? When we're talking about marketing, it's important that we collect all the current information that we have on our customers so that we can continue to market to them. Marketing to your current customers, it's like picking the low-hanging fruit. It's the easiest group of people to get back into your shop, so we want to make sure that we collect all the data that we can from our customers while they're sitting right there in our shop.
    Obviously, what you want to do it get their correct name. Make sure their name is spelled correctly. Have that in you database. 
    Then, also, we want their mailing address. Everybody's got a place they're living. They're not living in their car, chances are. So we want to make sure that we get their home address so that we can mail something to them. 
    The next thing on the list is we want to make sure we get their e-mail address. We want to make sure that we're getting the right e-mail address. Not the e-mail address the junk e-mail that a lot of people, including me, I have a junk e-mail address that I give to everybody because I don't want them to contact me. We want to make sure that we get their actual e-mail address. The one that they actually do check. It's very important you do that.
    Then, the next thing that I want to make sure that you get is the two phone numbers that they have. One is their home phone number. Some people don't have home phones anymore. I happen to still have a home phone number. If they don't have their home phone number, certainly, they have a cell phone. You want to make sure that you're collecting that data as well. 
    What you're going to be able to do with all this, if you have a home address, you can send them a piece of mail. If you have an e-mail address, the good e-mail address, you can send them an e-mail. If you have their home phone number, not only can you pick up the phone to call them, I call it dialing for dollars when you're on your slow days to see if you can get some of them to your shop, but you can also do something. It's a technology called the voice broadcast where you record a message, and it blasts it out to everybody's home phone number and leaves a message just like you would've left a message on their voicemail by calling their home if you called them one by one. This is different, where you just record it one time and it blasts it out to everybody. Then, if you get their cell phone number, you can send them a text message, and 99% of text messages get read, and 95% of them get read within the first five minutes. So it's a very valuable way to be able to market to them.
     
    But none of this is going to work for you if you don't have the accurate data in your database. So here's a suggestion that you start right now, today, with the very next customer that walks through the door and you start collecting that data. Think of it like when you went to the doctor's office the last time. What they did is they handed you that clipboard and said, "We're updating our records. Please fill all this out." You can protest all you want, but they're going to make you fill those forms out every single time you go in. Why? They have insurance forms that they need to fill out, and they got to make sure everything's accurate. You, you need to market to them. You got to run your business off of this data. So require that they fill out each and every one of those lines. Their name, their e-mail address, their phone number, their cell phone number. You want to make sure that you collect all that data so that you can market to them. 
     
    Just assume that they're going to give you that data and no questions asked. If you just ask for an e-mail address, now there's a dialogue that kind of goes back and forth. If you simply hand them a form that says "We need all this information for our database, for our records," they will go ahead and fill that out. Make sure that you get that done.
  10. Ron Ipach
    Car Count Daily | Episode 6
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    TRANSCRIPTION: As most of you probably are well aware, the iPhone is the dominant player in the market, so more people have iPhones than most other phones. Argue with me on numbers, but there are a crap-load of iPhones out there. I want to talk about what's happening on the iPhone and how you can use it to your advantage to get more customers to your shop. There is this app on here, and hopefully you can see this, it's that, right there, it's that little map, it says underneath it, it says maps.

    That is the Apple Map app. There, I said it right, it's difficult to say. The Apple Map app. When, people are searching for local businesses to do business with and they have their iPhones, they're clicking that three and half times more than the Google Map. Google is the dominant map software but not on the iPhone. We know a lot of people have iPhones and three and a half times more people are searching using the Apple Map software that's on there.

    Now why is that important? Well let me go ahead and open up by phone again here, and show you why that's important. When, I click on that, if I type in auto-repair, which I did just before I started this video, look what's happening here. Can you see that? Can you see those start ratings underneath there? You can see that word Yelp right next to it. See, Apple is using Yelp for their review software. So, if you don't have a good review on Yelp happening for you, you're missing out on more business.

    Now, look, we always get into these wild conversations when I'm doing this live in front of auto-repair shop owners. They're telling me everything they think about Yelp, doesn't really matter, because if you're not playing ball with Yelp, and if you don't have a lot of really good reviews on Yelp, it's hurting you. Remember the majority of people are searching, for a new place to do business with, on mobile phones. More people use the Apple iPhone than others, and if they're using that, they're using the Apple Map app, which, is now showing only Yelp reviews.

    That's just something, I wanted to, no judgment on anything, I just want to let you know that, that's happening. If you're not paying attention to it, if you don't have really good Yelp reviews, it's definitely hurting you with iPhone users, of which, there are plenty of them. If you don't personally have an iPhone what I want you to do is go look and see what your shop looks like when somebody searches on an iPhone.

    Find somebody that's got an iPhone, type in auto-repair in your area and see how you look. See how you rank in there. If you rank really high, fantastic, you're probably getting a lot of calls that way. If you're ranked really low I guarantee you're missing out on a lot of business. Go check it out, do whatever you can to get as many great Yelp ratings as possible, so you get a lot of stars and you get a lot of phone calls.
     
  11. Ron Ipach
    Car Count Daily | Episode 5
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    This is something that I'm hearing from shop owners constantly when we're talking about car count levels in their auto repair shop:
    "Car count is down in my shop because cars are made better."
    If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times, and chances are you've probably said it yourself. Look, I'm not going to tell you cars aren't made better because that would be sheer stupidity.
    The fact is that cars are made better. Cars are made to last much, much longer than they used to.
    But... That's not the reason why car count is down in shops.
    How do I know that? Well, a recent study came out that said the average car on American roadways is over 14 years old.
    Let me say that again... The average car is over 14 years old. That's not a new car. The average. That means for every brand new car out there, in order to have an average of fourteen years, that means there's a car that's 28 years old. There is a balance there.
    If the average car is 14 years old, those are the cars you work on. Right? 14 years ago the cars weren't made as good as they are now, and even if they were, they're 14 years old right now, odds are that they're going to need a lot of maintenance now or in the near future. It's important to make your shop available for those repairs.
    Don't get caught up in the thinking that the car count is down simply because cars are made better. Those cars that are made better are not your business. Those aren't the ones that are going to give you more cars in your bays and increase your profitability. The most of a shop owner's profits is going to come from the cars that are older, and the average car is much older than it used to be.
    Clear the "cars are just made better" excuse out from your mind, understand that there are plenty cars out there, it's just up to you to go focus on your marketing and attract more customers to your shop.
     
  12. Ron Ipach
    Car Count Daily | Episode 4
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    Click Here To Subscribe For Daily Car Count Daily Tips Straight To Your Inbox
    We all know as local business owners how important it is to get those online reviews because most potential customers read those things before they make a decision whether they want to do business with you. As a matter of fact, 90% of consumers read less than 10 reviews before forming an opinion about a business. Because of this, auto repair shops should want to collect as many positive reviews as possible to stay ahead. 
    In the automotive industry, for getting new customers in the door, there might not be a more essential tool than positive online reviews. It can make or break a business plan. From a consumer's point of view, Google will almost always be the resource used to find an auto repair shop in each area. Not only this, some potential customers will view online reviews for the sole purpose of ranking shops, or choosing one over the other. 
    The auto repair shop with the most positive reviews and best Google ranking is most often going to be the one the consumer decides to go to for their car repair needs. The same goes for reviews on both Facebook and Yelp. 
    Some shop owners may be asking clients: "Hey, if you liked our service, please give us a review." And this is a proven strategy as 7 out of 10 consumers will leave a review for a business if they're asked to.
    However, if they're not giving reviews, how can they expect to get reviews back? There's something maybe a little karmic about that, right? If you're not doing it, how can you expect other people to do it for you. Aside from that, if you're not writing reviews, how can you tell them how to do the review? 
    In other words, if you've never given a Google review, or a Yelp review or a Facebook review, and you've never physically done it yourself it's going to be hard when you ask somebody to give your a shop a review. A shop owner may say - "Sure, I'll give you a review, just show me how to do it," now you're scratching your head and saying, "I have no idea how to do it. I've never given one myself." What are the chances that they're actually going to give you a review? 
    Get in the habit of writing as many reviews as possible using all of the local review sites, so you know how to navigate the waters, and you know how to actually write the review. 
    Secondarily, sitting down to write a review is not easy. If you get in a habit of sitting down trying to figure out what you're going to say in your review, chances are when you do it more often, you'll get better and better at it. It will start to flow a little better. When you're asking a client to write you a good review, not only are you going to be able to show them how to do this, but you're going to give them some suggestions on how to write a good review for you because, after all, that's what we want to do. We want to get as many good, positive reviews from our happy customers as we possibly can. 
    Getting in the habit of writing two reviews per week, will ultimately attract more online reviews for your shop.
    -- Ron Ipach (a.k.a Captain Car Count)
    President/Founder of Repair Shop Coach More articles and content like this and originated through Ron Ipach's Car Count Daily campaign Auto Repair Shop Owners, Managers, and Automotive Industry Professionals are invited to join 'Car Count Daily Boosters' LinkedIn group to provide resources and gain insight on boosting car count DAILY and filling up the bays in their shops.
  13. Ron Ipach
    Car Count Daily | Episode 3
    Click Here To Subscribe For Daily Car Count Daily Tips Straight To Your Inbox
     
     
    Welcome to Car Count Daily. Today we're going to talk all about being a star shop owner. Before you think that's a good thing, let me show you what I mean about being a star shop owner, specifically when it comes to your marketing. Trust me, you don't want to be a star shop owner.... See what I mean by watching the video above...
     
  14. Ron Ipach
    What The Marketing Budget Should Be For Every Auto Repair Shop Owner

    Somebody recently sent an email to me asking the same question that I get dozens of times every single month. Basically, it says, "Ron, how much should I budget for my marketing?"
    I have a very simple answer to that. One that actually a lot of people are gonna totally disagree with me...
    My answer is, throw out the marketing budget. You do not need a marketing budget, and here's the reason why: A lot of times, I've heard five, six, or even three percent of your growth sales should be used towards advertising.
    Now, that might be a good number for some months, but it's a horrible number for other months. But if you're budgeting and you're only gonna have a certain amount of money for marketing every single month, your business is gonna be going to be heading on a downward slope.
    For a lot of our clients, the summer months tend to be their busiest month. They don't need to be spending a lot of money on marketing at all during those months because they're just naturally busy. But then when the kids go back to school in August and September, everything screeches to a halt.
    So I'm gonna say throw out the marketing budget and spend it where and if you need it. You don't need to spend a lot of money on marketing if you're naturally busy. You do need to spend a lot of money on marketing if you're gonna be slow.
    Now, this goes to ... I guess I should mention, it's not a matter of just throwing a bunch of money out there on marketing. You have to do good quality marketing. You have to have the right message sent to the right market at the right time using the right media. In other words, a way that they're actually gonna see your marketing. You have to get all of those things straight.
    So I'm going to probably guess that if you follow me and participate in my Car Count Daily campaign by watching my videos, you're getting a good idea, a good sense of what good quality marketing is. I'll assume that you're doing good quality marketing.
    Now, if you're spending money on good quality marketing, you're gonna get good results. If you don't need it during the summer months, slow it down. If you're gonna need it in the fall, you need to raise it up. I don't like marketing budgets for that reason, because everybody gets used to spending the same amount of money every single month, whether they need to or not.
    Pay attention to your numbers. Pay attention to what your shop is telling you. Pay attention to what your car count's telling you and spend the money when needed.
    Also, if you're running short of your numbers, you may need to spend a lot more money and put in a lot more effort on your marketing for those specific months. Don't look at marketing as an expense. Look at it as an investment. A marketing budget is something to be spent. Marketing investment, your marketing dollars if it's done right, is actually an investment. It's not taking money, it's actually attracting more money to your shop.
       
  15. Ron Ipach
    Hi Shop Owners!
    I wanted to come over shop owner forum for this special edition of Car Count Daily and offer you an exclusive invitation to join me TOMORROW NIGHT on my Free Webinar - 
    Registration is now open for my free Auto Repair Webinar - 
    I'm going to be talking about what it takes to go from just being an ordinary shop to an EXTRAORDINARY shop.
    What do I mean by ordinary?
    It's where 95% of shop owners lie. Car Count numbers aren't nearly where they should be The shop is not meeting their financial goals. Their time is being sucked up. They're working entirely too many hours. They're not getting a chance to spend time with their family. In other words, the shop isn't exactly what they thought it was going to be when they started it.
    What I'm going to be talking about is what it takes to be in the top 5%, where it's making money hand over fist, where you're being able to take time off. You're going to be able to spend time with your family, go do what you want to do with whoever you want, whenever you want to do it.
    Those things that if you roll back to the day that you started your business, you thought you would be able to do.
    If this sounds like you, click here to learn more and register now...
    (** WARNING: Spots are filling up FAST, Click here to Reserve NOW **)

  16. Ron Ipach
    CAR COUNT DAILY
    HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!
     
    After a long weekend, I know how hard it may be to find the motivation to get back in the swing of things tomorrow. However, for you and your shop’s success, it’s essential to dedicate your time in doing everything it takes to be a successful business owner.
    And to think like a successful shop owner.
    Also, I wouldn’t be Captain Car Count, if I didn’t mention the importance of focusing on your marketing. Watch the video above for a mindset jumpstart.
    “As soon as you start to pursue a dream, your life wakes up and everything has a meaning.” – Barbara Sher
     
  17. Ron Ipach
    Car Count Daily | Episode 2
    Click Here To Subscribe For Daily Car Count Daily Tips Straight To Your Inbox
     
      Click Here To Subscribe For Daily Car Count Daily Tips Straight To Your Inbox Hey shop owners. Captain Car Count here, sometimes known as Ron Ipach, and welcome to yet another edition of Car Count Daily. Today I'm gonna get a little serious with you, because I need you to understand one very, very important concept. This concept is so important that the survival of your business and shop management hinges on you understanding what we're talking about here today.
    What we're gonna be talking about here today is the number one thing, the number one most important thing you could possibly do for your business every single day that's gonna make you more money, give you more time off, make this business a success. Do you know what that is?
    Let me give you a little bit of a hint. Captain Car Count. What is it that I talk about every single day? Car Count.
    Marketing is the number one thing you gotta do, because whether you realize it or not, and I'm sure you do realize it, if you don't have a customer in your shop that's giving you money, guess what? You're not making money. You need to focus on getting customers in the shop, because that's what's gonna make your business happen. It doesn't matter how good your technicians are, doesn't matter how good you are, doesn't matter how awesome your location is, or how nice you are, and how you bend over backwards for customer service. That doesn't matter if there's not a car in your shop.
    You can't make any money on a car that's driving past your shop. You have to do something every single day within your shop management to get that car that's driving by your shop to stop at your shop and get it up on a lift, because then you have a chance of making money. If you're not making money, you're not in business. Right?
    So that's why I say the most important thing you need to focus on every single day is your marketing. That's why we have this Car Count Daily thing going out to you every single day, because I need you to focus on it. There's a lot of ways to get customers in your shop, but it all starts with you. You have to have focus, you have to understand how important it is to get those cars in your shop first before you can actually get those cars in your shop. So this is a daily thing. Every single day, focus on this number one thing.
    Now I get it. There's a lot of other things to focus on, but that all comes later on after you get a car into the shop. You need to get enough cars in the shop, so it's focus, focus, focus on the most important thing.
    Every time I go to a conference and I'm asking shop owners, "What's the number one thing you need in your business?" They all say, to a tee, they all say, "I need more cars in the shop." If that's the number one thing you need, and I'm telling you it's the number one more important thing for you to have, that's why I'm saying it's the number one job you need to be focusing on every single day.
    What gets focused on gets achieved. Focus on that marketing, and the rest of the business and shop management can fall into place after that. Let's work on the marketing. I'm gonna be here to give you a lot of ideas day in and day out. Stay with me, stay with me day in, day out, and watch these videos, and I'll give you plenty of ideas on how to boost those car counts every single day.
  18. Ron Ipach
    Car Count Daily | Episode 1
    Click Here To Subscribe For Daily Car Count Daily Tips Straight To Your Inbox
     
     
    Hey shop owners! Welcome to Car Count Daily. I'm Captain Car Count, sometimes known as Ron Ipach. Let's say you're looking at your appointment book, and you could stand to use a few more cars in the shop today. That's probably most of you that are watching this video right now. You need to know how to get cars in the shop, like right away. 

    Well, I'm going to give you three very quick, easy, and cheap ways to get your phone ringing, and get that appointment book filled. Would you like to know what they are? Well, great. Hang on. 
    Idea number one, it's not earth shattering. It's using email. If you've collected and have current email addresses for your clients, all you have to do is just come up with a terrific offer. Now, remember, we're trying to get them in your shop today. So, we want to give them a great offer, to show up today. Let them know that they're getting this special offer, because you need more cars in the shop today, you need them to respond right away, and you need them to bring their car into your shop today. So, the offer is very, very important. A wishy-washy offer isn't going to get somebody to respond. Come up with a kick-butt offer, and email it to them. 

    Now, the problem with email is, not everybody looks at their emails every single day, and you don't have emails for everybody in your database. But, hey, look, it's easy, it's simple, it's cheap, so go ahead and do it. And hopefully, some people are going to see it, and they're going to respond today. So that's idea number one. It's nice and easy, you've sent emails before, so this shouldn't be a difficult thing to do. 

    The second way, which is the way that I love more than anything else, is using a mobile phone and texting your offer to them. So, if you've been collecting and getting permission to send them texts, you can just simply send a kick-butt offer to them, and get them to respond immediately via text. Now, you can do them one by one, just grab your phone and start texting people individually, or there are some services out there that you can group text everybody, and get them all done in one sweep at a time. 

    But the important thing to know about text messaging is, it's a brilliant way to contact people, because 99% of texts get opened. And even more importantly, 95% get opened within the first five minutes. So, you send out a text, people are going to look at it, and they're going to respond within five minutes. Now, if you put together a kick-butt offer, you will get your ringing right away. I love that idea, and on a separate video we'll kind of go into detail on exactly how to do your texting and everything. That's a much larger subject to cover. Certainly not one I'm going to be able to cover here. 

    Now, the third way, and you're going to hate this idea. I know you're going to hate it, but it's a tool you already have, and most people under-utilize the tool. And that is using one of these. A phone, okay? Just a regular old phone, and you start dialing for dollars. I mean, think about this. How many people have been in a shop that declines services? Well, wouldn't it be a great idea to call them up, and just kind of look at all the people that decline services, and come up with a kick-butt offer to get them in the shop today. Let them know, "Hey, we have a few slots open, I'd like to fill it. This is once in a lifetime offer. I'm going to give you an offer you can't refuse." Dial for dollars, and that will get people in shop. 

    Now, I know you hate it. Nobody wants to get on the phone and start calling people. But, hey, you want to put people in your shop today? You've got their phone numbers, you've got their buying history, you've got their unsold service history. Dial for dollars, and you will get people in your shop today. 
    Now, those are three quick and easy, down and dirty, inexpensive, almost free ways, to get people into your shop. Pick the one you want, and do it. You will get the phone to ring today. You will fill up that shop today.
     
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  19. Ron Ipach
    Every day during your work week I'm going to deliver to you one tip, trick, tactic, strategy or insight that you can put to use for you right away to immediately start to boost the car counts in your shop.
    That means over the next year you're going to get over 250 videos, audios, and blogs that you can consume in less than three minutes per day and then act on them in less than two. 
    INTRODUCTION TO CAR COUNT DAILY
     
    CLICK TO SUBSCRIBE TO CAR COUNT DAILY (ABSOLUTELY FREE)

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