We must do a better job of advertising our personal relationships with customers

There are two major challenges in running a successful service shop: moving customers over to a maintenance model and developing personal relationships with customers so they keep coming back.

Years ago, a shop could be pretty successful in doing breakdown repairs on vehicles. But with cars today being better built, parts often lasting as long as the useful life of the vehicle, we have made a long-term and concerted effort to move our customers to regular maintenance schedules. We found many customers are open to working with a shop in developing a maintenance schedule for their vehicle. They know that a vehicle today needs to have regular changes of fluids, and mechanical checks and inspections to make sure things are working correctly. People quickly discover that without regular maintenance a vehicle will develop problems pretty quickly. Even the shops that we speak to regularly and with whom we have good working relationships, all tell us they are moving to this model in order to stay competitive.

The biggest competition right now for many of us in this industry are the dealerships and their repair facilities. They are doing a very good job in keeping customers, and even getting new ones. So how are we to compete? I believe that the best way is to do something the dealerships can’t deliver, a personal customer experience. One of the reasons why I don’t like going to a dealership is there is no personal relationship between me and the dealership. You cannot talk to the mechanics, know who they are or the kind of experience they have and the work they do. Often your only contact is with the service advisor and then the cashier.

Here at Chris & Shanes, my business partner and our technician personally know each of our customers and many of our customers ask for one of us directly so they can tell us what is wrong with their vehicle, answer a maintenance question or even just to talk. We have built a level of trust with them, so that when we have to replace a worn part or perform a repair, our customers trust enough to do the job and that the price we quote them is fair.

We also make it a point to do the work on time and deliver a customer’s vehicle to them, ready to be driven, at the time we say it will be done. Dealerships make it a point to sell themselves to customers on this. We have to do the same. If we promise to have a customer’s car back to them at three in the afternoon, in time to pick up the kids from school and do the grocery shopping, then we must deliver their car at the time promised. If we can’t then we have to have a very good reason and explain that reason to the customer.

Today’s customers demand a high level of customer service and satisfaction; they will not accept anything less. We as an industry need to make that a key priority in our own shops and then get the message out that we can meet a customer’s expectations, and then go beyond them. Also, that we will do all of that while getting to know them personally so when they come again, we can greet them as if we are meeting an old friend. That personal touch is what will help us succeed and it is something we need to do a better job in getting the word out to customers.