Banner Programs are Powerful Tools

You have to do two critical things all the time these days to keep your shop’s bottom line from bottoming out — keep your regular customers satisfied and coming back, and always be marketing your shop to generate new business. And that can be a tall order when you’re going it alone as an independent shop. If you’re the only shop in town, that’s one thing; but when you’re one amongst hundreds of other independents, dealerships and national franchises, you’ve got a challenge: how do you draw customers to your sign as opposed to the other guy’s?

“That’s where the banner program comes in for the independents,” says Bob Bobert, General Manager of Base Auto Value in Toronto. “Now all of a sudden they can have all the bells and whistles of a banner program that can compete with the dealers and some of these other national account guys.”

It can mean everything from getting preferred interest rates on Visa and MasterCard, to being able to offer a national warranty; to preferred parts pricing, to co-op advertising opportunities, to being part of a well-known network; to loyalty and rebate programs, to promotions that can be customized for your shop, to technical and business management training, to professionally produced service reminders for your clientele.

“You’re more seen,” says Betty Binette, Coordinator of Projects & Development Programs for Uni-Select in Quebec. “When they (independents) try to market their shop on their own, they don’t have the same visibility of a banner.”

There’s a lot of collective power in a banner program, but you’ve got to harness it properly. “If they use all the tools, the training and the buying power if they’re in a group, they can put more money on their bottom line,” says Glenn Crewe, National Accounts Manager for the Prairie Division of Uni-Select.

Adds Betty Binette, “You can’t just have a banner and wait until the people come in and the money comes down from the sky; it won’t happen. You have to use the banner. You’ve got tools, and you’ve got to use them.”

Think like a business owner, not like a technician — all the time, but especially when it comes to choosing a banner program to be affiliated with. Analyze, then invest.

“You have to look at the program and evaluate it, and whether there is a benefit to your shop,” advises Marc Alary, National Marketing Manager for BestBuy Distributors.

Maybe you’re hesitating getting involved with a banner program because the last one you tried didn’t work out so well, or you’re hesitating about spending money.

“There are customers who will never want to be part of a banner program,” says Richard Racette, National Marketing Manager for CARQUEST CANADA. “You’ve got to be willing to invest to make it work. It starts with the business owner. You’ve got to have all the business basics covered.”

If you think like a business owner, and recognize the benefits of banner programs, then your distributors and jobbers happily want you to be a part of their programs. But if selling a banner program to you means they first have to try to change your mindset, you probably wouldn’t benefit from a banner program, and they’d be wasting their time trying to sell you one. And in the end, nobody wins.

“Any time a guy says, ‘I don’t need to attend training classes, I don’t need to attend business management courses’, that’s not the guy you want to be spending your time with. Because those guys are eventually going to go by the wayside,” adds Bob Bobert.

As Uni-Select’s Glenn Crewe puts it bluntly, when it comes to banner programs, “Get in or get out.”

“Motivated business owners with the desire to grow make our banner network stronger,” says Racette. “You go for quality, not quantity.”

Chris Thorne, National Sales and Marketing Manager for NAPA Autopro and NAPA AutoCare, says a lot of independent shops are falling down because they don’t have a system, which banners can provide.

“A lot of independent shops that I go to don’t have a plan, an every-day plan that they execute. Not everyone knows their roles and there needs to be a framework. We provide the framework,” he says about NAPA Autopro’s approach.

“A lot of guys are activity based, and their eye isn’t on the bottom line. They think that by being activity based, they’re going to be profitable. They are two different things. And it actually affects their customer satisfaction,” he affirms. Shops can end up with too many customers waiting in line — customers who may leave feeling unhappy and not come back next time.

And that’s where getting involved with a program that goes a step further and puts systems in place can be very rewarding and profitable, says Thorne. NAPA Autopro, for example, offers a combination of business-building tools, operational procedures, standards, marketing tools, dedicated technical training and business management courses that gives shop owners a framework in which to build and run a successful shop under the NAPA Autopro brand. Other successful programs offer similar benefits.

Every banner program is different. Some are left in the hands of your jobber, some are run from the head office; some include technical training and business management courses, some don’t; some include marketing programs aimed at your customers as well as you. The financial investment differs across the board, too. It’s up to you to choose the program that’s right for you.

One of the biggest benefits of banner programs in any form today is parts and labour warranties — whether they’re national, or North American-wide. They’re a piece of paper that will be honoured anywhere in the chain if a customer has problems, if you’re in the program. This alone, makes getting involved in a banner program worthwhile, says Base Auto Value’s Bobert.

“A lot of these independents go up against the Goodyear’s and the Speedy’s and all these guys that are able to offer a national warranty. And the independent guy cannot do that on his own.”

Look at a banner program as one of the many different tools you need to have and use to keep your shop successful and profitable — but don’t look at it as a magical solution. If your shop’s financial bottom line is sinking, there’s no banner program alone that will save it.

“A program is not meant to provide a fix-all solution. It’s meant to provide an image and a relationship between the jobber and the shop, and benefits for the shop,” affirms Marc Alary.

And don’t define being competitive as promoting your banner program, he says. “To me, competitiveness is defined more in terms of service.”

When dealerships are taking back more service business, have a powerful marketing machine behind them, and are paradoxically both your competitor and parts supplier, the combination of quality service and all the elements of a banner program is powerful, and can do a lot for your profitability.

“Service and preventive maintenance, to keep customers coming back, is the key to making participation in a banner program work,” says Uni-Select’s Glenn Crewe.

So the next time you’re thinking about whether to spend a few hundred dollars on a phone book ad or a flyer to distribute in a newspaper; or a few thousand on a new sign to hang above your shop, think about whether you’re spending your money wisely. A banner program could be the smarter investment, because it can do so much more.

“If you just want to hang a sign, the program won’t do anything for you. If you want to integrate what the program talks about, it will,” says Chris Thorne.