CHEAP SERVICES AT INDEPENDENT SHOPS

[dodgeboy]

OVER THE PAST YEAR ME HAVE BEEN ATTEMPTING TO MAKE A MORE SERIOUS EFFORT TO BE MORE COMPETETIVE WITH THE INDEPENDENTS REPAIR FACILITIES IN OUR AREA. I HAVE PRICED SHOPPED ON A REGULAR BASIS AND HAVE FOUND THAT IT IS BECOMING VERY DIFFICULT TO MATCH SOME OF THE PRICES. I HAVE BEEN WORKING WITH OUR BG CHEMICALS SALESMAN ON SOME PROJECTS, AND HE HAS TOLD ME THAT MANY OF THE INDY'S DON'T CHANGE 100% OF YOUR TRANSMISSION FLUID DURING A FLUSH LIKE WE DO, OR THEY ONLY USE 1 GALLON OF COOLANT ON A FLUSH WHILE WE COMPLETELY FLUSH THE SYSTEM. I DON'T HAVE CONCRETE PROOF OF THE WAY THEY PERFORM THEIR SERVICES, BUT WHEN PEOPLE THINK MY PRICES ARE TOO HIGH, I'D LOVE TO TELL THEM THAT THEY ARE NOT REALLY GETTING WHAT THE PAY FOR AT THE INDY'S. MY QUESTION TO THIS FORUM, IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE THAT HAS WORKED AT A PEPBOYS OR GOODYEAR, ETC. THAT REALLY KNOWS WHAT THEY REALLY DO WHEN THEY ARE PERFOMING QUICK SERVICE? I REFUSE TO LOWER MY PRICE AND THE TYPE OF SERVICE WE PROVIDE IN ATTEMPT TO MATCH A COMPANY THAT DOES A LESSER SERVICE. THANKS!

[johnny o]

Thought ....

Send a hidden shopper to do some snooping for you ? Perhaps your wife or a friend who could detail the procedures and what was completed for them. This is a low cost investment for the dealership and would give the view from a retail customer perspective. Integrate the best of what you currently have with what you learn from your shopping "spy" and you will end up better than the competition.

[This message has been edited by johnny o (edited 06-16-2004).]

[flyboy]

Here is a novel idea. Send a knowledgable porter down with a used car that needs the service done. Tell him to be a bit anal, ask lots of questions and get plenty of details.

You will most assuredly be surprised at what you find out, we were!

Do this with every one of your competitors.

Mark

[scotstrong]

Must be an echo in this thread. I could have sworn that was basically the exact same thing that johnnyo just suggested worded differently?!

[fburrows]

I agree about comparison shopping. The only thing I would add is to go yourself, instead of sending someone else. You could look at their facility, the quality of their people, signage etc. I always hesitated going myself but I was always glad I did because of what I learned.

Your mileage may vary.

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Frank Burrows ABS
fburrows@absdata.com

[Doug]

Don't worry about matching lower prices.....avoid it, in fact. Just get in the same ballpark. Only a small percentge of owners are concerned with getting the cheapest price and most will associate the lowest pricing with the lowest value/quality. But, if a dealer service dept is reasonably close in price....you'll be OK. Make sure your advisors sell value and quality over the phone and encourage them to remind customer to compare apples with apples.

Just my 2-cents
Doug

[Ser Sol]

I agree !!!

After you have shopped your competition, keep the invoices that detail parts and labor and then post the price comparisond in the service department for the top 5 competitors in your area. There are many customers that psychologically need to shop you and you satisfy that psychic need by doing that for them. Update your "Dare to Compare" signage quarterly and sell the quality of your people, parts, and warranties. As an ex-service director, I always found that the competition was usually more expensive on almost any given service if we compared comparable processes.

We went so far as to offer an "After Market" option (same level of service as the aftermarket)that was priced better than the competition --- then we gave people a choice. We emphasised the difference between what we did and what they did in their service. We rarely had to perform the latter when people understood the difference and we backed it up with real invoices. This personal, low stress, conversational, "face time" advisors expend is invaluable in building a loyal, informed clientel that trusts you to offer what is best for their vehicle. With that trust, they won't go anywhere else for service. The people that opt for cheap are probably customers you don't want anyway.

The main thing to remember is that your advisors must understand why a coolant flush is important every two years, or why a truck towing pigs needs more service than the factory suggests. It's called "selling". We (my advisor and myself)used to spend 30 minutes a day after the the shop closed, "reviewing game film" -- going over the day and talking about what happened -- trying to improve our selling/closing skills.

There are so many local environmental differences to build a profitable maintenance schedule on and few service managers do it! How many of you have read the owner's maintenance section of the owners manual? That will open your eyes!

I built 13 years of 20% annual revenue growth on service maintenance sales and went from 6 techs to over 20 in my shop -- it was done during a recession with 25% local unemployment and very poor car sales. It can be done!

There is real money to be made out there for smart service managers and intelligent, honest service advisors.

John
Ser Sol

[JustAsking]

13 years at 20% annual revenue growth translates to 10 times what you were doing the first year. Just curious what the Tech did all day before? Are you available or retired?

[outlawjrj]

Educating the customer is vital here. One of the things we do is include the price comparison in our internal service reminder letters. I feel one of the big opportunities the "dealer" body has today is to educate the customers that we are not out of line when it comes to what we charge for routine maintenance services. Being in the ball park is good when you price shop your competition, but how do you get the word out to your customers? Putting up signage is a good way to display to the customers that drive in, but you need to get the info out to your customers, constantly. For years, the dealer has been perceived has high priced. We also make available to customers on some of our service operations "good" value and "best" value. Like brakes.......we have a small investment in A/M pads, but also have a display board in our customer lounge showing an actual AM pad veres a factory pad. Visualazation sells the factory pad 99% of the time. I do the same with air filters, a cut-away oil filter, etc. All of our service menu booklets have references to our web site where the customer can read up if they wish on our MPA (Maintenance Protection Program) where they receive 120 days of Road Hazard Tire coverage with each oil change. I feel a good portion of our CP service business has been directly attributed to our Internal Service Reminder program, created and printed directly from within the dealership.

We are able to "educate" our customers with the SR program, on anything, at anytime.

But most importantly, we:
1. Keep our name out there in front of the customers.
2. We ask our customers to shop our competition, because we do. And we include a small insert in every SR letter showing our prices verses the pep boys, goodyears, etc.
3. We build "value" in everything we do, from the oil changes to the major services. This is so important.

We are in the ballpark when it comes to maintenance services,....and we do whatever we can to "educate" our customers on what we do and why. The customer will spend money and bring thier car back to the dealer if they perceive an enhanced value by doing so.

But it's the total experience, not just price. I'm not saying customers are not driven by price, but will spend a little more if they perceive an additional if they do so.

SUGGESTION:
Get a used car and take it to a pep boys or quick lube place yourself. Note the price, but more importantly, note how they handle you. Eye contact,....greeting,....advising on additional work,....thanking you for the business, speed in which your service was completed.......How does your department stack up? Are you advisors doing this with each customer? What is your dealerships "perceived values" to the customer. Sometimes a real eye opener. Now ask yourself.......Would you pay a little more for less "service" from a dealer? Sometimes it's not only "price" that drives customers to the independents.
outlawjrj@comcast.net

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