In the past, the automotive service industry has somewhat of a negative reputation. From windscreen repairs to clutch repairs, many car owners are wary of being overcharged or ripped off when it comes to finding a trusted provider.
While regulations and standards (plus, those omnipresent online reviews) go a long way to ensuring that work is up to standard, suppliers that adopt certain practices will be far more likely to build and maintain great client relationships.
Whatever the area of the motor service industry, the following 5 points are key to nurturing and growing a business and brand.
1: Transparent Pricing
One of the greatest bugbears customers have is not knowing or understanding the costs involved. Sure, a part may cost X number of dollars. But only communicating this – and not any applicable taxes and, crucially, labour charges – doesn’t provide the whole story.
What your customer wants to know is how much they’ll be charged in total. Yes, the breakdown matters, but it’s the number that’s finally punched into the card machine that really counts.
A clearly defined list of the most common part costs, labour charges and GST helps communicate this. While it might not be possible to display exact part costs (a clutch for a BMW or windscreen for a Tesla will differ dramatically to, say, a part for an older VW Polo) but it only takes a moment to find this out to tell the customer.
2: Communication, Communication, Communication…
This is a biggie. Keep your customers updated. Today’s tech means there’s no excuse for not letting them know if there’s going to be a delay or if extra issues have been discovered. Whether this is with a quick phone call, email, text, WhatsApp or whatever, good comms is one of the pivotal methods of building trust and maintaining great client relationships.
3: After Service Support
Your job doesn’t finish when the customer leaves. Making it clear that you’re available for after service support is a vital way of further strengthening the supplier-client bond. In turn, this increases the likelihood of repeat custom and, crucially, recommendations to others.
4: Follow Up on Promises
One of the biggest ways to ensure that a customer doesn’t come back (or use your service in the first place) is to say that you’ll get back to them on something and then don’t. This is something many providers are guilty of. After all, the day is busy and it’s so easy for such a promise to slip your mind.
Find a way of noting down these tasks. Whether it’s an old-fashioned notebook or a digital version that pings a reminder, spend a few minutes at the end of each working day checking that you’ve got back to the customer. Again, digital comms makes this easy – you don’t need to waste precious minutes making loads of phone calls. A text or message can often be all that’s needed.
5: Be Honest…
…and don’t blag. If a job is over-running, let them know. If your fellow tradie calls in sick and this has a knock-on effect on the running order, tell your customers. If a repair has the potential to be more expensive than the first estimate, it’s far better to tell the client up-front than wait until you’ve stripped the car down and then drop a bombshell.
For those who visit customers at their premises, if you’re running late then let them know. In all honesty, they don’t really care about the reason why (although it’s courteous to tell them), they just want to know what time to expect you.
One of the best ways to build customer trust and relationships is to give everybody the service that you’d wish your mum to receive. If you do that, then you won’t be going far wrong.
At Autoscreens, we treat all our clients in this way. As a family-run firm, we combine expertise with good old-fashioned customer service. We’ve worked our socks off over more than three decades to build our incredible industry reputation, working with insurance companies, accident repair centres, dealerships and individuals to provide the ultimate windscreen and glass repair and replacement service.
Contact our team today for more information or use our get a quote form and we’ll get back to you ASAP.
