Value and Retention

Delivering more to your customers and building long-term success in today’s higher cost environment.

There’s no question that the average age of Canada’s vehicle fleet continues to climb, which means more people are keeping their cars and trucks for longer. This means that today, aftermarket service centres need to plan for more aging vehicles entering their bays, and for more repeat service and repair work on those vehicles.

Asking more questions

In today’s economic environment, where many consumers are dealing with tighter budgets, they tend to ask more questions before approving work. It’s important for your customers to understand that deferring maintenance represents a real risk, and it’s during times like these where there is a real opportunity for shops to properly handle these conversations.

One way you can do that is by helping them prioritize. Explain and show them what urgent work is required on their vehicle and what can wait. Also explain to them why preventative maintenance matters and by making vehicle maintenance feel manageable to them, you stand a much better chance of them returning to you for service work.

Another key aspect is having regular touch points with customers, such as tire changeovers, oil and filter changes and alignments. By maintaining that preventative maintenance strategy and keeping customers in touch with the shop, you stand a much better chance of creating and ensuring that trust before a big repair bill comes up.

“Customers today want essentially three things: They want convenience, transparency, and confidence in the parts and service.”

– Emily Chung

Changing expectations

Additionally, it’s important to manage changing expectations. Customers today want essentially three things: They want convenience, transparency, and confidence in the parts and service. Those businesses that are able to make auto care easier to understand for their customers are the ones that will earn long-term loyalty and referrals.

Today, there are a range of tools and solutions that service centres can use to bolster all three of these things. One of the biggest game changers is Digital Vehicle Inspections (DVIs). Most customers cannot judge the condition of the vehicle themselves. By having a video that shows a worn brake pad or leaking seal, the customer can see for themselves and the recommendation becomes clear in a way that words simply can’t. By stressing “here’s what we’ve found,” it changes the dynamic, turning a “no” from the customer into a “yes” because they see the evidence.

Prioritizing repairs

When budgets are tight as they are for many today, customers can’t always approve everything that once. By using DVI, a service centre can categorize findings into “urgent, needs to be done soon,” and “monitoring” with visual proof of each aspect.

Armed with this information, customers can plan and budget for repairs instead of feeling pressured, and feel confident and in control of their money. As a result, the shop is able to maintain that relationship instead of losing it until something breaks on the vehicle.

DVI has another advantage in that it builds a vehicle history. Saved inspections can show how components change and wear over time. Plus, with Canadians keeping their vehicles longer, those records can help customers make informed decisions on an aging vehicle, as well as giving the shop an organic reason to follow up on deferred maintenance or repair work.

Full experience

In order to drive value, it’s important that you compete on the full experience, not just on price. Independent service centres have shown they can win when it comes to both value for money and trust. Dealerships on the other hand, tend to lead when it comes to shop cleanliness, proactive communication, and EV competence. Here’s your opportunity to raise the bar with a clean waiting area, firm completion times for work, visible training and investment in EV maintenance and repairs, as well as ADAS calibrations.

By taking these steps you can win over customers who thought the dealer was the only option when it comes to maintaining modern vehicles, as well as giving them a reason to return to you for their automotive service needs instead of looking elsewhere.

Also, consider your suppliers when it comes to driving that value proposition. Without jobbers, WDs and aftermarket parts manufacturers, independent shops can find it very difficult to offer an effective and affordable auto service repair solution for the customers. Fast, reliable parts delivery means the shop can finish the job on time, and the customer gets their vehicle back sooner.

In turn, this directly supports the on-time delivery edge independents have demonstrated in consumer research.

Quality and warranty

There’s also the quality and warranty confidence factor to consider. Distributors can help shops choose parts that offer good quality and strong warranty coverage, which shops can then pass on to customers as added peace of mind.

Finally, there’s having a shared voice on Right to Repair. Access to vehicle data affects the whole supply chain, not just service centres. If shops can’t service vehicles, distributors lose that business too, so there’s a strong reason in actively supporting advocacy for the industry.