In their seventh installment of the AutoServ1 Shop Floor Battle Ground Webinar series, Murray Voth and Jamie Cuthbert explain how to win a customer’s trust.
“All repair shops have a good-sized database of customers who come to you and trust you, but we also know that as an industry, we are known as a grudge purchase; there is a reputation out there as crooks or thieves, or that we sell things that aren’t needed, so this creates a general view that we are just not the best place to go to,” explains Voth.
Known as an implementation coach, Murray Voth has served as a senior trainer for a major Canadian automotive training company and has worked with hundreds of shop owners, helping them become more profitable. Jamie Cuthbert is the Founder and Owner of AutoServ1, a cloud-based auto repair shop management solution.
“In working with all these shops, I have learned that well-informed customers make the best buying decisions. When a customer can explain to someone else what they spent their money on, there is no buyer’s regret, and they are much happier with the business,” he adds.
“Imagine when you read an article about a customer saying I went in for a $40 oil change and left with a $2,000 bill. I know it’s not the intention of most shops to do that, but somehow people get the impression that there is a bait and switch happening,” continued Voth.
A tougher and very common scenario is when a customer comes in for a basic service and inspection, they authorize several other services that cost about $500. They pick up their car at the end of the day and things appear to have gone well.
“A day later someone else from the household calls and that someone is the money manager and they want to know why all this work was done on the vehicle and question whether it was all needed. You feel bad because you thought you did a good job and they have now embarrassed their partner, your customer, leaving them with no desire to come back to your shop.”
In his webinar presentation, Voth outlined several tools that shop owners can use to ensure that their customers leave their shop confident in their decision and they are able to easily explain what they spent their money on to anyone.
Jamie Cuthbert then explained how his cloud-based auto repair shop management solution can help users in digital vehicle inspection. AutoServe1 enables technicians to perform vehicle inspections using mobile devices, shoot video, take pictures and add notes.
