Hi Ladies,
Need your help!
We own a mechanic shop and have run out of ideas to drive more business into our doors.
What do you want from your mechanic? Have you seen any great ideas? Any gifts/offers ect? Loyalty programs? Opening hours? Days of the week? Ect ect. Any ideas would be helpful.
We seem to have run out of steam and can’t see ahead at the moment. Owning a business can be hard work and we love our customers but want to do more for them but stuck with ideas as to what people want.
We would love to pick up more fleet work aka a plumber who had 5 cars as an example. But looking at what we can offer.
Thanks in advance for your ideas!!
13 Replies
Truth be told, I only go to the mechanic if I absolutely need to. No amount of gifts or gimmicks are going to get me there more frequently.
However, when I do need to go to the mechanic I go to my local family owned business because they have this huge community presence. They always donate to the local primary school fundraisers (which brings in business from parents and greatful staff), occasionally they'd do car washes and sausage sizzles for charity. It's just the thing in my area - if your local, you go to "Harry's".
Having the reputation is what brings people in and away from somewhere like kmart auto etc.
I'd definitely cold canvas some businesses in terms of fleet work, local trades, delivery/courier companies, taxi companies etc. Offer a non obligational quote and be willing to negotiate. You could also offer an exchange of advertising as well, ie, if you bring your business here we'll recommend your business to our customers and carry your business cards or share your social media pages periodically.
Social media is another big one - that's the first place people go for recommendations these days. Get your social media page noticed!
I have a mechanic I love. So do others because he's constantly recommended locally on FB. He also deals with a couple of used car merchants, which he told me accounts for a lot of work.
What does it for me is customer treatment and honestly.
He doesn't overcharge. I know if he says something needs fixing then it does, no trumped up repairs (like chains do). So, trust.
He's calm and never condescending to women. I'm treated like I have a brain and have never been ignored in favor of my husband.
The two things I'd like is Saturday opening or a proper drop off service or loan car as dropping/picking up our cars is a painful operation & one of us needs to be off work to manage it. He's also just shortened closing hours to 4pm or 4:30pm which, if I didn't like him so much, might affect my decision to stay there.
Maybe offer discounts & incentives to fleets or car yards. Find out what competitors offer & beat it. Time wise is probably more important than cost, but I'm not in the industry!
Have you tried a business coach? They can be very helpful.
I recently rang around approx 12 different mechanics for the same problem. I no longer trust them at all.
I had two male mechanics try to rip me off. So this time I made sure I was getting quotes. This time I had majority bar two overprice me. The range was from $400 up to $760 for the exact same thing. It makes me so angry!
The highest one was as nice as pie and the next highest tried to gaslight me! Kept asking questions about whether I had rang around, tried to tell me noone wants to do that job etc.
Women want honesty! If you can promote yourself as looking after women and not ripping them off! Then women will keep coming back to you.
I want them to fix my car and do the services needed, if you do a good job and I trust you, and you are in a convenient location, I’ll keep coming back.
If I can’t drop my car without a huge ordeal to get on with my day, I’m going to delay coming back as long as I can. My mechanic currently is walking distance, from my home and from shops.
I do hate when places try and up sell stuff on gimmicky type stuff. Same as gifts, etc, so pointless.
As someone that doesn't know much about cars it took me a while to find a mechanic I trust. I've had at least 4 bad experiences over the years due to me not knowing anything about cars and them taking advantage of that. So I would say the best thing is to be very honest about what needs doing and what doesn't need doing. If a filter doesn't need changing let them know and tell them they weren't charged etc. Tell them exactly what you did and why. That kind of thing builds trust and when people trust you they're more likely to recommend you to their family or friends and whenever the subject comes up I tell people where I go and I also tell them the places that ripped me off so they don't go there.
Discount for fleets, offer pick up drop off
When I go for a service my car is vacuumed, interior wiped down, and a bag of minties is on the passenger seat.
Before I get as far as the car I've sat in the office and had everything on the invoice explained, including what's been picked up to check again in x amount of time.
Saturday morning would be excellent.
My number 1 pet hate - don't move my freaking seat!
Say you're 5'4", and the tech working on your car is 6'2"; are they supposed to drive your car onto the hoist with his knees up to his chin? Jeez! They *have* to adjust their work equipment to be safe. Their work is your car. It needs to be safe.
It's not like they're not instructed to leave my seat alone.
When there's an option for a shorter person to work on my car, or to move it, I expect it because I ASK for it. If someone isn't available to do so they should be honest upfront and I'll go elsewhere.
I've had to be driven home a few times because a business didn't think my request was important.
How would you feel about sharing the road with someone who had to balance on the front edge of the seat to barely reach the pedals, at 100km/hr because she asked someone to leave her glitchy seat alone and they didn't listen?
Your glitchy seat is a safety issue and needs to be fixed for your car to be roadworthy.
I find the biggest thing with mechanical wprk/car servicing is the inconvenience to me to get the car there and then have no car. I've just found an amazing mobile mechanic, whilst that might not be an option being able to drop the car then be dropped home or to work would be so convenient! Possibly if trying to get fleets then offer free pickup/drop off of the vehicles.
Life now is all about convenience and not losing time.
Just an oil change, when you want to give your car a treat between services. $75 max. Then you can discuss other things that you might want to do 🙂.
Courtesy service for those I work with, my co workers can never take days off and having to taxi it back to work as work refuses time off...they would love that.
Cost minimum prices. Prices from XYZ for jobs. Some people I work with are low paid so will drive until breaks. So having a special on set components prices from to...will help. That's hard but you know minimum pricing.