What Maintenance Programs Mean to Auto Repair Shop Owners

What Maintenance Programs Mean to Auto Repair Shop Owners by Rick White, President 180BIZ

What I want to talk to you about today is the times they're changing. We must be aware of what's going on around us and adapt instead of reacting. Instead of continuing to plow through the way you do things, do what we did 10, 15, 20, 30 years ago. It doesn't work. Years ago, we fixed broken cars. That's what we did. IF a car came in that had a problem, we fixed it. We put it back outside.  Today it's different You're seeing vehicles less frequently. They're breaking down less. They're more reliable and the market is changing. So, what I want to introduce to you is the concept of selling maintenance, of recommending maintenance to your team, to your customers.

I get it. This is not a new subject. But you would be absolutely amazed at how many shops are either not recommending it or recommending them with poor results. Now, the reason I'm bringing this up is I want to give you one tip to help you with this. But then I want to suggest that you get in on our Pocket Business Genius webinar.  I’ll show you maintenance services from STEM to stern and how to get it so that your maintenance service sales are going up while helping your customer at the same time. We here at 180BIZ do not believe in wallet flushes. We believe in helping our customers keep their vehicles on the road.

We believe in helping our customers achieve their goals with their vehicle. Either you're really busy or you're in that old mindset and you’re not recommending maintenance services. I have to tell you something. You may be busy today, and I get that.  You might not be able to do the services today, but I want you to write these two words down for me. PLANT SEEDS. You need to plant seeds for tomorrow because I guarantee you at some point, you're going to slow down. I guarantee at some point, you're going to see the car count drop. You're going to see the activity drop because right now we have this mental issue where when we're we think we're always going to be busy. And on the flip side, when we're slow, we think we're always going to be slow. Neither are true. Business has seasons, cycles that we go through.

You need to plant seeds in order to help you level out the ups and downs of the sales in your business. That's the first thing if you're not making recommendations for those maintenance services, but here's the second one. For those of you that are, and are very frustrated with the results that you're getting. Where most customers are saying no. I'm going to give you a secret. I'm going to tell you why. When you are presenting the maintenance services, you haven't connected with your customer. Listen to me carefully, you haven't connected with your customer. You haven't gone inside their head and seeing the world through their eyes as it pertains to this vehicle. You must understand what their future plans are. You must understand how they use the vehicle today.

You must understand what's going on in their life. It makes a difference. If things are really tight and they're strapped, maintenance services aren't going to happen. If they don't like the car and they just want to get rid of it, maintenance services aren't going to happen. When you don't connect with them, they feel like you're pushing them. And I don't care who you are. If I push up against you, unconsciously, subconsciously, you're going to push back. It's human nature.

What you've got to do is bring them in. You do that with questions and curiosity. Be more concerned with their world than yours and your world will be amazing. So, I want you to do two things. Number one is to connect with your customers before you present maintenance items so that you are an assistant buyer, not a pushy salesperson. And then the second thing I want you to do is to sign up for PBG, our Pocket Business Genius webinar series so that you can come in live and ask questions.

You’ll also have access to a whole library of webinars, including one called Seeing the Unseeable, which is all about having that discovery conversation with your client so that you and they are on the same page.

 I want to say thank you very much. Go out there and go out and make some money.