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STEP 1: 10 YEARS NOT 10 MINUTES

Building a long-term relationship with your client is more important than how much you can earn from them today.

BE DIFFERENT TO EVERYONE ELSE

Unfortunately, it is commonplace in our industry to think about a customer in terms of the dollars that can be made today, versus the long-term benefits of a loyal customer. This is very obvious in the dealer network and with some of the bigger brands. We’ve all heard the rip-off stories. These ‘rip-off’s are often the result of short term incentives provided to mechanics and service advisors to up-sell things the customer does not need. Customers are trained to expect large, unexpected bills from their mechanics, this is why the industry has such a poor reputation.

The good news is you can turn this around in your favour. Simply by doing the right thing by the customer and helping them to budget their maintenance and repairs over a longer time, you will win a very loyal customer.

UNDERSTAND YOUR CUSTOMER

How can you recommend a maintenance schedule if you don’t know the customer? Building a long-term relationship with any customer means you get to know them and their vehicle. Asking a few simple questions and taking notice of the vehicle will help you better customise an ongoing maintenance schedule for your customer.

The answers to the above will help you customise a maintenance schedule for your customer. Yes, we need to follow the manufacturer’s recommendations (particularly vehicles under warranty). However, as you know the requirements of the individual vehicle will vary based on the use of the vehicle.

Now that you’ve customised a maintenance schedule for your customer – you can put a plan in place.

USE THE TRAFFIC LIGHT SYSTEM

Helping your customers budget will win them for life.

The market is trained to think mechanics will hit them with a big bill. Proactively helping your customer save money will make you stand out from the crowd. You will come across new customers in particular that need a lot of work done. They may have underserviced their car, they may be up for a big service plus extras, even worse they may think work has been done to their car in the past and it hasn’t.

At Blue Toro, we use a traffic light system to help customers understand what work is required, and when.