Your business will benefit greatly by aiming to provide the best service and value for money to all of your clients, as they will be one of your best sources for return visits and word of mouth advertising and reviews.
Here are 5 tips on providing the best car service so that your business will build its reputation for reliable, profession and friendly service, and value for money.
1. Quality Customer Service
Your business rests on its reputation. Providing professional, friendly and honest service at a competitive price is vital in order to gain, and maintain, a reputation for being a valuable business with return customers
These qualities will ensure that you gain a great reputation and will have customers returning regularly and recommending your business to others, not to mention the genuine and positive reviews for your website.
2. Responsible Professional and Efficient Service Delivery
You, and your staff, must provide a high quality of professionalism and expertise to deliver efficient service and repairs for your clients’ vehicles. The responsibility for your reputation rests with you. It is vital that you provide top quality service and repairs. Use your experience and reputation, and that of your staff, to help grow and improve your business. Only employ staff that you can trust and will consolidate and enhance this further.
3. Written Estimates and Guarantees
As part of your customer service, provide your clients with a written estimate of costs, including labour and materials, before asking them to commit to having work done on their vehicle. This gives your clients the confidence that you know what you are doing and will stand by your estimate.
Include a clause that states that you will consult with your clients about any unforeseen problems, before proceeding further. When the work has been done provide a written guarantee for the work undertaken to show that you stand by the work that you have undertaken. The guarantee should cover the repairs for a reasonable time frame for the work done, eg. 12 months or 20,000kms.
4. Communication and Personalized Customer Care
To demonstrate to your clients that you are a professional who is on the ball, you must be able to communicate well with them in a polite, friendly and knowledgeable manner. It is important that they have faith that you know their vehicle and will look after their car.
Make it a priority to maintain communication with your clients by sending a friendly reminder of their booking date and time; welcoming them when they bring in the vehicle for a quote and discuss any issues that they may be having with the car, and explain the nature of the work that needs to be done before providing a written estimate of the service or repairs, parts and labour that is to be done. When the vehicle is in the workshop, maintain contact with the client of any extra issues which arise, such as any additional work that may be required, or any unforeseen delays on parts etc. This communication informs the client of progress and allows them to decide whether to proceed with work, or delay.
5. Accreditation and Presentation
First impressions are important. The way you and your business is presented will impact on how a new client views your business.
A clean, orderly and well-presented workshop with polite, knowledgeable and friendly staff will reassure your clients that you care about your business. This, in turn, gives your clients the confidence that you are most likely to treat their vehicle with the same respect care and efficiency.
Having accreditation of your business by major reputable Automotive Organizations, such as The Institute of Automotive Mechanical Engineers, or the Motor Traders Association tells your clients that you abide by the standards set by those organizations and take your business seriously and responsibly.
