The trend continues for the independent garage

After having a look at some industry figures it seems the independent garage sector is still increasing its market share regarding servicing and repairing your vehicles.

Just 10 years ago the independent garages serviced only 30% of cars on the road.  By 2011 that figure was at nearly 50%, so why the change?

Surveys across the board from independent suppliers to manufacturers themselves are finding it’s a matter of trust.  The franchised dealers have been urged to raise their game for customers, providing value for money, clear invoicing and courtesy transport, something independents have been doing for years.  As an independent garage we have to be trusted, we have to let the customer know what the invoice is going to be and we can’t ever take the risk on breaking trust.  It seems the manufacturers are now catching on that they may need to do the same.

The extension of block exemption laws has enabled the independents to market their businesses better and aim to attract customers with newer cars, all the time protecting warranties and improving the customer experience.  A spokesperson from Castrol recently suggested that the independent sector is becoming more professional as the service providers expand and dealers need to catch up or they stand to lose even more market share as things get tighter financially.

However, I still find it frightening the lengths some dealers that do servicing will go to keep customers without having to raise standards. Unbelievably, we have heard this week of a manufacturer that has now added to the finance agreements a clause that states that finance will only be provided if the vehicle is serviced at a main dealer; a clear breach of competition law and one the RMI will no doubt be taking on.  Surely the sensible option is to raise the game, create a fairer and more transparent service for all customers and let the customer choose?  We pride ourselves that we are approachable and open, we don’t hide behind a myriad of receptionists and at all levels we’re hands on and honest in our customer relations: should a dealer be different?

Customer Service - Nice to have or Need to have?

I have had occasion in the past 2 weeks to have my computer tower fixed – when I say fixed I do mean that quite loosely.  The whole experience has been a reminder to me that our service and how we approach our customers is the key element in everything we do.  I can only say that my computer experience has been a nightmare from start to finish.  So far I have made 5 trips to either drop off or collect my system and at the moment it’s back being fixed again – this to a company who advertises a collection and delivery service!

When I finally lost the will to live and tried to complain about the service, the final chapter in this catalogue of horrors went beyond my wildest dreams.  When I finally got hold of the owner I was met by such a complete lack of interest and concern I was truly astounded, I listened on the other end of the line while he discussed both the PC and myself with his colleagues and after I finished explaining what had gone wrong and asked what he was going to do to put it right all I heard was ‘right, hold on’ and he proceeded to resume his conversation about me and the tower with his staff.  At this point I must admit to being slightly put out and so I hung up.  It then got better, I was called back by his receptionist, who told me the same thing I had been told by the technician earlier and there it stopped, I had to suggest that maybe they could drop the working and checked system back to me rather than making me come out for the sixth time and this was, I concede, agreed to.  At no point has anyone simply said sorry and meant it, I’ve heard a cursory ‘sorry love’ in passing but never a proper apology.

All this made me think about how we treat our customers – have we ever done this?  We all make mistakes as we’re all human but to ignore it and pretend it never happened is surely the quickest way to destroy any reputation we may have.  We made a mistake last week with a customer, it was a genuine case of lack of communication, however, we apologised at length and with sincerity, collected the car the next day and diagnosed the fault.  The customer has now accepted the apology and has booked in to have the work carried out with us.  Had we treated that customer with the attitude and ineptitude I have been subject to we would never have seen him again and our reputation would have taken a hit. 

Without a consistently high standard of customer service we won’t have a business for long – who wants to spend money with people that don’t care and can’t be bothered to hide it?  I don’t - I would rather support local businesses who value me as a customer and do what they say and hopefully that’s why as we begin preparations to enter our next year in business we’re proud to say we have customers still with us from day one, still supporting us and still referring us and to them I would say a heartfelt and sincere thank you.

Silverstone Track Day

The cobwebs are about to get blown off the M3

Next Tuesday (13/09/11) we are pleased to be taking the M3 racing car to Silverstone on a specialist track day.  We are taking a few of our customers with us who have over the years supported Mark in his racing both financially through sponsorship and morally by turning up in all weathers to watch.  Next week should provide the ideal opportunity for them to get first hand experience of the car and the track.  We are fortunate enough to be using the new pit garages and there will be representatives from BMW UK attending and the BMW E9.

Due to a couple of last minute cancellations we have 2 spaces available - the day includes track time in the BMW M3 E30 as a passenger with Mark driving, hot drinks and a hot lunch will be provided, the opportunity to have access to parts of Silverstone usually barred to the public, there is a talk in the lunch break by Steve Soper ex-touring car driver and the E9 product champion John Castle will be giving a seminar on some of the iconic BMW Series. This is the BMW Car Clubs flag ship track day and looks set to be an exciting day for all.  The cost for the day is £80.00, to book a place please either e-mail me at Helen.capewell@audi-vwspecialist.co.uk or call 01623 557966.

You wouldn't put a new TV on a cardboard box...

Imagine the scene… you have saved up for months for the daddy of all TVs.  You have dreamed night after night of having your massive flat screen, LCD, HD, 3D TV sat proudly in your living room.  The day has come and you’ve been and bought it – it’s all shiny and new and the surround sound system you’ve treated yourself to is all wired in.  You can’t wait for this evening when you can sit back and relax and watch your favourite film/show on it.  To round it all off you’ve found an old cardboard box to stand it on – you’ve put a cover over it to disguise the bits where the box is a bit mouldy and the corners have been bashed in and it couldn’t look better.  You know it will need a proper stand soon but it can wait – you’ve waited too long for this moment.

You sit down on your sofa just before the film is about to start – remote at the ready – surround sound on and you’re about to realise the dreams of the past months.  You’ve looked at that TV from every angle since you brought it home – the children have been banned from touching it for the rest of their lives – it enjoys the premium spot in the room – it’s been in every corner and at every aspect until you are finally satisfied you will have the best viewing experience possible.

Just as you get settled to switch on the box gives a little wobble, you immediately get up and reassure your TV it will have a proper stand soon, just not right now.  You sit back down again – you’re finally ready – as you sit the box crumbles and gives way, with nothing under the box your TV crashes to the floor and lays in a million bits all over your carpet.  Imagine the horror – all that time and money wasted – if you claim on your house insurance your premium will go up next year, the surround sound system now has nothing to play with – what are you going to do?

I can hear you cry but why would I spend all that money on my fab new TV and stand it on a cardboard box?  Why would I risk my pride and joy on a rickety old box?  I wouldn’t do that I’d wait for the surround sound system and buy a decent stand because that would be the sensible thing to do to protect my investment.

So if all that stands (excuse the pun) with a new TV, don’t the same principles apply to your car? 

Isn’t it more sensible to budget for better quality tyres with increased stopping distance and performance?  Would it be a better option to have tyres that are going to last a lot longer?

 

Beware the Health Check.....

A number of customers have come to us recently saying that they have had a Health Check carried out on their car by the main dealer.  They have walked away with a quote and a list of items that ‘need’ doing in order to keep their car on the road.  Many times when we have been asked to quote for the work we have found some if not all the recommended actions are not required.  Most prevalent is the advice to have the cambelt done, several times we have checked the cars history and mileage to find that cambelt has in excess of 40k life left in it, which dependent on annual average miles may give the customer another 2 years of driving before the work becomes necessary.

Another common piece of advice is that the brake discs and pads need replacing – only yesterday we quoted for work after a health check had been carried out to find that the rear brakes were absolutely fine and did not need replacing at all.  The quote the customer had been given for over £300+VAT for discs alone was eye watering.  It is also worth noting that many manufacturers use Bosch parts and there is a considerable difference in price depending on the box the parts are delivered in, for example Porsche fit Bosch brakes, in a Porsche box those brake pads will cost a small fortune, in a Bosch box considerably less.

I know in these harsh times we all need to keep the work coming in but surely it is ever so slightly underhand to suggest that a major bit of maintenance is due when in fact it is not, dealers seem to me to be insistent in their will to lose customer faith and trust.  They are fast replacing the independent garages as the ‘rip off merchants and con men’ as more and more people become aware of the tricks of the trade.

We still hear of people being told that they must have a dealer service to maintain their warranty – not only is this not true – it is illegal for dealerships to be informing customers this way.  The law changed ten years ago regarding block exemption and yet it is still a common occurrence and therefore a common belief that you must use the dealer for the life of your warranty.

It is always wise to get a second opinion and have a look around, ring a few people to see what advice is out there, so many people learn the facts after they have paid a huge bill for unnecessary work we are always happy to have a look at any work which has been recommended through a Health Check and will advise whether the work is needed or not, if the questions are not asked then answers will never be gained

Shiny isn't always the best

Having had several trips recently into dealers I have been struck by the different worlds we live in.  When I walked in I was reminded of just how shiny showrooms are, the cups and saucers are all branded, the choice of coffee is baffling and naturally you are offered a selection of the finest biscuits available.  Sady the coffee is also somewhat like sump oil and could take the enamel off your teeth.  The TV's are flat screen, LCD and probably 3D by now, the sofas are leather and possibly Italian, every consideration has been taken into account for comfort.

Receptionists are polite and professional and yet a little bit chilly, a further frost developed the day I said I would wait for the car and not go into town. There was further evidence of a cold front coming in as I declined the health check or any other service.  So I took myself off to the coffee machine and the sofa and prepared myself for what turned out to be a very long wait.

It was during this wait that the differences between independent garages and the dealer world really hit home. Independents may not have shiny showrooms and even shinier floors, a meeter-greeter and banks of receptionists, we may not have branded china but what we do have is personal service and a bit of humour.  We have our quirks and foibles and we are allowed to keep our personalities and use them.

You can't hear the high heels clipping across my floor but you can hear some laughter and some proper conversation.  After being away from the dealer network for some years now I was really quite amazed at how bland the building, the people and the service is, the people have been branded to within an inch of their lives - they are covered from top to toe in banded clothing, they are given scripts so not even their words are their own, they have the brand on one shoulder looking at everything they do to see if it up to the brand expectation and on the other shoulder they have their employers, sometimes who have a totally different set of goals.  It is no wonder that they sometimes come across as robotic.

There is a real danger that the brands will put themselves out of the reach of their customers if they continue in this way, being unapproachable and unattainable.  Of course all these shiny extras come with a price tag and after my 4 hour wait for a 2 hour job I then discovered an average labour rate of £115 per hour plus VAT.  So not only was spoken to once in 4 hours I was then given a bill that would make your eyes water, swiftly followed up with the scripted concern of the service advisor telling me the car wasn't safe to drive and there was a quote hot off the printer to prove it, once I pointed out that I had driven the car there and so would take it back; the cold front of earlier suddenly seemed quite summery in comparison to the wintery spell I received after turning down the concern of the workshop manager and a quote for over £2000.

I was very pleased to return to my office, it may not be shiny but it is home, we have coffee you can actually drink and it comes in a mug so you're not thirsty when you've done, we have a dog who shreds any available piece of paper all over my floors every day, but we also have honesty, integrity and respect.  I know where I  would rather be and it's not in a shiny soulless dealer.

There's no such thing as a free lunch

Beware Dealerships bearing gifts…

A number of customers have come to us recently saying that they have had a Health Check carried out on their car by the main dealer.  They have walked away with a quote and a list of items that ‘need’ doing in order to keep their car on the road.  Many times when we have been asked to quote for the work we have found some if not all the recommended actions are not required.  Most prevalent is the advice to have the cambelt done, several times we have checked the cars history and mileage to find that cambelt has in excess of 40k life left in it, which dependent on annual average miles may give the customer another 2 years of driving before the work becomes necessary.

Another common piece of advice is that the brake discs and pads need replacing – only yesterday we quoted for work after a health check had been carried out to find that the rear brakes were absolutely fine and did not need replacing at all.  The quote the customer had been given for over £300+VAT for discs alone was eye watering.  It is also worth noting that many manufacturers use Bosch parts and there is a considerable difference in price depending on the box the parts are delivered in, for example Porsche fit Bosch brakes, in a Porsche box those brake pads will cost a small fortune, in a Bosch box considerably less.

I know in these harsh times we all need to keep the work coming in but surely it is ever so slightly underhand to suggest that a major bit of maintenance is due when in fact it is not, dealers seem to me to be insistent in their will to lose customer faith and trust.  They are fast replacing the independent garages as the ‘rip off merchants and con men’ as more and more people become aware of the tricks of the trade.

We still hear of people being told that they must have a dealer service to maintain their warranty – not only is this not true – it is illegal for dealerships to be informing customers this way.  The law changed ten years ago regarding block exemption and yet it is still a common occurrence and therefore a common belief that you must use the dealer for the life of your warranty.

It is always wise to get a second opinion and have a look around, ring a few people to see what advice is out there, so many people learn the facts after they have paid a huge bill for unnecessary work we are always happy to have a look at any work which has been recommended through a Health Check and will advise whether the work is needed or not, if the questions are not asked then answers will never be gained