Sam Memmolo
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Building Customer Loyalty
Owning and operating any small business is a tough task that challenges us everyday. Each day also presents us with opportunities to make our business better. Those of us who have been in this business of trying to keep the motoring public happy with their vehicles, already know the feast or famine scenarios. When I've spoken to business owners in the slow times, there almost always seems to be the popular reasons or excuses. These reasons seem to repeat each year, and coincide with the time of the year. A slow January is sure to produce refrains like; "its right after the holiday, and no one has any money". Ask during a slow April, and you'll be sure to hear the old song about "Tax Time". Likewise a slow August may be blamed on summer vacations and / or back to school spending priorities. Have you ever heard of a customer who had an agreement with his or her vehicle where the vehicle promised not to require service or repairs during the "Tax Time" or "Back to School" months? Cars and trucks are machines, and despite the record fuel prices, Americans are wearing their rides out at a record pace. Here's my point! How can you tailor your marketing to reduce those seasonal slumps. First, to run a successful business and more importantly to grow that same business, you must keep some pretty accurate records of weekly and monthly sales, profit and loss statistics, and other facets of your business. If you have a track record of 4 or more years, and will perform a sales / profit analysis by month since the beginning, you will now have a road map to go forward with. Look at the previous four or five years. See if there is a trend for slow months that appear each year. If it is slow in January, April, August, and September, but you had reasonable traffic and sales the rest of the year, you have already identified the slow times. Now let's see what we can do to help smooth the ups and downs. I have been involved in advertising for over 16 years. When business is good, money is flowing, and we are consumed by trying to get the work completed and out the door, advertising appears to be something we will get around to later. If you have identified January as being slow for example, and October through December is wide open, here is the plan! Design a local newspaper ad, direct mail piece, or even local radio / cable TV advertising content and begin a campaign aimed at current loyal customers, as well as something that attracts new customers. Getting the word out early about service specials, seasonal specials, or new services added, with attractive pricing and convenience, will help owners plan their time and budgets allowing them to take advantage of your advertised specials. This method is tried and proven by the "Big Box" retailers like Sears, Wal-Mart, etc. They prepare those colorful sales flyers months in advance. Be sure to prepare your shop and staff to handle any additional workload that may result from properly placed and conceived ads. Another approach is to advertise to small fleet owners. Design a maintenance plan and offer them a small discount based on two criteria. The volume of work (sales) and the time they will allow you to schedule service. Unexpected breakdowns can't be scheduled, but routine service can. A good way to meet these fleet owners is through your local parts jobbers, the local Chamber of Commerce, and other types of networking. Even those fleets that have their own maintenance facilities may not be totally equipped to handle every type of repair. Investigate what their capabilities are, and then offer your services that you are better equipped and staffed for, possibly resulting in a cost savings for the fleet owner. Any reasonable business owner / fleet owner would welcome service and repairs that can save them some money, and also free up their own shop for repairs that they are comfortable with and equipped for. I was able to get these types of arrangements with a small company that installed underground cables, the local Police garage that didn't have the funds for training and specialty equipment like scan tools and specialized diagnostic equipment. Take a few hours to compile your analysis, devise a simple plan, and be proactive. Get some work scheduled before the slow months, and you will surprise yourself when you close the books for that month. By the way, Our shop suffered in early July each year, and even with advertising and fleet work, I could not manage to get revenue where I needed it to be, so we closed each July for vacation on Fourth of July week. This may or may not work for you, but It also allowed me to relax while away from the business, knowing it was closed, and no gremlims would creep into the daily business. Sam Memmolo
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