The Car Count Dilemma
by Mike Olson

There are two basic sources of revenue for service centers; the number of vehicles that come in for service or repairs (car count), and the amount of dollars produced by each repair order (repair order average). Measuring these two areas allows the owner or manager to see where adjustments need to be in the business to increase sales. Car count is a marketing function and repair order average is a selling function.

Vehicles built the last ten years or so, have made both of these revenue sources more difficult to achieve. Car counts drop as vehicle maintenance intervals have been stretched. Oil services and maintenance services are not as frequent, so consumers are not required to bring their vehicles in as often. The repair order average may suffer as vehicles need more diagnostic work, which usually does not require an equal amount of parts. Thus, repair order averages may be lower than they used to be. The main point here is that if shop owners do not track these two revenue sources, they may see a reduction in sales and not know how to react to the decline. Lower car count means you need to step up your marketing. Lower repair order average means your selling of service and inspections are not working to full potential. Service centers must be marketing at all times. In today’s market, most centers need more car counts to merely maintain the same revenue level as before.

Marketing comes in many forms. Retention marketing helps to retain and grow existing customers. You must keep your name in front of these customers by communicating at least 4 times a year. Newsletters, post cards, service reminders, holiday cards, are just a few of the ways to accomplish this. You will get your greatest marketing ROI from this group because they already know you. It is equally important to find new customers. This is acquisition marketing.

Acquisition is a little more difficult because these customers do not know you and probably are using another facility for their car care needs. Your message must be compelling to make them change providers. The biggest problems most service centers find in acquisition marketing is patience. Sending out a 1,000 mailers may only produce a couple of responses. It takes time for this to work. When a new customer looks at a mailing or post card, they first must have the need. Second they must have the desire to change. Repetitive mailing has the ability to reach the customer at the time they have a repair issue, are in need of a service, or want to change to a new provider. WORLDPAC has some marketing services for our customers available on our website http://www.worldpac.com/marketing/.

The final approach to good marketing is tracking. Whenever you send out any marketing information, track the responses to measure the success. Evaluate your plan by the number of vehicles and the dollars spent. Be creative with your message and try not to look like everyone else. Today’s service centers need to be marketing all the time, not just when business is slow.

Mike Olson - Director of Customer Business Training