How To Make More Profit For My Auto Repair Shop

Owning an automotive repair shop is not an easy venture. There are a lot of responsibilities and management which need to take place. Along with the overall business growth tips like scheduling and marketing, we will discuss how there are simple non-labor intensive methods that could generate your shop extra revenue. An easy way of generating extra revenue is to recycle your scrap items which are normally tossed away in the trash. Certain components in vehicles are commonly replaced like spark plugs for example. Now due to innovative technology, you can collect used spark plugs and exchange it for payment. 

How To Get More Business

Appointment Scheduling System

We all know the saying “time is money,” this applies to the wages you must pay your staff even when your business is operating slow. It is important to encourage customers to schedule appointments so you can ensure you have the right amount of staff at every given moment. The easiest method to keep track of this would be by sharing a scheduling software on a front desk computer. It is inevitable that you will receive no-shows and there will be a good chance it is because the customer simply forgot. By sending out reminder text messages two days prior to the appointment you can minimize the chance the customer won’t show. Many customers will appreciate the reminder and feel like their repair will be done efficiently.

Marketing

Marketing is an essential part of any business and there are many different areas within marketing that work together towards building revenue. Depending on your resources and time you may want to begin with these three; Market research, Email Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Market Research

According to Harvard Business Review increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%. This is important to understand because marketing is not just focused on obtaining new customers, but it is also geared towards maintaining existing ones. In order to keep existing customers it is important to figure out what your business is doing well and where it needs improvement from a customers perspective. You will need a system for retaining customer feedback which helps with collecting, analyzing, and distributing customer reviews and surveys. There are several methods you can use to collect customer feedback like Survey Sparrow and Ask Nicely. Once you have the results you can begin analyzing them by looking for trends in customer behavior and other areas to enhance user experience.

Email Marketing

One of the easiest methods to retain existing customers is through email. When collecting appointments ask your customer if they would like to receive emails in the future with special deals. You can use tools to personalize and send out your emails like MailChimp. Then work on sending out an eblast to your repeat customers offering those special deals. Of course you do not want to provide a ton of discounts since that cuts into your profits so another method to explore would be a loyalty program or bundled packages for multiple vehicles. 

SEO

In order to attract new customers every business should focus on creating a social and digital presence. In fact, 88% of searches for local businesses on a mobile device either call or visit the business within 24 hours (Nectafy). That being said, you must make it easy for potential customers to find you. You can start with developing a well designed website if you do not have one already. According to Hubspot Marketing Statistics, 61% of mobile searchers are more likely to contact your local business if it has a mobile-friendly site. Use website builder tools like Wix  then follow it up by creating a Google Business Listing. Your website domain and contents will play a critical role in the success of your online presence. Most customers will search for a local automotive repair shop so keep that in mind for optimizing your website. Start with thinking about the city you are located in and add that to your website’s home page. For example “San Francisco Automotive Repair Shop” or “Bay Area Oil Change”. Reiterate phrases like these throughout your entire website’s content. Use free online tools that provide feedback on your website and suggest ideas for high ranking search terms. 

Make Money With Scrap

As an automotive repair shop you deal with many end-of-life automotive components. Some components that could be making your business extra profits are catalytic converters, oxygen sensors, and even spark plugs. By selling your automotive scrap to reputable recycling companies you help the environment while getting paid.

Catalytic Converters

Many industry professionals are aware that catalytic converters carry a high recyclable value due to the amount of precious metals located inside. These metals include Platinum, Palladium, and Rhodium. You should be putting aside scrap converters when replacing them for customers and not throwing them away. After a while you will have a collection of catalytic converters that you can sell for recycling purposes. Oftentimes road buyers will come bargain with you to obtain your scrap catalytic converters and offer you cash. For many shops this may seem like a great deal but you could be leaving a lot of money on the table. How will you know what your catalytic converter is actually worth? Tools like PGM Recovery Systems FREE Price Guide can help you look up converters by part number and find out its value. More often than not buyers who offer you cash are not offering the best price and some roaming road buyers may even be using your legitimate business to launder stolen scrap catalytic converters.

Oxygen/ Air-Fuel Sensors

These sensors are often overlooked and seen as a throw away item. O2/AF Sensors can provide your business with extra profits when selling to a reputable recycling company because of the precious metals it possesses like platinum and palladium. These metals are highly sought after and with a bulk collection of these sensors you can gain extra profits on an item you may have been throwing away in the trash. 

Spark Plugs

The latest automotive component to recycle is spark plugs. These spark plugs contain precious metals like Platinum and Iridium. Your automotive repair shop may see tons of spark plugs being replaced and their old ones will most likely end up in the trash. Learn more about spark plug recycling and how you can get paid!

Take comfort in knowing there are plenty of ways to generate extra profits for your automotive repair shop. Which will you start with first?