THE NEW COMPETITION

It’s a new year but those same old lingering challenges facing automotive repair and service shops haven’t gone away.

In fact, more are coming.

While many experts believe the supply chain will be easing, the cost of parts is still high. Recruiting and retaining good, young, skilled and qualified technicians — not to mention capable service advisors — is still a challenge. All while vehicle technology advances, electric vehicle purchases continue to grow among consumers and customers expect a whole new experience from you.

Yeah, your work is cut out for you, shop owners.

Of course, you will have to navigate this all while being busy. Just about every leader we asked for the Shop Executive Outlook expects a continuous stream of vehicles to roll into your bays on a regular basis. After all, many more older vehicles are on the road today and need servicing.

The challenges seen on the new car side of the industry are presenting opportunities to you — people are hanging on to their vehicles or replacing their old cars with youngerbut-not-new cars.

Good for you, right?

Hopefully, so long as you’re taking advantage. Those who may not set foot in a repair shop very often, if at all, for five years because they’re driving a new vehicle are being introduced to the aftermarket experience.

Are you treating them well? Giving them a memorable experience? Planting the seeds for future visits?

If not, there’s a competitor staring right at your customer, hungry to get them: The dealer.

A recent report from Lang Marketing noted that dealers are looking to scoop up your business. They’re knocking down any barrier they can. They’ll take any age vehicle. They’ll take all makes and models.

“This has enabled dealers to capture share from some of their DIFM competitors, especially service stations and garages, which have largely been unable to keep pace with the improving position of dealers in the eyes of many vehicle repair customers,” Lang reported.

Read that last part again. Consumers think dealers are improving their position over the aftermarket. Dealers are investing — in the customer experience, in their employees. As they always have, they’re hammering home that they are the best place to service a customer’s vehicle. They see the swath of six-year-plus vehicles that are out there and think they should be in on the action.

“Dealers have invested in tools, equipment and training to meet the challenges of repairing today’s sophisticated vehicles,” Lang added.

Dealership sales are down. Used vehicles cost a lot more than they used to. So their strategy is to come after your bread and butter. They can’t possibly take all of your business; their network isn’t as wide as independents. But they’re looking to get as much as they can.

President & Managing Partner | Delon Rashid Head of Sales & Managing Partner | Peter Bulmer

Corporate Office 48 Lumsden Crescent, Whitby, ON, L1R 1G5

How do you combat this? Browse the Outlook in this issue. Gather up the ideas and insights from this industry’s top minds. They all want the industry to succeed. Following their guidance seems prudent.

Adam Malik Managing Editor, CARS

ISSN 2368-9129 Online 2368-9137

Letters

What’s on your mind?

We want to hear from you about anything you read in CARS magazine. Send your email to adam@turnkey.media

IS YOUR SHOP TOO BUSY? WHY THAT’S A BAD THING, AND HOW TO MANAGE IT

I have a real problem with parts suppliers who don’t keep common ordinary items on the shelf but can keep $50,000 worth of tools or whatever instead. I realize you can’t stock every item for every vehicle but come on: Get the safety-related parts in stock. As a shop owner and service writer, I have to guess a week in advance of what a vehicle may or may not require and have to order in these ”maybe we need it” parts because they refuse to keep ordinary parts in stock.

Barry Dale, Trinity Repair

SKILLED TRADES IMPORTANT BUT WE DON’T WANT TO WORK IN IT: CANADIANS

No wonder in the automotive trade we have such a hard time recruiting new workers. The competition to entice them to automotive becomes even more critical, such as good working conditions, good pay, good benefits. It will be interesting to see if this industry can pull it off when all us old farts are long gone.

Brian Browning, Centre Point Automotive

How Millennials Approach Maintenance And Repair

I feel like this is self-inflicted. A lot of them don’t want to spend the time to learn about their car. They definitely do not read the manual as seen by the questions asked online. And when we try and discuss it with them, they glaze over and expect it to be as simple as a 30 second TikTok.

Shawn Greenberg, Seamless Auto Care

This is a perfect opportunity to market our selves and educate Millennials on the benefits of maintenance. They may not use their vehicles as much as older generations so they may tend to forget about it. Manufacturers push maintenance intervals out longer which makes it harder to track for consumers. Our job is to take all of the unknown out of maintenance for them. Millennials also have a tendency to purchase higher end vehicles that have substantially more cost to maintenance. Again it is all about educating them. This goes a long way to building a relationship with a long time client.

Bob Ward, The Auto Guys

What Flashy Marketing Really Says About Your Shop

I think you are wrong. Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Wendy’s all advertise to keep market share. They know the competition is working on their market share and it costs twice as much to get it back once lost. Advertising the right way brings in new people that hear a message intended for them. It’s called message to market match. Yes, you can bring a steady repeat and referral business in and do quite well but people die, move away and get new cars and the smart marketer is filling the funnel and prospecting. Do the wrong type of marketing and waste your money and there will be no new valuable clients arriving.

Rick McMullin, Rickey Ratchets Auto Repair