OurAuto gives workshops the inside running OURAUTO PROVIDES THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE STEP-BY-STEP WORKSHOP MANUAL SERVICE, INCLUDING HAYNES MANUALS, AND — STEP BY STEP — IT IS MAKING MECHANICS THEIR OWN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING EXPERTS urAuto joined the Blackfern Cooperative this year and Andrew Martin, the manager for Australia and New Zealand, says the take-up of its MotorTech range of repair information services is now going “incredibly well”. Another big reason for that could well be an OurAuto scoop — signing an exclusive deal with the famous Haynes Manuals, a vast library of repair manuals covering the world’s motoring fleet. A MotorTech subscription offers access to digital versions of the original Haynes manuals, and also thousands of searchable, wellorganised step-by-step processes in HaynesPro WorkshopData Tech, which features 100,000 highquality technical drawings. There are also tutorials, repair times, adjustment data and estimation tools, and an electronics module, with a Smart package covering all technical service bulletins. In addition to the Haynes products, there’s access to MotorTech’s own TechOnline service, which has been the organisation’s core maintenance and repair database since 2002, its Techtimes Guide for assessing how long a job will take, and Tech Estimate for costs. “What’s really important is how long a repair is going to take and they can customise that if it’s going to take a bit longer in an independent workshop,” Andrew says.
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HELP IS JUST A PHONE CALL AWAY Beside the bedrock online information, and a Launch-based scan tool linked to MotorTech’s resources, Andrew says OurAuto’s most valuable service to workshops is its tech advisory service available on an 0800 number. This personal technical service — unmatched by MotorTech’s biggest rival — is staffed by a team of technical experts with detailed knowledge of the largest and most comprehensive automotive technical library of 47,000 repair manuals. “If you have trouble finding the right information, these guys know exactly where to go,” Andrew says. “New Zealand has a lot of grey imports so if a workshop can’t find what they are looking for, they can call up and we can tell them what the nearest model in the database is that they need to focus on, which is pretty cool. It’s like having another team of mechanics who can get their repair processes to you.” OurAuto is a VACC brand providing solutions to Australian and New Zealand automotive businesses. The VACC Motor Trade Association was set up initially in Melbourne as the Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce to help independent workshops thrive. It now has representatives onsite in every state, and in New Zealand, and it is formally
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linked to the New Zealand Motor Trade Association. In addition to the VACC’s industry advocacy role and its workshop manuals, OurAuto publishes the Tech Talk magazine which is another online resource offering decades worth of technical discussion and advice on the current and legacy fleet in New Zealand and Australia.
THE FUTURE IS DIGITAL However, Andrew says one of the big issues workshops are grappling with now is the whole new ball game of marketing their businesses online and on social media. While small to medium-sized workshops are always being told it’s important, they often don’t have the knowledge, skills, people, or time to build an online presence. They can fall prey to developers who charge big fees for setting up. “Then they want to charge big monthly fees to maintain it, “ Andrew says. “It’s all about locking in a subscription.” Andrew says OurAuto takes a different approach. It wants to educate workshops, at a pace they can handle, about what will be important to them and why, and then help them to get online or on social media channels using digital tools that are easy to use and manage. OurAuto’s digital team understands workshops’ needs. He says the team has built websites for more
than 3000 workshops so it knows what it is doing. It has built a vast array, from simple to complex pages, and templates specific to automotive services so businesses don’t have to pay to reinvent the wheel. They can be customised to suit each customer’s brand and image, and different modules can be added — for example, inventory databases, and e-commerce transactions for parts business. Now OurAuto is focussing on developing workshop-focused tools for digital marketing, which will be launched early next year.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE It is building a workshop-focused artificial intelligence interface and tools to manage and target local marketing. “I think we’ve got something pretty exciting to go to the market with,” says Andrew. He says workshops can easily field up to 10 phone calls per day offering digital services, but he believes OurAuto’s track record of working in workshops’ best interests will offer cut-through. “We come in from a different angle, rather than just trying to take people’s money. “It’s as much about digital education as anything. There’s a lot to learn — such as why you need to have a digital presence to drive enquiries — but there’s no point marketing to someone in Texas. You need local area marketing, and how to put a ring of steel around that local area, and offer targeted marketing of all services.” Andrew says workshops may not even need to know what questions to ask about digital marketing, Facebook, Instagram, or websites. “We will be a one-stop shop for getting this sorted, and we’ll go through the whole process, starting wherever people want.” VACC OurAuto is a Blackfern supplier. To learn more about digital marketing or OurAuto services, call Kyle on 027 455 5329. For more on MotorTech packages see motortech.com.au, or call VACC OurAuto on 0800 485 122.
