Repair Shop Advice

What type of auto repair work brings the highest margin? 

The reality is that it depends on the shop.  For your shop, it will be the types of repairs you are best set up to handle well.  It’s the repair that your technicians are experienced and efficient at completing.  Often, those are the repairs that you tend to get in more than other shops in town.

Of course, most shops don’t advertise that they only do one or two types of auto repairs.  As nice as that might sound when they’re busy, most shop managers know a time will come when they’ll be glad they haven’t told everyone in town that they don’t do oil changes.

But when there’s not enough time in the day to get done everything you’re being asked to do, you want to capture all of the high-margin business you can and let the lower-margin stuff float away to competitors, unless it’s a loyal customer in need of help.

How do you do that?  Here are three things you can do to help bring in more high-margin business.

Be active – and specific – on Facebook

If your shop really likes brake jobs (as an example), let the world know it.  Post pictures of your technicians working on brakes in the shop – and talk about what’s going on in the picture.  If you offer coupons, make them specific to brakes.

If you’re efficient at completing brake jobs and getting the vehicles back on the road, promote how quickly you can get it done.  This attaches your shop’s name to brakes in the minds of customers. More importantly, when the Google spiders crawl the web, they’ll see your shop’s name connected to brake repair more often, and will then be more likely to show your website higher up in brake repair-related search results, helping bring those specific customers into your shop.

Seek reviews that mention your high-margin jobs

Excellent reviews are one of the most important parts of a great online presence.  Most people check reviews before they go to an auto repair shop, and while they don’t believe everything they read (everyone knows that some customers are crazy) people are going to believe a pattern of customer opinions, whether those opinions are positive or negative.

Google does the same thing. For instance, if your shop has dozens of positive reviews for A/C repair, your shop is likely to rank high when a nearby resident searches for someone to repair their vehicle’s air conditioning.  This makes sense – Google likes sending people to places where they’ll have a positive experience.

This is why it’s especially important to have strong reviews that mention your high-margin services.  If you’re doing an ideal type of work for a loyal customer, or for a customer who seems especially happy with the service they’ve gotten, ask them if they’d be willing to write a review for you on Google.  And make sure to ask them to mention the service you performed for them.  It will bolster your reputation among people and search engines alike.

Invest, and know where you stand

If you’re known for a specific type of service, it’s worth the cost and effort to make sure you remain the best in town at it.  If you’ve got the best-trained technicians and the most efficient equipment to complete the service, you’ll probably be able to offer it at a lower price (and still make an excellent margin) than someone who has to spend twice as long on it. And even if the competition tries to underprice you, the experience at your shop will be smoother and the work quality will be better.  That’s going to bring in more customers, allowing you to invest even more.  That’s how you get a competitive advantage!

We can optimize your web presence to bring in your most profitable work, too!  To learn how, call us at 855-394-6397 or email us at Team_RSW@RepairShopWebsites.com.