Rip-off garages found charging motorists more than £200 an hour
Metro.co.uk and the Metro free sheet reported that some franchise dealers are ripping their customers off.
Labour rates have risen by 7.5 per cent in the past year with franchised dealers charging an average of £95.83 an hour, compared with £90.59 in 2010.
At one end of the spectrum car owners pay £35 an hour at cheap, often independent workshops, whilst others have been forced to pay £202.21 – apparently the highest rate on record.
Having read this I decided to do a bit more research around the subject. This is what I discovered.
Warranty Direct’s survey revealed that franchised workshops were, on average, 57% more expensive than their non-franchised counterparts. With petrol prices close to an all time high, it’s no surprise that motorists are finding independent garages more attractive.
UK motorists spend £10 billion every year on servicing and repairs to their cars. This is big business and explains why a few dealers take advantage on occasion. Given the pressure on people’s pockets the necessity for consumers to find a garage that they can trust is even more important.
What sort of complaints do consumers raise towards service departments?
It ranges from unnecessary work done, charges for work that has not been done, poor repairs and bad customer service. The Honest John web site provides a number of examples where garages put their profits before their customers.
So here’s the rub. As a Service Manager or Dealer Principle how do you ensure that you’re not tarred with the same brush?
That’s not easy to resolve. Of course you have your on-going reputation to protect you. You’ll have many customers who have been loyal to you for years and trust you implicitly with their car and their children’s cars as well. But every dealer also has a fair share of difficult customers. And when something isn’t right the customer is much more likely to tell a lot more people.
Of course there are other options, like the Good Garage Scheme which provides an independent standard of service that your customers can trust.
Trust – now that’s an interesting word.
When you boil the Metro’s headline grabber down, you arrive at a point called ‘trust’. Do your customers trust you to do a fair and honest job on their car so that you keep them safe but only charge what is necessary at a competitive hourly rate?
Are there any other ways that a dealer can build trust in their service department?
Yes, absolutely.
Think about how the franchised dealer service process works.
Customer arrives with car. Speaks with Customer Service Advisor and discusses any specifics. Technician performs a VHC report. Red and Amber work is quoted and Service Advisor phones a customer with the good/bad news.
What if your technician had specialised car dealer software to create a car video presentation to explain what was wrong with the customer’s car and why it is important to have it fixed? Would this help?
It would certainly help the Service Advisor because he or she can then refer the customer to the personal pre-recorded video completed by the technician that has been forwarded to the customer via e-mail. The technician is also the voice of authority in this process. He knows what the problem is, can articulate it clearly on a video and he’s not responsible for setting the price.
The customer likes it because he/she, despite the cost implication, can see a very helpful bit of telly that clearly outlines why they need to spend the money.
Trust levels in this revised service process go through the roof. Customers love the transparency that the car video presentation provides. This is not just about selling up, this is about providing a great service that knocks all of those independents into a cocked hat.
