For many, 2020 is set to be the year of opportunity and with a solid wheel alignment strategy, the year ahead could be your best yet too! After all, wheel alignment is proven to be one of the most profitable services for workshops, typically offering profit margins of around 88% compared with just 49% and 16% respectively for brakes and tyres. What’s more, around 9 out of 10 cars on the road suffer from some form of misalignment meaning there’s a huge opportunity out there for your workshop.
So, what are the key steps to converting this opportunity and making 2020 your most successful year ever?
1. Speculate to accumulate – no matter what work a car comes into your workshop for, even if it’s just a replacement bulb or wiper blade, it makes sense to give the vehicle’s geometry a QuickCheck. With the right Hunter equipment this check can be completed in a matter of seconds and could help identify a significant number of profitable work opportunities.
3.Act fast – it pays to tell the customer about their results as soon as you’ve carried out the QuickCheck. If you can discuss this with them before they’ve even left the premises, they are much more likely to approve the job, increasing your conversion rate significantly.
5.Train to gain – adopting a speculative alignment approach requires the participation and involvement of all staff, from the reception area through to technicians in the workshop. Train them all and get them involved in the process so together you can create a winning system.
2. It’s good to talk – once you have the results of the preliminary wheel alignment check, use the tools of the Hunter system to show the customer their results. These can be delivered via physical printouts, via a flightboard in the customer reception area or through HunterNet which emails the results directly to the customer’s inbox or smartphone.
4.The long-term approach – for far too long, the automotive aftermarket has endured a shady reputation of recommending work that doesn’t need doing. Make sure you don’t fall into this trap and build long-term trust with your customers by telling them their alignment results regardless of the outcome. Even if all settings are within tolerance and no work opportunity exists, they will be grateful that you have provided this additional service free of charge and are much more likely to trust your recommendation next time that work is required.
6.Review results – using HunterNet, you will be able to accurately monitor how many additional opportunities you’ve created and converted. It’s important to review this and compare across any other sites you may have or previous months so that you can continually improve your system and convert even more opportunities.
