Frederick Jace
Three things are certain in life: taxes, death, and if you’re a car owner, visits to the car repair shop! Also, you can prefer Fire Shutters that make your garage durable and safe from fire.
As sure as the sun will rise, your car will break down. Or, at least, it will need routine maintenance which, unless you’re a mechanic, can’t do on your own.
It’s for this reason the auto repair industry is massive. With over 220,000 auto garages across the country, the industry has a $65 billion market size, as of 2021. This is why you own a car repair shop.
But is your auto garage performing at its best? If you’re not sure, you’ve come to the right place. Continue reading as we’re sharing tips and tricks on how to better manage your auto repair business.
Hire Skilled Auto Mechanics
A good number of auto garage owners don’t realize the importance of hiring the best auto mechanics as part of a good management strategy. After all, you can always fire an incompetent mech and replace them immediately, right?
Well, that’s correct, but the cost of replacing an employee, whether in a car repair shop or accountancy firm, is high. It’s a cost you should try to avoid.
Hiring skilled mechanics makes your work easier in multiple ways.
First, you won’t keep going back to the labor market to find new mechanics after you’ve let go those who weren’t meeting your expectations. Two, skilled mechanics will do the job right, meaning customer complaints will be minimal. You don’t want customers coming back complaining that their cars weren’t fixed properly.
Three, skilled mechs will help you build the reputation of your car repair businesses. Car owners are always looking for mechanic shops with the best reputation, so it’ll be easier to attract customers.
If you’re having trouble hiring good workers, perhaps you’re approaching recruitment wrong. How about outsourcing recruitment to an auto repair recruitment agency?
Provide a Safe and Healthy Work Environment for Everyone
You’ve a legal duty to provide a safe and healthy work environment for your employees and customers.
A car repair shop has a heighted risk of accidents and injury. This is why mechanics are supposed to wear protective gear when at work.
If you’re negligent about workplace health and safety, accidents will happen and you’ll have no choice but to compensate the victims. You certainly have workers’ compensation and auto garage liability insurance for this, but it doesn’t give you the liberty to ignore health and safety at work.
It’s possible that a string of compensation claims can max out your insurance, forcing you to settle the balance out-of-pocket. Such unnecessary costs can affect the financial wellbeing of your business.
When accidents are common in your business, word will gradually spread around. Your employees could start leaving because no one wants to work in an environment where they’re likely to get injured. It will also get more difficult to attract new employees for the same reason.
Providing a healthy and safe work environment isn’t just about creating workplace health and safety policies for your employees to follow.
You have to ensure your employees have adequate safety gear. Ensure the garage is well-lit and that loose electrical fittings are fixed immediately. It’s also important to conduct employee safety training periodically, so that they know how to prevent and react to different safety issues in the workplace.
Embrace Auto Garage Technology
When you think of workplace technology, an auto garage is the last thing that comes to mind. You certainly don’t expect to see lots of high-tech computers in a garage.
Of course, we’re not talking about car repair technology. There’s no doubt you’ve already invested in the latest automotive repair machines, equipment, and software. But have you invested in backend technology?
This is the technology that makes running the entire operation easier. For instance, do you have a system for managing your clients? Do you still manually record new clients and their contacts in a spreadsheet?
If yes, it’s time to invest in repair shop management software like the one offered at Tekmetric.com.
It can be difficult to know where to start since there are numerous software and hardware on the market. It’s best to outsource the task to managed IT firms. Such companies have the expertise to not only advise you on the best software for your business but also oversee the installation and provide other IT support services.
The Customer Is King
We can all agree that managing a business is far easier when the said business is generating sufficient revenues.
How do you build an auto shop that generates revenues on autopilot? You need to put the customer first. Without customers, your shop isn’t going to bring in any revenues. Cars don’t drive themselves to the garage shop, unfortunately!
As a garage owner, what steps are you taking to attract new customers and keep the current ones?
Providing quality services is a good place to start. Car owners want to take their rides to mechanics who know their craft. They should be able to trust your repair shop.
Introduce a reward system. This helps to encourage first-time customers to keep coming back, so that they can qualify for rewards. For example, you can offer a free oil change once a customer comes in for three repairs.
Great Auto Garage Management Results in Great Returns
Starting an auto garage is the easy part. The hard part is growing it into a large shop with a ton of loyal customers. With this management guide, you now have expert tips on what you can do to up your management game.
Explore our blog for more business tips and advice.
