Over the years, I've provided numerous shop owners and managers with marketing strategies and procedures that they agreed would increase their business significantly. The only problem was they somehow couldn?t find time to put the strategies and procedures into practice. Running a body shop is a demanding activity. 

Franklin

Today?s employer is faced with seemingly endless requirements – workers? comp insurance, unemployment insurance, Social Security, disability insurance and more – which can make hiring an additional person an expensive proposition. And yet an effective administrative assistant to handle marketing can be very profitable for the shop. Existing office personnel could handle these tasks, but the volume of repair job paperwork to be handled usually puts the marketing tasks at the bottom of the pile. They seldom get attended to if at all.

Making marketing a priority

Many shops do have some of the basic marketing actions in place. Customer information forms ask for birthdays and anniversaries, e-mail addresses, and sometimes even customer?s company or employer to prompt for company vehicles. Customer satisfaction surveys when the completed vehicle is delivered may come with a future discount coupon or referral incentive. And often ?Thank You? letters are sent out after a job is completed. Front desk people are trained to do carry out these basic activities with some consistency. But many shops don?t even have these simple marketing necessities in place. Having one person assigned to be sure these tasks are uniformly performed can make a significant difference in the long run.

But these are the easy tasks. Real growth marketing doesn?t begin until someone is responsible for prospecting for insurance and agent referrals, new commercial business, national fleet business, local dealership referrals, local mechanic referrals and other neighborhood business referrals. These efforts could include phone calls, letters, business card exchanges, brochure display exchanges, estimate follow-up calls, prior customer referral prompting and more. But someone would need to be dedicated to these tasks or they simply won?t get done. Who should do them?

Outside help may be the best answer

Obviously the top priority in any shop is getting the jobs out so the customers are 100% satisfied. The best marketing of all is the customer?s personal referral because he or she was so pleased with the work. It?s always right to interrupt paperwork that can be done later to deal with a customer?s immediate concerns, or to handle a delay in getting a job out promptly. But inevitably this means marketing tasks will be put aside.

The best solution is often to bring in an additional part-time person who knows so little about the normal functions of the shop, he or she will only be useful carrying out the marketing tasks. I know of several shops that draw on students from a local college who can work a couple of mornings or afternoons each week. They can handle simple survey-type phone calls to see if a company has service vehicles on which the shop might do repairs. 

Or they can surf the internet for the names and addresses of local agents to contact via mail. They can easily label, stamp and mail letters and postcards to prospects. And some might even be put to work being a ?goodwill ambassador? carrying promotional materials around to agents and dealerships a couple of times a week.