I can't tell you everything we did, I can tell you some of the big ones.
1: go above and beyond with every customer, educate them and treat them as much like friends and family as possible (don't cross the free line)
2: communicate proper expectations, and notify them on plan changes as soon as possible.
3: Admit when your wrong. Always be as honest as possible.
4: If it breaks and it's your fault, fix it. And tell them it was and honest mistake.
5: explain in as much detail as possible the issue and educate them. Teach them how the system works.
6: make sure to do thorough look inspections when you see the car, inform the customer with out being pushy about sales. (I think we all forget, when customers come to us - regardless of how ridiculous an expectation it is - they expect us to find upcoming failures so they don't while driving. The more of these you catch the better.
7: don't be nervous about the price, don't over think the price. If your nervous about what your charging you can bet they are picking up on that.
Honestly, for me it all comes down just be a quality repair provider.
We are a small 2 bay shop.
We don't advertise outside of our website, Google listing and a Facebook page.
We are telling customers 3-4 weeks before we see the vehicle, and we're turning down work we don't want.
My point in this ridiculous and long post is simple, don't over think increasing aro/car count - if your being a quality shop, and treating your customers right it won't be long until you realize aro/car count are great tools to stay on top of the performance of the business. But focusing on them may give you tunnel vision that sees the customers wallet without seeing the customer!
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