coyotesoftware

Why not make a referral partner relationship with a shop that isn't as busy as yours? You can send the customer down the street and pick up a piece of the bill for doing it. They get a customer, customer gets work done, You're a hero. In manufacturing, buying someone else's excess capacity is frequently done. Hotels refer people. Doctors refer people. Why not shops? But, that isn't to say you can't gain something from the situation. When its money in your pocket for the referral and somebody else gets the "pleasure", who cares?

The whole advertising industry is changing. Things that used to work for some people don't anymore and the old things that didn't work are coming back with a new spin. So, before you buy anything. Stop. Think about who you want to communicate with because that's what's going to define your answer. If you're marketing to people 37 and under, Social Media is the best, least expensive answer if you work at being good at it. That said, if you put up automotive content and you're trying to network with women it may not be the thing that interests them enough to like you or comment on Facebook. So, in this day and age, think about how to say something interesting to the people you want to come to your shop and keep the conversation going by facebook, twitter, google and even email. Many companies offer turnkey services for this that will cost you one to two dollars an hour. Since the law says you can't email people without their permission (its called spam) then don't forget direct mail. A good list broker can find you lists to mail letters and postcards to. If you don't have or don't know where to find one, let me know I'll give you some references. Postcard mailers can cost around a dollar each with 4 color printing postage, labeling and mailing. There are turnkey service bureaus who do that. Remember, it's advertising. So don't do anything just once, don't rely on just one way to get your message to the market you want to serve and remember, no advertising you can buy is better than work of mouth.

The problem with Billy having low prices because he has no overhead is that he's fly by night. Most customers won't choose to go to a guy working out of his garage. Too scary. Especially if you're a parent. No need to run a race to the bottom on price. People know they get the quality they pay for. That being said, and I've been there myself, sometimes there's just more money than month. So, why not have a good relationship with a "Billy" you know and halfway respect. Send him the customers who need help and can't pay you. Have him send you the work he can't do at your price. Why not hire a guy like that to be your mobile service tech and incorporate his business with yours? I'm a single mom with a kid who had medical problems during his school years. I was willing to pay people to come to my house when I couldn't go out. Including SAFEWAY! The key to selling to moms is MAKE LIFE EASIER for us! If it costs a little more to get the work done in the schedules that have us flying all over town on deadline all day, we don't care about it as much as getting the kids to wherever on time. So use Billy to your competitive advantage. Or just ignore Billy. In a small town, chances are you know each other anyway. Your reputation as a stand up guy is worth more than anything else you can invest in. Don't get caught badmouthing your competition because any negativity will reflect back on you. The next time some customer tells you they can get work done by a Billy, start laughing. Break into a big smile and say "well, I'd never let anybody I cared about get service from a guy like that - too risky!" And for a lot of reasons, you'll be exactly right.

Generally, I'd say you're on a nice track and agree that the resizing of the pics is a good idea. Your goal is to not make people scroll to find what they're looking for. In terms of creating a message, i'd suggest you tell people a little about who YOU are. Gen X and Gen Y have barely spent a day without their whole social network in their pocket. Its important for people to feel familiar with you before they walk into the shop. And, I'd be sure to point out the ways you go the extra mile for the customer. If they're short on time, what will you do to fix the car to meet their schedule? Provide rides, loaners, taxis, uber? The waiting room is extra nice if they can wait for fast repairs right there and then get on their way. How will your repair service keep them on the road, on their schedule and safe? The most important message to convey is what makes Davis DIFFERENT from all the other choices they could make. Personal attention to your customers seems to be what you're shooting for. Say it straight out. We treat you differently: to us, you're family. And that means we care about your schedule and your well being. Just my two cents. Ymmv. Best,

There are a few things I'd suggest before buying or switching business software systems that over and over again I notice that everybody does in the manufacturing market that just about nobody does in the automotive market. 1. Make a list of the capabilities your business needs. If the software has some bell or whistle that you don't need, you don't need to buy it. 2. Look under the hood on the software you're buying. I'm pretty much stunned over and over to see shops running proudly on databases that Microsoft abandoned 20 years ago. That's nothing to brag about. Today's state of the art is three tier architecture using .net Framework on SQL Server. Anything else is like comparing a wagon wheel with an iron rim to a Michelin tire. 3. Fact check!! Too many buyers accept hearsay and rumors from the sales reps. Do your own homework. Ask the reps to demo the capabilities your business needs before you buy. 4. Understand that Integration matters. The more seamlessly your applications tie together and the fewer vendors you have, the happier you'll be in the long run. If you want to pick one of these and one of those, have lunch at a chinese buffet but don't deliberately put your business in a position where multiple vendors can blame each other for problems and leave you caught in the middle. The Total Solution your business needs starts with a customer walking in the door and ends with your year end tax filing. And the Total Cost of ownership includes all the manual labor and time it takes you to do what the software doesn't do for you to compile the information. 5. Choose the strongest company to do business with. A business solution that is great but has a tiny customer base and a few people won't have the ability to deliver awesome support and new features in the long run unless they have the capital to expand out of their backyard. Big strong companies make big, strong partners. The strongest player in extending the management solution to the shop floor is Bolt On without a doubt. No other commercial application can do what they do at this point. And they're growing exponentially. Some features work differently with different management systems because of the underlying technology. As time goes on, that gap is only going to get wider because of the speed at which mobile technology is developing. Remember, technology solutions are dynamic, not static. If your vendor's underlying technology isn't going to keep up with the changes in the mobile market place, your business is going to be left behind.

The first thing you need to know about Marketing is that its a process and it has multiple moving parts. There is no such thing as a single activity done one time that will get you the results of launching your business. There are two keys to success: Your message and the market you deliver it to. There are many options about how to deliver the message. A basic sixpack for marketing a new small business is: 1. A website 2. A Facebook page 3. Customer Reviews 4. Advertising to the population that are your best targets based on services you offer that they want to buy 5. Basic Public Relations 6. A list of targets that you can call on the phone, send mail and email to. The best way to start is to begin with a canned program or service and then add or subtract from it as you get going and have data on what works and what doesn't. You can get a website, automatic email marketing to your customers, reviews, lists to mail to and postcard campaigns with a dedicated account manager from Mitchell 1. I think Mitchell gives pretty good results reporting. Demand Force and Mechanic.net are in that same category. Great PR and advertising can be fairly easy to come by if you're creative. Post your grand opening on Topix and put an ad on Craigslist. Look for all of the free places you can tell people that you exist. And by no means neglect Google. Is there a free paper in your area that writes up interesting, edgy articles, restaurant reviews and hip places to go and things to do? See if you can work with them to do a promotion with a radio station for your grand opening?Talk to your vendor partners about a customer story on your business that they'd post on their websites. There are marketing programs that may include your ad on a page or in a coupon book that another company sells - a lot of schools sell those coupons for fundraisers. Do your vendor partners publish customer stories? The point is to tell people you're there and that there are a few things that make you different than any other provider in your market. In today's socially networked world, your customers want to know you too.