How to Choose an Auto Repair Shop

What should you look for when selecting a service shop?

The best advice is to ALWAYS ask for recommendations from friends, relatives, family, and other people you trust. Fellow employees and workmates are a good place to start. Best if you locate a reputable shop before you actually need one.

This way you avoid being rushed into a last-minute decision.

USE THE TELEPHONE OR INTERNET

Shop around by using the telephone or Internet for the best deal, and then compare warranty policies on your repairs that need doing.

Inquire to see their licenses and note if they are current or not. If there is state or local law which requires auto repair shops to be licensed or registered.

A good idea is to make contact with your state Attorney Generals office or local consumer protection agency and see whether there is a record of complaints about a particular auto center.

Above all, make sure the auto shop will honor your vehicles warranty.

IMPORTANT AREAS TO CONSIDER

* Become familiar with your owners manual and follow the manufacturers suggested service schedule. A motor vehicle owners manual contains a wealth of information so it is a good idea to carefully read through it before you spend lots of your time searching in other areas. Why? Because the information that you seek could very well be right under your nose.

* It is a good idea to shop around for an auto repair shop before you actually need one; it will help when making decisions because you are not in rush or in a panic. Do not just pick the first auto repair shop that you come across. A little bit of extra effort and time spent in this direction can pay off in big dividends and wind-up saving you a bundle of cash in the process.

* It is always best to seek recommendations from friends and associates. The old-fashioned word-of-mouth reputation is still the best advice you can count on.

* Look for a tidy, well-organized auto repair shop, with cars in their parking lot of similar age and value as your own.

* All shop policies including labor costs, guarantees, methods of payment, etc., should be in open view to the public.

* Find out if the auto repair shop you are considering using usually does your type of repair, especially if you need major mechanical work.

* Are they a professional shop with a clean customer service area? Believe it or not a clean and well organized workshop is a good sign of a professional auto repair service. Why? Because it shows that they take pride in their work and want to provide the very best of service to their customers.

* Do they display any civic and community service awards, long-term membership in the Better Business Bureau, customer service awards. etc.

Put in a bit of extra leg work and research in this area, and it will reward you both now and with any future servicing and any costly repair jobs you may need to get done.

Auto Dealers - Setting Up Call Centers

In years gone by the greatest and most effective form of bring business to American and Canadian storefronts was the "Yellow Pages". Indeed the summary phrase of pre-internet business high tech jump on the band wagon was "Let Your Fingers Do the Walking". What this translated to was "Use the phone for sales and marketing rather than having to drive across town to knock on your prospects door to make the sale". It's a lot more efficient and profitable overall.

What this translated to was that if you or your sales staff could make a single phone call, or phone calls to prospects and customers it was a lot more timely, efficient and cost effective ( for the most part) than getting into a car and physically driving over and meeting the customer or potential client face to face physically. Sure things have sped up; we now have computers, emails and blackberries as well as iPhones.

Still the greatest majority of people can be contacted and communicated on the spot by phone so phone calls and call centers are still of great use and cost effective. On top of that in North America, Canada, and the USA local and many long distance phone calls and calling are flat rates so there are no incremental costs over monthly phone basic charges for calls made.

Yet often in the sales process the best sales staffs are promoted as a reward to management positions. The culture and mindset is that immediate action, even preferred to planning and the planning process is preferred and of top priority. Yet it can be said that the best way to sail in a large gale storm is not to be safely in port and not in the storm in the first place. A call center may be considered by a single dealer or dealership group. The role of the call center can be auto sale solicitation, follow-up after a period of time for repeat sales, follow-up on quality control for sales or for the auto service departments. Phone centers can also be employed in simple "cold calling "for auto, truck or S.U.V. sales, service or financing. Yet before the die is cast a sound business plan is essential.

Here are some basic and helpful tips in planning for a well run and effective call center or centers:

1) Determine what the basic objectives of call center should be in your dealership or dealership group so that your staff and management fully develop a plan and plans to meet those objectives fully and comprehensively

2) Plans should be as simple and basic as humanely possible. Yet with different points of view and perspectives plans seem to grow legs and pull in many different directions (all at once). Once set on paper see if the person in charge, group or even committee can simplify plans. It's not easy to say the least. Everything always is based on essential basic and foundation steps. Try to have them whittle any steps and procedures down to raw simple basics only.

3) Costs. Take note that costs of any call center operation often grow past initial planned for budgets. If costs do grow significantly remember that "Rome was not built in a day". It will both take some time for the call center as well as staff to get up to snuff. On top of that it may well take some extended period and periods of time to recoup costs. The message is not to seriously burden and even overburden the center to recover costs pronto. Such tactics and approaches can ultimately be extremely counterproductive to a great future call center operation of yours.

4) Treat your call center as an entirely different operation and even department within the dealership or dealership group

5) The call center should both be located in a physically safe place with easy access of both public transportation and as well have parking allocated to staff (free or within reasonable costs as compared to projected employees earnings or commissions). As well the actual working environments or cubicles should be comfortable and clean

6) Having the correct person for the calls. Different calls and situations require different levels of expertise. Simple calls such as service or sales call appointment bookings require minimal technical expertise. On the other hand if tech support is required then either the person at hand must either have a fair and reasonable level of expertise and vocabulary or at least have enough expertise that they can call in a more experienced call in person. It's a case often that you don't need to know but know how and who to ask for help.

7) Hire an experienced supervisor to both hire good staff, and as well train new staff or staff for new areas, products or sales promotions. Like it or not even the best call centers have some staff turnover. It's a fact of life

8) Make extensive use of scripts and talk tracks wherever possible. As well recordings of phone calls should be seen as positive help support rather than big brother watching staff and a means of negative feedback and punishment. Your call center should not emulate Stalinist Russia.

9) Have excellent, fair and clear pay and bonus plans elaborated. It's to both to your benefit, the dealerships and staff as well. Remember if you pay peanuts you will get monkeys.

Now those basic steps are in place its show time. Yet make sure you have clear start up short-term goals elaborated and clearly detailed to call center management, supervisory staff and front line phone workers.

Auto Repair Services Trends, Challenges and Opportunities

There are numerous businesses but auto repair service is the one that can be lucrative until and unless the provider is competitive and efficient to serve customers with full satisfaction.

Growing the auto repair service does not necessarily require thinking to spend more funds and time. What matters is to stay concerned for industrial trends, challenges and opportunities to serve customers for varied requirements including repairs, replacements and car maintenance services.

Challenges
The first challenge that professional auto repair specialists face is that they receive less business because of the presence of greater operational and pricing efficiencies based franchise chains and dealerships. They attract customers more because of their advantages to manage inventory, buy and amortize expensive car equipment, technical knowledge etc.

Growing car complexity is another major challenge. The fact is that automobiles become technologically complex; this is why repair and car maintenance services become expensive and more difficult. The repair shops may need to spend a lot in special diagnostic equipment and tools to make repairs to advanced systems successful.

Trends
Presently, numerous driving trends are raising due to weak economy and record high gas prices. As a result, the number of cars scrapped is exceeding the number of cars sold every year. Thus, changing driving trends have caused consumers to delay or cancel vehicle maintenance.

The growing need for certification is another known trend in the industry. As per this trend, most of insurance companies require the certification of repair shop technicians to deal effectively with the insurance claims of vehicle owners. Thus, modern vehicle owners prefer to take their vehicles to certified auto centers for any kind of repair, replacement or maintenance issues with the car.

Opportunities
One of the best opportunities for modern service experts is to alliance with car dealers. Owners of expensive car prefer taking their vehicles to service departments at their car dealer, no matter it is at inconvenient location. Based on quality standards, the providers can ally with a car dealer and can serve owners of expensive car easily.

There are several other opportunities like experts can offer frequent service to older vehicles and for car electronics, offer paintless dent repair and more.

The trends and challenges in the industry of automobile industry continue, there exists various old and new opportunities. In fact, the demands for car repairs, replacements and maintenance services are growing rapidly regardless of people prefer to keep their old cars or buy new ones.

Choose the Best For Your Vehicle Repair

The auto repair mechanics not only handle a particular problem but also check your vehicle maintenance, though there are many service centers that can charge you for work they have not done and services they did not provide. Therefore, it is very important to choose a reputable auto service center with a professional nationwide warranty program covering parts and labor.

Good auto service centers can also offer you low rates for vehicle rentals while your own vehicle is being repaired. In addition, you may also expect the auto service center to comply with the repair schedule for your vehicle and to be proactive in informing you of the progress of the work. These auto repair centers not only deliver all its promises, but here the promise comes with a guarantee for all car repair and services. They do not entail a return job. In the event of any complaint from the client, these auto repair centers always have a consumer complaint processing system in place, giving full and fair settlement.

As they say, smart people accept the changes and use them in a best possible manner. The well reputed and an advanced auto repair center not only develop with the time but also consider the best they could provide to the clients. They also provide latest in computer technology and various computer-scanning systems to scan the vehicle in front of the client that avoid the chance of being cheated. Most of the centers are famous in dealing with car repair Phoenix, keeping in mind that cars are not mere vehicles but your safety is depend upon them, these dealers provide the best parts available for a long and safe drive.

When it comes to questions about your vehicle, these auto service centers has all the answers. You can even trust them for all your German and expensive automobiles and service. They provide all certified labors that make them better than other services centers. They also specialize in all vehicle service and repair needs and the complete care is taken of all expensive cars. They take care of your vehicle as their own and provide the best your vehicle.