“I just had everything done.”

Selling maintenance requires aggressive efforts. How many of your customers walk through your doors asking for a brake fluid flush? We’re guessing not many.

But you don’t really know what you are maintaining until you have the car in the bay. Those succeeding in the maintenance business consistently told us that a multipoint inspection and maintenance schedule research are standard operating procedure for each and every vehicle that comes into their shops, regardless of what the work ticket says. Printouts of recommended maintenance schedules provide documentation to support inspection findings, as well as a credible second opinion.

“All OEM-scheduled maintenance is number one. The key is using the advice of the manufacturers. They spend millions of dollars developing and engineering vehicles. These schedules tell us what they’ve designed into the life of the vehicle,” says Starovich.

“We pre-sell the customer for maintenance. If a customer is coming up to a 30,000-mile scheduled service, we tell them in the shop,” explains Paras. At his shops, the mechanics note the mileage on the job ticket and flag what scheduled service is ‘coming soon.’ Seven days after their visit, a letter is sent to the customer as a reminder.

“When they call in for their next appointment, we ask them again. We have informed them before the visit, so they are ready to do this,” Paras said.

Another good strategy is a TSB and recall search on every vehicle. Shops employing this strategy say it gives the technician a ‘heads-up’ on any potential problem areas or pattern failures associated with a specific vehicle.

Be careful out there
Brad Hays, president and CEO of MyRepairShop, cautions shop owners from being over-enthusiastic when selling maintenance:

“You may get them in for OE-scheduled maintenance, and you may find that an alignment is necessary. You might find warped rotors. But shops need to be careful – the purpose is to maintain the vehicle, not always sell up.”
The customers that are most suspicious are females, adds Hays. They are a good sell for vehicle maintenance, but they are cautious.

He advises that the service writer show the customer exactly what was found. Then, discuss the safety and dependability problems associated and advise the customer if and for how long service can be postponed before it must be addressed.