How a Gold Coast business is demystifying the tech-talk.
Nathan Brookes knows a thing or two about running an automotive business. His Father owned and operated one of the first Bob Jane T-Mart franchises in Australia, and Nathan was helping out in the business from the age of twelve.
After a Business and Accounting degree, he returned to the industry and by 2015 was managing national store performance and training for JAX Tyres.
A family need to move closer to home gave Nathan the opportunity to put his years of experience into practice for himself, and he opened The Garage Miami on the Gold Coast in 2017.
Offering a complete range of tyre, mechanical and air conditioning services, the goal of The Garage Miami is to give customers the highest levels of service by equipping staff with the very latest training, tools and customer service techniques.
An airline style customer lounge, wi-fi connected workstation and a dedicated children’s play area are all part of the ‘dealer experience without the price tag’ concept. Transparency is a word Nathan uses often. ‘No hidden surprises is imperative! We take as much time as our customers need to explain vehicle faults and provide different solutions in an effort to suit their budget. The more our customers understand about why repairs are required to their vehicle, the more likely they are to approve the quoted repairs’.
As a Capricorn member, the business has utilised Capricorn Vehicle Videos from day one to help explain repairs to customers.
A free benefit of Capricorn membership, he believes it offers a simple solution to an age old problem – explaining technical issues to non-technical customers.
‘We love the simplicity of the videos. They make complex issues easy for our customers to understand. The videos can be emailed to our customers, and our conversion rate for repair quotes becoming approvals and invoiced sales sits at 94 per cent. We believe the videos add an extra touch of professionalism to our approach, giving customers absolute trust in our business. We love them so much we have even integrated them into our own website’.
In many areas of daily life today’s consumers are presented with digital information to help them make buying decisions or keep them informed about a product or service. Nathan believes that many automotive businesses have been slow to recognise this, but says that the service and repair industry lends itself perfectly to the use of digital tools such as animated videos to get its message across to its non-technical customer base.
‘Timing belts can be an expensive repair and if not explained properly our customers fail to see the value or importance. We recently had a vehicle in with a water pump fault. The customer was on a budget, but the video assisted us in explaining the importance of a complete timing belt kit replacement at the same time and went a long way to justifying the cost of a complete repair. This turned a potential issue of customer dissatisfaction into a Five Star Google review’.
As customers become more demanding and have ever higher expectations, implementing set procedures for everything from customer check-in to the explanation of additional repairs is key to delivering consistent levels of customer service and satisfaction.