Loss Leaders In Auto Repair Advertising

This may be the hill I die on?

Most if not all the chain type auto repair ?stores? as they like to call themselves, which is good, because I never really viewed them as legitimate ?shops?, spend thousands of dollars per month advertising loss leaders to get people in their ?stores?.

What is a loss leader you say? The most popular ones in auto repair are oil changes, wheel alignment and brake pads. I?ll go over each. Let?s start with oil changes. I?ve done this one myself on a number of occasions. The goal of a cheap oil change is to get cars in your shop and find things wrong them.

Then you let the customer know you?ve found something that needs repair and you hopefully make enough money on the repairs you?ve discovered to cover the cost of the losses you took on the oil changes over all.

Nothing wrong with that, it?s a proven money maker in shops that have enough personnel to handle that type of promotion. In a one man shop it?s really a loser. You?ll work your self to death instead. Which is why I no longer offer the 5 oil changes for $100.

Alignments

?Buy 4 tires and get a free alignment?? I?m getting ready to fix a Durango next week that had one of those ?free? alignments.? Need I say more about that type of loss leader?

Alignments are historically priced really cheap in the chain stores to build car count. The more cars you have on your alignment rack the more bad suspension parts you?re going to find and the more money you?re going make. Simple.

They basically do the alignment at about 60 to 70% of what it?s really worth and then write you an estimate for a $1000 worth of suspension work that you may or may not need. I?ve got a drawer full of estimates from other shops that would choke a horse.

One in particular, a kid brings in his Mazda 2 wheel drive pickup with a $2100 estimate for suspension work. I?ve never done a $2100 suspension repair on one of those trucks. Or any other that I can think of off hand for that matter. Yes it did need work. The typical stuff, upper and lower balljoints and a pair of front shocks. I think it was about $1100 when I finished it.? Luckily this kid wasn?t stupid enough to fork over $2100 and asked a friend where to go for a second opinion.

This is why I don?t play the ?will you match their price? game when a phone shopper calls and asks. Because I know what?s waiting for them if they bite on the cheaper alignment price hook.? I could go on and on, but I will mention one more thing before moving on to cheap brake pad loss leaders.

Camber kits is a big profit center for the chain stores.? A lot of cars and trucks today don?t come with adjustments from the factory that allow you to set camber and caster like in the old days. So when your vehicle?s camber is messed up and needs adjustment, sometimes a camber kit has to be installed at substantial extra cost.

Even I have to use them from time to time. But, there?s a lot of vehicles that I can get the camber or caster to change by using a few tricks of the trade and save my customers a lot of money. That is when that lousy extra $10 I charge really pays off for you.

So you take your car to the other shop because they?re $10 less, and they call you up and say it?s going to be $300 to install a camber kit that you probably don?t need and do an alignment. Now? do you see how the alignment loss leader works?

But what if? you paid what the alignment was really worth and the over all cost was a lot less?

Brakes

Luckily I don?t see too many brake loss leader ads these days. But the one that sticks in my craw is ?lifetime brake pads?.? The 1st person to come to my shop and show me the receipts of paying only for the 1st brake pads and not $1000 worth of brake calipers, rotors, etc. on subsequent visits to replace the worn brake pads and get your ?free? brake pads installed I?ll give $100 bill to.

Currently Lex Brodie Tire has a promotion to get your brakes checked for 30?. That my friend is a classic loss leader.? The goal is to get your car in and find bookoo bucks worth of needed brake repairs. Not work for 30? an hour I can assure you.

In closing, everybody likes a good deal. But sometimes they?re a wolf in sheep?s clothing. So you have to be careful when getting your vehicle serviced because the cheapest price isn?t always the lowest cost in the end.

Source: http://www.konacarshop.com/loss-leaders-in-auto-repair-advertising/

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