Thursday, June 20, 2013

1 Year after Expansion

By Walter Ford

When we started our business several years ago, our goal was to be the premium facility for BMW service and repair. Once we achieved that goal, we listened to what many of our customers had been asking for: To expand our scope of service to include Audi and Volkswagen vehicles. We decided to go for it; however, we would not have done it unless we were able to hit the ground running by doing it right.

One year later, we’re proud to announce that this expansion has worked out great for everyone. Not only is our business up, we’re also in a great position to help more of our current customers and new customers too. More than once, we have heard our customers say that they had been going to the Volkswagen or Audi dealer but now they would bring the car to us and get the same level of expert care and cost savings. For the last year, with every work order, we’re handing our customers a flyer to give them an additional price break on future service or repair work.

In preparation for our expansion early last year, I hired two people, one in management and one out in the shop. Our office person has a lot of experience in that field, so he takes care of all the daily tactical decisions. Our newest mechanic is an Audi and Volkswagen certified tech, so our current customers continue to enjoy the same level of great service they’ve received on their BMW’s.


So far, it is been a great financial decision as well. Our business is up 40% when compared to the same time last year. Some of that is due to the Audi and Volkswagen work, while the rest is growth from our BMW customers. So, the goal was to add volume in car count and that’s exactly what’s happened. On top of all that, we’re also getting more value out of our advertising. Before, when we were targeting only BMW owners, we were reaching a very small percentage of people who owned that particular car. When we added the two car lines, there was no increase in our advertising budget; however, we’re getting a higher percentage of potential customers, so we’re very pleased we decided to go for it

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