Halfway through 2025, the automotive aftermarket will become more and more difficult. According to AC Automobile’s survey, 84% of stores in the first half of the yearOutputand profits both declined, 77% of the output value of bicycles declined, and 75% of the number of inbound units decreased.
In fact, after China IV vehicles were included in the scope of trade-in subsidies, the elimination process of old fuel vehicles accelerated, and the demand for elderly cars that should have entered the peak period of chassis maintenance and overhaul was greatly compressed, and the traditional profit sector of repair shops was impacted.
At the same time, the price war on e-commerce platforms has become the norm, from the industry benchmark price of “198 yuan maintenance” to the head chain “1 yuan maintenance”, the car wash price has been pushed to 8.9 yuan, and the tire business has fallen into the double involution of price and service.
The means of intercepting traffic at low prices by peers are endless, and there is no bottom line. Many repair shops are instigated by some lubricant dealers with relatively low bottom lines to do private domain marketing interception, and WeChat group posts “Are you there” to harass customers; What’s more, it has launched ultra-low-cost services such as 24-hour mobile tire repair of 30 yuan, treatment of burning oil from 2,500 rolls to 688, and car clothing film of 2,980 yuan.
Behind the chaos in the auto service market is the auto service market in recent years, which has been going down. Under the pressure of the downward trend, many auto service stores are like headless flies looking for a way out everywhere, and everything is a swarm of bees, and then a swarm of bees rolls until they are rolled into chicken ribs, and the after-sales are all chicken feathers.
In the past two years, the auto repair shop on the street has been on fire, and every family is promoting how professional they are on the short video, how bad others are, unified copywriting, unified picture, but the people who appear on the camera are different, and it is a template for the supplier of burning oil treatment products at a glance; At the end of last year, the pan was prepared as an outlet, and even the washing beauty store dared to hang the sign of “chassis decoration, precise four-wheel positioning”.
The result? The first batch of crab eaters have not yet gnawed the tongs clean, and the latecomers have already taken the machete of the price war to “cut each other”, you do the first day of junior high school and I do the fifteenth, and the blood is pouring out, and finally the customers are dazzled for a while, and they can’t tell who is the real expert and who is the quack doctor.
This cycle of “rolling up as soon as it gets hot, and messing up when it rolls up” is essentially the “short video addiction” of the entire industry. Everyone is staring at the outlet of short videos, and they all want to become Internet celebrities to make a fortune, but no one looks down to see if their foundation is suitable; They are all analyzing the opportunities in the macroeconomy, but they are too lazy to think about what the car owners in the community next door are really missing.
Today, I will talk to the after-sales practitioners about three ways to break the “roll when it is hot” – look at the soil, but it works.
01. Stare at small data and don’t be fooled by big data
A while ago, I participated in an industry summit, and the spokesperson of the product supplier on the stage put a PPT and was impassioned.New energyThe maintenance market will exceed 100 billion….. The growth rate of the county automobile aftermarket exceeded 20% …….”, and the bosses in the audience were excited, as if tomorrow they could transform into new energy to marry Bai Fumei and go to the peak of their lives.
But after the show ended, I asked a car service practitioner from a small city on the five-county line who didn’t know how serious he was: “What is the proportion of new energy vehicles in your county?” He thought for a long time and said, “It seems that less than 1% of people run on the street.” ”
This is the so-called trap of big data – it gives you a forest, but it doesn’t tell you which tree has mushrooms under it; Big data can only tell you the trend of development, but the trend has little to do with you, it will only make you more and more anxious until you are cut leeks. It can’t save your life, what can really save your life is the small data hidden in daily operations.
There is an auto service store owner in a first-tier city, he doesn’t read any industry reports, he just stares at two things:
First, the customer’s remarks when making an appointment, “Arrive at ten o’clock tomorrow, hurry up”, “Take the elderly and children, you need to have a car”;
the second is the maintenance record in SAAS, “this car has changed the wipers twice in half a year”, “customers always complain about the smell of the air conditioner”……
Relying on this fragmented information, he added a special workstation for quick repair to the store, set up a children’s play area, and also launched a package of “air conditioning deep cleaning + interior disinfection”, and the unit price quietly increased by 20%, but the customer response was better than before.
On the other hand, some bosses see big data saying that “young people like the national tide”, so they brush the store into a big red and green; Hearing that “live streaming with group buying is a trend”, I chatted awkwardly with the camera every day, as if I was the owner of the auto repair shop who could endure the hardest hardships in the world.
The result? Old customers are dissatisfied with the noisy and leave, and new customers do not come to watch the live broadcast – young people like the national tide, but when repairing a car, they care more about whether your service is good or not, and the technology is not good; Live streaming can attract traffic, but car owners are more concerned about whether you will cut corners.
The core of small data is “specific to the individual”.
You don’t have to know how many people in the country change the transmission fluid, but you need to know how much German cars account for within three kilometers around you, and how many cars are more than 5 years old.
You don’t care what the average repurchase rate of the industry is, just remember that Mr. Ni, who comes to wash the car once a month and spends tens of thousands a year, his birthday is next month, you have to send a clockwork care WeChat message in advance, and prepare a small gift for him to send over.
02. Study the micro situation and don’t take macro data as a meal
A boss complained to me, and as soon as he opened his mouth, he said, “The general environment is not good, and business is difficult.”
I asked him, “Did the store next door change its signboard last month?” He said: “Yes, it has been changed to a gray high-end door.” ”
I asked again, “Then do you know how much more money he made last month?” He shook his head.
This is the problem of many people – if they can’t make money, they blame the macroeconomy, but they don’t find that their peers have made a fortune by systematic operating strategies, and he still thinks that others make money by luck and can’t see the efforts behind others.
Macroeconomics is like a weather forecast, saying that it will rain today, but whether there is water at your door depends on whether you are high.
The essence of the microeconomy is to be careful in your own one-third of an acre, the macroeconomy tells you that winter will come, but the microeconomy will teach you “how to store food for the winter”.
Instead of worrying about whether new energy will replace fuel vehicles every day, it is better to think: the old customer in your store who has been driving Volkswagen for ten years, will ask you about hybrid models next time maintenance; Instead of worrying about consumption downgrade, it is better to think about how to make the 98 yuan fine wash into an unforgettable experience for customers.
An auto repair shop in the remote urban area of Wuhan where I work has quadrupled its output value within 3 years, and in the eyes of surrounding peers, they are “baskets”, but no peers know that they have never regarded their peers as opponents, but only silently worked hard in customer operations.
When the results of the return visit meet the 1-2-2 principle (one problem appears on two different car owners, a total of two times), the warning is immediately activated, and a meeting is held in the evening to study what the real cause of the problem is; Every month, the data of customers who have not entered the store for a year will be called, and the account manager will be arranged to invite and recall at the beginning of the month.
With the continuous persistence of all members, the customer’s reputation is getting better and better day by day, and the same short video is filmed, and the customers of other stores are here to gather wool, and they leave after picking once, and his customers, as long as they have come once, more than 50% of them come twice.
The reason is also very simple, for customers, the price is fair, the service is enthusiastic, the technology is good, the hardware and software are online, where is it repaired or not?
On the other hand, some store owners are anxious about big data all day long, and they are convinced of the rhythm of some short videos, but they are unwilling to really improve their problem-solving skills; If you ask him how he runs his customers, he probably has black eyes and doesn’t know how to answer, and what else can he talk about to become bigger and stronger, and create more brilliance?
03. Stare at the pain points of customers, don’t stare at the actions of peers
When the oil was at its hottest, the most absurd thing I have ever seen:
A store owner swiped a short video and saw that his peers in the city said that the 1388 warranty was two years, and the next day he said on the self-media that the 888 warranty was 3 years; When he saw that the opponent was sending the oil filter element, he sent a side of paint. Finally, the customer came and asked, “Can your family guarantee that you won’t rework?” ”
He couldn’t answer – because he didn’t know that there were more than a dozen causes of burning oil, some cars could indeed be dismantled and treated, and some cars had to be dismantled and overhauled.
This is the end of staring at your peers: you become someone else’s shadow and forget what the customer really wants. Is it really cheaper for car owners to burn oil? I have talked to more than a dozen car owners, and what they are most afraid of is that “it will recur after repair, and it will break down faster after spending money”.
Customers’ pain points are often hidden in their complaints and in their hesitant eyes.
There is a owner who runs a tire shop and finds that customers who come in always say that “online tires are cheaper”. He did not follow the price reduction, but put a machine to measure the tread in the store, and the customer tested it for free as soon as he came, pointed to the screen and said: “The depth of your tread is only 2 mm, and the braking distance on rainy days is 5 meters longer than the new tire. ”
After the replacement, in addition to the manufacturer’s warranty, customers are also given a free year-round tire repair discount card – as long as the tread of this tire is punctured, free patch tire repair, through a series of strategies, it is said that the tire shop is not easy to do, but his tire sales have risen backwards.
In fact, the needs of car owners have never changed: one is afraid of being cheated, the second is afraid of trouble, and the third is afraid of spending money unjustly.
You don’t care what promotions your peers are doing today or what Internet celebrities you invite tomorrow, as long as you do these three things in place:
When quoting, write down each fee clearly, don’t play the routine of “adding the price when you arrive at the store”, and be open and transparent;
If you can pick up and deliver the car at your door, don’t let the customer run a second trip;
Resolutely do not replace parts that should not be replaced, even if the customer takes the initiative to request it, consider the problem from the customer’s point of view, and do not be self-righteous.
I believe that no matter how fierce the competition in the industry is, there is still a place for you.
Write at the end:
Only by slowing down can you go far.
In the auto service industry, it is a neighborhood business, and it is a long-term victory. Those who make quick money by following the trend are like building a building on the sand, and it collapses when the wind blows. Stores that can really live for ten or twenty years have one thing in common:
They do not chase the wind, only plant their own land; Don’t look at the excitement in the distance, just listen to the needs around you.
The next time someone tells you, “A project is very popular, and you will rob your business if you don’t go to the same industry”, ask yourself:
How many of my clients need this?
Can I do more reassuring than others?
Think about these two questions clearly, and then decide whether to move or not – this is the duty of auto service people, and it is also the confidence to break the game.
I am Huang Can, I wish all automobile service practitioners a prosperous business and all the best!
