Differentiate: to ascertain what makes someone or something different.
Do you believe that your auto repair shop is the same as every other auto repair shop? Most shop owners don’t, and they’re right. As Kim and I have traveled all over this country and visited our clients as well as many other auto repair shops and their owners who are maybe not our clients but are friends in the industry, we’ve confirmed what we already knew. There are vast differences in every shop we’ve been to.
- They look different
- They smell different
- They have different operating procedures
- They have different warranties
- They have different levels of cleanliness
- The people have different levels of friendliness
- The techs have different levels of proficiency
- They have different hourly rates
And why does this even matter? Because customers will choose one repair shop over the other for a multitude of different reasons – and many times they have no idea why because the reason is completely subliminal.
It’s your marketing’s job to showcase the things that make your shop different from the others around you, so that’s why we’re talking about this topic today.
Differentiating Your “Brand” From Your Brand
Before I get too far into this I want to talk a little about your brand and what your “brand” actually is. People tend to think of your brand as your logo, colors, and fonts. And those are all part of your brand. But I want you to think further about this. I used to have a business partner back in the day and he is the one who taught me the real meaning of a brand, which led to a major shift in mindset for me.
The way he explained what a true brand is was to tell me about Harley Davidson. When describing their brand he talked about the loud exhaust and the vibration from the motorcycle. He talked about wearing black leather and boots, having a bit of an attitude and swagger. He talked about the glare of the chrome, wind in your face, and the carefree freedom that you feel when riding a Harley.
Harley Davidson doesn’t sell motorcycles… they sell a feeling. When you think of the riders of Harleys, you probably think of roughnecks who will crack a bottle over your head if you glance at them too long, and that may have been true at one time, but not so much today. Many of their customers are doctors, lawyers, and other white-collar professionals who feel strangled by their Brooks Brothers shirts and shackled to their desks. But when the weekend comes, they get to be someone completely different. And that “someone” is what Harley Davidson sells them.
So yes, I’ll talk about how you can differentiate using your logo, colors, and fonts – but the meat of this article will be about differentiating your “brand” from your competition.
First, You Must Understand Why People Buy From You Now
Every time we have a kickoff meeting with a new client, we ask them how their shop is different from other shops, and they almost always have a hard time telling us.
If you don’t know how your shop is different and why people choose to do business with you, go read your reviews. What are people saying about you on platforms like Google, Facebook, and Yelp? I just went through a client’s reviews and these are all statements I read without scrolling very far.
- “They do quality work”
- “They give great customer service”
- “Pricing was better than the dealership”
- “Communication was top-notch”
- “They fully addressed the issues that needed to be addressed”
- “Professional, knowledgeable, courteous, and most importantly HONEST”
- “Wow! The truck has never run this good in the 10 years I’ve owned it”
- “Always fair and honest. I’ve never had a bad experience here”
Now this shop is truly a great shop. Even when compared to the best shops, they stand out as a step above the rest, so it didn’t surprise me to see these reviews. But the most common thing that stood out to me was the perception people have about the quality of the work they do.
We often have to check shop’s reviews because the owners can’t tell us what sets them apart. We see shops that are loved because they are the nicest people, have loaner cars, fix problems other shops can’t, and because they’re cheap. I would personally never want to compete on price but I do see shops who do it successfully and still seem to be nicely profitable, so if that’s your gameplan, own it.
Aside from your reviews, ask your favorite customers why they choose to do business with you. They’ll happily tell you.
Also, Identify your strengths and look for ways to let your strengths differentiate you. If your shop is the cheapest in town but your customer service skills aren’t the best, don’t try to differentiate on customer service until you’ve solidified those skills. Focus on your strengths when promoting your business, but also strengthen your weaknesses to become a more well-rounded shop.
Once you know why people choose to do business with you, you need to decide if you’re attracting the right type of clients and if it’s the reason you want new customers to be attracted to your shop.
Becoming A Four-Dimensional Shop
I used to be part of a coaching group for male business owners and the premise of the group was to be a “four-dimensional man.” This is because so many men, especially business owners, tend to focus on being great in one area of their lives. This group broke a man’s life down into these four areas:
- Body – your health and fitness
- Being – your spiritual life and connection to God
- Balance – your relationship with your family
- Business – your business and finances
Businessmen will often focus so hard on having a successful business that their health, spirituality, and family life all suffer. Others get addicted to the gym and ignore the other 3 areas. And this works in any combination of the four areas.
This group of men was all about having it all in life. Being strong in all four areas. And the funny thing is, when these men would go from being a one or two-dimensional man to being a four-dimensional man, all areas of their life would thrive. It’s like the flywheel in the book Good to Great.
Now I want you to take that same concept and apply it to your business and the areas that mean the most to your clients that you can be strong in. Let’s define those four areas.
- Customer Service
- Quality of work/parts/overall product
- Timeliness
- Price
It is possible to have them all.
Shop owners won’t get hung up on customer service or quality. Great shop owners don’t look at these two things as optional. Where they get hung up is on timeliness and price, and that’s because they equate timeliness with “fast” and price with “cheap.”
You need to have a mindset shift. Timeliness is more about doing things in the timeline that you gave when setting expectations – and when something happens that’s going to cause you to not meet that timeline, your communication and customer service take over to put your client at ease and solve any problems that are being created by the inconvenience.
Price is more about providing a great product at a fair price, and just like timeliness, honoring the price you originally quoted. I know there are times when that’s not possible, but those should be incredibly rare occasions.
Remember, we’re talking about using your “brand” to differentiate your shop from your competition. So if you and your team become so good at serving your clients, doing exceptionally high-quality work, meeting the timelines you promised, and doing it all at a fair price – that this becomes part of your “brand” – part of your culture, do you think that would set you apart from your competition?
It should all be coming together now.
People Do Business With People They Know, Like, and Trust
So we talked about being a truly great shop – a four-dimensional shop as we defined it. The next step is to help people come to know, like and trust you, your team, and your overall brand.
Just being a four-dimensional shop isn’t good enough. It certainly helps people who already know you get to like and trust you, but it doesn’t do much to get people to know you.
You may think that if you do all of the things we talked about above that your clients will make you famous for it by telling their friends and family, and they will to an extent. But humans are much more wired to tell people about bad experiences than good experiences so word-of-mouth will only go so far.
You need to tell people about what’s happening in your shop and in your lives through social media. You need to build that “brand” and push it out there for your local community to get to know.
This stuff isn’t rocket science and Lord knows I talk about it in at least half of the marketing advice and content that I produce. That’s because it works.
- Celebrate birthdays, work anniversaries, and important life events on social media.
- Share interesting repairs with your audience – and make sure your knowledge and expertise shine through.
- When something goes wrong, show your audience how you made it right. People don’t trust perfect people but they trust imperfect people who do the right thing when things go wrong.
- Show off what a day in the life is like at your shop. People really are interested in this.
You have to have a plan for doing this. Your once-per-week social post isn’t going to get the job done. Share and share often. Daily or even multiple times per day is optimal.
You Must Have A Strong Set Of Core Values
Core values aren’t decor to go on your waiting area walls and on your website alongside the mission statement that nobody remembers. Core values are exactly what their name says they are. They are values that you and your team must hold at your core. They aren’t optional and you don’t get to pick and choose when you apply them.
When core values are in place in a shop and they are used correctly they have no choice but to influence that “brand” we’re talking about.
Every person on our team can tell you what our core values are and I’d bet you many of our clients could tell you what our core values are. That’s because we integrate them into everything we do. We talk about our core values all the time and we reward our team and our team recognizes each other based on our core values every day.
Our core values are:
- Synergy
- Happiness
- Integrity
- Expansion
- Leadership
- Dedication
Each of these core values are highly defined and you can see that here if you’re interested.
When you truly live out your core values, they shine through everything you do, and that is ultimately what becomes your brand. That is what differentiates you from your competition.
An example of how this applies to our brand is our core value of happiness. People that know us know that we are happy, nice, friendly people. That goes for everyone on our team. But it’s also known that we don’t work with jerks. If we take on a client and that client sucks the happiness out of our lives, we will fire that client. We have done this many times.
The impact this has on our team is incredible. It makes our team love working at Shop Marketing Pros and that shines through in the work they do, the relationships they have with our clients, and it has become a big part of our brand. It certainly differentiates us from our competition because most of them will work with anyone willing to pay them and they have miserable employees who give miserable customer service. For many of them, that has become part of their brand and it’s unfortunate because that is differentiating them negatively. It does work both ways.
Outward Appearance
We’re working our way more towards what’s traditionally thought of as branding but we’re not quite there yet, though this part may be a little closer in nature.
Let’s talk about outward appearance.
I’ve been in a few shops lately that made me cringe, and these are supposed to be top-tier shops. Some of these shops are shops that I could tell once took a lot of pride in the way they looked but I think the leadership is like the proverbial frog in a pot of boiling water and they haven’t noticed how dirty, dingy, and unorganized their waiting area, shop area, and parking lots have become.
If you’re reading this, stop for a minute and go walk around your shop. Go sit in the chairs that your clients wait in and just look around. Don’t just glance… really look at it. Go into the bathroom and actually take a minute to look at everything. Walk out into your parking lot and look around. Go look at your service advisors and technicians and truly look at how they’re dressed and groomed.
What do you see? Is what you see representative of how you want people to view your shop? Is this the “brand” you want people to think of?
Kim and I just recorded a podcast with Michael Doherty, one of my service advisors from when we owned Peak Automotive, and it brought back a lot of memories. We talked about how our service advisors wore dress shirts and ties. We used to get so many comments about that. We were known as “The Triangle’s Most Female Friendly Shop” and we had a brand to uphold.
Some of you may have an unimpressive building and you feel limited as to what you can do. One of my favorite articles to share is this Ratchet & Wrench article about McCart’s Auto Center and the impressive makeover they did on their building, both inside and out. Go read it and be inspired.
How Traditional Brand Assets Can Set Your Shop Apart
Now let’s get into the way that branding as you traditionally think of branding can help differentiate you from all of the other shops in your area.
What’s In A Name?
In the last year I’ve spoken to two different shop owners who need to change the name of their shop because it’s no longer applicable to them, or at least it no longer represents who they really are. In one case, this shop has been in business for 25 years and there is a newer business in town with a very similar name that has garnered a poor reputation. This is a serious case of needing to differentiate. In the other case, the shop started out in business as a performance engine rebuilder and now is doing full-service auto repair.
The name of your business says a lot and it is the most important part of your brand.
Does your business name tell people anything about your business? I’ve seen shops with names that are as generic as it can get and others who have done a great job at working their unique selling proposition right into the name. I’ll give you a few examples of each.
Examples of boring and generic:
- [Last Name] Auto Repair
- [City Name] Auto Repair (although this can be very good for SEO)
- [First Name]’s Mechanical Services
Examples of great names that differentiate:
- Honest Wrenches
- Concierge European
- Tokyo Automotive
You can see that the boring name examples tell you nothing except that they’re an auto repair shop, while the others tell you in the name what you can expect from them.
Your Logo Is A Visual Interpretation Of Your Shop
Does your logo say about your shop what you want it to? Before I get too far into this one I want to remind you that we’re talking about differentiation. I’m going to talk about some “typical” logos in a minute, and I’m not saying there is anything inherently wrong with them. I’m just saying they don’t necessarily differentiate.
So often in the auto repair space, we see shop logos that are the silhouette of a car, a wrench, gears, or checkered flags. And the truth is that these are recognizable images that relate well to auto repair. But they don’t differentiate. In fact, there is a particular car silhouette that must be in a popular clipart program because I’ve seen it used so many times.
In the section about outward appearance, I linked to an article about McCart’s Auto Center. Go look at the giant logo on the facade of their building. It’s clean. It’s different. It’s not a typical auto repair logo. It has a high-end feel to it. You’ll also notice that it can be used easily in square or round profile pictures as well as a long, horizontal layout. It’s also not busy and can be embroidered easily, which is something people often don’t think about.
I recently saw a logo that manages to cross the lines well because it has the silhouette of a car but this shop specializes in Teslas and the silhouette is a side view of the back half of a Tesla Model 3, which is pretty recognizable.
Color theory and font choice also play highly into how your logo represents your business. One color may exude a feeling of stress while another exudes calmness. One color may have a childish feel while another has a professional feel.
Choose colors that reinforce your brand’s focus and vibe.
- Red: Excitement
- Orange: Confidence
- Yellow: Happiness
- Green: Freshness
- Blue: Trust
What Is Your Brand Message?
The final piece of the traditional brand and how it can differentiate you from your competition is your brand message. This is the easiest and most direct way to differentiate through conventional branding because you’re literally telling your audience how you’re different.
You need to think differently about your messaging, though. Most shop owners want to talk about their years of experience, certifications, warranties, and the things that are important to them.
When creating your brand message, you need to remember that your clients have a problem, and that problem is what you need to hone into when you’re speaking to them. And you need to dig a little deeper than the surface level problem. Sure, on the surface the problem is that their car is broken. But the real problem could be that they can’t get to work, can’t get their kids to school, or that they don’t trust their car anymore. The problem could be that they can’t afford an expensive repair. It could be that they don’t trust auto repair shops.
You need to figure out what the main concern is for most of your clients and hone in on that. Press into the pain and make it feel real, then tell your client how you’re going to solve that problem for them.
Go read the book Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller. This book will tell you everything you need to know about creating your brand message.
In Conclusion
You cannot underestimate the importance of differentiating your shop from your competition. Trying to compete in a sea of sameness is a race to the bottom. Your shop, your team, your culture, and your brand are different from every other shop out there. Your job is to learn how to express that to the world, or at least your local community.
I also hope I was able to get you to start thinking differently about what your “brand” really is, because it matters so much when you need to stand out from the crowd.
If you need help with your marketing, that’s what we do at Shop Marketing Pros. We’d love to talk to you to see if we can help you build a shop that stands out ahead and above the other shops in your area. Schedule a no-pressure discovery call here.
About The Author
Brian Walker
Brian Walker is the Owner and CEO of Shop Marketing Pros, a marketing agency specializing in marketing independently owned auto repair shops. Brian is a Mercedes Benz Master Technician and has owned multiple shops and served as the Mechanical Division Director for ASA-NC.
He's a mechanic at heart who loves fixing things that are broken, which is why he loves marketing so much.
"Digging in and figuring out why a business' marketing isn't working is a lot like it was when he was elbows deep into a car that no one else could fix. When you figure it out, there's nothing else like it."
To get to do this for auto repair shop owners combines his passions, and he couldn't be more excited about helping shop owners.
Loretta Pielmeier
Loretta Pielmeier serves as the Creative Director for Shop Marketing Pros, overseeing a team of designers working on website designs and marketing materials. Her responsibilities include design leadership, task management, client communication, quality control, and maintaining best practices for UX/UI and design.
Since 2013, Loretta has gained extensive experience in web design, print design, social media marketing, advertising, branding, and logo design. She graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in both Graphic Design and Communication with a focus on PR and Advertising.
Loretta is passionate about creating meaningful designs that capture a client’s vision and personality in their marketing.
