Motor Codes Garage of the Year - Get ready for round two

Round one is now closed and we've had a great time running the competition again this year with our new friend Ken Gibson at The Sun, joining the Motor Codes GotY gang with What Car? and CAT Magazine.

We took 7,835 votes, a record for the first round and beating the total number of votes for the entire competition last year, in fact up 156%.

The team have been crunching the numbers from those votes (well some web wizardry has, but you get the point) and we are kicking off round two of the contest having whittled the number down to the top 100. This is made up of ten garages (five with under ten staff and five with over ten staff) for each of the ten regions we have used to cover the UK.

Now it's time for those 100 garages to make the most of their unique local marketing opportunity and get their customers to vote for them to win round two and progress through to the final judging round and a chance of becoming Motor Codes Garage of the Year 2012.

For the rest of our subscriber base, here's the upside. During the first round of the competition we increase the unique users of motorcodes.co.uk by 46% year on year to an impressive 84,802.

Even better, profile page use is up a massive 91% to 133,738 individual views. A number that has to make you appreciate the value of being a Motor Codes subscriber, as that's active motorists looking for a reliable garage to use in their postcode area.

Motor Codes Garage of the Year competition is great news for all, but now's the time to focus on those top 100 in round two - let's have a good clean fight...

View the round two list here http://www.motorcodes.co.uk/motorists/garage-of-the-year/vote/

All the best
Chris

Motor Codes Garage of the Year 2012

I am delighted to see the annual Motor Codes Garage of the Year competition back in such good shape for 2012. Over the last two years the competition has grown from an idea within the Motor Codes media team, to a national competition with real relevance.

The winners of last years competition, Clive Woolford in Tewkesbury, have been bowled over by the impact winning has had on thier business. They've added to their staff and taken on additional workshop space to cope with the increase in trade.

That's evidence of the value we consumers place on being able to identify a 'safe haven' garage, a place you can go that will treat you, your property and your cash with respect. What's even better for the likes of Clive Woolford, is we customers are a fairly loyal bunch and once we've made our choice, we stick with it as long as we're being treated well.

That's what Sue and Ian Boskett, the owners of Clive Woolford understand. It's not just about getting new customers, they make sure they keep them by giving them a whole mix of services that appeal to their different customer types. It's not rocket science, but it's great to see working so well.

So, we start the journey of finding this years Garage of the Year. Time will tell who it will be, and where we will travel to find them. One thing we do know, with the help of our long standing media partners What Car? and CAT magazine and the massive boost we have this year by adding The Sun and their motoring editor Ken Gibson to our support, it's going to be a great contest.

The Sun are helping Motor Codes launch the competition today with a four page supplement in the paper, so make sure you get your copy and find out more.

If you run a garage get your free marketing pack, which you can download from

http://t.co/0aTnwmk0

and get your team thinking along the lines of using the competition as a great marketing tool for the next few weeks - you never know, you could be the 2012 winner!

If you are a motorist and want to vote for your local garage, find them at

http://www.motorcodes.co.uk/motorists/garage-of-the-year/vote/

or get on to them and tell them they're missing out if they are yet to register and get involved.

Motor Codes Garage of the Year, with The Sun - get voting!

All the best
Chris

Department for Transport MOT review

The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency, is an executive agency of the DfT, responsible for the licensing and operation of 21,000 MOT testing stations.

DfT and VOSA have been looking at the operation of testing stations and considering a number of options for inclusion in a review, including quality and frequency of the annual test.

Last week the Transport Secretary, Justine Greening MP, issued a written ministerial statement announcing that while there would be no further consideration given to the frequency of the annual test on vehicles over three years old, the review would work with industry, motoring organisations and consumer groups to focus on the reliability and standards of garages.

Within the first half of 2012, DfT has committed to the following:

. so that consumers can be confident that the garage they choose has signed up to deliver to the highest standards, we will work with the industry and stakeholders to encourage much wider adoption of existing Codes (such as that provided through the SMMT and Motor Codes Ltd) and to develop those Codes to include MOT testing services. Our ambition is that it should be the norm for garages to comply with such Codes.

. in order to make more information available to help motorists know how the scheme is supervised, which garages perform well and which less well, we will review the MOT data gathered by VOSA and - informed by the surveys above - further improve transparency.

. we will also work with industry, motoring organisations and others to make it easier for consumers to give feedback on their experiences of garages in a transparent way that others can view, and to boost awareness of existing consumer feedback tools.

. we will help motorists to spot clocked vehicles by arranging for MOT test certificates to show mileage information for the last three years, and encouraging car buyers to check the full MOT history of vehicles by accessing on line the authoritative MOT database.

. to help motorists know how long wear and tear items such as brakes and tyres are likely to last after an MOT test, we will work with the MOT trade initially to consider whether to adjust the MOT technical test standard.

Sounds like a sensible approach to me, and the Motor Codes team is looking forward to helping with the successful delivery of the project.

See the full DfT statement here http://www.dft.gov.uk/news/statements/greening-20120201/

All the best
Chris

Part-worn tyres good or bad?

On the face of it, it sounds ok doesn’t it?  Buy a tyre that has been used but is still legal at a price cheaper than a new one.  The argument for part-worns seems, on the face of it, fairly intuitive:  low cost, plenty of tread left, will do for a while.

In these austere times this is perfectly understandable, surely?  But, consider the argument against, which is equally strong:  history unknown, buyer beware.The economic argument is questioned in this piece by tyre industry expert Stuart Carr – food for thought http://www.hiqonline.co.uk/tyres/partWorn/economyAndSafety/  

Ultimately, it is a case of consumer choice, as long as the tyres are being sold legally.  That means within The Motor Vehicle Tyres (Safety) Regulations 1994 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1994/3117/regulation/7/made

However it appears that there is a growing evidence showing that a significant number of part-worn tyres are being traded illegally, with no real attention being paid by the retailer to ensuring that the tyres have been appropriately checked before being offered for sale.  Here’s one of a number of examples of Trading Standards findings http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/Part-Worn-Tyres.htm

The 1994 regulations state that the tyres should also be clearly marked as part-worn when presented for sale – I’m not sure this is happening consistently, within a market that was suggested to be anything up to 6 million units in 2011.

So, the debate gathers apace – should we continue to accommodate the legitimate retailing of part-worns within the industry?

Motor Codes is currently carrying out a closed study of subscribers through the three questions next to this piece. If you’re not a subscriber (why not!) you can enter the debate by answering question 4 ‘Part worn tyres good or bad’

All the best

Chris

Car Dealer magazine Profit Clinic

In December I spoke at the Car Dealer magazine Profit Clinic. I took the opportunity to talk to the 100 or so delegates about how Motor Codes is a cost effective, localised marketing tool and how we can be used to develop an effective on line strategy that will encourage custom.

In these hard economic times, any opportunity to drive more business should be explored. Any opportunity which can demonstrate it is driving business should be utilised to the max.

With Motor Codes subscription, garages can use our direct marketing to advertise to motorists within their postcode area that are actively looking for a garage to use. Furthermore, they are looking for a local garage to use that they can trust. In the second half of 2011, there were 270,000 garage profile page views via www.motorcodes.co.uk

With our OFT backed code, garage profile pages, customer driven feedback and free to access consumer and business advisory service - consumers can chose to do business with a Motor Codes subscribing garage safe in the knowledge that the business is committed to looking after them, their property and their cash.

Don't take their word for it, see what their previous customers thought and make your own mind up.

The deal for garages, as I said at the Profit Clinic, within 24 hours you can have a government-backed business, with full OFT approval, and a Motor Codes rating - it really is that straightforward.

See full coverage of the event and my presentation at http://www.cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish/profit-clinic-motor-codes/59762

All the best
Chris

Motor Codes Garage of the Year competition is open for 2012! Public voting begins on February 24th, that gives garages plenty of time to prepare.

All Motor Codes subscribing garages are automatically entered. So first off, download your free marketing pack at www.motorcodes.co.uk you can register here as well if you are not currently a Motor Codes subscriber (why not!).

The posters, leaflets and web banners look great:

Then get your team fired up and make sure all your customers vote and get you through the first round - see the sequence of events here http://tinyurl.com/86srfu2

Some of the smarter entrants last year stirred up some great local media attention through the competition - that's why we've given you a month to get your plan together.

Ken Gibson from the Sun is right behind us, saying this in today's Motors supplement '...the Motor Codes organisation and the Garage of the Year is a great way of driving motorists to garages that give them the best deal'

What more can I say, apart from it's great to have Ken on board the judging panel this year - along with some other notable people, and er...me.

http://www.motorcodes.co.uk/motorist/garage-of-the-year/judges.html

Time to get busy!

All the best
Chris

Adding value - not cost

January 2012 and the development of Motor Codes continues. When we created the business we did so with an objective of making all our services as easily accessible for the industry and their customers as possible.

This includes pricing. We agreed with Government that we would hold subscription costs for three years. The great news we announced to the network yesterday is that for the fourth year we have managed to hold the price of annual subscription to the Service and Repair Code to £75.

So, now as a subscriber to the Code, for 75 quid you get a Government backed Code and you are an Office of Fair Trading approved business. Worth the fee in itself...

You can reference this in all your marketing and advertising materials to give you the edge over less customer focused local businesses, that's the idea!

Think about it - on your adverts, on your website, business stationery, works vehicles and business premises you can display this logo:
 

You also get a free mini website to advertise your business via unique profiles on motorcodes.co.uk.

Just over 270,000 profile page views occurred in the second half of 2011. That's motorists viewing garage information having entering their postcode in the Garage Finder search facility on our homepage. Local motorists, who are active in their search for a garage to use. 270,000 times in six months. That's got to be driving business to our subscribers.

Here's a great looking profile, featuring adverts that can be individually uploaded by the garage, or centrally uploaded by a group or parent company, Garage Rating and verbatim customer comments from survey returns (all qualified to customer, vehicle and invoice number).

Why not get engaged in the survey that comes with your subscription, order a pack of 500 invoice stickers like the one below from the Code Shop and let your customers provide feedback on line, which you can view in real time via your back office log on to motorcodes.co.uk and they get entered into our monthly prize draw to win back the cost of their invoice (up to £500), very nice!

More value through our expert team working the Motor Codes Advice Service. They'll helped around 10,000 callers in 2011, less then 90% of these went any further than firsts call advice.

This is great news for our network, low levels of customer complaints - but fairly high numbers of motorists needed help, expert help. So we've scrapped the per case conciliation fee from now! Great news, this means we not only provide the best advice to garage operators and their customers at no cost but we also now provide the best dispute resolution free of charge, which has to be good news for all.

Contact the team on 0800 692 0825 - they waiting to help!

More to follow, 2012 is looking like a busy year for the Motor Codes team....

All the best
Chris