Car Dealer mag

Sensitive subject this. I was asked by Car Dealer, a magazine for which I write a regular monthly column, for my view on whether it's time for the garage sector to have one unified code.

My view is that we need to demonstrate to all and provide the customers of garages with a consistent means by which they can identify who the good guys are. Holding this view means therefore that any garage must have immediate access to the same method of demonstrating their commitment to basic levels of customer service - an industry wide minimum standard of operation. That's what the Motor Industry Code of Practice for Service and Repair is, and furthermore - it exists as the government asked us to develop it.

So, if the government asked us to develop this code, that must have been because any other offering at the time wasn't felt appropriate to provide a minimum standard of operation for the entire sector - and that's the rub. There are different applications available for garages to buy into, some good, others not so - but none of them provide an industry wide solution.

So, for me it's not competitive, but we do need clear water ahead of us as an industry to make an industry initiative work - so do I think it's time to back one code? That's more a question for the administrators of the other schemes but 5,000 garage operators and rising think so and that's what's important.

All the best
Chris

Arnold Clark - signed up

We've recently been working with the team at Arnold Clark, europes largets independent car dealer, and now have their 100+ network of garages signed up to the Code. A really impressive set up that I'm really pleased to have on board.

We're working with more and more groups and chains recently who want to sign up their networks as they are seeing the Code as the right thing to do. This is great news as we continue to build our subscriber base and begin to acknowledge the code as the industry standard of minimum operational requirement.

That's just what we planned. If we have a consistent approach to operational and customer service that all acknowledge, then the rest is left to fair competition and consumer choice - just as it should be.

http://service.motorindustrycodes.co.uk/garages/latest-news/more-than-100-arnold-clark-service-centres-commit-to-motor-industry-code-of-practice.html

All the best
Chris

Code operation - how it works, the basics

Here's a basic visual which details the process of self regulation applied via the service and repair code. A garage subscribes online and can elect to receive a free Welcome Visit to ensure they're set up properly, then it's business as usual with an unannounced Compliance Visit taking place within each 24 month period.

Clearly business as usual lasts as long as there are no compliance issues due to poor performance. We can tell whether a garage is a poor performer through the feedback their customers supply us through the free post surveys they can fill out at the garage, the volume of contacts we receive through the Consumer Advice Line and the number of these calls that we escalate to Conciliation. The long stop being a low rating from the Compliance Check, a physical inspection of the garage from our service provider RAC Inspection Services.

For the majority of subscribers the Code is an excellent marketing tool, because they remain compliant and use that fact to their advantage within their local competitive area, where they can demonstrate their subscription as a sign of reassurance to their existing and potential customers.

For those that can't maintain the basic levels of operation and customer service required by the Code and the terms of subscription we will look to assist them raise their game by identifying the areas of their business that require some attention and working with them if they aspire to improve. If they can't or won't improve their operational practices, then they will expose themselves to the progressive sanctions that will eventually lead to their expulsion from subscription.

Can't say fairer than that, if a garage wants to do the right thing, then subscribing to the Code becomes a very cost effective marketing tool.

Don't risk a rip off - only do business with a subscribing garage.

All the best

Chris

Honest John, supporting our Code

Honest John, national online provider of trusted info to the motorist, spreading the Service and Repair Code word through his much read and highly acclaimed website - course he is!

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/item.htm?id=5834

We welcome the support and we'll be having a chat with HJ to see what we can achieve together...

All the best
Chris

Welcome Visits and Compliance Checks

Aftermarket Magazine shadowed one of the team from RAC Inspection Services carrying out a Welcome Visit on a newly subscribed garage recently, Rangers Garage in Salisbury. Here's the article - I think it summarises exactly what we intended a Welcome Visit to be, so looks like it's working well then..

There's been quite a bit of interest in our new approach to self regulating garages, and this piece covers the important bits really well. When devising the Code I thought it was important that we offered garages an initial friendly visit, free of charge, to enable the subscribing garage to ensure they have set off in the right direction and understand the requirements of the Code, and if not, then they had the perfect opportunity to ask someone in the know.

How much more in the know can we get when it comes to garages and cars but the RAC Inspection Services. Again, it is really important for me that we carry on our approach of having industry people monitoring the industry, this way we all speak the same language and understand the actual operational elements of running garages and therefore come at it from a solid and logical perspective.

Compliance Checks follow the initial Welcome Visit, this is the unannounced visit required by the Office of Fair Trading. Each garage has to have one within each 24 month period. This along with Consumer Surveys and the Dispute Resolution Services attached to the Code form the compliance structure that gives the Code its teeth and in turn compliant subscribers their competitive advantage.

Code subscribers are the good guys, make no mistake.

They sign up to the Code in full knowledge that we'll be monitoring their performance, and in turn, the OFT monitor our ability to look after the sector - that's self regulation. The Government like it as it allows them to take a back seat in the day to day business of ensuring that a sector is working well for consumers. Garages subscribing to it like it, as it gives them the ability to differentiate from other garage operators within their local competitive area, and consumers like it as they can select a garage reassured that the intentions of the garage are good from the outset, and should something go wrong they have the added security of an independent complaints handling service.

Welcome Visits, Compliance Checking and a fair and accommodating form of regulating the garage sector without the need for heavy handed regulation - a good thing?

I should say so..

All the best
Chris