Truck Parts and Service | Heavy Duty Trucking, Aftermarket, Service Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/571138
17 Cover Story But once those customers walk through that threshold, a lot of that marketing ends. Spending money to bring customers into your facility doesn't guarantee they will remain there. The single biggest asset an aftermarket business has in keeping a customer captive is the facility itself. A dark, dirty and disorganized business can send a customer running for the door faster than the special that brought them in, while an aesthetically appealing operation can elicit feelings of confi dence, reliability and acceptance. Customers want to do business where they are comfortable. Through intelligent cosmetic changes, you can improve the appearance and functionality of your business to strengthen your eye appeal and create a transparency in your business that positively impacts your bottom line. Understanding Customer Perception Making your business visually enticing to customers dramatically impacts their perception of your prod- ucts and services. Think of any business you've entered only to turn around and leave because it appeared dirty or dingy — a facility that is visually unappealing is often viewed by consumers as subpar. Which means if your operation isn't attractive, customers may make the same assumptions about your business. Customer perceptions are formed by conscious and subconscious conclusions, says Butch Hill, president of HD Group. According to Hill, customers make hundreds of miniscule conclusions during all business transactions, and together those experiences form the basis of the customer's perception about the service provider. Hill says the best way for aftermarket businesses to tilt the scales in their direction is through facility ap- pearance. A business that's both appealing and acces- sible is much more likely to elicit a positive customer response. "Perception is the way people notice things," he says. "For example, if you consider a service experi- ence of a customer, it depends on multiple perception points, such as the parking facility, building color, lighting, friendliness, and most importantly, the shop's cleanliness. In fact, every perception of the cus- tomers leads them to something called 'an experience.' "An experience is not the way customers perceive things, but it is the form it takes by connecting all the perception points, and that makes it the most impor- tant (yet ignored) metric for a lot of companies across this industry." Hunter Engineering National Heavy-Duty Market Manager Justin Gonzalez believes the heavy-duty market's focus, or lack thereof, on facility design and appearance is about to change. Gonzalez says the light-duty sector has actively integrated clean, transparent designs into its facili- ties for nearly a decade. Hunter has responded to that shift by offering consulting and assistance to that seg- ment of its customer base, and is just now starting to see similar interest from heavy-duty businesses. This benefi ts both markets in different ways, Gonzalez says. In the automotive market, he says aesthetically pleasing facilities help promote open and honest dialogue between a business and a customer. This is especially true in the service sector. The fear of W W W . T R U C K P A R T S A N D S E R V I C E . C O M S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5 | T R U C K P A R T S & S E R V I C E A ftermarket businesses nationwide spend millions of dollars each year on advertising and marketing. From old-school mailers to fl ashy email blasts, no stone is unturned in the never-ending quest to get customers in the front door.