Is it déjà vu? Didn't we just have Car Care Month in April?
Hopefully, for many of you, April was the month to hold a vehicle check-up event as part of National Car Care Month. But since there has also been a show of interest in having a seasonal event, the Car Care Council has designated October as Fall Car Care Month. This will allow shops to hold check-up events to prepare vehicles (and motorists) for the winter driving months and also serves as an opportunity to market your services to new customers.
To support the event, new Fall Car Care Month promotional posters and banners have been added to the "Be Car Care Aware" point-of-sale kits. The kit features signage, consumer education materials and the industry's comprehensive Service Interval Schedule, which helps educate consumers on when vehicle systems need to be routinely inspected and service or repair work should be performed.
As a bonus, shop owners who purchase the kits will have their shop included in the Find A Shop locator on the www.carcare.org website, which receives more than 100,000 hits per month. The materials in the kit can also be used during National Car Care Month in April 2006.
The Car Care Council provides a free online event planner that includes a template to make planning such an event as easy as possible. An event can range from a simple in-house checklane to a daylong event featuring vehicle inspections, displays, demonstrations and maintenance seminars. For more information, go to www.carcare.org, click on the "Fall Car Care Month" banner ad at the top of the page, and then click on "Event Planning Kit" in the upper right-hand corner, or call Susan Jones at 731-644-9926.
Marketing your business to the consumer requires an investment of time and money, but is crucial for your success. Many shop owners feel that marketing is more difficult than fixing cars. Promoting maintenance to consumers with a checklane event doesn't need to be complicated and can be a nice first step to improve your shop's performance.