CHICAGO — Customers have been calling shops and telling owners what is wrong with their vehicle since the beginning of the automobile.

But they’re getting more accurate.

Making the aftermarket more transparent is important to maintaining customer relationships, whether it’s through marketing, reviews, social media or websites like RepairPal or Angie’s List. A trio of shop owners and aftermarket execs discussed this in “Technology Enabling Transparency in the Aftermarket” on Wednesday afternoon at the Global Automotive Aftermarket Symposium (GAAS).

Greg Buckley, partner with Buckley’s Auto Care and a panelist with the discussion, says customers are looking for knowledge on their own now that they are keeping their vehicles longer.

“In my opinion, they’ve become a much better consumer with the knowledge they’re obtaining online or by any means possible,” he says. “That has proven to be a bonus with our clientele. A smarter consumer is usually a more profitable consumer.”

Fellow panelist Jim Dykstra, owner, Dykstra’s Auto Service, adds that even just 10 or 15 years ago, people understood their vehicles better. “Nowadays when you call the customer, the advisors have a harder time describing that. But with the Internet, they can learn. That’s been a huge benefit for us,” he says.

But you have to work with the educated customers carefully, because as moderator David Sturtz, CEO, RepairPal, notes customers who experience sticker shock are less likely to come back.

There are several ways you can do this. Dykstra utilizes the Be Car Care Aware campaign, and Buckley says he has a content partner providing videos on the shop’s website. The videos as well as a photo board in the shop show various major procedures.

“We found and even the shops that don’t embrace this are going to find that if the customer can understand that estimate instead of being upset that they’re being charged too much, things are going to be better,” Dykstra states.

He adds that people are getting more accurate at telling the shop what is wrong with the car, even bringing in printouts. “More and more they’re having information for us. They’re empowering themselves on a more frequent basis.”

However, when the customers bring in parts instead of information, that’s when things change. Both Buckley and Dykstra say no to installing customer-supplied parts, especially from online parts sellers that are becoming more numerous.

“I don’t like it, number one,” Buckley says. “Tires I can accept to a degree. However, any parts, absolutely not. I won’t take that risk. I’m here to provide a service and manage a shop.

Dykstra notes that by building this shops’ customer base to a specific type of person, they only see this about once a month at all three shops. He also says that it comes down to parts that are wants vs. needs.

“You’re going to see the online people go for the low hanging fruit when it comes to the do-it-for-me market. When it comes to the do-it-yourself market, it’s a whole different story,” he adds.

Reaching out to the right customer base is work, and both Buckley and Dykstra say they have steered clear of the Yellow Pages and are going online, mail and email newsletters, on the radio and TV and definitely through social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. But the goal with social media is not dollars and cents, but rather relationships.

“When we started, we used to have fuel islands and I used to be able to talk to you two or three times a week and get to know you,” Buckley explains. “When that went away from the industry, there was no mechanism to keep that handshake. That’s why social media is there. It’s metrics are to be understood in a different way.”

And if you feel like you’re getting “Facebooked out,” it’s OK. Dykstra says he is there, too. While it can be difficult to measure, it does serve a purpose, much like what Buckley described.