Motor Age: What types of shops should join NARPRO?
Jay Jennings: We want to work with independent, normally family-owned, small neighborhood shops that are the kind of shops where you know who they are. They're the kind of people that once you find them, you're going to keep them, because they're honest. They realize how important each customer is, because they're a referral source for their business. That's how the majority of these shops get their new business, from referrals. It's not from advertising. They're wired already to take care of that person and to make sure they communicate well, that the person feels like they're important to them. They get to know them by name. Those valuing a long-term relationship are the kind of shops that are our type of client.Motor Age: How do you help members?
Jennings: The challenge for them is they have a hard time advertising in the field against the big boys. We're trying to create a cooperative marketing association to pool their monies and be able to do some advertising that they would not be able to afford on their own. Our three pillars of advertising are radio, Internet presence, which is paid search and search engine optimization and social media marketing, and then public relations. Those are all things that they can attempt and try to do, but really when you put it all together, there's much more power in numbers.
Motor Age: What issues is NARPRO helping shops work through?
Jennings: The albatross around the industry's neck is that these shops are going to take advantage of you. They're going to do things that are not authorized. They're going to do repairs that weren't suggested or they're going to charge for things they didn't do. There's such a challenge that we're seeing with the industry among consumers that they think they're going to be ripped off. We're trying to make sure in our message that consumers understand that we've done a lot of deep research. Read what real customers are saying about these shops. They are real reviews by real customers. See how the shop responds. Do your research, but we've also done some things that you can trust that are a lot deeper than what you'd be able to do as a consumer.
