Getting customers booked in early is great, and with a garage management system you don’t even need to be involved as the system will take care of the whole process for you. A big win-win.
Life as a garage owner is fast paced, it needs to be organised, and you need the business aspect to function as successfully as the day-to-day operation.
Securing bookings early can make a significant difference to the profitability of your garage and it can save you a lot of time and hassle. A garage management system (GMS) can take all the work required to achieve this off your hands.
It can take bookings and manage your calendar to prevent double bookings, minimise no shows, and eliminate any confusion. You can be done with the days of the paper diary and all the issues that they can come with.
Here are the key ways in which a garage management system can help you secure early bookings.
Automated Messaging
The ability to send automated messages in a variety of scenarios is the critical element to getting customers booked in early using a garage management system. Use your GMS to:
- Send appointment reminders to prevent no shows
- Send reminders when a customer’s MOT, service or maintenance check is due
- Push customers to make a booking online
- Create promotional campaigns to generate bookings (more on this later)
- Communicate with customers during their booking – your GMS can text or email them every time you update the job status until their vehicle is ready for collection
- Send invoices and collect payment
This capability protects existing revenues and creates new revenues. It can also save you a lot of time as your GMS will streamline all aspects of your customer communication.
Online Booking Capability In Real Time
A GMS allows customers to book appointments online at their convenience and they can do so 24/7. This makes it easy for customers to book with you early to secure their slot and it makes it much easier for them to book with you over the competition.
Again this also saves you time. You will need to spend far less time talking to customers about availability and managing your diary. A GMS is always up to date and it removes the possibility of human error which can lead to double bookings, frustrated customers and staff, and general chaos. A GMS will simplify your life, and that of your customers’.
Booking Management
People lead busy, often unpredictable lives. Sometimes plans need to change – including garage appointments. If there’s one thing more frustrating than trying to shoehorn a late booking into the diary, it’s moving things around at the last minute and potentially losing revenue too.
This is a job that a GMS should be dealing with, it’s not one you need to be doing manually. Using a garage management system allows your customers to reschedule, which encourages early bookings in the first place as people know that making changes if necessary is always a possibility.
Marketing Campaigns
You could use your GMS system to be creative and incentivise early bookings. You could:
- Offer promotions
- Provide incentives for booking early
- Create packages
- Add a small free ad-on with certain booking types
These could be seasonal or based on current events – for example, if you generally have a time of year that’s quiet, the run up to that period could be a good time to consider a campaign.
You can use the GMS’ email and text functionality to run this type of marketing activity.
Start Today
- Optimise your processes
- Build recurring revenues
- Make your garage easy to deal with
- Increase customer satisfaction and loyalty
- Reduce operational costs and stress!
If you’re looking for a new garage management system that can achieve all this and more, at Simple GMS we have the solution.
Simple GMS is quick and easy to implement and it won’t take you long to get to grips with its capability and which features can best complement your setup.
Book a demonstration today, it’s free and there’s never any obligation.
You can also read more about the key benefits of implementing a garage management system and what it could help you achieve, here: The Key Benefits of Using a Garage Management System