Are Websites to gain more work a waste of time and money? #
Posted by Graham Bullock on July 16, 2013, 11:36 am Edited by board administrator July 17, 2013, 2:15 pm
Recently I seem to be spending more and more time pricing jobs and quoting for work that I do not get. Dozens of calls from people other than my own customer base. A total waste of time that cost me a lot when I am not working.
With more and more trade associations and "who can repair my car" type websites I did a Google search last night to see how easy it was to look for garage services in my local area and to see if I popped up anywhere.
Afterwards I did wonder how many of you have registered with the various websites and what do you think about the charges that apply to get any extra work and do you also get a lot of price only enquiries?
This one is the latest I have been asked to sign up for and is advertised in this months Aftermarket magazine -
https://tootcompare.com/garages/
Terms & Conditions from Tootcompare - The Garage acknowledges, agrees and accepts that when a User makes a Booking over the Website that on the making of that Booking the Garage will accept the Fees and or Commissions detailed in paragraphs a, b below:- a. Booking Services at a published price on the Website a Commission of (20%) of that published price plus VAT. Any further work found during the completion of the Services will not attract any further Fees or Commissions unless a further Booking is made during the completion of the Services. b. Booking MOT only will attract a fixed fee of £8 plus VAT.
Also from the FAQ "Equally by reducing your prices you become more competitive and will feature more prominently in the search results".
Is this going to be a sign of the times where we are expected to compete with the prices in the first instance to get to the top of the list on their website and then have to pay for the privilege when we actually get a job? All because it is being made so easy for the customer to sit at home and get on-line quotes for a job and then ring me to see if I can match it.
There does appear to be two types of site, one just directs customers to a choice of garages but more prevalent now is the sites that charge for leads for a particular job.
Should we avoid using those sites that charge, as any commission paid to them would have to be found from other jobs, added to that particular job or is taken from our gross profit.
With decreasing discounts from suppliers, decreasing profit (from trying to be competitive) increasing overheads, increasing equipment and training costs, just where are we heading?