LAS VEGAS, Nov. 5, 2019—Andy Bizub, owner of Midwest Performance Cars; Bill Nalu, owner of Interstate Auto Care; Mike Maloney, owner of Convenience Auto Service and Frank Scandura, Frank’s European Service led a panel at AAPEX entitled “Your Customer in 2020” on Tuesday. The panel was moderated by Vic Tarasik of Socoach.
The shop owners discussed the trends in customers and how the modern shop owner needs to adapt and answered questions posed by Tarasik. The majority of the discussion revolved around technology how customers have come to rely and depend on it.
Knowing that, how should shop owners stay relevant?
“We’re still in the relationship business,” Maloney says.
Even with AI, it’s still a people business, Maloney stresses. Relationships are still important, do not underestimate the importance of those.
“If you take the time and show them that you care, they’ll be able to tell you what they need,” Maloney adds.
Nalu warns about technology, because he says that relying on it too much may take away customer interaction and ruin relationships, which is so important.
“Technology has its place. Let’s not just deal with each other like we’re robots,” Nalu says. “If we’re no longer in the people business, how do we rank suppliers?”
"Do you want to be all things to all people? That is a prescription for failure,” Bizub says.
He then discussed Amazon and their purchase of Whole Foods. They got in front of a need and saw that they needed to create a relationship with their customers, that’s why they did it. Figure out what your customer needs and get in front of that.
“Don’t neglect that relationship part,” Bizub says.
