There’s a new brand of customers.  And they are hard to deal with as their value proposition doesn’t work.  At all.

COLUMN:

The industry is changing. It seems I write that almost every month. There are many areas of this industry in flux right now and it can be very frustrating. One of the “coming-up-more-and-more” topics is customer-installed parts.

This one ebbs and flows, many times in concert with recessions and unemployment rates. Thanks to the Internet, parts prices are so easily looked up — and so readily at hand — that the ability to save a buck by having the pros do the hard work, or the work that requires big machinery, seems like a no-brainer to some customers.

What’s at hand for us is a new phenomenon which merges two demographic that for years were worlds apart: the “do-it-yourself” and the “do-it-for-me” groups. Sure, sometimes a DIYer would come in and ask for a tip on how to proceed, or the occasional customer would look for a basic tutorial and ask, “Can I borrow your tools, too?”

Nowadays, this has become a daily question from customers: “If I buy it from NAPA/RockAuto and bring it to your store, can you install it?”

These customers aren’t evil. They aren’t trying to rip you off. They simply don’t understand what it takes to run a business and are just trying to save some money. Some aren’t open to the idea of hearing you explain your situation. They just want their situation fixed.

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DIFM vs. DIY: How to Handle the In-Between Customer | 2019-10-15 | Modern Tire Dealer