Education on Tire Life Improves Tire Longevity, Customer Trust – Wheel Review
6 min read
Don’t you wish everything aged like a fine wine? While that dry red gets better as the years go on, we humans are subject to old age and wrinkles plus our great inventions like cars get rusted and worn out. Tires on those cars get worn out, too. Like our bodies, the more miles you put upon tires, the more they wear down.
For tire dealers, wheel wear plus repair means steady business. You want your customers to choose your shop the next time they’re searching for tires or notice irregular treadwear. That relationship is built initially at the point of sale when you gain your own customer’s trust through education by being honest about the tires they buy and how to get the most life out of them.
Car tire dealers and equipment manufacturers across the country shared their thoughts with us about advising customers on getting the most from their tire life, the importance of regular maintenance plus the right equipment to improve tire longevity.
Equipment Matters
Longer tire existence for your customers starts with owning the correct equipment, says Kyle Harris, product manager for Hennessy Industries, makers associated with Coats car tire equipment.
“Having the tire changer with the correct accessories and using the right technique plus procedure is the best way in order to make sure that will tire is being mounted properly, safely and without damage, ” he says.
Harris explains the particular most important part of tire longevity will be what is usually inside of it. Air pressure is definitely the number one contributor to increased or even decreased wheel life and not maintaining the proper pressure can cause irregular tread and edge wear, in turn, decreasing overall tire lifestyle. To combat that problem, Harris recommends shops invest in tread depth scanning technology and inspect customers’ tires each visit.
“You need in order to make sure that you’re keeping your own customers’ wheels in the forefront of the conversation, ” says Harris. “Measuring tire stand depth at every customer visit and interaction really drives home the point that you are there to keep their own vehicle plus tires in tip-top condition and operating as securely as possible. ”
Alex Smith, Hunter Engineering ’s product manager for inspection products, states investing in car tire scanning technologies can give your shop ROI effortlessly. When customers come into your own shop, you can scan their particular tread level as well as examine brake and suspension components that may need servicing that day or down the line, which can lead to return visits and additional profit for your shop.
“Coming from an examination point associated with view, the best way to preserve a tire’s longevity is to inspect the tread regularly because, if not, once there’s the wear pattern you’re stuck with that, ” Smith says. “[Tread-depth scanners] are usually cool products because the particular ROI can be extremely high. It costs nothing to perform and expenses customers nothing. It’s basically a value-added convenience service, like peace of mind for the customer in no real-time labor penalty to anybody. ”
Treadwear Schooling
Without proper tire wear schooling and advice for durability at the particular point of sale, customers may wear tires prematurely and they might not trust your shop for their future tire plus vehicle service needs. Advice and support reminders will help gain have confidence in between a person and your clients – consequently making them more likely to arrive to your shop with regard to all their services needs.
Clayton Van Kleek, the owner associated with Van Kleek’s Tire in Lake Katrine, NY, lets his clients know about the particular importance of maintaining their tires in order to maximize their own tire investment.
“We are a big advocate of recommending rotating auto tires, [and anything] that extends their particular life, ” says Vehicle Kleek. “We explain to [customers] that will we look for any put on, and all of us would possibly make a recommendation for an alignment. We recommend that they have the cars at least checked regarding alignment from least as soon as a year. ”
Truck Kleek explained that you don’t need to push service on customers in order to make certain they come back to your own shop. He says slight recommendations and reminders during regular service appointments do that for you.
“We recommend [tires] when [customers] need all of them, ” claims Van Kleek. “What I mean by that is certainly, when the tires are used down to a point, we’ll tell them how much tread is left and that while [they’re] here, would these people like to consider a new set associated with tires? Then, we encourage them to [come back] twice annually in order to see the car, rotate the wheels, and check [alignment] away. At a minimum, the particular air pressure is also checked with least two times a year. ”
According to Nick Howe, company growth and development leader for Best-One of Indy , it’s important to ask customers detailed questions on the stage of sale to find the right tires for their vehicle so that the tire’s tread life can correspond with their driving habits.
“Do you want it to last five more many years until you sell the car? Do you want this tire to be the quietest tire you can buy? Or, are you looking for extreme traction? ” states Howe. “I think it comes down in order to that discussion and what information the customer gives you. ”
Questions before the sale are great, but a person need to make sure assistance reminders are top of mind to get you and your customer, as well. For Howe, that means offering guidance on services to protect and increase tire living. He suggests customers obtain their oil changed every 5, 000 miles – and tells them to come to Best-One of Indy to do it. Why? Because of the free tire rotations and alignment checks that will the dealership offers in order to customers after they buy a set of two or four tires. Now, patrons consider the particular shop to be the place to go pertaining to all their service needs, not just tire-related ones.
Top equipment and tire support reminders are usually the reasons Randy Cherniss says his customers arrive at his San Diego shop, Cherniss Tire World, for all of their program needs – not just tire-related ones. Every customer check out, Cherniss gives his customers a breakdown associated with their follow wear – whether they will just bought the wheels or they come in order to his shop regularly.
“We explain [tire longevity] when we’re selling the particular tire. All of us, again, explain it when we’re billing them out there, ” Cherniss says. “Then, we let them know we’re going to be sending them a reminder each four months to come in plus rotate and check the air pressure upon their vehicles so that we can extend [tire] lifetime.
“I always use the analogy of the show, Cheers . Where you go into the bar and everybody knows your name. [We want] the same thing right here. I think [customers] get a warm, fuzzy feeling that these people will get better tire life and they will be taken care associated with better more from independent [dealers] than from the box stores. ”