San Diego - "Never underestimate the power of a pizza," said Keith Benline, owner of Robert's Auto Service, about his latest marketing strategy.
"I go to the quick lubes in the area and I bring them pizzas; they love pizzas," he said. "Then I tell them that if they ever get in a jam on a vehicle and strip a drain plug or have a problem on a vehicle, I will take care of it for them--for free."
In return, Benline said he provides the quick lubes with fliers for his shop and asks the shops to give them to customers when the needed repairs that are beyond their capabilities, or when customers ask for a recommendation on where to take their vehicles for major repairs.
"The first time you get a customer in that was referred from the Jiffy Lube, you go back and bring them pizzas again and say thank you for sending the customer over," he said. "I started doing this one month ago, and I have already received $2,500 worth of business, and all it cost me was $150 for pizzas."
Benline said gaining business from local quick lubes is one of many marketing strategies he has implemented since he purchased Robert's Auto Service in 2003--a decision that he said was largely based on seven years of experience as a consultant to Robert's Auto Service--and also on the ideal location of the shop.
Robert's Auto Service sits on the corner of Mission Bay Drive and Garnet Street--one of the busiest intersections in San Diego, Benline said.
"The location of the business is second to none," he said. "It is a shop that everybody in San Diego has driven by and knows is here."
Benline said he stumbled on Robert's Auto Service for the first time in 1993 as a salesman for a motor oil company. Although he said his sales attempts to previous Owner Bill Clum were unsuccessful, it wasn't long before he got his foot in the door.
The break didn't come through an oil sale, but rather as a consultant for Elite Business Services in 1997, he said.
It was during his time as a consultant to Robert's Auto Service that Benline said he spent time with Clum learning everything about the business, including the numbers, the employees, and the customers.
"Bill Clum is really the main guy behind Roberts," he said. "He owned it for 25 to 30 years, he is the one that grew it and gave it the reputation that it has."
When Benline purchased Robert's Auto Service from Clum in 2003, he said he brought his finance and consulting background to the business along with some fresh ideas and management philosophy.
"The automotive repair shop that is going to be around in the future is going to be run by a businessman, not an automotive mechanic," he said. "I can separate myself from having to run the place day to day and focus on what we need to do to get us through the next five to 10 years to be one of the people left standing."
Outlasting the competition, he said, means keeping a close eye on his numbers and measuring the effectiveness of his marketing strategies.
"Technicians can fix a car and they will know whether it's better or not based on how the car performs, how it runs, and whether or not the car is brought back by the customer," he said. "As the business owner or the service adviser, how do you know if you've accomplished a job?"
Benline said the answer is to understand the daily numbers including profits on parts and labor, repair order averages, and car count.
"Most people will say things like, 'We are busy; we have a lot of cars in here.' Well that doesn't necessarily mean you are profitable," Benline said, adding that he did $2 million in sales in 2006. "I can have an extremely slow day and be very profitable, and I can have a very busy day and be extremely unprofitable. You need to know those numbers you need to hit; if you are not doing those numbers, you are basically shooting in the dark because you really don't know."
Benline said that after a recent review of his numbers, he found an increase in new customers generated through his Web site, www.robertsauto.com, which led him to increase spending on Internet marketing.
"I increased Internet spending to $500 dollars a month," he said. "I made contact with all these companies that work with Google and Yahoo that get you to the top of the search engine list. Now, if you type in Mission Beach auto repair or Pacific Beach auto repair--I come up on the very top--it has since been paying even more dividends."
Benline added that if he had not tracked his marketing numbers, he would have never thought to increase his Internet dollars.
Benline said his five technicians work on all makes and models in a 10-bay, AAA-approved garage. His son-in-law, Jason Eva, manages a parts room stocked with $70,000 in parts primarily from WorldPac, he said. There are also two service managers and two shop assistants, he said, one of which is his step daughter, Kori Eva. He added that his wife, Kelly, does the bookwork for the business.
Making the business family-oriented and treating all his employees with respect is a management philosophy that Benline said he believes works well for his shop.
"I never liked the environment of working in fear and having owners that you never knew what kind of mood they were in," he said. "To me that is destructive." On that note, he added that employees spend more time at work than with their own families.
"When these guys wake up on Monday morning and they ask themselves, 'What am I doing with my life,' and all they can say is, 'I am working for Keith Benline,' that to me isn't much motivation, so I have to make it so they say, 'I am working for Keith Benline, but Keith Benline is a great guy and he has made this a fun place to work that is family-oriented, and he is taking care of us -- we are making good money and we've got a retirement working towards my future.'"