Top 5 Challenges Facing Your Repair Shop

Each week, The Pulse provides insight into the buying, sourcing and brand-loyalty habits of counter professionals and professional technicians. This week, using data from Industrial Marketing Research’s (IMR) recent Installer Survey, we look at the top five challenges that repair shop managers face.
When asked to list the biggest challenges in managing a repair shop, it makes sense that customers would be at the top of that list. Probably the most difficult task any shop owner or manager can face is maintaining a consistent level of customer service. A highly individualized and intangible skill, dealing with customers is a constant challenge and a top priority. Nearly 48 percent of repair shop managers surveyed said that dealing with customers is their biggest challenge.
A satisfied customer is a definite success, but is no excuse for resting on your laurels. Keeping and maintaining that customer is a priority as well. The shop managers surveyed agreed, and said keeping customers is a struggle as well, with 8 percent of shop managers rating it as their biggest challenge. This was trumped only by another sometimes puzzling issue – diagnostics – which 11 percent of shop managers cited as their top challenge. Rounding out the list of a shop manager’s top five challenges were finding employees (5 percent) and parts availability (3 percent).

In order, these are a shop's biggest challenges:
1 - Dealing with Customers
2 - Keeping Customers
3 - Diagnostics
4 - Finding Employees
5 - Parts Availability