GW columnist, Aaron Phillips looks to the New Year with confidence

Jackson & Phillips Automotive Services prepared for record number cars coming out of warranty in 2019

GW columnist, Aaron Phillips looks to the New Year with confidence

2017 was one of Jackson and Phillips’ busiest years, so our main aim for 2018 was to prove that this wasn’t a one off and consolidate our position.

Aaron Phillips of Jackson & Phillips Automotive Services in Leighton Buzzard.

We had already decided to continue our commitment to Bosch training with two technicians spending time at the Uxbridge Training centre this year, we also enrolled our apprentice in the Bosch apprenticeship programme, which is actually fully funded by the government for 16-19 year olds.

Having invested in training it was clear that we needed to invest in equipment to make the most of the training, we are currently trialling the Bosch KTS590 with a view to adding it to our collection of diagnostic equipment.

Workshop investment

Other investments this year included a new ramp to make better use of available space and new storage for the diagnostic equipment.

We haven’t just been busy in the workshop we’ve also been busy socially, spreading the word about the work that we do and the service we provide.

I personally have been attending networking meetings with a great level of success, these meetings have not only bought in new customers from the companies at the meeting but has also increased word-of-mouth recommendations and social media recommendations.

Also having won a customer care award at a local business awards ceremony in 2017 we decided this year to enter the Garage of the Year Awards and were extremely pleased to be a runner up in the large garage category – we hope we can improve on this next year.

Our aims for 2019 are to further increase our local presence and draw in more new customers through networking and focusing on maintaining our high level of customer service, whilst still continuing to invest in training and equipment.

“A great time to be an independent garage”

I think that the industry as a whole is in good shape at the current time, and with record car sales registered in 2015 and 2016 we will be seeing a lot of vehicles requiring an MOT test as they come out of the manufacturer’s warranty period in the next 12 months.

So now is a great time to be an independent garage with plenty of vehicles requiring work and with more and more manufacturers opening up and allowing access to technical information it seems we are currently in an excellent position to offer a viable alternative to the manufacturers dealerships.

In my opinion our most important challenge as independent garages is to offer the best level of customer service that we possibly can.

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