Silently Retooling the Back Bay

        Quietly in the back bay, as Covid-19 tests society, unrecorded numbers of automotive service providers are adapting their practices to keep the trucks and cars running safely on our roadways. Their imagination to engage their customers via technology is raising a new standard for the independent repair segment. 

              Undoubtedly the rest of the supply chain has much to express gratitude for these essential businesses. Because without the installers supporting the do-it-for-me customer, the industry might wind up worse off than this year's current projections. According to Roland Berger, a research firm, they project those independent repairers to earn 15 percent less than in 2019. It is also worth noting that Roland Berger foresees that miles driven will drop and that new car purchases will hit a record low of 12 million.

              Undeterred by the gloom of a profound recession, Essex County Repair overturned some constraints. Early onto the spreading virus in late February, Kyle Logue, owner of this four-bay operation in Middleton, Massachusetts, threw his face-masked team into scrub down mode. Every surface from the vehicle's interior to the car keys, explains Logue, receives the full disinfectant treatment.

Shortly after sealing off the waiting room and requiring the delivery person to leave the packages in a containment staging area, Logue ramped up his online outreach campaign to soothe the Covid-wary customer about his sanitizing measures.

More than 700 people read Logue's 'we're open for business' text message that quickly fetched 20 bookings that same week. Direct online communications to the greater Boston driving population, however self-evident it seems, has now become a newly adopted communal approach in making Logue's business more inviting. 

              L&N Performance Auto Repair prefers a multi-platform charm offense. Nearly every week, video streaming over LinkedIn and Facebook, Lucas Underwood outlines a list of safety protocols. His fellowship extends to his community of Blowing Rock, North Carolina, where he finds instilling goodwill a big deal. For each receipt that someone brings in from the town's restaurants, pledges Underwood from one of his clips, he'll discount up to twenty-five dollars on the next repair.           

In Montpelier, Vermont, Amy Matinat had been actively preparing Auto Craftsmen, her certified "ASE Blue Seal" car care center for the unforeseen. Gradually over the years, Matinat nudged her master technicians into digital education, but when the coronavirus struck, she plunged them into the contactless online world. She deployed a coordinated online logistical network electron to confirm inspections, place orders, and transact payments.

              These casual anecdotes amplify a promising trend for this unsung segment of the automotive aftermarket. Through mid-April, Roland Berger surveyed several dealerships and independent shops in the metro Detroit area. They revealed that 92 percent of independent businesses responded to the coronavirus by engaging their target audience. By contrast, nearly one-third of the motor city's dealerships went silent. To drive more appointments via digital media, the shops promoted special financing, concierge pick-up, and online support.

              When the U.S. Treasury unloaded the first round of the stimulus checks and dispersed the $349 billion in forgiveness loans from the Payment Protection Program back into circulation, Logue, Matinat, and Underwood experienced an uptick in sales through May.     

              A lift in bookings and average repair orders coincides with Bank of America's remarks to CBS's Face the Nation on April 26. Hinting at stabilization of declining consumer spending, CEO Brian Monihan said, "…other businesses are starting to come on. After the first round of provision buying, which was a flood of activity, you're now seeing that level out. That actually provides some hope that as the economy opens up in pieces, and safely, you'll see that consumer spending continues to grow, which will help fuel the U.S. economy."

Yet right now when people are feeling anxious, far too many mom and pop shops are putting themselves at a disadvantage by responding too slowly to their uncertainties. Moderated by Underwood, Facebook hosts the 4,000-member strong Auto Shop Owners group to spread best practices. He believes that while it is never too late to build trust online with their customers, they need to do it regularly and continually to stand out as an invested stakeholder.            

              So is moving closer to the digital economy. One app named Openbay stepped up their LinkedIn presence by extolling the convenience of finding an installer, and the ease of booking and paying for the repair job. Clever on Openbay's part to build awareness as record numbers of homebodies are spending more time than ever online. Traffic on Facebook, The New York Times reports, grew to three billion visitors, in which video and voice usage doubled in March and April. Other apps like Complete Auto Reports, Rev Parts, among other digital services, are marketing their platform by teaching their future consumers how to benefit from invaluable customer experience in the post-Covid era.

               Digital shop management systems that seamlessly interface with most other apps seem ripe in the making. Amy Matinat's biggest regret about buying Shopware is that she wished that she had invested in the software package years earlier. Now that Matinat has trained her low-tech, late adopters how to communicate remotely, she is ready to integrate online payment with Shopware.

This pandemic is teaching us that the virtual marketplace is no longer optional but fundamental to our success. By next year thanks to the flourishing online tools, it will be hard to imagine a lesser efficient business or a disempowered customer who has not experimented with the changes in technology from their computer or mobile devices.

Participatory platforms are showing tremendous promise to the interconnected aftermarket. And Covid-19 has also taught us how to adapt to an existential threat rather than to resist it.