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NO PROBLEMS, JUST SOLUTIONS
Norma still finds that focusing on and spending time with her customers helps her increase business and build relationships.
“Some people just skip along, hurry up, get the job done, in and out of the shop, trying to do a volume thing. I’m not the fastest distributor in the world, but I have a lot of business.”
Even with the increased presence of the Internet, Norma finds the competition keeps her in check, and helps her provide service for her better customers.
“I’m always going to have those customers that are looking for price. I find that the better customers are the ones that are looking for service. They’re the ones that are going to come to me for that,” said Norma. “If they purchase online, they’re not getting their service. And if they’re looking for price, chances are they’re not going to be paying their bill as well as the guys that ‘get’ the whole service part.
“They tend to be the ‘A’ customers, the ones that understand the difference between service and price.”
Now that techs are more familiar with Norma, she doesn’t have to sell as hard as she used to.
“They already know they get the best service with me. They don’t have time to go and figure out how they’re going to get this thing returned and deal with this problem, when they can call me and say, ‘this thing’s broke’ and I go fix it or replace it, and they don’t have to worry about it.”
Norma covers about 300 miles for the mid-coast of Maine each week. With a more rural route, Norma stops at some dealerships, but says she stops at many more small shops.
“(Small shops are) dealing with so many different car lines, they have to have a lot more tools than a dealership. And a dealership gets special tools that they have to buy from the manufacturer to be a dealer, so you’re not going to be selling them those things.”
