Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cody Bennett. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Cody thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

Friendly Mechanic is based around the idea of changing the industry standard. When you’re talking about auto repair or mechanic work, most people have a general idea of what they expect. Some people may have higher standards than others when they think of the average auto repair facility, or especially when it comes to getting service at the dealership.

I’d say the dealer is usually considered the gold standard when it comes to auto repair in the average customers mind. You always hear from customer’s about being a car owner “who always takes their car to the dealer”. They expect a certain level of service and competency. Especially your older customers.

The dealership has long been considered the go to when you need repairs done right. Most people wouldn’t be aware of how dealer service has changed. Pricing is still typically the highest at the dealership, but are you really getting that level of service you pay for.

My goal with Friendly Mechanic is not just to change your ideas about what to expect for auto repair service. We obviously are built around the idea of mobile service, bringing the mechanic to you, but we also don’t want people to lower their expectations of what we can bring them quality wise. The idea is to offer competitive pricing while still delivering on expert repair service. We aren’t always the lowest priced mobile mechanic available, but we aim to give you that “dealer-level” quality at an affordable rate. Our service options are always changing and we are always looking for new things to offer to really give you a VIP experience.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Picture the start of an average day of work/school/busy weekend. You go out to start your car and it won’t start. First thing most people do is try a jump start. Could be a dead battery. You get help from a neighbor, but still nothing. What do you do next? Some people use their AAA to test the battery, or maybe you have roadside assistance on your insurance, but what happens when the battery test comes back good. Now what?

Most people end up towing their vehicle to the dealer or a local shop. Tow costs add up quick. You usually pay a high end fee for diagnosis work and then when they do figure out the repair, you’re stuck seeing dollar signs.

Broke-down vehicle costs add up quickly. What if there was an easier option. Friendly Mechanic isn’t your average roadside service. We bring the mechanic to your doorstep at an affordable cost. You get expert auto repair diagnosis and repair service at an affordable rate.

A mobile mechanic isn’t really a new idea necessarily, but normally you’re paying an auto tech doing work on the side. Friendly Mechanic is a licensed and insured service. You’re paying for a legitimate service with all of the benefits of that.

With Friendly Mechanic, I saw an opportunity to shake up the industry of auto repair. I’ve had shop owners/dealer shop managers laugh in my face when they found out I offered mobile mechanic service. It’s still not a respected line of service, but my thought process was always why not. There will always be thing you need a lift for or that will make way more sense doing in a shop, like swapping an engine.

But modern engines have so many maintenance items and diagnostic repairs that can be done right in a customer’s driveway. Why not make auto repair more convenient and affordable for the customer. Scheduling with a local shop can be a nightmare and it can take days if not weeks to get stuff done. Why not have the work done at your home while you sit comfortably in your house?

In addition to making house calls, our average turnaround for repairs is under a week, which at the end of the day is really the most important part about car repair. Getting your car back on the road, safely.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

When you run a mobile shop with no front of house, building a following on social media is one of the most important parts to getting return business and new customers.

Currently, almost all of our presence is built on Facebook. It made it incredibly easy to build an audience organically without much money spent on advertisements. As we’ve gradually expanded, advertising has become a necessity, but it was easy to start this process through Facebook as well.

We keep up with our Facebook and Instagram audience/customer base almost daily with updates, which I feel is absolutely necessary to keep your business relevant. You wanna stay in front of people and in the back of their mind. This is of the utmost importance when you don’t have a shop for people to drive by on their day to day. This particular service would likely be much harder to grow your customer base if our current society didn’t have such an online presence.

Over time, we’ve started expanding our social media reach via our website and now through Youtube. I’m still a relative newbie for Youtube content, but its shown some promising signs.

If I can give tips to beginners exploring how to expand their customer reach on social media, I would say to explore groups in your area on platforms like Facebook. This is a good way to get the word out about your service. It’s also important to ask your current customer base to leave reviews on your page. So many new/potential customers rely heavily on what other have to say about you. It’s also important to stay active on all of your social channels. People want to see content now a days, so try to post regularly on your medium.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

When building a mobile based service, keeping my clients up to date and returning makes social media much more important. I stay active on Instagram and Facebook. These are the channels I used primarily to build our following and to draw in new customers.

One thing, I’ve learned to keep my customers coming back is to just be honest. Share your day to day stories. People want to support an individual, not a faceless corporation. Show them you’re a real person, with similar problems to them. I think this fosters sympathy/empathy with your customer base. People don’t feel like they’re dealing with a cold sales person trying to sell them the highest cost item that’s just gonna get them a good payday.

In the same sense that you want to foster sympathy/empathy, you also want to be sympathetic/empathetic with your customer base. This doesn’t mean you have to do every other job under charity, but it means providing your customers with excellent service and working with them on issues. In my particular line of work, this could mean topping up fluids voluntarily, running to grab extra unexpected parts, running complimentary diagnostic checks on possible issues, etc.

Showing people you care also tends to draw people back to you. They know you’re not a heartless person chasing the dollar, but genuinely trying to provide them with a great service.

Contact Info:

• Website: FriendlyMechanic.us
• Instagram: Instagram.com/friendlymechanic
• Facebook: Facebook.com/friendlymechaniccolorado
• Youtube: Youtube.com/csbennett92