Motorgeek your shop needs a website sir! Thanks for the reply to my email today btw.
How will a web site improve our customer service and allow me to be more productive? The business owners that I have talked to say their web sites have increased the time they have to spend answering emails, phone calls, and answering PMs, I spend over 6 hrs a day interacting with potential customers now. This does not allow much time for me to do what I am good at. The Internet has made our company more visible to potential customers that do not know the difference between high quality products and services and are just window-shopping for the lowest price.
If you are buying a 12 oz can of Coke, shop for the lowest price. You will be getting EXACTLY the same product (can of Coke) regardless what you paid for it. If you are shopping for a service like machine work, porting, custom exhaust systems and so on, you have to hold the product in your hand, inspect the machine work, experience the performance increase 1st hand or talk to someone that has had a good or bad experience with your products or service.
Look at web sites where the companies list their prices for particular services. When there is a list of services like boring a cylinder, porting, head milling, crankshaft rebuilding, engine rebuilding etc, you do not know what type of equipment the shop is using, the level of experience of the technician or how much time the shop is taking to do your job. Many of the prices I see listed on the majority of the web sites tell me they have not spent the money on the proper equipment and they are not paying for experienced machinist, welders, and mechanics. It cost me more to pay my machinist to bore a cylinder, modify a head, or do a valve job on a head than what some of the internet advertisers are charging for service with the same name. What type of quality can you expect from those low priced operations? I talk to guys daily that have paid top dollar for a particular product or service and did not get what they paid for. This is one of the dangers of an attractive web sit or flashy magazine advertisement.
The majority of the people that spend their hard earned money with us are sold on our products and services before they make contact with us. Our type of business seems to be best promoted by satisfied customers telling other potential new customers of there experience.
I am open for suggestions on ways to improve customer service, job quality and increase the time I can spend developing better products. 35 years ago, I was able to spend 80 % to 90% of my time doing what I am good at. Nowadays I am lucky to spend 10% to 20% of my time doing what I am good at.