Many people have been the victim of an unprofessional car repair garage or mechanic. This experience quite understandably, has caused them to be mistrustful of all car repair garages. However, there are many ways that you can tell if you’re dealing with a professional and ethical car repair garage.
There are many responsible and professional car repair garages, like ours, that you can trust to treat you well and do a good job on your car to boot. These are our tell-tale signs that you’re dealing with a professional garage.
Excellent Customer Service
One of the first signs that you’re dealing with professionals is that you’re receiving a good level of customer service from the start. Any professionally run car repair business will want loyal customers and will make sure to give each one of them a friendly and welcoming experience when booking in their car for a repair, MOT or regular maintenance work.
If you contact a car repair garage and they are abrupt, or even discourteous and unprofessional when you speak to them over the phone or in person, then this isn’t a very good sign.
A professional garage will always be conscious of their business’s reputation and will want you to recommend their services to your friends – this is often reflected in their approach to customer service. When new and existing customers contact their business, they should always feel valued and trust the garage to do a good job on their car.
They run a tight ship
When you’re taking your car in for a diagnostic service or car MOT booking, the first thing you should look for is whether the garage itself is neat, clean and tidy and whether you can you park your car easily and safely.
A professionally run garage will be conscious of how they present themselves to prospective customers; after all, you’re leaving one of the most valuable possessions you own in their hands.
Making a good first impression is an important first step for garages who want to give their customers a solid idea of how their car will be treated in their care, which often reflects the level of service they are providing. This is something you should pay close attention to.
They are patient and transparent
A professionally run car repair and servicing garage will be patient and thorough when they explain what is wrong with your car. They should also offer to show you the original part that might need replacing before giving you a written quote with the estimated cost clearly displayed.
Honest car mechanics appreciate that most of their customers have little knowledge of their trade, so they should be happy to walk you through the suggested work that is needed in great detail, so that you are 100 per cent happy with their recommendation before signing on the dotted line.
Many unprofessional car repair garages might be vague about the type of repair that is needed, or tell you a very well-rehearsed story of what is “wrong” with your car. You might hear: “It’s too complicated to explain”, to brush you off and get away with charging for extra or unnecessary parts and labour. Or even worse, they might exchange a functional working part for a dodgy counterfeit one which can be extremely dangerous.
Finally, it’s a bad sign if your car mechanic doesn’t provide you with a written estimate of how much the repair work will cost.
Every professional garage will want to be as open and clear as possible to provide a good service to their customers. Our car service centre and MOT testing service employs some of the finest and honest car mechanics in Bolton, with competitive prices.