May 2019

42 AFTERMARKET MAY 2019 TYRES AND TYRE BAY www.aftermarketonline.net portfolio or looking to expand, Tyre Stuff believe we are the best place for equipment and advice to get you up and running.” Customer’s point of view Once you have the intention, and the equipment, you need to grab the attention of your customers, and focus it on the tyre issue at hand. “The average person doesn’t spend a great deal of time thinking about tyres or tyre maintenance,” says Sue Pryce, Marketing Director at Sigmavision Ltd. “A conversation with friends and family who don’t work in the automotive sector typically confirms this. Consumer surveys conducted by Tyresafe report that one in five motorists have never checked tread depth, and one in three under 25s never check tread depth. “This lack of consumer awareness has consequences, evident in the annually published Department for Transport statistics. The latest available data is for 2017 and confirms that illegal, defective or underinflated tyres were reported as contributory factors in 31% of accidents caused by vehicle defects. Yet the full picture may be even more alarming. In accidents where the ‘road environment’ was reported as a contributory factor, 63% of accidents were due to a ‘slippery road’. It’s not a giant leap to think that the exacerbating factor in these cases was a poor stopping distance on wet roads due to insufficient tyre tread depth.” Sue continues: “Overall, the general public remains poorly informed on the important question of when to buy new tyres. A previous Tyresafe survey of 340,000 tyres at 800 participating tyre outlets, revealed that 27.3% of tyres are illegal at the point of replacement. What’s more, 70.4% of all tyres had a tread depth of 2mm or below at the point of replacement. How many of those contributed to the 63% of accidents where a slippery road was a contributory factor? Very occasionally, the aftermarket also has to deal with bad press coverage of service providers or tyre retailers. Even if proven unfounded, some consumers are left feeling skeptical of the information and service they will receive when arriving on the retailer’s forecourt. Trust from transparency According to Sue, to counter any skepticism, the best approach from the service provider is one of full transparency: “Trust and customer loyalty are valuable commodities in the service provider-consumer relationship, but they are also its biggest hurdles. Any poor experiences or lack of transparency from tyre outlets or service workshops contribute heavily to the loss of trust and loyalty – to the detriment of any longer term relationship. However, when a business is able to communicate clear information, in an open and transparent way, customers feel more connected to the company and will stay loyal for the long-term. Put simply, businesses can set their brand apart by using transparency to Above: Fig 1. TreadReader 3D tyre scan showing uneven tread from poor wheel alignment