June 2020

they are more transient. They are here for a couple of years and they move away, change job, change house. That means you can’t take for granted that customers will just walk in the door. “We have to constantly put ourselves out there so people know we are here. Also, back then people would come in here because they did not know if there were any alternatives. There was no internet. They went to their local garage and that was it. Now, we can’t take it for granted that they will come in just because they are local. They will choose elsewhere if someone is going to offer them a better service. It makes you up your game. You’ve got to offer a better service, you’ve got to provide the right price, you need to offer the right level of customer service, aftercare in order for them to come back. So, the approach has completely changed.” O n the northern edge of Brighton, Patcham Garage is a long-standing institution based in the eponymous district of the city, a village that was absorbed by gradual suburban sprawl. There was a forge on the site in the nineteenth century which became the garage, which has now been in the same family’s ownership for over 40 years. “We’ve got four ramps, three two- posters and a four-poster ramp in the main workshop,” explained General Manager Kris Townsend. “We then have an ancillary building around the back, where we carry out MOTs. That’s got its own standalone building and office. We’ve then got two other workshops used for miscellaneous repairs and storage. We’ve got a forecourt at the front for parking and we have also got a yard at the rear.” The normal staff complement is three technicians, one of whom is also Workshop Manager, and one dedicated MOT tester, plus Kris in the office. Promotion Starting with the most actually obvious part of their advertising then moving to the digital end, Kris explained how he promotes the business: “I have the van with a sign on the A23 main road, and I’ve got two other signs. I’ve also got an advert in the Preston Pages and the Patcham Post parish magazines. I’ve also got digital advertising through BookMyGarage. “I’ve got a 4.6 rating out of 5 on Google, and that is from 96 reviews. We are really keen at pushing that forward. I’ve got about 200 reviews on BookMyGarage at about 4.8 out of 5 as well, which is great.” The modern approach is necessary as far as Kris is concerned, to address 42 AFTERMARKET JUNE 2020 GARAGE VISIT www.aftermarketonline.net MAXIMUM POTENTIAL: PATCHAM GARAGE Above: Kris Townsend Aftermarket drops in on Brighton-based Patcham Garage, to see how things run on the south coast the way we live now: “We have around 20,000 people living in the immediate vicinity, However, the way the internet works, and the way people like to shop around for better quality services, thanks to the access to reviews and things like that, we are seeing people come from a bit further away.” As we said, it is a modern approach, but things have not always been that way: “My father ran the business for many years. He relied on word of mouth. He didn’t advertise, and all of the local people came in here. In the 1970s and 1980s and even in the 1990s many people tended to keep their car forever, not change it, just repair it, and stay in the same house all their lives. In this situation, he had a regular flow of work. Mr Jones would always bring his MOT in, on that day, every year, and it was always the same car. He had loads of customers like that. “Today, people move around more,