Do you know what the biggest complaint I hear from luxury car owners is? Take a guess. It’s not engine trouble, expensive repairs or even gas prices. The number one complaint I hear is bad road conditions. Surprised? I own a repair shop and 2 body shops and I can tell you with certainty that bad road conditions are the worst. Why? Well because most performance cars are low to the ground and therefore more susceptible to bad roads. You know what I’m talking about right? Honestly, I got sick of hearing the whining. Finally I did some research for a customer and discovered the Ford Skid Plate that solved his problem. At first I thought, great I talked myself right out of making money. Ultimately though, he became very loyal to me with his car and with referrals, because he knew I really wanted to help. Here’s how it happened.
The Problem: Bad Road Conditions
My loyal customer has a beautiful sporty Ford GT that he brings to me when he needs anything done. About 9 or 10 months ago he was at my shop complaining because it was his 4th time bringing it in for the same problem. He scraped up the front bumper again, this time on a high speed bump. The poor guy was cursing up a storm and I understood why. This time I decided to see if anyone had come up with something to prevent this kind of damage from ever happening. I hoped on the phone and made some calls.
Now something you may not realize is that good shop owners like to talk to other shop owners. Sure we all need to make money, but there’s plenty of business out there for everyone and so we share information and refer customers regularly. At least my network and I do. One of the guys in my network told me that the people at Sliplo had developed something called the Ford Skid Plate and I should check it out.
The Solution: The Ford Skid Plate
My next call was to Sliplo at 800-574-3424. I’m giving their number because I was very happy about what I heard and later experienced. As I already said, they had a new product called the Ford Skid Plate. It’s designed to protect the front bumper from scrapes and scratches caused by potholes, dips in the road, speed bumps and steep driveways. Now, I put these guys through the ringer with questions because when I refer something to a customer I want it to be right. Here’s the information I gathered.
What Is the Ford Skid Plate?
The material is made form a proprietary polyurethane formulation specially made for cold temperature flexibility, excellent wear performance and maximum hydrolysis resistance. “Great so far, but what about installation?” I asked. I was concerned about drilling into the bumper. Fortunately, Sliplo uses 3M double-sided super adhesive tape to install the Ford Skid Plate. The tape makes it easy to install and remove safely without damaging the paint. Fantastic, but what does it look like once it’s installed on these luxury cars like the Ford GT? The Ford Skid Plate is so aerodynamically designed that you don’t even notice that it’s there. Well, they met my requirements for the referral, but what would my customer think?
The Results
After spending his money once again to repair the bumper of his car, my customer was very open to an option that might prevent future damage. He took his car over and had them install the Ford Skid Plate. My customer called me a few days later with his report. Amazing! He told me it was installed in under two hours and was really inexpensive. Better than that, he continued, it acts like a bumper guard so that the road never even touches the paint. I was so happy that I called Sliplo to thank them. They told me that the Ford Skid Plate is available to offer at my shops so that my guys can do the installs. So guess what I did? That’s right, I’ve done more than 30 installations so far and have gotten nothing but praise from my customers. Give it a try, it’s a no brainer.
