Yorkshire garage seeing surge in EV enquiries
Howarth’s Garage, a Bosch car service centre in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, says it’s seeing an influx of new EV business.
The garage is the only independent in the area to offer EV servicing, something owner Phil Howarth is keen to capitalise on.
After expanding three years ago, Howarth realised that to attract the right customers, the business needed to update its online strategy and adapt to the way people now look for garage repairs and services.
He said: “After investing in new premises, equipment, and the Garage Hive management system, I turned my attention to our website. Our old one was 10 years old and had been built by a local company with no automotive industry knowledge. It only ever brought in the odd enquiry.
“The world has changed a lot over the last ten years but our online ‘shop window’ hadn’t. Nobody could find it, and it didn’t show people the breadth of repairs and services we offer.
“Not only are we VW Group specialists and the only local independent garage offering EV servicing, we’re also the only garage in the area offering Class 1 and Class 2 MOTs, in addition to Class 4.
“And whilst we’re in a busy commuter belt, it became apparent that to let customers know Howarth’s Garage is the only one they need, we had to make it easy for them to find us. We simply had to show up online.
“I’d heard Jim from Garage Services Online (GSO) talk on James Dillon’s podcast; it made complete sense. I book my barber online, so why wasn’t I making it easy for vehicle owners in Mirfield to book a service or MOT online too?”
Howarth appointed automotive website specialist GSO and within weeks the site was reaping dividends.
“We’re now attracting a lot of VAG work and we’re definitely busier with the sort of customer that’s perfect for us,” continued Howarth.
“We’ve also seen a surge in EV work, specifically from Tesla owners looking for servicing. When you search for ‘Tesla servicing’ in this area, we’re top of the page. Customers who don’t want to go to the main dealer now have a choice – and a lot of them seem to be choosing us.
“Getting the website was a no-brainer. It saves us a lot of admin time and attracts the right customers.
“The team at GSO is amazing and very approachable. They implemented everything we asked for and it’s working fantastic.
“We embraced EV rather than ignoring it. I’m glad we did the same with our website too.”