New garage celebrates success
An independent garage in County Durham has doubled in size despite only opening 18 months ago.
EMS Diagnostics, a Jaguar Land Rover specialist in Bishop Auckland, opened its doors with no customer base when owner Josh Tyler relocated to the area to be with his partner.
It was a brave move, compounded by the country being in the grip of the pandemic. Furthermore, the unit he took was on an industrial estate with no natural customer foot-fall.
Undeterred, he commissioned a website with industry specialist, Garage Services Online and completed specialist training to become a member of the DPF Doctor network. To support the online presence, he also implemented a social media strategy which was further enhanced by word-of-mouth recommendations. Almost immediately the enquiries started to come in.
Josh explained: “The best thing I did was seek out the right people to get me seen online and supplement that with a trusted specialist network which also showcased my additional DPF specialism.
“The website gave me a professional platform from the start, one that truly reflects the garage itself and what we stand for. And the DPF Doctor training modules have hugely increased my DPF knowledge. In fact I’d say it’s been transformed, even from what I learnt at a main dealer.”
The garage has already doubled in size to 3,000sqft and additional investment has been made in new equipment and training. Josh is now looking for more staff including a master technician.
He continued: “Nobody knew we were here or who I was 18 months ago. The business has gone from a standing start to where we are now, mainly because we’re easily found online and via a specialist network.
“We can take up to 15 enquiries a day. EMS Diagnostics ranks highly in a Google search and people contact us via the website, the DPF Doctor network or, after learning about us through those, just pick up the phone!
“It’s not unusual for customers to travel; some from as far as Cumbria. Yes because we’re a JLR specialist, but also because we’re DPF specialists too. The whole package we’re building here is really working. We’ve got the expertise and customers are accessing that by finding us online.”
Jim Lang at Garage Services Online commented: “It’s great to see the website working so well for EMS. Josh’s garage is the perfect example of how paying a low-cost website subscription, with no up-front fees, pays dividends – and incredibly quickly.
“He’s shown what can be achieved when you marry expertise and training with an online presence across multiple platforms. Collectively, they target exactly the work you want – the work you’ve made an investment in to provide. EMS has done just that and is reaping the rewards.”