A peak everyone sees coming
Changing tyres is the only workshop job whose date you know in advance. You know who has tyres in storage, you roughly know when the cold arrives, you know customers will wait until the last minute.
Yet in many dealerships, the season is handled in reaction. The schedule fills up in no particular order, reception spends its days on the phone, and customers who get no answer go to the fast-fit centre next door. Then in December, the workshop has gaps while customers have had their tyres fitted elsewhere.
The problem is not the workload. A few hundred tyre changes over a month, a workshop can absorb. The problem is that all the calls arrive in the same week, often on the same Monday morning.
What the rules say, country by country
Customers often ask. Reception should have the answer at hand:
- Luxembourg. Winter tyres are mandatory in winter conditions (black ice, snow, frost), on all wheels, marked M+S or with the alpine symbol. The on-the-spot fine is €74 (Guichet.lu).
- France. In the mountain municipalities covered by the Loi Montagne, winter tyres or chains are mandatory from 1 November to 31 March. Since November 2024, only tyres bearing the 3PMSF symbol are accepted (lesfrontaliers.lu).
- Belgium. No general obligation, but winter tyres are widely used as soon as temperatures drop.
For a dealership in the Greater Region, this means one thing: many customers drive in several countries and do not want to take any risks. Demand comes early and all at once.
What a season on the back foot costs
Take a dealership with 600 sets of tyres in storage, waiting for customers to call.
Illustrative assumptions. Replace them with your own figures: sets in storage, last November’s call report, average spend.
And the figure does not tell the whole story. A customer who has their tyres fitted elsewhere often does more than tyres there: they will have their next service done there too.
Reverse the direction of the calls
The solution comes down to one simple idea: call your customers before they call you. An outbound call happens when you choose. An inbound call arrives when the customer feels the cold, that is, at the same time as everyone else.
By contacting customers in waves from late October, you spread demand over four or five weeks instead of two. The schedule fills in the order you chose, and the switchboard only receives the calls that are left.
The six-step method
- Extract the list: customers with tyres in storage, then workshop customers whose car came in over the summer on summer tyres. Note the tread depth measured at removal if you have it.
- Split into waves of around a hundred customers. First: those who drive in the mountains or abroad, and those whose winter tyres are worn and need replacing.
- Open dedicated slots: 30-minute slots reserved for tyres, including Saturday mornings, so that services are not blocked.
- Contact each wave: a text with a booking link, then a call three days later for those who have not booked.
- Prepare the day before: take the sets out of storage, check their condition, prepare the quote if new tyres are needed.
- Send a reminder the day before the appointment: a simple text noticeably reduces forgotten appointments, which are expensive in peak season.
Protect the switchboard during the peak
Even with a well-run campaign, some customers will call. Three precautions prevent saturation:
- An answer sheet at reception: fitting price, average lead time, tyres in stock, rules by country. The same five questions come back all day.
- Extra help at peak times: Monday morning and lunchtime, as for the rest of the year, only more so.
- An answer when nobody is free. That is where an assistant like Sophia helps: activated through call forwarding, she takes overflow calls, several at once, books the tyre slot in the calendar and sends the confirmation. She can also make the campaign’s outbound calls.
A concrete example
A dealership in the south of Luxembourg, four workshop bays, 450 sets in storage. Last year, it waited for the calls: two weeks of swamped switchboard, unhappy customers and a half-empty December schedule.
This year, the team sends the first wave of texts on 20 October, to cross-border customers and worn tyres. On the 27th, it calls back those who did not reply. Every Monday, a new wave goes out. By mid-November, more than three quarters of customers have an appointment, and around forty have approved a quote for new tyres before even coming in.
When the snow arrives, the phone still rings. But it rings for the latecomers, not for everyone at the same time.
Make the most of the visit
A customer who comes in for tyres spends thirty minutes with you. It is the moment for a quick winter check: battery, wiper blades, coolant, lights. Every point noted becomes a quote, to follow up if it is not approved straight away.
It is also the chance to offer a test drive to those whose car is getting older, according to the criteria you have set. One offer, no more.
Frequently asked questions
When should the first wave go out? Late October, before the first frosts. Earlier, customers put it off. Later, they call before they have received your message.
Won’t customers feel they are being sold to? Not if their tyres are stored with you. For them, it is a service: they do not have to think about it or wait on the phone.
What about customers without tyre storage? Contact those who came to the workshop during the year on summer tyres. Many have not yet decided where to have them changed.
Where to start this week
Pull the list of your stored tyres and last November’s call report. Open the tyre slots in the schedule, prepare the first wave’s text and send it next Monday. The season will be as busy as in other years, but you will be the one setting the pace.
Our calculator estimates in two minutes what Sophia would recover for you.
Open the calculator
