Motor Codes, the Trading Standards Institute-approved garage scheme, generates an additional £6 million of revenue each year for independent garages, based on data recorded in the first half of 2013.
The code’s business generation figures, which are calculated by monitoring the calls made by visitors to its garage profile pages, show that servicing revenue equates to approximately £3,000 per garage per year.
Unipart Automotive, the largest independent group subscriber, was found to be the largest beneficiary, with more than £1 million of its revenue attributable to Motor Codes referrals in the first half of 2013.
With 580 garages, Unipart Car Care Centres make up 7.5% of Motor Codes subscribers and receives 10% of all calls Motor Codes generates.
Stuart Sims, Unipart general manager – marketing, planning and promotions, said, “Unipart recognises the importance of online ratings and was an early user of the Motor Codes system, directing customers to rate their service via motorcodes.co.uk. There are over 11,500 customer returns for Unipart Car Care Centres and the overall satisfaction rating is a staggering 99%. This is powerful marketing when you consider that potential customers searching the Motor Codes garage finder may be undecided about where to take their car.”
On average, during January to June, Car Care Centres received around 900 calls via the Motor Codes garage finder, equating to servicing revenue of around £3,500 per garage per year.