A driver with a large estate car gets a puncture on a Friday. The tyre is a run flat, the size is unusual, the first two places do not stock it and the third can have it on Tuesday.
He has a wedding on Saturday. Nobody publishes what they carry, so he has spent an hour finding out that nobody has it.
The checklist
Publish these and the specialist driver comes to you.
1. What you actually stock
By category, so a driver with an unusual size knows whether to ring. Publishing the common specialist sizes is unusual and it wins work.
2. What you can order and how quickly
Same day, next day or longer, and the cut off for each. It is what a driver on a Friday needs to know.
3. Whether you fit run flats
Because not every shop does, and it requires the right equipment. Saying so plainly saves a journey.
4. The run flat repair position
That the manufacturer's guidance for the specific tyre determines it, and that it should be checked rather than assumed. Never a blanket answer either way.
5. What happens if a run flat is driven on
That there are limits on distance and speed after a loss of pressure, that exceeding them affects whether the tyre can be reused, and that the vehicle's own guidance applies.
6. The mixing question
Whether run flats and standard tyres can be mixed on a vehicle, and why it is a question for the vehicle manufacturer's guidance rather than a preference.
7. Whether the vehicle has a spare
Because switching away from run flats leaves a driver with no provision, and it is the consequence nobody mentions.
8. The pressure monitoring system
Whether sensors are affected, whether they need resetting or replacing and what it costs. It is the most common hidden charge on a specialist fit.
9. Large diameter and low profile wheels
Whether you have the equipment, the risk of damage and how you handle expensive wheels. Owners of these cars are wary and rightly so.
10. Performance and directional tyres
Fitting direction, rotation, whether pairs are needed and why. Drivers do not know and shops assume they do.
11. Van and commercial variants
Load ratings and reinforced specifications, which matter and which drivers frequently get wrong, as in puncture repair and tyre safety questions answered honestly.
12. Winter and all season options
What you stock, what you can get and the storage question for a driver swapping seasonally.
13. The honest answer when you cannot help
An immediate no with a suggestion of who can. A driver on a deadline remembers it and returns for everything else.
13b. Publish the price difference honestly
Specialist tyres cost considerably more than a standard equivalent and drivers suspect the shop rather than the market. Explaining what drives the difference, and showing both figures where a standard alternative genuinely exists, converts a suspicious driver into somebody who trusts the recommendation.
14. Take the enquiry at any hour
Because punctures are discovered in the evening, which is the booking argument in tyre fitting bookings without the phone queue, with the specialist expectations of specialist clinics and the questions before a first consultation and the careful routing of how to handle sensitive questions in your chatbot.
Getting started
Publish what you stock, what you can order and how quickly, and whether you fit run flats, then take enquiries at any hour. SpideyChat for automotive businesses answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about capture on the features page.