Motor Codes is set to open its annual Garage of the Year contest, with the winners to be crowned at the Auto Express Car of the Year Awards.
The partnership with the UK’s biggest-selling car weekly and the addition of a flagship prize-giving event for Garage of the Year is one of several enhancements to the competition this year.With past winners reporting a sustained boost in business, reputation and bookings from far away, this year’s tie-up with Auto Express demonstrates extra value for regional winners and national champions of this established competition.
Open to all Motor Codes subscribers, Garage of the Year 2014 will be a month-long campaign, running from 27 May to 22 June. Online reviews left for garages between those dates will determine 20 regional winners – the UK’s top main dealers and independent garages. The regional winners will be announced week commencing 23 June. Judges will then analyse the surveys received for each regional winner and the national champions will be announced at the Auto Express Car of the Year event at London’s Grand Connaught Rooms on 15 July.
The move towards online reviews mirrors the drive by Motor Codes to provide the online garage selection route of choice and deliver more business to committed subscribers, as Chris Mason, managing director, explains:
“Customer feedback is at the heart of the operation. It adds credibility and customer reassurance to our online garage finder. We now have around 11,500 new ratings flowing through the site every month and you can’t get much more transparent than that.”
There is no need for subscribers to register for Garage of the Year. Motor Codes will track the number of surveys completed for each garage. Customers can complete the Motor Codes survey at http://www.motorcodes.co.uk/survey/service-and-repair.
In advance of the competition opening, a suite of marketing materials has been made available through the log-in area of www.motorcodes.co.uk, including online modules that can be used to direct traffic to the Motor Codes survey page.
Garage of the Year plays a central role in the Motor Codes online marketing campaign. People visiting the website in 2013, reading reviews of subscribing garages, went on to deliver a potential revenue stream of £17 million in service and repair bookings.
