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Garage Hive Find out how partnerships and digital can grow your business Hear from Garage Hive’s Alex Lindley You might have seen the exciting news Garage Hive users can now access the full LKQ Euro Car Parts catalogue through their GMS solution. We caught up with Director of Garage Hive and of the award-winning Lindley’s Autocentres, Alex Lindley, on how he thinks the partnership is going and why garages should embrace the digital world.

Can you tell us a bit about you and your background?

Why did you decide to partner with us and integrate our offering into the Garage Hive platform? Our network is very interactive – we use feedback from the network to make most of our important business decisions. We have a strong community of garage owners on social media and essentially, they told us that they’d like us to partner with LKQ Euro Car Parts. And we know that LKQ Euro Car Parts will deliver on the things that matter to our users – that came out of our recent poll. What’s the feedback been from the Garage Hive community since the LKQ Euro Car Parts integration went live? Feedback on the integration from our community has been overwhelmingly

I’ve been in the industry for nearly 20 years now. I joined my family business, Lindley’s Autocentres, as an apprentice and worked my way up the ranks – eventually helping to expand it, opening 10 new branches. When we were growing the business, we were always on the lookout for new software that made the admin or running of a garage that little bit easier. That’s when we came across Garage Hive and absolutely fell in love with it’s foundations. We ended up investing in Garage Hive and have now been with them for over six years. My role with the business mostly focuses on analysing and utilising data to drive business decisions.

Garages that build relationships with suppliers get so much more out of them. And suppliers like LKQ Euro Car Parts can also offer added value services to garages they know well, like training or equipment provision, to help take that garage to the next level. I know my local LKQ Euro Car Parts team really well and genuinely feel they’re a true partner to our business. Why is it important for garages to embrace digitalisation, and what’s your advice to those looking to get started? Digitalisation is becoming more important than ever and garages that embrace the digital world will reap the rewards. New technology is becoming more and more accessible and affordable – and when used correctly, it will save technicians time and money, paying for itself in no time. If a garage can run their booking system using technology, for example, then the whole admin process of taking phone call and manging the booking process is taken care of. This will save valuable workshop time and ensure efficient, accurate scheduling and quoting. People are increasingly used to booking everything they need online – from their haircuts to their doctors' appointments – so it’s vital that garages make their services available in the same way, to avoid missing out.

What’s important to the Garage Hive community when choosing a parts supplier? In a recent survey, we asked Garage Hive users what’s important to them when considering which parts supplier to use. We took their responses and turned them into a poll, asking the community to rate different attributes from most important to least important. It turns that the Garage Hive community values high quality parts the most, closely followed by receiving the right part first time and having a strong working relationship with the supplier.

positive. We’ve even had some members say that they expect their monthly spend with LKQ Euro Car Parts to increase significantly, as buying from them without leaving the platform is so simple. From a workshop perspective what is the importance of partnerships over relationships when dealing with suppliers? We’ve learnt that having a partnership with suppliers is super important when it comes to running a successful garage. Partnerships benefit both parties.

Page 6 | Garage Support | 2023 Issue 3