An educated DIYer will perform more timely maintenance and repair tasks and, consequently, buy more product than one that isn't properly educated.

That's the premise behind retail DIYer education efforts. In many aftermarket stores, these efforts consist of knowledgeable of semi-knowledgeable employees who, if they have time, try to answer maintenance of repair questions.

At the very least, the employees direct customers to helpful and appropriate manuals in nearby displays. "I would hope that every store has a program to let the people behind the counter know what it has in each store to answer these types of questions rather than just saying, let's look up a part number," says Michael Lufty, automotive editorial director of HP Books, a publisher of automotive "how-to" books. "If you can explain or show someone how to do a specific job, you're going to sell them the product," Lufty adds. "The more educated a customer, the better it is for business. A customer is going to buy more parts rather than taking his/her problem to a shop and saying, 'just fix it.'"

The learning center is directed at "instructing, teaching and raising the knowledge level of customers."

But, how much time or effort can a store devote to raising the knowledge level of customers? What's the payback?

Several chains, apparently, are going to step out and find out.

Moreover, they'll chart and track whether the customers they help educate about specific maintenance and repair tasks are apt to not only purchase more products, but more costly and challenging products, and less apt to buy on price alone. The theory is that educated customers will buy more and pay more for products when they're also receiving the knowledge of how to install or use these products correctly and effectively.

The newest example of this shift in thinking is the Chief Auto Repair Learning Center designed into a new 6,000-sq. ft. Chief Auto Parts store in Los Angeles. Stephen Alexander, president of Automotive In-Store Marketing, Pittsburgh, who designed the store and its unique learning area, describes it as "a dedicated area within the store directed at instructing, teaching and raising the knowledge level of customers."

The learning center is a semi-enclosed area of about 80 square feet located near the store's parts "center." It contains a merchandising display for repair/maintenance manuals and sell-through videos. It also contains a desk and chair, and a 13-in color television with a menu of specific automotive maintenance/repair videos that can be called onto its screen. The DIYer picks up the phone and asks the store employee to put the requested video onto a VCR player located behind the counter. Then the instruction appears on the screen.

"Customers are hungry to be educated but, by and large, many of them suffer from the normal fear of appearing ignorant," Alexander says. "A learning center gives customers a library of valuable information in a semi-private environment."

The videotapes, many of them produced by automotive suppliers and edited for DIYers, outline particular maintenance and/or repair functions. In addition, the "learning center" contains an Alldata system or Mitchell manual with printer, and a part look-up terminal.

Alexander says not all learning centers have to be as ambitious as this particular one. In fact, they can be designed into a free-standing gondola or in a smaller area.

But, he says commitment to customer education has to be at the same level.

"This goes beyond saying, `My guys will always talk to our customers.' Or of putting a videotape on the television in your store and letting it run over and over again," Alexander points out.

As an add-on benefit, Alexander says stores that take the time to raise the knowledge level of customers can rightly market themselves "as the learning place of choice."

COPYRIGHT NOTICE:"Reprinted with permission from Aftermarket Business, February, 1994. Copyright by Advanstar Communications, Inc. Advanstar Communications, Inc. retains all rights to this material." To subscribe to Aftermarket Business, call 1-218-723-9477 or email fulfill@superfill.com.

Stephen J. Alexander is an aftermarket consultant, speaker and monthly columnist for Aftermarket Business Magazine. To learn more about other in-store merchandising and marketing issues, contact Stephen Alexander, Automotive In-Store Marketing at 239-395-9203 or e-mail him at salexander@autoinstore.com.