Perhaps the most pleasing finding in this year’s research is the fact that, despite all the challenges being thrown up by the skills shortage, Members remain overwhelmingly confident in the future of their businesses.
Confidence in the industry’s future is down slightly. The fall was led by uncertainty over electric vehicles, which was ahead of skills shortage-related issues like finding qualified staff and attracting young people to the industry.
It’s great to see that overall, despite the challenges we face, we still love what we do.
61% of Members are very or extremely confident in the future of their business. Confidence in the industry continues to hover just over the 40% mark, where it has been for the past three years.
Members who were very or extremely confident in the future of their businesses have risen every year (44% in 2020, 50% in 2021 and 54% last year). Confidence in the industry’s future is up from the 2020 report, when it was just 33%.
For most Members, confidence in their business’s future is grounded in their personal experience and their time in the industry.
Having a loyal and returning customer base has continued to decline in importance as a confidence factor, yet analysis of the data shows it is consistently one of the top factors for the most confident Members (21% compared to 2% for the least confident).
Building a loyal customer base is clearly a vital element of business confidence.
Every year the top reason for Members’ confidence in the industry has been the same: we’ll always have cars and someone will always be needed to maintain and repair them.
While that hasn’t changed, other factors have:
We’re more ready for electric vehicles than we’ve ever been.
While they present a challenge, and a fundamental change for many parts of the automotive industry, Members are starting to come to grips with them.