You opened the auto shop to grow your business, serve your community and support your team. But the dream bubble bursts with slow sales, empty bays and cancellations with no followups that slowly chips away at your revenues (and your morale). Every auto shop faces a slow season and difficulty finding new customers.
Auto shops are not only about fixing cars, but building and nurturing your relationship with the customer. Today’s customer is digitally savvy, and more curious. If your shop is not offering them the experience they want, they will turn the corner and go elsewhere.
In this blog, we have highlighted ways you can attract a profound number of customers with strategies that can be easily overlooked at times. You need to attract more foot traffic then you are at the right place.
Bringing in more customers should not be a head scratcher. Here we have listed the most simple and yet most effective marketing ideas that will be customers can visit your shop:
One cannot emphasize enough the importance of having a social media presence. Creating a functional and optimized website is one thing, but having a strong digital social media profile on LinkedIn, Facebook, and TikTok speaks volumes.
The best way to handle a social media platform is to start small. Plan your budget smartly, and see what comes in handy. A customer looking for repair needs to see content related to it. On Facebook, you can target your audience with ads with the right call-to-action button.
You will easily be able to target older clientele this way. In contrast, younger clientele viewership is higher on TikTok. You will need to create short and informal videos about how-tos and introduce your team to make your content more warm and welcoming.
30% of the customers forget to come back for a follow-up routine. Most of the recurring business comes from the comebacks. Setting service reminders is an effective way to keep them coming back and getting down with the necessary post-repair inspection. All you need to do is automate reminders with a scheduling software for auto repair shops, and add a personalized message so customers feel valued and remember to visit the shop.
You can ask the customer for their choice of date and time, as well as their preferred mode of communication, to get the reminders. This can indefinitely make your repair shop more attractive to the existing customers who appreciate being taken care of.
Your customer service representative is the face of the auto repair shop. Having a set of customer service protocols needs to be a priority if you are looking to attract new customers, especially the ones that easily spook away. Not every customer is the same, so keep their pain points in focus, like budget, knowledge of the vehicle, and service outcome.
One customer might be looking for a budget-friendly service option only; if you pitch too hard to buy an add-on, you can kiss that customer goodbye. Customer reps need to understand that upselling needs to be avoided when it exceeds the customer's budget. One click on the laptop, and they should be able to review the customer’s history to deal with them accordingly.
Customers should experience price and quote transparency. Agents should have a friendly but professional tone and technical knowledge so they can explain details in an easy way.
Whether it's Christmas, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, or any major holiday coming up, utilize it to target the local audience. This is the perfect opportunity to bring in more money, as 82% of customers are more likely to spend on shopping and deals on a holiday.
Holiday deals and promotions hold a certain appeal for local customers since people are always looking to save as much money as possible. You can offer high-quality services like wheel alignment, brake replacement, and others at a discounted price, but also schedule them for a follow-up post-season. Clever, isn’t it?
Running print advertisements might be old school, but it's more than it’s worth. But still be careful about the local ads in terms of placements. You can also hand out promotional flyers and brochures to advertise in local communities.
There’s a lot that can be done to attract a huge number of customers to your shop. A good word of mouth goes a long way, too, while online marketing is the latest hack to grow your clientele. Try any of the tips mentioned above to see which one works in your favor.
