Repair Shop Advice

Social Media and SEO have become the buzzwords and acronym for the 21^st Century auto industry. I read a lot of articles about social media and SEO. Every one of these articles is about capitalizing on the social media craze and how the auto sector will be able to sell more cars. What I haven’t read about is how social media can help the automotive repair industry.


Social Media is in its infancy stages today, and there’s no doubt it will be a driving force within the auto industry. The big question is how do leverage social media to best serve our customer’s today and future customer’s of tomorrow? I don’t believe that currently there’s a proven model.


Automotive repair or more importantly the “Backbone of the Auto Industry” is a great place to start with social media. There are some 150 thousand plus automotive repair shops contending for service customer’s every day. The competition isn’t only another independent repair shop around the corner, but the franchise dealer and their OEM’s are getting much more aggressive and competitive today. What are you doing to differentiate yourself and standout from your competition?


I hear a lot of independent repair shops state that they have a built in loyal customer base, they treat their customer’s right, I’ve been in business for 20-30 years, the franchise dealer isn’t my competition, etc… My concern is that a lot of independent repair shops have fallen into a state of complacency. Customers are only loyal to a certain extent, and if you don’t continue to evolve and stay abreast of what customer’s want, then you’re going to find yourself with a declining customer base.


How can independent repair facilities better serve their customer’s today, and stay ahead of their competition? Let’s start with what customer’s have been telling the auto repair industry for decades, yes decades.


The primary reasons cited by consumers for not returning to a repair facility are: 1) Trust 2) Lack of communication between the repair facility and their customer 3) Lack of understanding on behalf of the consumer as to what specifically is being recommended for repair.


There are going to be some readers that feel the above paragraph doesn’t apply to them, and perhaps that’s the case. Unfortunately it applies to the repair industry in general, thus every repair shop is under the auspice of these concerns and suspicion.


We know what the customer’s pain points are per the survey data noted above. How do we address these pain points and simultaneously build social awareness around the solution?


Step One: TRUST-Post real time photos of recommended repairs directly back to the repair facilities web site so your team can review the real time photos with your customers. By demonstrating to your customers through visual explanation as to why a repair or service is necessary, your building trust and confirming for your customer why a specific task needs to be completed. This is a much more efficient process than attempting to convey verbally what’s wrong with the vehicle. We’re visual beings, take advantage of visual explanations with real time photos. This is also much more efficient that walking a customer into your shop to take a look at a recommended repair and or saving failed components for your customer after the fact. Regardless of how simple the task or repair, don’t take it for granted that it’s also simple in the mind of your customer.


Step Two: LACK OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE REPAIR FACILITY AND THEIR CUSTOMER-If you consider the decades old process of customer drops their vehicle off at the shop, technician sources the vehicle, service writer calls and leaves a message or repeatedly attempts to contact the customer via phone, while all this time the vehicle is sitting on the rack costing everyone time and money while we await response from the customer. Let’s compliment this decades old process by posting real time photos of recommended repairs back to the repair facilities web site, simultaneously email and SMS/Text the consumer so we’ve made every attempt to contact the customer via phone, email, sms, and posting repair recommendations to the repair facilities web site. The repair facility has gone out of their way to communicate with their customer. Imagine the efficiency of your customer being able to review real time repair recommendations via your web site, through their email, as well as reviewing on their smart phone-powerful stuff!


Step Three: LACK OF UNDERSTANDING ON BEHALF OF THE CONSUMER AS TO WHAT SPECIFICALLY IS BEING RECOMMENDED FOR REPAIR-Consumers have a difficult time understanding verbally what repair shop personnel are attempting to convey regarding a recommended repair. Lets make this process simple for the repair shop, repair shop personnel, and most importantly, your customer. The repair shop will post real time photos of a recommended repair from the customer’s actual vehicle, associate those photos with expert content from an interactive service library (illustrations, context, and stock images of new components), and then communicate those repair recommendations via phone, email, sms, and posting real time photos with supporting content directly back to the repair shops web site. The consumer now has real time photos of the recommended repair or failed component(s) from their vehicle, illustrations to show location, function, and system of the failed component, supporting context to verbally explain the component and system, and the expertise from the repair shop manager verbally walking the customer through the visual process. The customer now has a clear, concise understanding of the recommended repair.


HOW DO WE TIE THE SOCIAL PROCESS INTO THE AFOREMENTIONED STEPS? Repair shops need to utilize their web sites more effectively and capitalize on the current traffic as well as generate more eyeballs/visits to their sites. The visual process of reviewing recommended repairs via real time photos and posting this content back to your web site is a great start. The repair shop is providing current customers a reason to revisit the site to review repair recommendations, while simultaneously promoting on their web site that they stand for transparency in automotive repair and validate all repair recommendations with real time photos and detailed illustrative content. Think about the prospective customer that’s visiting your web site for the first time or they heard about your repair facility from a friend. While visiting your site they note that you represent transparency in auto repair and validate repair recommendations with real time photos. This customer is much more likely to visit your shop than the competition.


Social Media will help your current business, and help you grow in the future. Repair Shop Websites has the social media tools to help your repair facilities compete in today’s ultra competitive repair market. Please call us today and let our team introduce VIP-Visual Inspection Plus. Many of the concepts detailed in this article are a result of VIP. The vast majority of this program is free of charge as well. Great Selling!

“Whether something brings them joy or pain, when people share and engage in communities, they form bonds and relationships with others who acknowledge their situation.” ~ Liana Evans

 I am by no means a Facebook expert and to tell you the truth, I’m not sure anyone can really claim to be (though several do, I know). No one has a degree in Facebook or Social Media but it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that will be a degreed course sooner or later.

 More and more small businesses such as automotive service and repair shops are realizing the importance of online marketing. 86% have a company website and 44% are using social media in some form (Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Linkedin and many more). I take care of the NWZ WORX and Worldwide Connectors Twitter accounts. I have my personal Facebook page which is for family, friends and customers and one for Worldwide Connectors that is all business. I also have Google+ (personal) and I’m Linkedin. I do not take care of the NWZ WORX Facebook page.

 What have I learned? I enjoy my personal Facebook page and my NWZ WORX Twitter the most. I have had these accounts longer so they feel warm and inviting. I can see what others are posting and comment or like or share and they can do the same when I post. The businesses I am connected with seem more human to me. This includes automotive service and repair shop owners as well as retail shops, inns and restaurants that I frequent. It is nice to wish those with birthdays or anniversaries a special greeting and feel sad along with them when they lose a loved one.

 I think Facebook, for example, is a place where “word of mouth” can flourish and it gives you an opportunity to connect with customers and others in a real down to earth format. Here are some things I feel should be noted to have a better experience:

• Don’t just promote your business and log out. You need to at least peruse the site and like or comment on others from time to time and do it with sincerity. If you don’t want to interact with others, Facebook isn’t for you.
• Don’t share too much information. Remember that this is a public forum.
• Don’t use inappropriate language.
• Do add humor.
• Share a video if it pertains to you such as you accepting an award or one of you or your technicians working on a special car or doing a special repair.
• Try not to share your political views because what may attract some fans may equally repel others.
• Keep in mind that this is called “social” media for a reason. Behave as if you were attending a social event that was attended by close friends and relatives, business associates, colleagues and acquaintances.
• If you are involved in community events or charities, Facebook is a good place to let that be known and share.
• Most likely you will be like me where some days you just can’t think of something you want to share. Don’t worry about it; instead of sharing yourself, comment or like what others are sharing.
• Don’t turn your Facebook page over to someone else to take care of unless you trust them with everything you have. Large corporations have let others take care of their social media to their regret.
• Don’t feel you have to be a slave to social media but don’t ignore it for weeks on end either. I take the weekends off and when I travel on business or pleasure I don’t check in to social media. At those times I’m too busy trying to keep up with my emails while on the go!

 When it comes to social media we are all learning together! If you have some tips you want to share with me I would really appreciate it and if you need help creating a fan page, just ask.

Rhonda Hiltbrand
Chief Operating Officer
NWZ WORX Multimedia & WorldWide Connectors
Automotive Marketing & Business Consulting, Direct Mail & Technology Services
4270 Mt. Carmel Tobasco Rd.
Cincinnati OH 45244
800-473-0202
www.nwzworx.com