Repair Shop Advice

We’ve mentioned before that online reviews are a critical part of your online presence, and great reviews will draw new customers to your shop.  To maximize the impact that online reviews, have, however, you need to do more than just check online every few months and see if you’ve collected some new ones.  A recent Ratchet and Wrench article covers several ways to improve the impact of your online reviews – here are the two most important ones.

#1 – Engage with your customers before they leave the shop.  A customer’s experience with your shop is front-of-mind as they’re checking out of your shop.  This means two things.  First, this is the time customers are likely to mentally summarize how their experience was, and decide what do to about it.  Second, this is the time they’re most likely to mentally commit to leaving an online review for your shop.

Don’t miss the opportunity to use both of these facts to your benefit.  Ask them if they’ve been happy with the service they’ve received.  If any part of the experience was negative, try to address it to their satisfaction before they decide that their experience was negative and they’re not going to visit again or recommend your shop to others.

If they do indicate they’re happy with the service, ask them if they’d be willing to review your shop.  While it’s a great idea to use a third party to assist with the review process, don’t leave the entire process to them!  We provide a service that makes it easy for customers to follow an email link and leave a review, but we still encourage our customers to personally ask customers for reviews while the customer is still in the shop.  The customer is more likely to leave a review if shop staff requests it face-to-face, and they’re more likely to believe that their opinion really matters to the shop if the shop takes the time to explain why it is so important to them.

#2 – Engage with your customers after they leave the shop

Most online review sites, such as Google and Facebook, allow companies to provide responses that are publicly visible just below the review.  When customers do take the time to leave reviews, make sure to take the time to provide a personalized response.

Reponses to reviews are valuable regardless of whether the review is negative or positive.  If it is a positive review, a response shows anyone reading that review that you appreciate your customers and take the time to thank them for their business.  If it’s a negative review, your response is an opportunity to show that you want to reach out to your customers and make things right.

A negative review is not an opportunity to “set the record straight”.  Unless the customer is attacking people personally or going way outside the bounds of common decency, be careful not to respond in any way that seems like an attack.  Otherwise, everyone reading that response (even good customers) may worry they’ll be treated the same way and steer clear of your shop.

Do you want to learn more about how Repair Shop Websites can help your improve your online image and bring new customers to your shop?  Call us at 866.665.1605 or email us at Team_RSW@RepairShopWebsites.com

Consider this – one of your customers has come in three times for an oil change, and brought a coupon each time.  They haven’t bought any other services from you, and even refused a couple of recommendations.  Another brought their vehicle in for regular maintenance, thanked you for taking the time to explain everything to them, purchased almost everything you recommended without trying to haggle over price, and wanted to come in later to take care of the rest.

Are you putting the same amount of time, effort, and money into getting both of those customers back into your shop?  One of them is likely to be a great relationship with high margins, while the other one is probably going to be a low-margin customer.

That’s not to say you should never put any effort in to relationships that aren’t yet “fully baked” – you might be making money on those oil changes, even if they don’t agree to other services.  But if you can build a strong relationship with the high-margin customer, it’s almost certainly worth the extra money you put into it.  Here are three steps you can take to retain your most valuable customers.

Always make the next visit easier than the last – When you learn something about the preferences of these customers, document it, and be prepared to bring it up without them asking.  This information could fall into many different categories.  Tuesdays are always their long day at work.  They always use synthetic oil.  They plan on getting rid of their car in one year.  Whenever you gather this information, flag it and make it easily accessible to your service writer.

The next time you’re talking to them, let them know you remember that Tuesdays are bad, so you aren’t recommending that day.  Tell them you’d recommend a major repair if they weren’t changing vehicles soon.  Each of these conversations is an opportunity to remind them how much they’ll have to tell a new shop if they ever do decide to move – and it also makes it easier to work with the shop, which will make them a happier customer.

Focus on customers, not cars – For most people, cars aren’t like kids or pets – they don’t have an emotional connection to their car’s well-being.  That means that if you take great care of the customer’s car, but don’t take great care of the customer, you’re not earning any points.

It’s certainly important to focus on the vehicle needs.  What does the customer want done?  What problem caused them to bring in the car?  But also remember that it’s a big hassle to be without a car.  If the repair was unexpected, what impact is that having on their day?  When do they need to get somewhere?  Do they need a rental car?  If they have been stranded on the side of the road for an hour, their first question might be where your bathroom is.  Try to help them get their immediate needs taken care of before you dive into car questions.

Invest in gestures that make a big impression – For your very best customers, a more personal gesture might be the difference between a happy customer and one that raves about your shop to all of their friends, co-workers, and anyone who will listen online.  The next time you send out a mailer or quarterly newsletter, hand address those to your best customers.  Include a coupon for a free pizza from a local shop, or even a couple of ice cream cones.  The hand-addressed envelope, and the uncommon gesture of appreciation, is likely to make a big impact.

To learn how we can help you attract more great customers to your shop, call us at 866.665.1605 or email us at Team_RSW@RepairShopWebsites.com.