Repair Shop Advice

The following article is a guest post from Bob Cooper of Elite.  It originally appeared in Elite’s Auto Shop Idea Center.

Over the past one hundred plus years, marketing strategies and the brands that were built were developed by two entities: the client and the ad agency. The client would tell the agency how they envisioned their brand, and the agency would develop the advertising campaigns that would create that very same image in the minds of the targeted consumers. The tobacco companies wanted to create brands that would cause a consumer to feel good when they used their products, and the ad agencies did a great job of achieving this objective.  Volvo wanted to create a brand that reflected safety, and as we all know, just about every Volvo ad sends that very same message. After one hundred plus years, that systematic method of brand creation is now dead. Not just for companies like the above, but for auto repair shops just like yours. Let me explain what has happened.

The ability to create a brand is no longer under the control of a product or service provider, nor the ad agencies. In today’s world brands are now created by one entity more than any other, and that entity is social media. The way your shop is going to be perceived in your community is based on what is being said about you, your company and your employees on social media and review websites. You may believe that you provide a great service, and that your technicians are second to none. You may also invest a lot of your hard-earned money into advertising programs to try to get that message (brand) into the minds of your targeted customers. But in reality, if the chatter in social media says that you overcharge, or that you don’t live up to promised completion times, then whether you like it or not, that will become your brand.

So here are my recommendations. First of all, accept the fact that social media is here to stay, and it is where your brand is going to be built. Secondly, you should create a plan that will have a positive impact on what is being said about you and your shop on social media sites. Obviously there are a number of things you can do, but nothing will ever trump extraordinary service. The reason companies like Nordstrom, Zappos shoes and Starbucks have such extraordinary reputations (brands) is because they deliver extraordinary service. I would strongly encourage you to review every customer touch point from fielding that first call through your customer follow-up calls, looking for ways to improve the entire customer experience.

Lastly, I am going to suggest you do something that your competitors would never dream of doing, and that is invest a dedicated percentage of your ad budget into improving the customer experience.  This means investing in the customer waiting area, your shuttle service, refreshments, extended warranties, customer follow-up and the plan you have in place for dealing with disgruntled customers.  The Marriott Corporation discovered that they were getting higher CSI scores from customers they dropped the ball with, yet the customer was pleased with the resolution, than from those who had flawless stays at the Marriott. The lesson they learned?  When a mistake is made people typically don’t expect a resolution that will make them smile, so when they are completely satisfied, they are pleasantly surprised. This is why the Marriott immediately allocated a good percentage of their training resources to dealing with customers who had a bad experience. Without question, you should do the same.

In closing, brands are no longer built on Wall Street, but in today’s world they are being built each and every day on the web. I can only hope we all agree that social media is here to stay, so you need to invest in making the customer experience incredibly positive, because if you do, your customers will do what agencies used to do, and create an extraordinary brand for you.

Since 1990, Bob Cooper has been the president of Elite, a company that strives to help shop owners reach their goals and live happier lives, while elevating the industry at the same time. The company offers coaching and training from the industry’s top shop owners, service advisor training, peer groups, along with online and in-classroom sales, marketing and shop management courses. You can learn more about Elite by visiting www.EliteWorldwide.com, or calling 800-204-3548.

Should an auto repair shop have multiple websites?

There are plenty of reasons a business could end up with multiple websites.  Maybe a friend offered to build you one years ago, but it didn’t perform so you bought one from a professional.  Maybe your old provider never bothered to take your website down.  You might have even already had a website when another company called and convinced you to give them a try.

As a company that builds and manages websites for auto repair shops, it would be great if we could tell you that having multiple websites is the way to go – but it isn’t.  The businesses that show up higher in search results generally have only one website.  Companies with multiple sites may show up multiple times in Google – but it’s often on page five, where nobody clicks.

The reason is simple.  Google’s job isn’t to rank companies based on their online presence.  Google’s job is to pick the best individual websites on the web.  If you’ve got two or more websites, they’re competing with each other for attention, which hurts your shop.

Think of it this way – if you were in a competition to service the most number of cars in a single shop, would you build a second shop across the street?  If you did, neither of your shops would do well in the competition, because they would compete with each other.

Websites work the same way – Google is looking for the best result to deliver to web users.  If you have two sites, they compete with each other for this distinction. Each drags the other site down.

While two websites won’t help you search better, there are plenty of other things that will, such as reviews, a social media presence, or more content on your site.

To learn the techniques we use to help shops search their best online, call us at 866-665-1605 or email us at Team_RSW@RepairShopWebsites.com.

Have you ever done a search in Google and seen a website that has a star-rating directly below the website’s name?  Your shop can show up this way, too!  If you have great reviews, this is one easy way to attract customers to your shop.

Most people searching online for an auto repair shop they can trust are going to factor online reviews into their decision, so having a great review score right next to your website name is going to make them more likely to visit your website and learn more about you.

The stars also stand out visually – and in a line of results, having the only shop with a star rating is going to make it more likely that the customer notices your listing.  Most importantly, once they visit your website, you’re no longer competing with other repair shops right next to yours.  This is a major advantage when compared to other places customers might find star reviews, such as Google, Yelp and Angie’s List.

Of course, the first thing you need is great reviews – nobody with a low customer rating wants to show that to customers.  And if you’ve tried to get reviews from customers before, you’ve probably learned that it takes a lot more than just great service to develop a string of great online reviews.  Earning reviews from busy customers can be difficult, but there are a number of ways to encourage them to leave reviews and make it easier to do so.

The good news is that we can help you with both of these problems – earning reviews and having your star rating displayed prominently in a Google search.  In fact, it’s something we do for many of our auto repair shop customers!  To learn how, contact us at 866-665-1605 and ask about how our Pro+Engage package can help you bring more customers into your shop.