Repair Shop Advice

When it comes to marketing services, everyone wants to sell you something.  Get your company in front of thousands of eyes!  A picture is worth a thousand words!  Guaranteed results!  Surely if these companies stay in business, they’ve got to work for somebody.  Right?

Not necessarily.  Over 90% of those postcard mailers will get thrown away before anyone looks at them.  A big visual ad is useless if someone isn’t actively thinking about auto repair or maintenance when they see it.  And about those guaranteed results – if a marketing company could really get 100% of all repair shops a giant return on their marketing investment, don’t you think you would have heard of them by now?  They’d be the only auto repair marketing company on the planet.

In fact, many of the most effective marketing techniques don’t cost as much as you’d expect.  Some of them are free!  Here are the most important things to do if you need more auto repair business.

Get your name where it matters online

If you’re trying to get your business in front of customers right when they’re thinking about auto repair, these are the three most important facts to consider.

• Over 80% of people use Google to find local businesses.
• Over 80% of people who use Google never get to the second page of results.
• And 80% of consumers say they trust 4 or 5-star rated businesses the most.

To get new customers from the internet, you don’t need a beautiful, custom website.  You need a site with the content that gets you on the first page of Google.  And if you want to earn all of those customers who are trying to learn more about you, you want to have a Google Review rating above 4.0.  That means you need to ask your happy customers for reviews, even if it’s awkward or unpleasant.

Ask for referrals (and explain why)

So many companies build marketing campaigns asking for referrals that it’s easy for consumers to get immune to them.  That’s a shame, because referrals are the lifeblood of a small business.  A great referral source is the easiest way for one customer to turn into a hundred customers.

When you ask for a referral, don’t do it like big business does it – an off-hand, scripted remark that’s said as quickly as possible because it’s awkward and unsure.  Do it in a way that will make it have an impact.

After a customer tells you they’re happy with your work, thank them for the feedback.  Then tell them you’re a small business, and you’d really appreciate the opportunity to be a home for any family or friends who are looking for a trustworthy mechanic.  Tell them referrals are one of the most important ways that you get business.  Give them a couple of cards and tell them to hand them to anyone who needs work done.

The reality is that most people won’t make the effort of referring you even if you ask.  But if you can double your referral rate, you can have a dramatic effect on the amount of business coming your way.

Shock your customers

Every industry works to set customer expectations.  The bill at a nice restaurant comes with a dinner mint. If a restaurant puts a York peppermint patty in there instead, it might surprise you, but it wouldn’t be shocking.

When you break through customer expectations with a truly unique way of showing your appreciation, however, you can earn loyal customers for life.  How can you do this?  There are plenty of options – you just need to get creative.

One shop partnered with a local bakery, and every customer car is returned with a bag of freshly baked cookies.  Another shop keeps a stock of new Matchbox cars on hand, and customers’ kids can pick out a vehicle each time they visit.

If you’re vacuuming the car before returning it, or offering a free car wash, you’re doing the equivalent of offering a York patty instead of a dinner mint.  The cookies and Matchbox cars, however, are more than that. They’re creative ways for shops to show that they’re looking for every opportunity to improve customer lives.  That’s why these inexpensive gestures can turn first-time customers into lifetime customers.

Why do lifetime customers matter so much?  Most companies would go bankrupt if they had to attract a new customer for each transaction.  New customers become profitable when they turn into repeat customers.  If you want repeat customers, you’ve got to give them a reason to always choose your shop.  For many customers, showing them that you really care about them is enough to do just that.

If you’re looking for more business for your shop, call Repair Shop Websites at 855-294-6397 or email us at Team_RSW@RepairShopWebsites.com.

Publicly traded companies have some significant advantages over small businesses.  They have big budgets.  Suppliers give them the best prices because they’re so large.  They can build a great process once and save money across a thousand locations.  However, their scale does not give them an advantage in caring.

Public companies aren’t required to pursue profits at any expense.  They are, however, required to act in the best interest of their shareholders.  The executives in public companies make the decisions that will make them the most money, unless it will do long-term damage to the company.  In fact, most public companies will chase profit even if it does damage the company over the long-term.

Despite that, there’s a growing trend of corporations spending millions of dollars to improve the lives of the people around them.  BMW works to support childhood education in nearly every country where they build vehicles.  Levi’s sends their employees to the communities of supplier factories to do community service projects.  Home Depot’s foundation provides up to $5,000 in supplies to non-profits in the U.S., with an emphasis on those supporting veterans.

These efforts are known as Corporate Social Responsibility.  Skeptical people would point out that these programs are just marketing efforts to make the company look better.  But that’s the whole point!  After decades of focusing on profit, these companies are figuring out they can spend millions of dollars on charitable efforts, and people will reward them with so much extra business that they make money off the effort.

Community event sponsorship is one of the rare ways you can give something away and make money doing it.  If your shop isn’t sponsoring events in your community, you should consider doing it.  It’s personally rewarding to sponsor things you care about, whether that’s a little league team, a health-related non-profit or a social cause.

It also creates goodwill within your community.  Your customers care about their community, and they participate in community events.  They’ll appreciate your sponsorship.  Many of these events also provide shirts to participants and put sponsor logos on these shirts.  Sponsoring these events can be a cheap and effective way to have your shop’s logo walking around town for years.

We love highlighting our customers’ community involvement on their websites!  To learn more about Repair Shop Websites and how we’ll help you stand out online, call us at 855-294-6397 or email us at Team_RSW@RepairShopWebsites.com.