Repair Shop Advice

When one of your potential customers searches for auto repair on Google they see a list of shops they could call. But how do they most often decide what shop or shops to call? They look at reviews!

But how do they get there and what do they specifically look for in reviews? Read on for more…

Searching for Auto Repair

When a consumer in your area searches on the web for the auto repair services that you provide, there are two key factors that determine if your shop will show up in the Local Pack and the Map (see image below) – how close your shop is to the person conducting the search and the primary category you have chosen on your Google Business Profile. It’s believed by experts that Google does consider some other factors but not nearly as much as they weigh the location and primary category.

So there’s not much you can do to influence where you show up in these local searches. Pick the primary category that makes the most sense for your business, usually Auto Repair Shop, and make sure your address and contact information is correct.

However, it’s one thing to be found and another to be chosen. How do you increase your odds of getting chosen? Reviews!

Reviews Help Consumers Decide What Repair Shop to Call

The Whitespark 2021 Local Search Ranking Factors survey asked SEO experts what they’ve seen to be the most impactful factors for how consumers decide what local businesses to contact when they are looking for local services.

Reviews dominated the results. Four of the top five factors in the survey were related to reviews. Let’s dive into those factors.

#1 – High Numerical Google Ratings (e.g. 4-5)

The biggest factor, by a large margin, is your average star rating for your reviews.

What to Do

Search for “auto repair” and look at the listings of the shops that show up in the Local Pack and the Map. How does your average star rating compare to theirs? If it’s better, great. If it’s about the same or worse than the competition, then you want to try to improve it. The best way to do that is to start consistently asking for reviews from your happy customers.

#2 – Positive Sentiment in Review Text

Consumers do care about the content in the reviews. They want to read about the experience that your customers have had. What they are really looking for here is called social proof. Essentially it’s as much evidence as they can get that they won’t be making a mistake in choosing your shop because so many other customers have already chosen it and been happy with the results.

What to Do

When you ask your happy customers to leave you a review, encourage them to include details about the service they received and the experience. Most shops do not ask for this, so you can gain a significant advantage by being one of the few that does.

(#3 is Completeness of Google Business Profile listing which we will skip over because it is not review related.)

#4 – Quantity of Native Google Reviews (w/ text)

The number of reviews matters. It’s also significantly important that they include comments. Consumers will be very doubtful if they see that your shop has a whole bunch of five star reviews with no comments.

What to Do

I’m sure you are noticing a theme here – consistently ask for reviews from your happy customers. This will help you continue to grow the number of reviews your shop has.

#5 – Recency of Reviews

If your shop hasn’t received a review in a while consumers may not be sure you are even in business. With the rapid change that has occurred over the last two and a half years consumers like to see signs that a business is still open. With inconsistency in staffing and service levels, they’d also like to be able to see that somebody that was at your shop a week ago got the same great service as somebody who was there a year ago.

What to Do

If you haven’t received a good review in a while you should reach out to a few recent happy customers and ask them to leave you one. And…start consistently asking happy customers for reviews

Google Reviews Are Well Worth Asking For

We’ve covered the importance of reviews many times – from our podcast on the impact of reviews to our blog on how to make your auto repair shop’s reviews stand out to our blog about why you should respond to your reviews. This survey of SEO experts is just the latest evidence that reviews are important. In this instance, they have a very large impact on how consumers choose what repair shop they are going to reach out to. If you aren’t on the review train yet, you want to get on it before it runs you over!

Our Integrated Reviews platform helps our customers get more online reviews. To learn how we can help do that for your auto repair shop, call us at 855-294-6397 or schedule a meeting with us at a time that’s convenient for you!

Social media is a hot topic right now among auto repair shop owners. We’ve specifically been hearing more questions about how to effectively use Facebook. While Facebook has been around for a long time, many of us have found ourselves using it quite a bit more during the pandemic for hyper local news and information on businesses.

From March through much of May, Google effectively put Google My Business on ice. They didn’t approve reviews and mostly allowed only Coronavirus-related updates to profiles. Many businesses turned to Facebook to keep the public up to date.

A repair shop that has an active Facebook page will have an advantage over competitors, not only in the times we are in now, but always. They’ll have the opportunity to update, share and engage with their customers more directly and more frequently.

First, Some Ground Rules

1. How can you get the most out of your auto repair shop’s Facebook profile? It begins with following the 80/20 guideline. This guideline prompts you to post at least 80 percent value-based content, with the other 20 percent (or less) being promotional.
2. While you’re following the 80/20 guideline, you will want to make sure your posts are seen by your Facebook followers. In order to do this effectively, you will want to create eye-catching posts that stand out. Using images of cars, your employees, or other photos you find online will help tremendously. Using online resources where you can create your own templates will allow you to change up fonts, colors, and photos. The opportunities are endless in how you can grab the attention of your customers as they’re scrolling through Facebook.
3. An important rule to remember about any kind of Facebook post is to make it short and simple. Creating clear-cut posts and avoiding paragraphs of words will help your viewers engage more easily. If you’re one to make others laugh, add humor to what you share online! Allow Facebook to be the shop’s outlet to demonstrate the kind of people who work there and represent one another well.
4. Also, stay away from sharing website links in your posts – Facebook wants you to stay on Facebook! Posts that include links off of Facebook are much less likely to appear in your followers’ news feeds. It is okay to do it every once a while. You can also get creative by putting the link as text in the image that you create.

Okay, now onto the posts…

Value-Based Content Posts

For auto repair shops, the best type of valuable content includes sharing car care tips and explaining vehicle warning signs. One way to do this is to focus on a specific type of car care tips or warning signs – brakes, tires, fluids, preparing for a road trip, night driving or one of many more. Choose three to five key points to highlight. Next, showcase the points through an eye-catching Facebook post. These posts will be a resource for your Facebook followers.

Here is an example of a value-based content Facebook post:

Celebration or Holiday Posts

Another type of post that fits in the value-based content category is the celebration or holiday post. While these posts aren’t helping somebody take better care of their car, they are enhancing their day-to-day interactions with others and creating positive feelings.

For example, there are National Days such as National Pizza Day which falls on February 9th. This was a great opportunity to buy some pizzas over lunch and hang out with your employees. Don’t forget to take a picture and share it!

Those fun days go well with calendar holidays such as the Fourth of July, which is an opportune time to wish all your Facebook followers a safe weekend.

Here is an example of a holiday post:

Engagement Posts

Engagement posts are a great way to improve your reputation on Facebook. The more comments and likes that your posts generate, the more likely Facebook will be to include your posts in your followers’ news feeds. They will also increase the likelihood that your followers will pay attention to all of your posts, and if they are commenting and liking your posts, they may appear on their followers’ news feeds as well. Fun questions and trivia are two types of excellent engagement posts.

Here is an example:

Promotional Posts

As we mentioned above, up to 20% of your posts can be promotional. This is your time to advertise services that you specialize in and encourage people to contact you, but even so, you don’t want them to be super-salesy. These types of posts may include a reminder to get a vehicle’s AC checked, highlighting seasonal tune-ups or promoting timely coupons you have running in your shop.

Here is an example of a promotional Facebook post:

How can you show what makes your shop special?

Facebook is a great place to post pictures of what life in the shop looks like. That may be your modern and super clean bay area, an employee on their birthday or a classic car your team is excited to be working on. People like to engage with what’s going on right here and right now. Share what’s happening in your shop and it will help bring out what makes you and the team you work with so special. Share photos of your team – the person who answers your phone, techs who work hard in the shop or maybe you have a pet mascot.

These examples show that you are all human (except the mascot) and people like to feel like they can relate to who they bring their car to. And while you are highlighting your shop, these types of posts don’t count as promotional unless you are using them to sell your services.

One more for a bonus – Community Posts

Spotlighting community events and programs you support make for great posts. If your community has local events like parades, an annual chili cook-off, 5k races or sporting events that your shop likes to be a part of – post about it! Show your shop’s interaction within the community and represent it well. These types of Facebook posts are engaging and entertaining for those who are following you. We are in the moment of buy local, sell local. Promote posts that help other local businesses in your community. Facebook is the key to get the word out in a positive way!

These tips were meant to go beyond the base level foundation of simply needing a Facebook page. If you are interested in more information and guidance on using Facebook in your shop, listen to our Busy Bays Podcast: Facebook Deep Dive. In this episode, we go even further into the “80/20” rule, why to avoid sharing links and what kind of posts are most likely to drive engagement with your customers and potential customers.