Entrepreneur magazine ranked Millennials as the top small business trend in 2016. How can a whole generation be a trend? As the oldest millennials reach their early 30s, they now make up a significant portion of the consumer and employee base for small businesses. Successful businesses must increasingly focus on meeting their desires and interests, including independent auto repair shops.
What defines a Millennial? Entrepreneur magazine highlights three factors that are unique to this generation, and here’s how they apply to automotive websites:
Comprehensive Leadership and Growth Opportunities
Young technicians often complain about the lack of training opportunities in shops. They get stuck fixing tires without the chance to collaborate with experienced technicians. However, smaller shops require employees to be versatile since there may not always be tires to fix. This creates opportunities for younger techs to assist Master Technicians, which wouldn’t be possible at dealerships. If your shop offers such opportunities, emphasize it in your job descriptions to attract ambitious technicians eager to learn advanced skills.
Ability To Rapidly Spread Information is Key
In the past, some businesses had an online presence while others didn’t. Now, it’s more common for businesses to have an online presence managed either by themselves or by external parties like customers, competitors, or information brokers. Even if a repair shop doesn’t have a website, it can still have online reviews. Customers, and even impostors, may be discussing the shop and influencing potential visitors. Managing your online presence is crucial, ensuring professionals monitor and project the best image of your repair shop. Negative perceptions can take months to address if left unattended.
Embracing Technology for Efficiency
Millennials are adept at quickly switching tasks due to the fast-paced world they inhabit. They maintain extensive communication networks through social media, engaging with a large group of people. With numerous demands on their attention, they’re unwilling to spend as much time as others on tasks and decisions. They may choose a shop after just three minutes of online research and expect to book an appointment within another three minutes.
Conclusion: The Repair Shop Websites Difference
- Phone numbers are placed very prominently on our sites, in part because of the number of users you lose after only ten seconds on your site!
- Many of our customers take advantage of our online appointment request forms, because some customers prefer not to communicate via phone at all.
- We also provide drop-off forms for shops that want to allow key drop-off before work.
We can help! If you’d like a marketing partner that can help you perform well in local search, call us at 855-294-6397 or schedule a meeting with us at a time that’s convenient for you!