Repair Shop Advice

April 2, 2020

The short, and important, answer is: Yes!

But unfortunately, many auto parts store owners and managers are hesitant to ask a customer to post a review. You may feel that asking a customer to post a review will come off as pushy or tacky. Other business owners think that if the customer isn’t going to post a review on their own, then the business didn’t really earn the review in the first place.

Those feelings are understandable. However, we conducted a survey in 2019 of nearly 600 auto repair shop customers and here are a couple of important findings that came directly from that survey:

• 18% posted reviews for a shop after not being asked
• 62% posted reviews for a shop after being asked

Now, you can say that the survey was for auto repair shop customers and not auto parts store customers. And that is true. But, chances are good that you would see the same type of numbers among your own customers. So, with that, a key finding of the survey is that customers are three times more likely to post a review if you ask them to than if you leave them to do it on their own.

This point grows even more important as your potential customers see reviews, especially Google reviews, as the new social proof. Social proof is the concept that when people are inexperienced in making certain decisions they will seek out conformity and copy the actions of others to avoid making a mistake and not being accepted.

This explains a significant reason for why reviews are an important tool to help you attract new customers to your store through your online presence. Strongly positive reviews help potential customers feel confident that they will not be making a mistake by trusting you to make the right parts recommendations, or if they are a repair shop, that you will deliver the right parts when you say you will. And, the more reviews that you have, the stronger the signals of conformity will be in their brain, even if they don’t realize that is what is driving them to make the decision.

Another reason why reviews are a critically important tool in helping you attract new customers from the web is that Google uses reviews as a factor in where your auto parts store is displayed on the local pack and in organic search results. For the local pack (the listings that are usually right below the map), the number one factor is proximity – how close your store is to where the user is who is conducting the search. But not too far behind that are:

• #12 – Quantity of Native Google Reviews (with text)
• #19 – High Numerical Ratings of Business by Google Users (4-5 stars)

Those rankings are out of around 200 factors, so both of them are in the top 10% of factors.

And while you are asking a customer for a review, go ahead and ask them to mention the specific parts you sold them, or the services you provided to them. That’s especially true if it’s a part you’d like to sell more of or a service you’d like to perform more often (maybe because of the high margin), or because it’s something that you have particular expertise in. The #14 factor for the Local Pack is “Product/Service Keywords in Reviews.”

If one of your key selling features to repair shops/installers is your speedy delivery, then ask a few of your repair shop customers that you know are particularly happy to post a review mentioning your quick delivery service.

If you’d be happy selling all parts related to brakes all day because there is a significant demand and a good margin, then ask customers who you’ve recently helped choose the right brake parts for their car to post a review and mention the parts they purchased along with your expert advice.

To bring it all together – YES, ask your happy customers to post reviews for your auto parts store, especially on Google and Facebook. And don’t stop there, ask them to include specifics about the parts they purchased and the services that you provided, as well as their experience in working with you.

If you are interested in hearing more about reviews, we encourage you to listen to Episode 5 of our Busy Bays Podcast – What are your Google Reviews doing for you? It’s geared more specifically to auto repair, but we believe you’ll also find quite a bit of information that applies to parts stores as well.

And if you’d like help getting more reviews for your auto parts store, please contact us at 866-665-1605 or Team_RSW@RepairShopWebsites.com.