Three Reasons Why You Should Use Social Media to Market Your Auto Repair Shop

Ten years ago most of us had never heard the term “social media” let alone thought of using it as a marketing channel. Today social media is an integral part of many people’s daily lives -- and many of those people are your customers and prospects. If you’ve been reluctant to add social media to the marketing mix for your auto repair business, here are some compelling statistics and three good reasons to embrace it. Social media is a measurable, highly effective tactic that any size auto repair shop can use to attract and retain customers and improve the customer experience.

What is it?

Social media are online sites where we can freely share and discuss information with and about each other and our lives, using words, pictures, audio and video. Well-known sites include Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Yelp, Snapchat, Instagram, Reddit and Flickr. The use of these sites has exploded, mirroring the growth of smartphones and tablets.

Who uses it?

The short answer is just about everybody.

As of 2014, about 1.28 billion people use Facebook, 540 million use YouTube, 187 million use LinkedIn and 255 million use Twitter worldwide. In the U.S. there are nearly 200 million social media users -- that’s nearly two-thirds of our entire population.[1]

Seventy-two percent of U.S. Internet users are active social media users. And they look a lot like your customer base. They include:

·   89% of 18 to 29 year olds

·   72% of 30 to 49 year olds

·   60% of 50 to 60 year olds

·   43% of people 65 and older

And 71% of them access social media from a mobile device[2] 

These aren’t just individuals, either. Social media users include some of the nation’s biggest, savviest marketers. McDonald’s has Facebook and Twitter pages, so do Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, and the NBA.  Samsung Mobile, currently #11 on the FanPage.com list of corporate brands with a social media presence, has 39 million Facebook Friends, and 231,662 of them are actively talking about Samsung’s company and products. Would you like 231,662 people talking about your auto repair shop? You bet you would![3]

What can you do with it?

·         Listen. It’s the #1 most important thing you can do, and you’ll learn quite a bit in the process. Negative comments can alert you to problems you may not be aware of. Positive comments can reinforce successful practices.

·         Ask. Asking questions is a great way to engage customers and prospects. Soliciting people’s advice or feedback can provide valuable insights, and position you as somebody who actually cares what your customers think. 

·         Participate. This is social media. Join the conversation, but do so in an authentic way. Respond to comments, even negative ones, in a positive manner that shows you’re listening and willing to fix problems. Avoid blatant sales pitches; social media is about building relationships.

·         Contribute. The saying goes that online content is king, but only if that content is of value to your customers and prospects. If you can make it educational and fun, so much the better. Post useful tips, short items on industry news, information and reviews about new products, even pictures. Good posts go viral, and they support your search engine optimization efforts.

What’s in it for your auto repair shop?

For a relatively small investment in time and resources, even a modest social media strategy can help your auto repair shop:

1. Retain customers and build loyalty. It can cost 10 times more to acquire a new customer than it costs to keep an existing one. And, satisfied customers are one of the best sources of new business referrals.

2. Acquire new customers. Social media opens up a rich vein of prospects beyond the usual insurance company referrals. According to HubSpot.com, 52% of all marketers have found a customer via Facebook in 2013.[4]  

3. Manage the customer experience. Social media can serve as first-rate, low-cost primary research that alerts you to problems so you can address them quickly.

Don’t have time for this? Mitchell’s new RepairCenter™ Customer Engagement Tools include packages that can help you manage your brand presence online. Learn more here.

So what do you think? Let us know about your experiences and opinions of social media marketing. 

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[1] “A Brief History of Social Media,” http://www2.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/NewMedia/SocialMedia/SocialMediaHistory.html

[2] “Marketing Digitally: From Stress to Simplicity,” http://www.slideshare.net/FrankTerlep/marketing-digitally-from-stress-to-simplicity, Slide 27

[3] http://fanpagelist.com/category/corporate_brands/view/list/sort/fans

[4] http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/18-fresh-stats-about-social-media-marketing

What and Why is Sales and Marketing Automation Important to Auto Body Shops?

Today, the most widely used online sales and marketing tool being used by auto body and repair shops today is a company website. A few shops are also using social media, email, text, search advertising and mobile apps as well.

Recently, a new type of online sales and marketing system for auto body and repair shops has been launched. These new systems are called Sales and Marketing Automation systems. So in this week's newsletter we wanted to cover what is a Sales and Marketing Automation system, how do they work, and finally, should your shop consider adopting one?

What Is Sales and Marketing Automation for Auto Body and Repair Shops? Auto body or repair shop sales and marketing automation systems are designed to help shops attract more customers and revenue, stay connected with, market to and sell additional services to previous/existing customers, and generate more and better referrals from existing/previous customer, online reviews and social media.

 Sales and Marketing Automation for auto body and repair shops acts as a "silent sales and marketing manager" by AUTOMATICALLY....

• Separating your customer data from your estimating or shop management systems
• Following up on unsold repair estimates
• Keeping the consumer updated in their repair process
• Sending Thank You email and text messages
• Keeping your company's brand in front of the consumer
• Asking for, collecting and managing online reviews and social media activities
• Educating the consumer about their vehicles through branded emails
• Asking previous consumers for repair referrals 2-4 timer per year

How Does It Work?

1. Separating Your Customer Data from your Estimating or Shop Management Systems: An auto body and repair shop sales and marketing automation system's first task is to automatically capture the customer, vehicle, email address mobile number and other related repair information and import them into a customer database.

By AUTOMATICALLY importing this critical customer information into a system that is separate from a shop's estimating, management or accounting software a sales and marketing automation system provides shop with another business asset. It also provides the shop with the flexibility to use or switch to another estimating or management system provider WITHOUT losing their customer database.

It also makes it VERY easy for a shop to target market customers by vehicle type, year, make, model, insurer, zip or postal code and more. Imagine being able to find all the Tacoma trucks that have ever been to your shop and then creating and sending a special promotion in less than 5 minutes.


2. Following Up on Unsold Repair Estimates: Another important but overlooked task that a sales and marketing automation system automates is following up on unsold repair estimates and asking or the sale!

According to industry statistics the "average" closing ratio for an auto body shop in North America is between 65-70%. In heavy DRP shops this number can be close to 85%.

Based on our research 95% of shops we have talked to DO NOT have a formal or automated unsold estimate follow up process or system.

So how can automating a shop's unsold estimate follow up help your shop? First of all sales is a numbers game. If you do not ask for the sale you won't get it. A sales and marketing automation system can AUTOMATICALLY touch EVERY unsold estimate via email and/or text messaging 3-5 times within 10 days and ask for the sale.

Our experience with shops that have implemented an automated unsold estimate system have improved their closing ratios by 2-6%.

What does 2-6% closing ratio improvement equate to in a shop with annual sales of $2.0 million dollars and an 80% closing ratio? Between 4 and 13 additional RO's per year or $9600.00 t0 $28,800.00 in GROSS revenues!


3. Keeping the Consumer Updated on Their Vehicle's Repair: Automatic and process based status updates and communications have been around in our industry for many years so I won't spend any time on this subject except to say, if you are not using a system that uses email, text messaging, photos, social media or other technologies to keep your customers updated during the repair process you are "missing the boat."


4. Sending Thank You Email and Text Messages: I continue to be shocked by the number of shops that DO NOT use email or text messaging to send a Thank You email or text message to every consumer that has their vehicle repaired at their shop.

The "right" sales and marketing automation system makes this process virtually painless on the shop AND can only help the shop with its branding, referrals and CSI results. It will also increase and improve a shop's online reputation.


5. Keeping Your Company's Brand in Front of the Consumer: All of us in the auto body repair business know the typical consumer has an accident every 7-10 years. With that being the case, it can be very difficult and expensive to keep a shop's brand in front of that consumer during the period between accidents.

Today's sales and marketing automation systems make this process simple. A good sales and marketing automation system will allow you to create email and other electronic elements that match your existing brand, logo, etc.

The next step it a quality sales and marketing system automates is "touching" your previous customers with a custom, branded educational email every quarter. We stress educational emails because we want the consumer to recognize the shop as their local repair expert.

Finally, if the consumer feels the content is valuable and a family member, friend or associate can use the shop's help it is easy for the consumer to forward the educational email.


6. Asking for, Collecting and Managing Online Reviews and Social Media Activities: As I have written previously, more than 70% of consumers are influenced by online reviews. A sales and marketing automation system for auto body and repair shops will AUTOMATICALLY request a review from every customer that visits a shop.

These systems will also AUTOMATICALLY collect reviews from multiple review sites such as YELP, Google+, Facebook, Citysearch, YAHOO and others making it easy for shops to manage their reviews.

You should also expect a sales and marketing automation system to make it easy for your shop to share reviews on your website, social media pages and other online properties.

And finally, any sales and marketing automation system you consider should include an online reputation management system that AUTOMATICALLY scans and reports on dozens of social media sites for positive or negative posts about your company, employees, competitors and more..


7. Asking Previous Consumers for Repair Referrals 4 Times Per Year: I bet you wished you could speak with your previous customers 4 times per year and ask them refer their family, friends and associates to your business. Well, unless you use a sales and marketing automation system, the changes are you don't even talk to a small percentage of your previous customers once per year.

Why is this important? Here are a couple of important statistics.

1. The typical consumer has repair influence over 4 vehicles. This means the 1000 consumers that had their vehicle repaired at your shop last year actually has influence over where 4000 vehicles will have their cars repaired in the future.
2. Approximately 2.5% of the drivers will file an accident claim in the next 12 months. This means, statistically speaking, 100 of the 4000 vehicles last year's customers have influence over, will file an accident claim and need auto body repair services!

A properly configured and implemented sales and marketing automation system will make sure your company's brand is "top of mind" with your previous customers and make it "super simple" for them to refer their family, friends and associates to your shop!

What is the potential ROI of an Auto Body or Repair Shop Sales and Marketing Automation system? The typical shop, with $1.5 million in annual sales, an average RO of $2000.00 and closing ratio of 70%) that implements a Sales and Marketing Automation system can expect an ROI of 476% which equates to an annual revenue increase of more than $34,000.00!

Larger shops can expect a greater ROI while smaller shops can expect less of a return.

This ROI/Revenue increase comes from three areas:
Increased sales of additional services to existing customers: $1872.00
A 2% improvement in a shop's closing ratio: $9984.00
2% referral improvement rate from existing customers and the number of vehicles they have influence over: $22,464.00


Is Your Auto Body or Repair Shop Ready for a Sales and Marketing Automation System? My initial answer is MAYBE...

Does your shop deliver quality repairs and a high level of customer service? If not, a Sales and Marketing Automation system won't help.

Is your shop capturing email addresses and mobile numbers during the customer greeting process? If your answer is YES, that is a GREAT start!

Does your shop (someone in your shop) have 5-15 minutes per day to "manage" the Sales and Marketing Automation system? In my 30 years of visiting shops I have never found a shop where someone, typically a CSR, did not have 5-15 minutes per day.

If your shop is the exception your shop is not ready for a Sales and Marketing Automation system.

Where Do I find a Sales and Marketing Automation System for My Shop? We are only aware of 1 system designed specifically for auto body shops and a few systems for auto repair shops

If you are an auto body shop, check out Mitchell's Digital Marketing platform. It is the only sales and marketing automation system designed specifically for collision repair shops.

Click here to request a demo of the Mitchell system

**Blog written by Frank Terlep, CEO of eMarketing Sherpas**