Customer Retention for Auto Repair Shops—New Strategies That Really Work

Why Auto Shops Need to Focus on Customer Retention

For a customer dropping by your shop to get a deflated tire or a blown radiator hose fixed, it’s not uncommon that they’ll be happy with the service, thankful that they’re back on the road, and you’ll never hear from them again. Providing top-tier service is not always enough to keep people coming back regularly.

Customer loyalty, however, is a powerful element of success for businesses across the board. Loyal customers return more, spend more, and as an article on Biz Journals explores, confer massive benefits on any business, so much so that increasing customer retention by 5 percent can increase profits at least 25 percent, and as much as 95 percent. The takeaway is clear; keeping and cultivating loyal customers should be every auto shop’s priority.

So how is customer retention for auto repair shops, in particular, accomplished? The adoption of the right technology for operations and marketing is the key. Here’s how.

How Auto Shops Stall Out on Customer Retention

Auto shops often miss the chance to convert one-off or occasional customers into loyal ones by mishandling a few critical situations:

• When a customer comes in for a repair or a check-up, the shop handles it, then lets the customer leave without a strategy for follow-up messaging about necessary future maintenance.
• A customer brings in a vehicle with many recommendations, but the shop fails to collect contact info or future appointments, and so doesn’t know to contact them when future service is due.
• A shop does collect the right customer information, but their messaging is generalized and impersonal, even “spammy.”

So where does technology come in? The latest generation of automotive repair shop software is built to handle the above scenarios easily, turning them into loyalty builders.

What Cultivating Auto Repair Shop Customer Retention Looks Like

A hypothetical customer interaction with an auto shop focused on loyalty, looks like this:

A customer arrives with squeaky brakes. Along with collecting customer contact information, technicians undertake a Digital Vehicle Inspection (DVI) assembling a full picture of the vehicle’s health. They service the brakes, address any other concerns, and offer service suggestions.

When the customer drives off, the cultivation of lifetime loyalty begins.

When that automobile hits 60,000 miles, the automotive repair software sends automated text message reminders about oil changes and maintenance needs. Based on the vehicle’s specifics, the shop can send targeted email follow-ups encouraging the customer to return for follow-up servicing.

The right auto repair shop software makes this all happen.

Reviews are the final piece of the customer loyalty puzzle, and shops can use software-based strategies to get more positive reviews and keep bringing in more visitors to build into loyal customers.

Boosting Your Business With Reviews

Good online customer feedback is priceless for auto shops. Nielsen data shows that 92 percent of customers trust peer recommendations, so using real customer feedback to market is a huge business builder. Auto shops should:

• Republish positive customer quotes appropriately on social media platforms where you have a presence.
• Quote customer endorsements in your email promotions, giving real-life examples of the services you’re promoting.
• In your content, online or traditional, feature quotes from customers, and even use real customers in your videos when you can.

This, again, relies on the proper software platform: software that can watch social chatter about your shop, collect reviews, and make them easy to re-purpose.

Four Retention Steps You Can Automate

Think about establishing loyalty as a four-step process:

• Check in the customer on arrival and collect their information.
• Send service reminders and messaging through Retention Pro.
• Check up on the customer’s satisfaction after the appropriate amount of time elapses with Reputation Manager.
• If they lose touch, re-engage with Retention Pro after nine to twelve months. 

BOLT ON’s tools automate this process. If you’re interested in seeing how, you can sign up for a free mailer campaign consultation, priming your marketing strategy to win new customers and cultivate lifetime value.

New Marketing Strategies Beat Old-School Tactics

There are definitely classic, unchanging things about auto repair. How shops market, however, has changed. Discounts and one-off specials sent without targeting, once useful, are no longer the best use of your resources.

Think about how you, personally, react to unfocused messaging from virtually any business. How many irrelevant offers do you delete without reading?

Everyone today suffers from a bit of marketing fatigue, but helpful, personalized, well-planned marketing is the antidote. So if you want to build loyalty for your shop with tools that make it easy, schedule your consultation with BOLT ON Technology today!