How Automotive Repair Shop Reviews Drive Growth & Customer Loyalty
Whether you’re shopping online, searching for a good restaurant, or looking for a doctor, chances are one of the first things you look for is a good review. In fact data indicates that, in general, 92 percent of consumers read online reviews before choosing a business. For auto shops, you can bet that when someone sees a warning light come on, needs an oil change, or even breaks down on the highway, they’re checking what others say online about your shop before bringing their car in. Ignoring the online world is not an option.
Consistently good—and of course, authentic—reviews let potential customers know that you’re a reliable operator in a space where trust is critical. Plus, highly-rated businesses get an SEO bump from search engines, so every good review works to make you more visible. Getting good automotive repair shop reviews, however, takes work—beyond just providing good service. Managing reviews is a must, and the following strategies can help you start.
Getting Your Auto Shop More Positive Reviews
It’s not uncommon for a satisfied customer to basically forget their auto shop visit the moment they drive off, their problem solved. The following steps can guide them to share their good experiences publicly.
Ask at The Right Time
A simple ask sometimes does the trick. Train your staff with a loose script for making a friendly request after successful customer interactions, and you’ll start seeing more stories and stars where you need them.
Help Customers Remember With Automated Review Requests
Even if a customer intends to write a review, it can slip their mind. A tech solution that automatically emails or texts review reminders post-visit helps customers remember to share their appreciation online.
Make Leaving Reviews Easy
For a customer, leaving a review is one extra thing to do. Sending them a link to the review platform and setting them up to contribute with one click, instead of making them do the legwork, will result in more engagement.
Reviews: A Powerful Marketing Tool
Real, authentic customer sentiment can double as marketing for auto repair shops. There are a number of ways to repurpose reviews to boost your other marketing materials and strategies.
Work Reviews Into Your Website
Your website is the online face of your brand. Where better to showcase good reviews than there? Highlight them as pull-quotes, or embed a scroller that imports them from outside review sites.
Make Reviews Part of Your Social Strategy
When someone knows they need their car serviced, they might search on Facebook or even Instagram. Reposting reviews on social media can put them in front of your followers on those platforms and beyond.
Use Reviews in Your Marketing
Real, authentic positive customer sentiment can improve a marketing campaign’s effectiveness, whether it’s online, on a billboard, or in a mailer. Quotes from a few authentic reviews demonstrate to your target audience that you’re the real deal.
A Positive Strategy For Negative Reviews
The internet can be scary for businesses. A single negative comment can sit there hurting your reputation, whether it’s a fair criticism or not. But don’t panic at bad reviews; know these best practices for handling negative online feedback.
Quick, Professional Responses
Was there a part that wasn’t in your inventory as you claimed, causing a disappointed customer to blow a gasket on a review page? It happens. In these cases respond to the comment acknowledging the mistake, and offer something to improve the situation. Then both the aggrieved customer and anyone else looking sees your professionalism.
Serious Complaint? Go Offline
For potentially damaging problems, like accusations of employee misbehavior, acknowledge the complaint online, and ask the customer to contact you directly. Not everything needs to be handled publicly.
Learn From The Criticism—And Improve!
If a negative review really is pointing to a problem (say, an ordering issue leading to out-of-stock replacement parts) then use that insight to fix it and do business better.
How Bolt On Technology Helps You Manage Reviews
Putting the above recommendations into practice can be complicated. Some of it requires specialized tech solutions, and as you start looking into soliciting, managing, and responding to reviews, you’ll find other issues arising that require review management expertise. BOLT ON Technology are the experts. We can help.
BOLT ON Technology knows auto repair shop operations the way top mechanics know automobiles. We specialize in the tech solutions and expert guidance shops need. We have software to send automated review requests. We have tools to streamline shop-customer communications. We can even deploy a dashboard to monitor reviews and chatter about your shop across the online world, which generates insights to inform your responses.
Get on The Road to Review Management
Good reviews show customers they can trust and depend on you. Managing reviews correctly helps polish a sterling reputation, boosts your visibility to potential customers, and keeps people coming back.
So implementing a system to collect and manage reviews is an important investment in your shop’s growth, its reputation, and its future.Curious about the how? Take the first step and view our On-Demand Demo when it’s convenient for you.
