Your Auto Repair Shop Should Promote Itself

You believe in your shop. When you hear someone verbalize a strange rattle in their engine, the first thing you do is tell them to stop by your shop so you can get it taken care of. If you could offer the same advice for anyone having vehicle issues, you would. But there are only so many hours in the day. Outside of work, your family and shop rightfully take up most of your time. Simply put, there isn’t enough time in the day to convince folks to make your shop their #1 auto shop stop.

One way that you can create a constant positive reputation is by maintaining and monitoring your Google star rating. With this online business listing you can have your shop’s good name and work recommended and promoted 24/7. Here’s the cherry on top: it’s free and takes your shop less than an hour a week to monitor.

Maybe your shop has one unfortunate review from a customer misunderstanding, or maybe your shop has a five-star rating with many reviews. Most likely, your shop is somewhere in the middle, especially if you don’t have a concerted strategy for your shop’s Google Reviews.

Regardless of where your shop’s reviews stand, you have the control to facilitate exceptional experiences. These types of experiences are the ones that people look for when reading through reviews.

If you haven’t already, your first step to improving your Google rating is to claim your Google My Business listing. By doing this, your shop will have the ability to respond to reviews, which is an instrumental piece of your strategy to having your business promote itself.

After you have claimed your Google My Business page, you can respond to reviews that clients have posted. Keep in mind that it is equally important to respond to positive reviews as well as negative. Remember that your responses are being posted a public place so you need to put your best foot forward.

Recognize the Positive

For a positive review, it’s as easy as thanking the customer for for stopping by and taking the time to leave a review. If you remember something from the personal experience, include it. Your responses shouldn’t be canned and robotic. This is your chance to continue the relationship and allow the customer to feel more valued by the shop. If a customer feels special at your shop, not only will they want to come back, but others will want to go to a shop where their business is valued.

A Chance to Save the Day

For a negative review, the stakes are a little higher. This is your final chance to redeem the situation and make it right. Don’t be worried that it’s in public, that’s actually part of the solution. By making a public response, potential clients can see how you respond under pressure.

Before responding, make sure you know the whole story. A generic, canned response that doesn’t address the issue will be quickly identified as unempathetic by potential customers. In your response, acknowledge that you are aware of the issue and state how your shop will fix the problem.,If the issue is beyond a simple misunderstanding, offer them a chance to speak directly with management over the phone. Most potential customers will see you trying to do the right thing if you generally have glowing reviews. Since reviews can be edited by the customer who posted them, a customer may also change their negative review to reflect the new positive experience.

Encourage Clients to Review Your Shop

Your second step should be to encourage your best customers to leave a review. When a customer is checking out after a great service, solicit a review from them by placing a small sign next to the counter that indicates how much your shop appreciates reviews.

On the other hand, many customers don’t actually know how to write a review or understand how it can help promote your business. Try posting signage around your shop with wording such as: “We’d like to hear how your experience was. Please share it with us on our Google My Business page. We’re sure others would love to hear too.” Since the customer may not know what to do next, include brief instructions for the customer to follow.

Other ways to get reviews from customers include creating a link here and using it in social media and email marketing. You can connect with recent customers thanking them for a recent visit, followed by a reminder to post a review. This should help to increase the number of reviews that you shop is receiving.

By following these tips, you’ll be able to manage your Google star rating. This way people will be more likely to call your shop when they see that there are positive reviews coupled with your shop’s responses. Give people every reason you can to trust your shop. It only takes one good experience for them to be impressed and become a lifelong customer.

Do you want to grow your shop?

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