by Lizzy Murphy

As a business owner, one of your most important goals is to make sure your customers leave happy. Happy and satisfied customers ensure return visits, which means more business and a better bottom line. Here at Mitchell 1 in the SocialCRM team, we like to offer tips and tricks that will help hit that goal.

There are hundreds of ways to enhance your customers’ experience both inside and outside of your auto shop, but what about the things you might be doing daily that could be pushing customers away? This is not to say you are not putting in the effort to create a great experience for your customers. But sometimes little things you may not even notice have a big impact. Here are three imperative customer relationship-saving tips from Passion Squared that we wanted to pass on to you.

1. Not Listening: Listening is one of the hardest things to do in the act of communicating. But one of the best ways to achieve effective communication with another person is through active listening. This is true with your customers. Being able to really listen to your customers shows them that you care and are attentive to their needs.

Auto shop marketing tip:

• Make sure to document any special needs your customer has with their auto service and be sure to catch them and/or refer to them with each visit.
• Make sure to actively listen by asking questions, maintaining eye contact, watching your body language and providing feedback.
• Automatically send out communication emails that are specifically targeted to needs they expressed.
• Let them know you are listening and their opinion is important by requesting a review via email. Bonus: SocialCRM automatically sends review request emails sent to your consumers. These are verified reviews powered by SureCritic, which means great reviews from actual consumers that can help others find you in a search.

2. Not Providing an Awesome Experience: Let’s face it; automotive shop businesses are becoming more competitive in what services and accommodations are being offered to their customers. This experience molds the customer’s perception of your shop, starting from the moment you contact them to long after they have left your shop.

Auto shop marketing tip:

• Make sure the process and experience of getting service is quick, easy and super accessible. You can do this by sending service notifications, making it easy to make appointments directly from emails and mobile devices, or even going mobile with your management system so you can gather all the info you need from the customer before they ever have to get out of the car.
• Create the right environment by offering a comfortable waiting area. Even little things like a drink of water or cup of coffee can make a lasting impression.
• We cannot emphasize enough how important it is to gather positive reviews. They not only help your business image online and in search results, but they also show you value your customers’ opinions, enhancing their experience.

3. Not Caring: The good news is that if you are already working on listening and providing an awesome experience, then you are a step closer to showing you care. Appearing that you may not care can happen for many reasons: a fast-paced, busy work environment, lack of engagement to name just a few.

Auto shop marketing tip:

• Start to engage! Be active on social media, put out valuable content and interact with your customers. Need help? SocialCRM can help with your social presence. This could even be something as simple as sponsoring a community event, celebrating locals or current customers and many other activities.
• Incentivize your team to go above and beyond for the customers.
• Create passion with team building, training and a strong culture.

Further reading

• 3 Ways to Lose an Awesome Client By Nina Kovner, PassionSquared
• Active Listening Tips: https://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/ActiveListening.htm