Asking for reviews about your auto repair shop business may not always give you warm, fuzzy feelings inside, but online reviews can truly be one of your most powerful auto shop marketing tools. In fact, 97% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses, and 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. This is why it is so very important to not only manage your reviews but to also leverage them in a way that helps you bring in more business.
You may be asking:
“I’m busy! Why should I take the time to deal with reviews?”
Well, here are six benefits that make reviews worth your time and effort.
1.) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
It is no secret that online marketing is growing in importance. Prospective customers in search of your service need to be able to find you in an online search. But with so much competition, it is important to try to rank high in search results (pages 1-3). One of the ways to do this is through reviews.
Google, which is the most-used search engine and most important to consider when ranking, places great importance on reviews and community feedback in their algorithm— the same algorithm that determines where you place among your competitors. They not only can see how you are favored, but they also pick up valuable keywords that help them return relevant search results.
SocialCRM partners with SureCritic, a leading provider of verified consumer reviews. By collecting trustworthy feedback through these reviews, along with Google and other online reviews, you increase your word of mouth online, pique Google’s interest and help your auto shop become more accessible by search engines, inevitably improving your visibility to future customers.
2.) New Customers
I think we can all agree that we make a good amount of decisions based on word-of-mouth and reviews. Collecting reviews is a key way to allow your auto shop to shine in front of a prospective new customer.
I know. Reviews can be scary. What if you get a bad one? It’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it could be a great opportunity. Read So Negative Reviews About My Auto Shop Are A Good Thing? to see how a negative is turned into a positive.
3.) Brand Awareness
How many times have you had to hear a friend go on about a product or service they wanted you to try or were bombarded by a series of ads for a product or service that you didn’t need it at the time? Then a month goes by, and, WHAM, you need that very same thing. The first thought you have is your friend’s suggestion or that ad you saw.
Having customers share their opinions with others, especially on social media, is the perfect way to spread brand awareness, so your shop comes to mind when future customers are in need of an auto repair service. The great news is that it has become especially easy for your customers to share a review on social media, spreading the word about your great work.
4.) Relationships & Retention
If you’re taking advantage of SocialCRM or LocalSearch already, you know that you can access reviews through your dashboard and management system. This allows you to be on top of your customer’s feedback from past visits before they come back in. You can say thank you, discuss their past experience or correct issues on the next visit, building a stronger relationship with that customer and keeping them coming back.
5.) Reputation Management
It may sound daunting to have to constantly check reviews. You’ve got other things to worry about. Luckily, marketing services offer notifications when you get a review, so you don’t have to continuously check back. This is true with SocialCRM, which is integrated with the Manager SE system to serve up notifications about reviews right inside your shop management software, so you can manage them before they ever go public.
6.) Rich Content
Reviews are written gold that can be published in many places to help you become visible. Leverage reviews and get noticed online by sharing your reviews on social media, on your website, your blog and other platforms visible to consumers. This will also help with that SEO thing we talked about earlier.
Also be sure to check out the infographic that sums it all up for you.
Curious how our SocialCRM review process works?
