3 Marketing Ideas To Boost Your Auto Repair Shop

Hey guys! Awesome episode for you today. If you're an Auto Mechanic this is really insightful for you. We break down Three (3) Areas To Help You Boost Your Business. But also keep listening, if you are also not an Auto Mechanic because these tactics you can use to implement and grow your business as well.

We're going to talk about things that I don't think that you would think about for marketing. We get to have some different ways or different strategies to reach people.

Hope you enjoy!

Here are some key points to this episode:

• Offer small services that make a big impact. 

a. Comfy chairs while they wait

b. Take them out to show them what is wrong with the vehicle and don’t just say what is wrong without showing them. 

c. Offer free rides back to their destination. If possible, pick-ups too. 

d. Coffee, a lot of people like coffee. But not that Folgers stuff you made 5 hours before they go there. 

e. WIFI, ‘nough said.

• There should be a push for women - Historically women have been taken advantage of at the auto repair shops. Go above the call of duty to make them happy and feel like they know what is going on. Those women are going to talk and spread your name (good or bad) way more than any guy will.
  

• Reviews and referrals - Reviews are the lifeblood of your business and especially in auto repair. We all know someone or experienced it first hand where you went in for an oil change and somehow got a new alternator, starter, and a tire rotation…. The car is 6 months old.
  
  
• Bonus - Reminder system. Something similar to FIXD.

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Hope y'all enjoyed this episode! We'll see you guys next week for another episode of The Marketing Natives!

Aaron [00:00:00] Hey guys! Awesome episode for you today. If you're an auto mechanic this is really insightful for you. We break down three areas to help you boost your business but also keep listening. If you are also not an auto mechanic because these tactics you can use to implement and grow your business as well. We're going to talk about things that I don't think that you would think about for marketing we got to live some different ways or different strategies to reach people and hope you enjoy.

Aaron / Christian [00:00:45] All right guys. So this episode reminds me of a really cool epic taffy joke. I feel like I should leave with that one because laugh taffy jokes are cool and I really want some life taffy. All right let's hear. All right. So this is the Christian and all of you guys make sure you answer while you're listening. So we will be able to find out. All right. So when is a car not a car. Silence. Come on guys you know the answer just shout it out. I know you know the answer. No idea. OK so it is when it turns into a driveway. 

Aaron [00:01:21] Get it? 

Aaron / Christian [00:01:23] Yes. Exactly. Nice. 

Christian [00:01:26] So Aaron has been practicing his this is the life of taffy joke. Apparently but he's been practicing on the dad jokes. 

Aaron / Christian [00:01:35] Yeah I got one more for a let's see here. What did the one cactus say to the other. I think I've heard this one. I told you last week I already forgot how they get it's like a You're looking sharp. Yeah. Okay. See now I know you guys are laughing and if you are you now we know you are. You can tell. All right. So let's get into this. 

Aaron [00:01:54] We're gonna talk about marketing ideas to boost your auto repair shop. So number one is to offer a offer the small services that make a big impact. You know when you go to places and you're like oh that's really cool. I love the fact that they are going to serve me food like for you at a restaurant you're going to serve me food. 

Christian / Aaron [00:02:12] I mean they should serve food at restaurants because it's good food. So it's like you know great food but then they bring out something like Oh we brides you know we got you a little appetizer because it's your first time or something. Yes yes. I love that. Yeah. So that's like a above and beyond. So the same thing can be said for an auto mechanic and that is to you know there's a lot of times people can't necessarily leave because they don't have vehicles so they have to sit there. You want to have those comfy chairs because people hate sitting in those. I've been into places where they just have those full chairs or the chairs that are like plastic. Yeah. It's just old. Yeah. They used to be leather but they're like pleather. And it's like got holes in it and everything's so comfy chairs make sure to shake them out there and show them the vehicle like what's right and what's wrong. I think most of the places that I've ever been to. Don't do that. I'm like oh hey you know gear wheels about to fall off and just stay in here don't look at the car like it'll be OK. Hey don't worry I just signed this off and we'll go fix it and you'll be able to survive. Your car's not gonna blow up but if you drive away it's going to blow up versus hey look this is where we're talking about this we're supposed to look like this is what it does look like. 

Christian [00:03:22] Yep. I think we go to the same mechanic and I was surprised whenever they did that to me they were like Hey come on. Come on back here I want to show you this. And it was just like wow I've never even seen this before like nobody has ever done this. Like they literally showed me and they explain in detail you know what that part does and how it's affecting my driving like it was just amazing. 

Aaron [00:03:48] Yeah. And it just shows that they care and they're not trying to rip you off which I think is something we'll get into a little bit later but is the perception of an auto mechanic is sorry auto mechanics so you're listening you know that a lot of places have a bad rep that we're making it bad for you. The good ones. Another one that I think is really important is to offer a free ride. People are busy. Yeah and sometimes they only have two vehicles so like if you I have a friend in town or family member getting a ride back from them being the mechanic and like he's dropping you back at the house or dropping you off somewhere where you can get something done besides just sitting there for hours and then offering a ride is is crucial if it's possible. You know sometimes that isn't always possible but I think that that goes a long ways for getting a really good feeling about the location. 

Christian [00:04:32] Yeah I think another big thing would be like amenities inside when you're waiting. Yeah. So things like I mean we don't drink coffee but offering good coffee. I've seen a few places where they have like legit machines that you know do like some kind of crazy espresso. I don't know the terminology because I don't drink coffee but I do crazy things right now like crazy coffee. Yeah I mean coffee is a great one. 

Aaron / Christian [00:05:00] A vending machine would be great or free snack free snacks way better. 

Aaron / Christian [00:05:05] You don't wanna have to pay the electric bill for that vending machine so the snacks free snacks and then a big one which I think hopefully majority of auto mechanics offer is free Wi-Fi. Yes. In order to watch some youtube videos there would be a good one to like a like a TV. 

Aaron [00:05:26] No like headphones. Oh yeah cause yeah that's true. 

Aaron [00:05:29] Like you know you don't want to hear like a lot of times it's right next to the shop so you hear and like (wheew wheew wheew wheew wheew) and you're no, no no  I'm trying to watch Friends or I'm trying to watch DOX right. 

Christian [00:05:40] So they'll be cool to offer and I will borrow bar or headphones. 

Aaron [00:05:45] Yeah. Very cool actually. All right. So those little things you can always. So hopefully they get your mind going we're not trying to give you everything but it sounds like we could probably start a pretty successful mechanic shop besides fixing the cars. So if you need us. But hopefully that gets your mind going about Oh yeah. This doesn't cost much money but this goes above and beyond what people expect or this is a really good idea I should implement this because you've got to figure out what. A way to be differentiating yourself. 

Christian [00:06:12] Yeah absolutely. So the second thing that we have is that there should be a push for woman and we say push that something maybe kind of weird when able to change that tide right. Don't don't push to it. Yeah but usually women are highly discouraged of using mechanics because they usually take are taken advantage of when it comes to to their vehicles. So it's important to especially with women go above and beyond with all the smaller things that we said before and literally just. 

Christian [00:06:52] Go a step further than that to make them feel comfortable to make sure that they know what's going on with their vehicles and explaining things in a way that makes sense to them as well. 

Aaron [00:07:05] Right. Yeah. Your flywheel is about to move it's 35 degrees to the left and that's going to affect your rotator build and your serpentine belt. 

Aaron [00:07:13] That's not a way to explain it to them that and that's not to say and actually I do want to make the sun come across as like Stardust. Yeah. Said that they don't know but you should just always talk to every customer that way and assume that's the way we try to do as marketers like hey look SCO CPM CTR like that doesn't mean you things that you want to explain it and that's that's just good practice across the board but you should absolutely make sure that their if their eyes are glazing over. That's usually a problem. So being able to communicate with the customers it may be beneficial to even hire a woman to explain what's going on with the car. And for both men and for women just to be able to explain because you know sometimes it's really good to have that person could be a salesperson for you and they just explain what's going on with the car and they can do it in a really effective way. 

Christian [00:08:02] Yeah absolutely. And I mean it's also a great tool for for word of mouth so the the better you explain things to the the better that you offer all these smaller services will definitely make a bigger impact within your business. And you know your reviews which we're actually gonna talk here in a second. 

Aaron [00:08:22] Who. Boom. Easter egg. 

Christian [00:08:29] All right so if you are a auto repair shop or a mechanic and maybe you want a little bit more than just what we're talking about here. But you're not ready to necessarily. I don't know. Follow us on Facebook or Instagram or any of those platforms you just want a straight way of just knowing what's going on. The newest and latest social media updates and apps and software and things like that. Then what you need to do is sign up for our newsletter. The weekly bit you can do so by going to our website BitBranding dot CEO within our newsletter and we send it out every Saturday. We may have missed one or two. That's fine but we send it out every Saturday and we talk about all the content that we publish throughout the week. So we talked about the new podcast new blog post new posts on Facebook on Instagram. We talk about what's going on in the world of BitbBranding. We also talk about new apps and software that's coming out and that's already out to help you and your business. 

Christian [00:09:36] So this is probably one of the best marketing newsletters that you ever receive go to Bitbranding dot CEO sign up. 

Aaron [00:09:48] And we're back and we're back. I forgot that I turned off that a little spot on the side to make the SOUNDS LIKE OH IT'S GONNA MAKE A SOUND. And so I turned it off and was like Oh no I need that to commit to make the sound again for this part anyway. So I was what. Sorry guys. All right. Number three Christine alluded to this. I know that you were waiting that whole time you're like oh gosh I need to make sure to sign up for the weekly bit and then I have really one question and explain what these reviews and referrals are about what's this. What's this stuff you really into. It's kind of like a real I mean this is like a really good cliffhanger and we know you guys are ready for it now. Right. Yeah. Yeah I think they're ready. OK so we're going to blog in a little bit more but I'm just kidding. So with the mechanics out we talked about this again. 

Aaron [00:10:38] We talked about this earlier rather and that is that good reviews are crucial for every business. I mean we talked about reputation management's crucial buffer mechanic shop. I would say it is a make or break for the business. And the reason why is that we were looking for mechanic shops and they're looking like Oh who's the best rated who's you know. Who am I going to go with. But mechanic shops or auto repair shops are a lot of the ones that I've looked at. They're notorious for having a decent amount of five stars and you got the ones that are one star and people are like this guy took my money. Are these people you know I blew my tire blew out later. So having a good solid amount of reviews not just five or 10 or 20 I'm talking like you should really be in the hundreds to really set yourself apart. That's so crucial for you to be successful as an auto repair and really to boost your shop presence online in a local. So that you can get more businesses is to have more reviews. 

Christian [00:11:35] Yeah. And I think it goes back to having some sort of strategy in place to get those reviews and referrals whether that's using some kind of software or just reminders to send out emails or text message reminders. There's a lot of ways where you can set up some sort of automated way to send out those those reviews so that people can can leave reviews on Google Yelp Facebook anywhere on on social media or the web. 

Aaron [00:12:07] Yes I actually wrote down an example because I wanted to remember it too and there's a meme that's just like a popular meme. I think that it's sort of going around and out and if you've seen or not Christian but it's like everybody knows the mechanics out or the order of play or place where they go in and like I hey I just want an oil change. But the meme is like hey I don't care if I'm about to die driving away with this vehicle like everything's like on fire and it's like a little cartoon just change my oil like you know you go into the mechanic shop. You've probably experienced it or you know somebody who has you go in there for a 50 dollar oil change. All right. This Saturday I can't wait to get my oil changed. I'm going to go have an amazing rest of the day and then they come out there and like my alternator is about to blow up my tires need fix my brakes need you know new rotors and then you walk out of there and it's two thousand dollars or three thousand dollars and like what just happened and then you get home and then you realize what my car's only six months old and they're telling me all this stuff so like it's just that's real I like there's a meme for that because it's happened and I know it's happened to me to have it multiple times yes like it's not as never below a thousand dollars. 

Aaron / Christian [00:13:16] No no way. They're like it's always like fifteen hundred two thousand like it's going to cost a fortune for you to fix your car. OK. And I'm like Can I drive away with it no like well I don't like you know it could blow up. It could be like with today or in six months. You know. Exactly that little unknown about it. Yeah. All right. 

Aaron [00:13:37] So we have a bonus. We do. What is it? The bonus is to have a reminder system something similar to fixed. 

Aaron / Christian [00:13:46] Have you ever heard of fixed. Never in my life. Oh my gosh. OK. How do you spell it first as an I x d so not f i x e d, no, it's f i x d. 

Christian [00:13:56] So this is an example so it's just an app right. And I mean everyone in the car is they have the little user car manual or whatever you know that has a chart that tells you at fifty thousand miles do you need a new alternator right. Hundred thousand miles. You need a brand new car. But it tells you you know what are the the repairs that you need to do a certain mileage. And people ignore that. Right. I was thinking of a better way to for myself right to remind myself of like OK I need to do these things instead of just having a book and glove compartment. So I found this app called fake fixed I actually where you sort of upload all your dates and all the things that you need to get done within your car and if you have to purchase which I haven't purchased. But he had to purchase this little machine looking thing they used to plug in to the same machine where you would do the safe driving sort of engine. Engine check light you know you plug it in and he tells you so that same plug in. You just plug in this little Bluetooth device thing that connects to your app and it tells you you know if you have a check engine light it will tell you what it is. It would also give you the reminders for you know whenever how many miles you're at and things like that. So it is kind of like like an Apple Watch as far as like health stats but for your car which is awesome it's great. But a good way to you know for auto repair shop to do this would be. I mean I don't know I don't know the softwares or if there's anything like that out there where you could have a customer and you just upload all that data in there. So you know that and this is something that the customer can sign up for you know and I mean I would like that package for them to run. Okay look look. Your car is a hundred thousand miles. This is where your brand or Toyota or whatever they tell you. Okay. This at this time you have to you know do this this and this will be awesome for a mechanic shop to be able to just remind me on those major things that you had to get fixed and not come out of nowhere one day where you're just trying to change your oil with a thousand things that you need to fix on your car. So they'll be a great way and a great way to offer customer service as well for your customers to have that some sort of reminder system about those things that are in your handbook that nobody ever. 

Aaron [00:16:30] Yeah. Yeah. Or they lose it. What is it like hand. And it puts them a glove box this thing's crap thrown it out. Yeah yeah. All right. Thank you guys for listening. We really appreciate it. 

Aaron [00:16:41] Whether you're an auto mechanic or not we know that you can get some value out of this please implement these things and if you are implementing them shoot us a message over on Instagram be like hey I implemented some of this stuff from episode 60 or one or five or one of six and let us know we want to know how you're using this implementation is crucial and if this is your first time listening make sure you hit the subscribe button not while you're driving or not while you're running but once you get stopped click the subscribe button so that you don't miss on any tips and tactics that we have to give out everything is most things rather is very timely. So you want to make sure that you don't miss anything and stay ahead of your competition. And if you've been listening for a while make sure that you leave us an honest a rating and review on iTunes and if you do this we will give you a shout out on the podcast episode. 

Aaron [00:17:31] Though we look at it afterwards. Now we're going to get a weekly batch 3 episodes but maybe we'll get a couple of shout outs on there but go live as an honest reading review we'll make that podcast better and then we'll also give you a shout out just for doing it. 

Aaron / Christian [00:17:44] Have a good week. Adios adios. Bye.