7 Ways to Make Your Body/Auto Repair Shop Attractive to Customers

Standing out against businesses you compete with can be challenging – especially for body and auto repair shops offering the same or similar services.

However, there are some tricks and tips businesses in this industry can use to give themselves an edge over others while also helping to build a strong clientele.

Here, we’ll go through some of the best ways to increase the customer appeal of your auto or body repair shop, including everything from advertising to training programmes.

1.    Develop a strong online presence 

From setting up and actively using social media to creating a functional website – body shops can massively benefit from an increased online presence.

The best way to build an online presence from nothing is to start small and see what you can handle. An online marketing budget can come in handy here since it can take some time and patience to get things set up and start seeing results.

Think about the type of customer you want to bring into your body or auto repair shop and what they might want to see. When targeting a slightly older clientele, you might want to become more active on social media like Facebook while still encouraging these customers to call or pop into the shop.

Meanwhile, younger clientele usually responds better to trend-led content on platforms like TikTok. Short and informal videos like how-to’s or introducing your team might be an effective way to get your name out there and attract a different type of customer.

Creating a website for your business can also be a cost-effective asset because you can use it to take bookings and enquiries. If your phone and email are only monitored during business hours, it can be difficult for people working at those times to schedule a service or ask questions. Offering online booking forms and somewhere to take enquiries outside of these hours allows you to widen your customer base.

2.    Run promotions & deals

Promotional offers and deals on products and services can increase your customer appeal since people often want to save as much money as possible. By offering high-quality products and services at discounted prices, you can end up increasing your customer base.

To ensure your deals run effectively, it’s worth looking over any data you have about which products and services sell best and when. You can use this to curate and time them perfectly.

3.    Run strategic local advertisements

The cost of printing and distributing physical advertisements for your business is often more than it’s worth. However, deliberate and carefully thought-out local ads can be very effective for bringing new customers into your body shop.

Besides asking other local businesses to stick up posters or hand out flyers, there are plenty of different ways to advertise in your local community. Sponsor a local sports team and ask them to wear your logo or get involved in community fundraising to help get your name out there. At the very least, you can do something good as a local business.

Showing a willingness to participate in these types of events and have a positive impact within the community can increase your customer base through word-of-mouth, alongside raising awareness for the business and what you do. Members of the community are likely to appreciate a business that’s not just in it for the money but to help others.

4.    Set up service reminders

Service reminders can bring more recurring business your way. For example, repair shops offering annual services can set up reminders to get in touch with customers before their next service is due. All you’ll need to do is ask whether customers want to be reminded and take their contact information to send the reminder.

If customers don’t need to seek you out, it can simplify the process for them. This can make your repair shop appear more attractive than any others that they’d likely need to spend time contacting and setting up as a new client.

5.    Encourage online reviews

Whether you set up a way for customers to provide feedback or simply encourage online reviews – more good reviews will always look good for your business.

When potential customers are shopping around for which repair shop will do the best job within their budget, reviews will often play a big role in their final decision.

6.    Offer continuous employee training

If your repair shop is constantly competing with others for the same competition, then it could be time to start offering different or enhanced services.

Offering opportunities to develop existing skills and gain new ones will increase your uniqueness as an auto or body repair shop business. Plus, more modern techniques and methods can often be cheaper, which might lead to price reductions for customers. Being able to offer your services at more competitive prices without reducing the quality is likely to bring customers to you over competitors.

Additionally, the more knowledgeable your employees are about their craft, the more trustworthy they can appear. Customers may feel more confident and comfortable with handing over their keys to professionals that seem to have a high level of training under their belts.

7.    Set customer service standards

 High customer service standards should always be a priority. But that doesn’t mean everyone should necessarily receive the same service. No two clients are going to be the same, which means that their budget, knowledge, and expectations can vary. For example, some customers will just want a no-fuss approach and will make their budget clear, which means employees should avoid upselling above their budget and only contact them when necessary.

Although some accommodations should be made when deciding how to deal with customers, everyone should experience price and quote transparency, and friendliness, and have technical information explained in a way that’s easy to understand.

If you treat customers well, you’re more likely to see them return and tell others about their positive experiences.

In summary, there is a wide range of things you can do as a body shop to bring in more customers and boost business. From changing up your customer service approach to improving pricing and deals, we hope we’ve been able to show you how easy it can be to make yourself more attractive to new and existing customers alike.

At JTAPE, we offer a wide variety of tapes to help auto, and body repair shops complete their jobs to a high standard. Visit our online store to discover our full product list, or contact us to find your local distributor.