Many auto repair shop owners ask the same question:
Where am I going to find more car count for my auto repair shop?
It comes down to who you’re marketing to. Really, there’s only 3 places to get car count. Again, I’m making this very simple, but as you’ll see, it’s all very important. When developing marketing strategies to get more customers, you should focus on three target audiences in order to boost your car count:
The first place to get car count are from your current auto repair customers. Your current customers are people that have been in your shop recently. Let me just give you my definition of what a current client is: somebody that has been in your shop sometime within a 2 oil change cycle. Depending on where your shop is, if you do oil changes every 3 months, then a current customer, is somebody that’s been in your shop sometime within the last 6 or 7 months.
At that point they should’ve actually come in twice, but I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt that maybe at one point, they skipped an oil change, or stopped somewhere else for an oil change, or something out of sheer convenience. If they skip coming to your shop twice, they’re not your customer anymore. Their somebody else’s customer. Your current clients are where the money is.
The second place to find car count are with your past clients. What’s a past client? A past client is somebody that obviously is not a currently client, but it’s somebody that’s been in your shop. In other words, if it’s every 3 months, you change oil, so it’s every 6 or 7 months. If they haven’t been in that period, they’re now a past client, all the way to maybe about a year and a half, sometimes even two years. I’m talking about having a list of people to market to. If you’re getting further back, then the chances are they don’t even live in your area. They don’t even remember who the heck you are. The second best place to get more car count is with your past clients.
The third place, which is where most people spend most of their time, money, effort, hassle, and wind up with the worst results. This is because they’re going after perspective new customers. What many auto repair shop owners are doing is spending a lot of time going after new people, to bring new people in the door. There’s only 3 places to find them, either somebody that’s currently doing business with you, somebody that used to do business with you but is no longer coming in your shop, and third, prospects.
The catch in this scenario is, following these market tactics in order to develop a sure-fire auto repair marketing plan. It’s crucial when marketing to your auto repair shop to market to your current clients first, the ones who trust you. In fact, to drive my point home, according to Marketing Metrics you have a 60-70% chance at advertising to a current customer as opposed to just a 5-20% chance at selling to a new prospect. (picture retrieved from Shopify)
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