Automotive repair shops rely heavily on customer loyalty to maintain their business. In fact, improving customer retention by just 5% can boost profit by 25% to 95%. Customer retention begins at the Point of Sale (POS), and even with quality service, can require additional touch-points to keep customers coming back.
Here are three effective strategies to drive loyal customers right from your automotive repair shop’s POS:
1. Enroll Them in a Loyalty Rewards Program
Typically, automotive repair shop customers don’t need services performed on their vehicles all that often, which is why it’s important to incentivize repeat business. This can easily be done by integrating a loyalty program right into your POS system. Luckily, the process of incorporating a loyalty program is incredibly simple with BayIQ. BayIQ is automated marketing software designed specifically for the auto industry.
With BayIQ, you can:
- Offer special rewards based on customer loyalty
- Capture email and text permissions so customers are kept up-to-date
- Award bonuses and promotions
- Create a customer portal for access to past transactions and the ability to enroll family members
What are the Benefits of a Loyalty Rewards Program?
Loyalty programs benefit not only the customer, but also the business, and are therefore worth the investment. Studies show that the average loyalty program member spends anywhere between 12-18% more per year than the standard customer.
Here are just a few of the many benefits of customer loyalty programs:
- Competitive advantage: Loyalty doesn’t just mean customer retention, but also that customers will choose you over other competitors in the market.
- Repeat business: With BayIQ, shops can double their average visits per year.
- New referrals from existing customers: Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful tool to continue generating new business which means more loyal customers.
- Valuable feedback: Loyal customers care about your shop and will provide you with insight into problems or opportunities you might have missed.
At the end of the day, your priorities as an auto repair shop include not only keeping business afloat with customer loyalty, but also keeping your customers satisfied.
2. Automatically Send Service Reminders
Attentiveness towards your existing customers is one of the most important aspects of driving revenue for your shop. Research suggests that 58% of customers express a more positive attitude towards businesses who offer services such as SMS/text reminders.
With that being said, it can be difficult to stay up-to-date with each customer’s respective vehicle repair needs and issue timely reminders. Fortunately, that’s not the case with BayIQ. They offer an easy and automated solution that takes all the pressure off you and your team to keep track of individual records.
With Bay IQ, there are many aspects you can automate to ensure you stay top of mind with customers:
- Monthly communications
- Vehicle-specific oil change reminders
- Tire rotation reminders
- Scheduled service reminders
- Declined service reminders
Now more than ever, technology like BayIQ can assist you with the small jobs so that you can do what you do best: provide quality customer service.
3. Give Them Top-Notch Customer Service
It’s no secret that some customers rarely trust their mechanics, which makes it more important than ever to treat your customers right so they consider coming back for future services. Building trust with your customers starts early, so you’ll want to make sure the process of helping them is smooth and informative.
Here are a few simple methods of building trust with your customers:
- Communicate the problem: If you are recommending a costly service, make sure you show them exactly why it’s necessary.
- Sign them up for your loyalty program: While they are waiting for services to be performed, encourage them to register for your loyalty program so they can start earning discounts and promotions as soon as possible.
- Cultivate meaningful relationships: Treating the customer like a person rather than just another client will ensure that they develop trust in both the mechanic and the shop.
Building a trusting relationship with your customers is key to ensuring their return to your shop for future business.
Start Creating Loyal Customers With BayIQ
There are many methods to keep current customers coming back and it all starts with your automotive repair shop’s POS. BayIQ is fully embedded in many POS systems to make creating loyal customers easy.
