Running an auto shop? You’ve got tons on your plate. But no matter how busy you are, you’re probably always spinning your wheels trying to find ways to increase your bottom line, gain a solid reputation in your community and win over loyal customers. For life.
We want to share one of the key ingredients on just how to do this. And it’s just two simple words: customer satisfaction.
Those two seemingly small words pack a huge punch for your auto shop if done the right way.
"A satisfied customer is one who will continue to buy from you, seldom shop around, refer other customers and in general be a superstar advocate for your business." ~ Gregory Ciotti
So how do you turn your customers into superstar advocates that can’t stop talking about your auto shop? Here’s how to improve and maintain top-notch customer satisfaction.
PRO TIP: Print out these customer satisfaction tips to keep at your desk or tape on the wall!
Improve Customer Satisfaction with These 4 Tips
Communicate Like Crazy
You’ve heard it before: communication is key. Communicating with your customers more effectively will help ensure the success of your auto shop, strengthen customer loyalty and increase customer satisfaction. Here’s how you can amp up your communication skills to ramp up your customer satisfaction!
- Listen to them. Let’s be real. Most people view auto shop repair as an inconvenience. No one wants to deal with repairs or basic maintenance, so it’s up to you to lighten the mood. Do everything in your power to listen to your customers in order to truly understand them. Try genuinely listening to each customer and they’ll tell you what they want. Listening makes it simple to deliver services that will satisfy them.
- Ask how they like to communicate. Not all people like to communicate the same way. Some like a good old-fashioned phone call. Some love texting or email. Find out what your customer prefers and utilize that method. BAYiQ is the intelligent marketing platform that can help you easily communicate across many different channels--through text, direct mail and email.
- Always keep customers in the loop. Win over your customers by providing real-time, updated information to keep them informed about their vehicle—no matter what. By providing excellent communication, you’ve ensured customer satisfaction. Keeping customers informed is a powerful way to increase their satisfaction, loyalty and is a great example of the power of communication.
Survey for Satisfaction
Surveys send customers the right messages about your auto shop. Customer satisfaction surveys will send the message that you really care about your customers and are constantly working to address their concerns and needs. Even if they aren’t totally satisfied with their experience at your shop, they’ll be much more likely to return if they feel like you are dedicated to fixing it.
Here’s 3 tips to get started with your customer satisfaction survey:
- Make a list of questions you’d like to ask your customers about your auto shop’s services. It’s important to ask questions that will help improve sales, so ask a variety of questions.
- Make the questions extremely easy for them to answer—think multiple choice or “on a scale of 1-5”. Scales allow you to measure the degree to which people like your services.
- Don’t lose sight of the goal. Each customer satisfaction survey should have a specific goal in mind with a well-defined purpose and reason for being there. Stay focused on that goal and you’ll be able to get more information.
- Keep your questions clear and concise. Keep it simple for a successful survey. Think about the last time you took your time to answer a 30-minute survey. It’s probably never happened.
Use these sample online customer satisfaction surveys from SurveyMonkey to get you started quickly and easily.
Implement Change
Remember to utilize the data you gather from your customer satisfaction survey. It’s a waste of your time and money not to use this valuable information, so use it! You got the feedback, now use it to improve! How do you start implementing change? Use a review collection tool with BAYiQ.
Whether you have one shop or 20, 100 customers or 5,000, there's no doubt that an effective customer retention, loyalty & rewards program can impact your bottom line in the best way. BAYiQ is a marketing platform that does a phenomenal job in boosting customer satisfaction through our:
- Rewards program for your customers
- Marketing retention platform utilizing emails, text messages and postcards
- Customer review. We generate new positive reviews for your shop on Google. What’s not to love about that?
To learn more about how BAYiQ can improve customer satisfaction in your shop, watch our demo here!
Create an Awesome Environment
It’s not rocket science: increase customer satisfaction by making them feel comfortable! It’s all in the little things—provide fresh coffee, popcorn, current reading material, free Wi-Fi and a clean bathroom. Make sure everything is clean. Would you want to sit on those chairs? Would you use your bathroom? Does it smell nice? Look at the waiting area especially with fresh eyes and put yourselves in their shoes. If you were a new customer, what would your first impression be?
Using these customer satisfaction tips, watch your customers turn into superstar advocates for your auto shop.
With improving customer satisfaction comes some customer complaints. Here are 5 simple steps to handling customer complaints like a champ!
References: https://www.gocanvas.com/content/blog/post/five-reasons-auto-shops-need-customer-surveys, http://fluidsurveys.com/survey-templates/auto-repair-shop-satisfaction/,