Regardless of what industry you work in, if you offer appointments, you’ll have to deal with no-shows. That’s certainly the case for independent auto shops, which thrive on providing regular preventative maintenance appointments to their clients. Fortunately, sending out service reminders is one of the best ways to cut down on missed appointments—but some reminders are more effective than others.
If you’re still using old-school appointment reminders, you should know there’s a better way. Instead of relying on manual phone calls and emails, read on for a few reasons why your shop needs to switch to automated service reminders.
Save Staff Time
Calling traditional appointment reminders “inefficient” is an understatement. When you keep using outmoded reminder methods like manually calling or emailing customers, your staff members will have to step away from their actual job duties whenever you need to send out one of these messages. Even if a single reminder doesn’t take long to send, the minutes will add up fast when you need to send reminders to your entire customer base.
As the name implies, automated service reminders don’t need to be personally sent out by your staff members. Once this system is set up, your employees can focus on the tasks they’re paid to do—increasing your shop’s overall efficiency in the process.
More Appointments Scheduled
Some customers make a point of setting up service appointments ahead of time, but that’s not the case for everyone. Other people prefer to schedule their appointments shortly before maintenance is due. Without rock-solid reminders, it’s all too easy for people in the latter category to slip through the cracks, even if they genuinely care about vehicle maintenance.
Automated service reminders solve this issue by reliably letting people know when they need an appointment for a car check-up at your shop. Better yet, you’ll send these messages out via modern platforms like text messages. That means your customers will be much more likely to act on your reminders; after all, texts have a 98% open rate.
Fewer Missed Appointments
On the other hand, even if customers schedule an appointment in advance, they may not actually make it to that appointment. After all, your clients are busy people juggling jobs, family lives, and other duties. It can be hard for them to remember what they have coming up next week—let alone months in the future.
While missed appointments can be frustrating for you and your staff, they’re rarely caused by active neglect on the customer’s part. Instead, most no-shows are the result of simple forgetfulness. When your clients receive an automated reminder from your shop, they’ll be much more likely to show up on time. You’ll be able to keep your bays full, complete your repair orders, and enjoy a steady flow of revenue!
Improved Customer Loyalty
Expanding on that last point, your customers certainly won’t be annoyed to get reminders for upcoming maintenance. Instead, they’ll be glad you took the time to give them a nudge (even if the nudge in question was fully automated). Combined with everything else you already do for your clients, that can have a tangible impact on your shop’s customer satisfaction levels.
It’s also worth noting that preventative maintenance isn’t just a nice thing to keep up on. While the effects of this maintenance can be subtle, it has a meaningful positive effect on a vehicle’s ability to perform as it should. By helping your customers keep track of their upcoming maintenance needs, you’ll help them stay safe on the road—and they’ll appreciate that more than you might think.
Keep Customers in the Loop with BayIQ
If you’re ready to venture into the world of automated service reminders, your first step is picking a program that can handle this task for you. The software provided by BayIQ is explicitly built for independent auto repair and tire shops, making it the obvious choice for your business.
BayIQ won’t just make life easier for your mechanics and staff members, either. With its straightforward appointment scheduling and loyalty program capabilities, your customers will also find a lot to like about it. Plus, use email and text marketing powered by BayIQ to not only send appointment reminders, but also let customers know about promotions and rebates, build and search targeted marketing lists, and much more.
Don’t wait any longer to start enjoying the benefits of automated service reminders. Set up your demo of BayIQ’s software today!
