There is no doubt that social media has changed the marketing landscape for service providers across all industries but the challenges for the automotive repair industry are both complicated and critical to our growth and survival. Another persistent complication is the incomplete job we have done as an industry in selling our customers and potential customers on vehicle maintenance, resulting in our customers being more enthusiastic about a dental appointment than bringing in their car for an oil service. While accepting and realistic in looking at the relationship many shops have with their customers, social media and the use of “snackable” content can be a great way to move customers’ perceptions in a more favorable direction. Our customers might never look forward to visiting us with uncontrolled anticipation and glee; however, if we can get them to acknowledge and accept that we are there to assist them in keeping their car safe and reliable, we have accomplished something significant.
Snackable content is small bits of information and gentle reminders that tell us of goods and services we might need, and they do this in a way that is eye catching, relevant and digestible. To be effective, snackable content needs to be visible, searchable and sharable. Humans are highly visual and process visual representations thousands of times faster than written text. To complicate this even further, humans have very short attention spans and if we are going to try to get their attention, we need to be highly graphic, highly visual and at the same time bite sized and snackable.
Consumers today do not go anywhere without their phones, staying connected to the world no matter where they are, no matter what they are doing. If we are able to engage them while they are sitting in our waiting room, we are way ahead of the game. Though it was from another age and for a traditional marketing effort, an aspiring player in the fast food industry simply asked “Where's the beef?” It kept us reminded and aware of that important consumer product, making no effort to force feed us those many and well established features and benefits of our burger, but in just asking the question, consumers were reconsidering their burger choices. Very subtle and very effective! These days, along with the short video that made up this traditional marketing effort, we’d be more likely to have a chart detailing the benefits of our square burger with our web address prominently displayed. Better yet, a large flat screen in our waiting room, showing a continuous loop of helpful information and tips on ways to use our beef laden burger to its greatest benefit, all tied to our website, where our customers could find additional useful information. Snackable content teases their appetite; our website is where customers can go when they are ready to order lunch.
As painful as it might be, the time has come to retire that shock display from the 90s and to think about setting out pamphlets on tire care and graphic reminders that we can check the A/C, tires or battery. They should be prominent, appetizing and visible. Our waiting room should be a pantry with a variety of snacks within easy reach of our customers.
Popular automotive snacks:
- Get ready for winter
- Get ready for summer
- Women's car care perspectives
- Your car's battery
- Car Care Month (April and October)
- Tires and Alignment
- Shocks and Struts
- Air Conditioning
- Cooling Systems
A crucial consideration in all of this is our website, which in very real terms is the window into our business. If our website is confusing or difficult to navigate for a customer or potential customer, it will not matter how good a shop we are or how relevant our snackable content is, consumers will move on until they find a shop they like. A great website is the first picture many consumers will have of us and our shop and it is critical to make a great first impression. Behind the snackable content in our waiting room, and behind our marketing efforts using social media, a great website is key and central to our success. All these efforts need a home and in this day and age, that home is our website.
Much more than isolated reminders, snackable content is something you will want to use and not just in our waiting room, but most especially in our use of social media like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The ultimate goal here is to give customers and potential customers both rational (cheapest, best quality, appointments) and emotional (I really like this guy!) reasons to actually show up at our shop. The reality in today's market is that customers are not going to show up at our counter before they check us out online, check out our website, and check out our online reviews. Snackable content is an important step in highlighting our desire and ability to keep a customer's car safe and reliable and equally important; defining (at least in part) how the world will see us. If we are a Honda specialist who is set up to do maintenance services and we take appointments, our snackable content should highlight these points.
Most automotive repair consumers really do want to do the right things to keep their car safe and reliable. As an industry we have not always done right by our customers. Far too often we have not taken the time to know them and understand their needs. It really is a matter of relationships and we, of the automotive repair industry, have often been efficient in getting our customers in and out of our shop, but have done a less than stellar job of engaging and getting to know our customers. Again, they come to us because they have to, not because they necessarily want to. There is no better way to enhance those relationships than communicating our care and concern for the customers and their cars. Snackable content in our waiting room and in our efforts with social media is a great way to say we care without scaring them away. They have to like us before they can love us, and before they can like us, they have to know we are there. Snackable content is giving them a taste of who we are and what our shop represents without dragging them to the table and forcing them to eat.
Snackable content in our waiting rooms and in our outreach efforts with social media are great ways to move customers in the right direction. When done right, these snack sized bits of information can get our customers thinking about getting an alignment, replacing their cabin air filter or checking the condition of their battery, without the tension and anxiety that often accompanies our verbally making service recommendations or suggestions. We, as Service Advisors and Service Managers, still need to talk to our customers about these things while our customers’ cars are making their way through our shop, but snackable content gets our customers thinking about what will make their car safe and reliable before we open our mouth and does this as useful information, without the added pressure and anxiety that often accompanies the sales process.
When automotive repair consumers in our market area are asking "Where's the beef?" what are we going to say?
With effective use of Snackable content that answer is much easier.
Here's the beef, can I get you a biggie fries and a four wheel alignment to go with that?
