GTS_Services

At the very least, you should claim your listing on Yelp and make sure your business information on there is accurate. Remember, anyone can create a listing for a business on Yelp, even they are not associated with that business in any way, so you may as well be the one to do it. If there is already a listing for your business you can verify ownership with Yelp to claim the listing and control it.

If you are unsure where to begin, we put together a brief article for people looking to get started with Yelp: http://blog.gtsservices.com/ritty/how-to-get-your-auto-shop-noticed-on-yelp

Anyone use Delta Kits?

Thanks for all your feedback everyone.

I am curious how many of you offer window tinting services and what products do you prefer to use.

There are so many sites where you can hire a freelance graphic designer;

99designs.com was mentioned earlier, there is also:

elance.com

outsource.com

fivver.com

behance.com

coroloft.com

Generally, designers have a portfolio and reviews you can look at before hiring. If you google freelance graphic design you usually find a lot of articles that list different sites.

If anyone is looking to just get started with a yelp account, we wrote an article recently that touches on the basics.

http://blog.gtsservices.com/ritty/how-to-get-your-auto-shop-noticed-on-yelp

Careful the way you turn a customer down!!!!

 

Had to deal with some BS this morning. Stupid kid obviously his parents are savages brings in a Mercedes he just bought. We give him an initial assessment of a Check engine light problem, explain to him we need to book him for an appointment to properly test and diagnose his problem. He returns 3 times in the next few days every day asking for prices on various possible fixes. We explain to him we need to book an appointment to have enough time to properly test and diagnose. Tells us story about how we went to another shop after he left ours and he had some coils replaced and it didnt solve his problem. He said he knew they were good coils because the shop let him go buy his own parts (FML). Leaves again says he'll give us a call. Calls us up after the weekend is over and wants to book an appointment. Explain to him we are down a tech and our next available appointment is next week. We could have filled him in but we really didn't want him as a customer however we were always 100% professional and courteous. Gets pissed off and 15 minutes later we get a nasty 1-star yelp review filled with lies stating we cancelled his appointments, made him empty promises etc. Mind you he never ever spent a dime with us whilst we did give in a 30 minute consultation for free.

 

 

Point to the story is you have to be very careful when you turn away business. People can be 110% irrational POS.

Out of curiosity...do you respond to Yelp reviews?

I use sitebuilder.com, $77 prepaid for one full year. The templates you can use to choose from are sweet and really easy to use. I buy all my domain names from go-daddy. I own almost 40 names that are all forwarded to our site. It's still under development here:

 

http://www.nealeyauto.com

 

AJ

Checked out your web page, and it looks good overall but I would consider removing some of the text over your main image on the home page. It is a bit overwhelming and it is also all information that could be on your about page. If you simplify it will resonate more effectively with a customer. You can sum up everything there with your second paragraph...

"We are a purpose driven, professional and full service auto repair facility. We pursue excellence in everything we do. From the moment you make that phone call or arrive at our business all the way through picking up your vehicle and follow up phone calls, you'll know you have made the right choice when it comes to your automotive service needs!"

If you change the first sentence to read "We are a purpose driven, professional and full service auto repair facility located in beautiful Edgewater, MD." You can effectively reduce your text, it will be more visually interesting because the image will not be completely covered and your message is still the same.

Quick Answer: They are crucial and well worth it.

 

Long Answer: Websites are vital in this day and age. However, just having one is not enough. I used to think, "I'm paying $50 / month (I used to have motorev too), for this website. Why would I do that if I can make my own for $150 / year?"

 

Now, don't get me wrong, if you love SEO, building your own site, keeping up with it weekly, if not daily and have all of that time on you hands then by all means go for it. I don't.

 

That being said, a website is USELESS if it doesn't do anything for you. You have to treat your website as a marketing piece. You have to know that your website is working for you. My problem with motorev was that I didn't know what it was doing for me. How do you know how many calls your website is bringing in? Out of those calls, how many people came in? What did they bring in terms of revenue?

 

A website, you have to track just like any other marketing piece. Right now I'm paying about $190 / month for my website. But I have a tracking number on it, I know how many calls I get from it, how many of those come in, and that my INVESTMENT is well worth it, so I have no issues paying that much.

CarER

This is a great insight. A website is essentially the new phonebook. Many customers find shops through services like Yelp and Google searches/reviews. So if your site is dialed in to reach your preferred customer it will be well worth the investment.

I would also add that social media can be a benefit as well- although it should be part of a long-term plan because it will take some time to see results. Maintaining a social media presence can contribute to your image as a business and boost your reputation. You can post special offers but otherwise just reposting existing content such as car care tips can educate your customers, add value, and give them the feeling that you care which, in turn, will increase the amount of repeat business and customer referrals.

Increasing car count is really about a combination of factors - targeted marketing, better scheduling, and making sure you leverage the customer base you already have. We actually wrote an article about this just recently:

http://blog.gtsservices.com/ritty/3-ways-to-double-your-car-count

We have somewhat of a 5 minute rule but we also don't allow any parking lot fixes. i.e the tech or service writer to go take care of something in the front parking lot. When we perform a free repair we usually hand the customer 2 business cards and tell them to just give them to a friend or make a post on social media.

 

I like the business card idea, it seems like a great way to make a customer feel appreciated and referrals are still one of the best ways to find your ideal customers.

I was very nervous about using the service but I was afraid they would start Filtering my reviews so I went for it. I had 180/mo to spend since a previous Yellow Pages contract expired so that is what I set my budget at. I have noticed a significant increase in business as well as an increase of calls directly from the Yelp app. I will be increasing by budget as soon as I can handle the increased car count.

I think this sounds like a smart approach. Another way to increase business from yelp is to interact with customers, especially ones that leave mediocre reviews. It can show that you care and attempted to resolve any issues which customers really respond to.

Check out Lesson 3, it touches on reviews: http://gtsservices.com/news/4-lessons-for-advertising-your-glass-shop-on-social-media/

I'm not sure if there is a "right" answer. It's hard to say if $140 is a good rate without knowing what web-related services they are providing you with. If you are beginning marketing then you may want to add responsibilities slowly. As your goal is to maintain and improve your image and visibility not discredit it.

Taking on a project that you don't have time for may cause something else to slide and if you don't stay on top of things like social media, blogs, websites, etc. you can start to appear unprofessional in a potential customer's eyes. Have you ever looked up a business page on Facebook that had 10 posts from 3 years ago? Bet you chose to work with their competitor who maintains regular posts instead.

Overall you can find services that are easy for you to update and maintain without knowing code or paying someone but take your time with the research phase to ensure you are making the best decision from a business perspective. Also;

• Keep your domain name
• spend the $ to have someone build your site if you can
• before transitioning to the new site make sure your customers know through messages on the site and SM among other things.

My companies blog has some articles you may find interesting http://gtsservices.com/news/

Hello all!

 

New to the forum but would like to chime in. Our shop has only been open for a year but we do alright. Here is my advice on what I am finding to be the most important, most of which are marketing (an aspect most shops neglect):

 

Good ideas... don't forget about reviews, I feel like people underestimate these.

For review sites and other social media: Add pics of your shop, customize about pages and respond to reviews (good & bad). Maintaining visibility and consistently interacting are important with social media, if you are not doing that it can hurt you. (Think about going to a facebook page that hasn't been updated in 6 mos+. Do you trust that business?) Also, if you use more than one social media site try to make sure your profile pic and background images match that way customers will recognize you across platforms.

There are some decent ideas in these articles as well.

http://gtsservices.com/news/4-lessons-for-advertising-your-glass-shop-on-social-media/

http://www.shopownermag.com/best-kept-secret-generating-referrals/

http://www.23kazoos.com/100-marketing-ideas-for-auto-repair-shops-plus-4-marketing-ideas-that-will-increase-car-count-immediately/

Jeff, good for you setting high goals for yourself and your shop. I certainly don't have all the answers for you but my company recently put out an e-book that has a lot of information about growing your business and improving sales. We currently work with glass shops, so I am not trying to sell anything but there are good tips that could very easily translate to an auto shop. http://content.gtsservices.com/improve-your-sales-ebook