The way that consumers research, find and engage with automotive shops has changed significantly in recent years. In the past, shops would buy newspaper and radio ads, put up a billboard, get listed in the Yellow Pages and wait for customers to call or show up to their shop.
Now, the process is much more detached. While traditional advertising and marketing are important to create awareness, they’re no longer the primary sources consumers turn to when deciding which shop to choose. Online searches are now king. Today’s consumer typically searches for body shops near them, reads reviews, maybe looks at their website and then calls or messages the shop directly from its listing.
Messaging Businesses
The option for customers to message businesses is a new addition. Google recognized that more and more customers would prefer to message a business as opposed to placing a call. In fact, 90 percent of consumers want to use messaging to interact with a business – with 50 percent preferring to message via SMS text.
The problem is only 48 percent of businesses are capable of messaging with their customers. There are a number of reasons businesses cite for not wanting to implement a messaging strategy with their
customers, including:
- Too time-consuming
- Resource-intensive
- Cost-prohibitive
In the past, those concerns might have been valid, but that is no longer the case. In fact, messaging with your customers will save you time and money rather than eating up resources. Because business text messaging is so vital, let’s walk through the process of setting up your business with Google’s Click-to-Message feature.
Setting Up Google Click-to-Message
- Log in to your Google My Business page.
- Select Messaging in the left menu and add phone number.
- Verify that number with a code sent from Google.
- Now, searchers can message your shop.
Messaging Customers
Because texting with your customers is such a new phenomenon, it might be difficult to know when you should do it.
Customers typically will reach out to you via text message when they’re experiencing what Google refers to as a “micro-moments,” or a time on the customer journey when customers want to know, want to go or want to buy something.
A lot of times, consumers won’t want to make a call when they’re having these micro-moments because calls are often perceived as time-consuming and inconvenient. Companies that give consumers the option to message with them will likely see an uptick in business. Some other times when consumers want to engage your business via text include when they want to:
- Answer simple questions: A lot of times, customers just want to know something simple such as what your hours are or whether or not you perform a specific type of service. Having the ability to answer those questions via text will make life easier for not only your customers but your employees as well.
- Make appointments: Today’s consumer wants it to be simple and easy to engage with a business, and that includes making appointments. Being able to make an appointment and send appointment reminders via text will increase customer satisfaction and help you drive loyalty.
- Resolve problems: Unfortunately, not every interaction with your customers is going to go as smoothly as you would like. Giving customers the option to reach out to report issues via text will help you significantly improve your response time and help you prevent small problems from becoming larger.
Text Tips
Now that your shop is all set up to take incoming texts and is familiar with instances in which customers want to text you, let’s review some tips that will help you successfully interact with your customers.
Be responsive. Oftentimes when consumers are conducting an online search on their mobile device, they want their questions answered immediately. This is because they’re likely experiencing micro-moments. If your online presence isn’t able to quickly answer their questions, they’ll probably move on to your competition. One of the main reasons that online searchers want to connect with you via text is they feel like it’s a quicker, more efficient method of communication. But that’s only true if the dealership is placing an emphasis on quick response times. To ensure this happens, shop owners and managers should make sure their team is well-equipped to offer quick responses to customers. If you don’t consistently respond to messages in a timely manner, customers will know because, over time, Google will post typical response times on your listing.
Don’t ask for sensitive information via text. This might seem obvious, but it bears repeating. Businesses should never ask for sensitive information such as credit cards, banking information or social security numbers over text. While text messages seem secure, the information isn’t encrypted, so the data could be vulnerable.
Ask for customer feedback. Another valuable way to utilize text messaging in your customer interactions is asking for feedback. A lot of times, customers don’t want to take the time to fill out a lengthy customer satisfaction survey, but they would be willing to answer a few questions via text. That’s because asking questions via text comes across as more personal and less intrusive than a survey. One way to approach this is by asking your customers after a transaction is complete, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely would you be to recommend this business to a family or friend?” Then, follow that up with one or two questions about the service your business delivers. Our research has shown that approaching customer feedback this way results in significantly higher open and response rates than traditional CSAT surveys.
Invite customers to review your business. Text messaging is also a good method for collecting public-facing customer feedback on your Google My Business listing. One of the biggest reasons to use text messaging is many people are already signed into their Google account on their smartphone, so it’s much easier to connect them directly to your Google reviews page.
Encourage customers to add you to their contacts. Texting with your customers will help you build stronger, more loyal customers. To help you reinforce that loyalty, try texting them a vCard with your contact information on it. If customers have access to your phone number in their contacts, it removes one of the steps in the collision claims journey. It will help you evolve from being just a shop to being their shop.
