It is no secret that visiting a car dealership, mechanic shop, or tire store makes a lot of people uncomfortable. There is a stigma attached to the auto industry that leads people to believe they will get taken advantage of during their visit.
Many customers feel vulnerable when dealing with auto service providers and salespeople because they don’t know what they need. They feel nervous that they will be oversold on expensive products and services that they don’t need.
Your job as an auto industry manager or store owner is to decrease this customer stress, establish trust, and make sure your customers feel confident doing business with you.
Here are a few ways you can accomplish that.
Educate, Educate, Educate
The best way to decrease customer stress is through education. By empowering customers with knowledge, you make them more confident in their decision making. When they understand why they need a product or service, they experience less resistance when making their purchase.
So as a manager, you should educate your customers with useful resources that:
- Show the benefits of services and products. Explain what a product or service does. Then, demonstrate how it provides value over time, so customers see why they need a product or service and why it is priced a certain way.
- Walk customers through service processes. Explain the steps involved in a service process. When customers understand the process, they will be able to see its value and relate to that the cost.
- Highlight safety. Show how products and services improve safety. Customers will understand pricing more when they are able to connect it with features that protect drivers.
Put Your Educational Material Front and Center
Don’t present your educational resources in a dusty corner or only provide them to customers who ask. Instead, put your resources front and center to show your customers that you have nothing to hide.
Customers will be more likely to trust your auto business when you proudly present information that explains your products and features. Plus, equipping customers with resources also makes them more confident and comfortable while talking to salespeople and mechanics.
Decrease customer stress by presenting education materials at multiple customer touch points:
- Use digital signage instead of static posters and brochures. Screens with multimedia capabilities and engaging video are easier to understand, more memorable, and more likely to capture attention.
- Feature screens with product demos in showrooms. Customers that are wary of salespeople enjoy being able to learn about products on their own. Product demo videos in a showroom allow customers to make purchasing decisions without relying on salespeople for information.
- Showcase digital signage content in waiting areas. Content educates and entertains customers while they wait which uplights customer attitude and decreases perceived wait times.
- Inform customers on the phone. Helpful on-hold messaging can guide customers to resources to learn more about services and products to establish trust even before the customer walks in the door.
Provide Comparison Information
Don’t use your digital media displays to share surface-level information about your products and services. Instead, dive deep into product specs and comparisons. Create educational material that compares products and services side-by-side.
Giving customers a visual that help them see their options laid out in front of them simplifies their purchasing decision.
Comparisons help customers categorized their options and put price points and values on products and services that they otherwise aren’t familiar with. This makes it easier and less stressful to approve purchases and service work.
Arm Your Staff with Digital Devices
Don’t let your employees work with customers empty handed. Arm them with hand-held digital devices that display resources and help decrease customer stress.
Provide digital media tools that:
- Display information for specific makes and models of cars. When customers see their particular model matched up with a suggested product or service, they trust that they are making the right purchase.
- Pull customer history. Encourage your customers to return to your auto shop (and feel more comfortable when they do) by providing client profiles that list details about their past purchases. Showing customers their service and purchase history ensures that you aren’t pushing items on them that they don’t need.
- Share before-and-after photos or videos. Let customers see a service or product for themselves by showing work that has been done by your shop.
Display Positive Reviews
You can ease concerns and decrease customer stress even more by sharing testimonials and reviews from past customers.
Whether you choose to share reviews through video clips or written customer testimonials, the impact will be powerful. Customer decisions are often heavily influenced by seeing reviews.
A survey from Brightlocal.com found that 72% of consumers say positive reviews make them trust a local business more.
So, put your reviews in front of your customers when they are in your store to build trust. (Also, focus on generating positive online reviews that will help lead customers to your store in the first place.)
We know that customers are wary of car dealerships, mechanic shops, or tire stores. It’s a stigma that probably won’t go away anytime soon.
But that doesn’t mean, you can’t ease the minds of the customers who walk into your store.
By providing helpful resources and digital media tools at each customer touchpoint, you can make sure every person in your store feels educated, confident, and comfortable doing business with you on that day, and for years to come.
Want even more tips on how to use digital content to educate customers and increase sales? Check out these 17 Auto Industry Marketing Tips That Help You Sell More by Using In-Store Content.