What sounds do you hear when you walk around your auto shop? You might hear mechanical noises like drills and air pumps along with the chatter of customers and your sales team tapping on computers.
These are wonderful sounds to hear in a successful auto business, but something’s missing.
Where is the music? Where is the welcoming voice inviting customers to enjoy the waiting room or consider a loyalty plan? If you’re not taking advantage of overhead audio in your business, you’re leaving a void of empty noise for your customers to replace with something else.
Music and overhead messaging in auto shops can drive customers to stay longer and spend more. Here’s how you can make the most of audio marketing for your brand.
Share Information About Your Business
Overhead messaging is a communication tool for your business. As an auto shop owner, you can identify gaps in the knowledge of your customer base and use overhead announcements to fill it in.
For example, your customers might not realize how often they should replace their windshield wiper blades and that you offer it as an add-on for various services. Recording a message and playing it overhead can grow customer interest in replacing their wiper blades and increase their services with you.
Auto shop owners can use overhead messaging to direct customers to various parts of the business or introduce opportunities to improve their car maintenance. Anything you could put on a billboard when customers walk in, you can discuss through overhead messaging.
Align Overhead Messaging With Your Overall Business Goals
Think about overhead messaging as a support system for your overall objectives.
Do you want to solicit more feedback from customers through surveys and reviews? Consider recording a message inviting people to take a survey before they leave. Do you want to promote a new service that customers might not be familiar with? Create a recording providing the valuable information.
We have seen a variety of different uses for overhead messaging in auto shops. A few examples of content that is easily communicated overhead include:
- Reminding visitors of shop hours and prime times to visit.
- Highlighting promotions and products your customers might not be aware of.
- Promoting customer loyalty and rewards systems.
- Initiate upsells and cross-sells for products and services.
Overhead messaging in auto shops provides a support system and additional communication tool for customers who visit your business.
Instead of placing the burden on your customer service team to explain all of the options customers have, your overhead messaging helps people learn about your brand while they wait.
Music Makes Wait Times Seem Shorter
Overheard messaging in auto shops doesn’t have to be limited to brand announcements. You can also curate a variety of songs from various genres that interest your customers and showcase your brand.
Retailers report that customers spend an average of 70% more when they shop at a business with overhead music. Simply playing a few sounds could lead to a small sales bump for your auto business.
Along with increased sales, music has the power to decrease perceived waiting lengths for customers. On-hold music was created to reduce the feeling of wasted time during on a call. When your customers are sitting and waiting, five minutes can feel like 15 minutes.
If you can keep your customers distracted and entertained, then they’re likely to feel like the wait wasn’t as long and therefore have a better impression of your business. Financially, shorter perceived wait times lead to increased sales, better loyalty, and customer-advertising through positive online reviews.
Increase Message Retention
Interestingly, there’s another purpose to adding music to overhead messaging along with company announcements: message absorption. Businesses often play short songs or transition melodies in between major announcements to give customers time to absorb the information they just heard.
For example, if your customers hear a message about a customer loyalty program and then learn about your store hours, they might be so focused on the new information that they forget about the loyalty plan.
Playing music for a minute or two allows your customers to think about what they just heard and thoroughly absorb the information. Message retention should increase with the addition of music, resulting in increased customer actions and sales.
Messages that are sandwiched between background music are also received better by customers who enjoy those songs. They already have a positive association with the music and can carry that feeling toward your brand.
Change the Messaging and Music As Often As You Want
One of the top advantages of implementing overhead music and messaging in your business is the flexibility. You don’t have to commit to one announcement or set of music and can change what you share as often as you want. With this flexibility, you can:
- Test different mixes of messaging and music to see how people respond to what you have to say.
- Play different types of music at different parts of the day depending on your customer base.
- Play similar offers with different phrasing to see how customers respond.
Some auto shop managers worry about investing in new customer care or marketing messaging because of the commitment involved. However, with low-risk overhead messaging, you can make a change as soon as you decide you want something different.
Invest in Overhead Messaging for Your Auto Shops Today
As an auto shop owner, you care about the customer experience. You want the people in your waiting room to be comfortable, informed, and happy. If you have the chance to do that with entertaining overhead music, why wouldn’t you?
If you’re ready to test overhead messaging in your auto shop, contact Spectrio today to learn about your options. And, for more tips on how to use audio and multimedia to wow customers in your store — grab our free ebook.