1. Social mining for new service customers

What’s one thing people love to use social media for more than cat videos? Complaining! This means the social media stratosphere is constantly buzzing with conversations about busted engines, blown tires, and unpleasant service experiences. All of these add up to the perfect opportunity for a well-timed digital ad, a personal response from your social media team, or both. A real-time data company can implement solutions that comb the internet for social signals, key phrases, web searches, and other activities that indicate a need for repair services and then execute advertisements across appropriate channels to get the attention of your prospects and ultimately make them your next customer.

A social media team can target customers in need of service or unhappy with current services by doing targeted searches on Twitter, Facebook, and other social sites. There are many resources online with detailed instructions on how to accomplish this (and even more social media providers who can take care of it for you), but the basic strategy is to search key phrases in an area local to your shop and then reach out via social media to those individuals.  For instance, on Twitter the search “broke down car near: tampa” brought up the first tweet– looks like someone may need a new mechanic. The same for “auto repair near: Orlando” and “auto shop near: Orlando” as seen in the other tweets.

Research by The Social Habit found that 42% of consumers who complain on social media expect a response within 1 hour. If they don’t receive a response in that time period, 38% report a more negative opinion of the brand. This is a great opportunity for repair centers to jump in and gain a new customer.

 2. New Movers

More than 40 million people move each year, and with 14 million moving either out of county or out of state they’re no longer within convenient driving distance to their current repair shop. In fact, in a survey by Moving Targets, 67% of respondents said finding an honest auto repair shop is the number 1 most stressful challenge after relocating.  Dealers with service centers who send the right offer at the right time have a greater chance of acquiring a new, loyal customer. Plus, a loyal service center customer may become a new car buyer within a year after moving. A study by Zillow found that new movers are 90% more likely to purchase a new car within a year after the move, and 26% of movers who purchase vehicles do so as an additional vehicle not as a replacement vehicle. A quality new mover list from a data provider will be multi-sourced and attached to online ID’s for multi-channel marketing. For the most effective messaging, incorporate demographic and behavioral information to tailor the incentive and delivery to the consumer. Read more about targeting new movers here.

3. Follow the Car

Improved technology means cars are lasting longer, and therefore having more owners over the life of the vehicle. Dealerships can garner value further down the value chain of the cars sold at their dealership by implementing a Follow the Car solution. Follow the Car solutions track vehicle events by VIN. Examples of applicable events would be if a car is pinged as receiving repairs at a competitor (opportunity to offer incentive to win back their business), when the car changes ownership (opportunity to market message that your dealership sold the car and therefore knows the car’s history), or if it’s listed as totaled or involved in an accident (incentive for repair or new sale). To learn more, check out this infographic.  

The auto industry is becoming data driven on all fronts, and service centers must be no exception – especially when they are such vital revenue drivers for dealerships. Still 40% of new car buyers report they don’t return to the dealership for non-warranty related service, and 67% say that outside repair shops are a better value than dealership service centers. These 3 strategies are a good place to start in making your service center shine.

To learn how to implement highly successful conquesting strategies to acquire new auto customers, download this free Automotive Marketing Data Solutions Guide.