Do online reviews matter for my auto body shop?

Before any potential customers open your doors, they will have usually spent a portion of their time researching whether your shop is the right fit for them.  Perhaps they’ve consulted their friends, family, and co-workers.  Maybe they’ve taken a look at your website, along with the websites of your competitors.  Maybe their insurance company has included your shop on a list for them to choose from.  No matter how people are making the decision to come to your body shop, what’s important is that you develop a solid reputation in every area you can.

So you might be wondering what kind of impact online reviews can have on your business.  The truth is that they are very important. 

Check out this infographic from AutoBody-Review.com:

Here are some of the key points listed in the infographic:

·         85% of consumers say that they read online reviews for local businesses (and that number is growing rapidly).  Think about it—in your own experience, have you used online reviews while making a decision on a product or service?  These days, reviews are readily available on most business websites, as well as on popular review sites like Angie’s List and Yelp. 

·         For the types of businesses that customers read online reviews, 31% of people list “automotive” and that number is up from 18%last year.  That’s a pretty significant increase, so the collision repair industry clearly needs to pay attention to its online reviews.    

·         65% of consumers are more likely to choose a business that has positive online reviews.  This means that a bad online review could cause you to lose a significant amount of business.  The reverse is likely true for every positive review you receive.   

·         79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.  This statistic is an important revelation, since it demonstrates that every customer who enters your shop is potentially as impactful as any paid critic might be. 

So what should you do with this information?
We will discuss in future posts how to handle good and bad online reviews, but there are some things you can currently take away from this study.  First of all, it’s essential that you become more aware of your web presence.  What are people saying about you?  What are they saying about your competitors?  Once you know what people are saying, then you can determine what your next steps should be.  Next, you should start treating each and every customer like you would a media critic.  Before you can really make a healthy impact on your online review status, you need to make sure that you have the foundations of excellent customer service in place.

Do you need help managing your auto body shop’s online presence?
At Stratosphere Studio, we specialize in digital marketing for auto body shops and have an excellent track record for bringing our clients more business.  Our clients span the U.S. and are some of the most successful shops in their respective cities.  We would love to help you next!