10 mm with Tony Mercury, Autoshop Academy, Business Tips, Referral Partners
A Roadway to Increasing Customer Conversion Rates - Operationalize Your Marketing Data
In the latest 10MM, Tony Mercury takes a first look with Stan Stokes of Iron Fist Consultants on how to operationalize the marketing data from your marketing platform and increase your customer conversion rate. Stan points out that while Autoshop Solutions has a great platform to measure clicks, costs, spending dollars, and bring in the calls, the work does not stop there. Good marketing is simply driving the calls to your shop. Still, ultimately, your staff has to have the ability to land the customer and close the sale.
Stan works with automotive aftermarket repair shops helping them with customer acquisition and retention strategies by identifying KPIs and leading clients to achieve their marketing and operational goals. He says his business is not an agency or marketing company but more of an analytics company measuring and analyzing the data collected. And he’s not referring to the clicks and costs but conversations coming out of these systems. His agency sampled phone calls to identify first consumer behavior and found there are simply three types of phone calls displaying what the caller wants to know when calling your auto repair shop.
- How much does it cost?
- Do you fix it?
- Can I make an appointment?
Most potential customers are uneducated about what they need, so they make a call at the height of their anxiety, wanting to know how much it will cost to fix their car and how long it will take. They already have a conflict because no one wants to have to fix their car. The only thing to measure is the purpose of the call, and that is to book an appointment.
How do you increase your customer conversion rate, manage a conflict, and book an appointment?
Stan says the key is better understanding your people vs. your tools, and that comes down to the hiring process. Your expectations as a shop owner are performance. Effort plus talent equals performance. He says when hiring new people, look for inherent traits—drive, motivation, communication style, and how comfortable a person is dealing with conflict. It’s important to ask the right questions and look for the right traits during the hiring process. He stressed using a scientific approach when understanding people. A guy who works behind the scenes is not necessarily someone who you can move to the front end. Your staff also needs to be able to understand each other. It’s important to have cohesion in your shop
Stan offers three takeaways:
- Assess people from a hiring perspective.
- Measure their effort and output.
- Help with coaching by giving them the material they need to help in the manner that they can understand.
Autoshop Solutions can handle your digital marketing, ultimately driving calls to your shop. Still, in the end, your employees have to land the customer. As a shop owner, it’s your job to have the right person in that role. Customer calls offer an opportunity to book an appointment, but you can’t fix their car on the phone. If you need help operationalizing your business, check out Iron Fist Consultants here.
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Autoshop Solutions is an award-winning website design and internet marketing agency based in Apex, N.C. Since 2005, we have been helping the automotive industry with custom-designed websites and internet marketing solutions.
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