Thread by @cyberomin

A few weeks ago, I did a thread on how Nigerian businesses weren’t maximizing their potentials by harnessing data they already had at their disposal.

The focus of that thread was how to create engaging user experience based on data and drive instore traffic.

I focused on the pharmaceutical industry. The entire thread was based on my experience as a new parent. If you want to read more, here is the link - cyberomin.github.io/startup/2019/0….

Today I’ll talk about about how the auto-mechanic shops can become much more for their cutomers.

The aim of this thread will is how to get auto-shops to become trusted advisors, improve customer experience and drive traffic.

Gather around, class is in session.

Most first time car owners are generally clueless on how to take care of and maintain their cars. I mean, I was part of this group and a bunch of us here were too.

As a auto mechanic shop, if a customer walks into your shop for the first time, it doesn’t matter if they are there for repairs or just making enquiries, as much as you can, get their information.

These data points are simple: name, email, phone number, car brand, model...

year and date of purchase. If you want to go further, ask for their birthday and anniversaries.

You don’t need to enter this into a computer system while they are there, you can ask them to fill in a piece of paper.

Since most customer will be hesitant with regards to giving out their information, offer them a 10%-off coupon that they can use on their next visit if they agree to fill that form.

The 10%-off coupon should be in the form of a business card - address, phone number and store name and branches. This is assuming you have miultiple branches.

What you have done here is 1. onboard them. 2. Create sublimal advertisement. They have your card in a coupon form.

Now that you have gotten the information, the next step is building a relationship.

Build a relation and not SPAM them. There’s a difference.

If the user comes back for a service; it doesn’t matter what service it is, send them a thank you email at the end of the day.

The email can then have a feedback form. As much as you can, collect feedback, most of your users will willing givem to you.

Feedback could be as simple as them rating (1 - 5) your service and providing a box for them to enter a comment.

These ratings will help you build a net promoter score(NPS). There are free tools that can allow you do this. Google Form is one of them.

In the same thank you email, ask them to recommend your service to a friend or family member. You will be surprised. This is after you must have done a great job for them though.

Your next phase is now to become their trusted advisor.
You can begin by sharing weekly information and tips. Call it “Weekend Car Tips.” It doesn’t have to be anything long.

A paragraph is more than enough.

Topics could be anything from:
1. understanding your dashboard indicators.
2. Washing and waxing tips.
3. Dealing with rust
4. Fixing common scratches
5. Overheating and how to deal with it.
6. Safety tips. Anything that adds value to the customer is welcomed.

Of course, every email should carry a footnote reminding them of your business and the services you offer.

As you begin to do these things, you can quickly move from being just the guy that is waiting to get their money to the guy that cares….

Most people, myself inclusive, don’t have proper check-up habit. The bulk of your customer’s wouldn’t come in unless they have critical issues.

Now even when their cars are giving them obvious signs, they don’t come in. So it will be your responsibility to remind them.

Let’s take maintenance for instance, depending on their last date, create a reminder strategy. It could be an email/SMS.

Say every 3 months, send an email to your clients to come in for a servicing.

In the email/SMS, add a link to a Google form that that can allow them schedule time.

The form could have a few field like car brand, model, year and time slot. This way, it gives you heads up to plan ahead. This helps manage expectation and reduce frustration.

If you already have a base fee for servicing, say N15,000 (oil, filter and workmanship)generate a Paystack link and attach it to the booking form. People can pay ahead even before coming in for their servicing.

With this, you can even give preference to those that pay ahead.

Depnding on the time of the year and the car brand and model, send a reminder to your clients on how to take care of their cars. In the wet season for instance, let them know not to go into certain location because of flood or any other issue.

In the case where their car is flooded, let them kow drying techniques that will avoid corrosion.

Don’t forget to recommend an air freshener too. Nothing stinks more than a wet car.

Every once in a while, incentivize your customers to come into the shop. Make it a coupon that they can spend on any service; wheel alignment and balancing, quarterly servicing, etc

You can also make referral code. And I bet you, people will share these code. This, in my opinion, is a lot better off than splashing on some massive advertisement. While not discrediting traditional ads, this is is a better CAC - customer acquisition cost.

Take it a step further, build a community around your auto-shop; create a Facebook group for instance and invite your customers to join. People with the same brand of cars will most likely love to meet others with their same kind of cars.

@YasOsagie reminded me about the execution bit of all of this, so let’s get started. For the onboarding bit, create a Google Form here - forms.google.com. The information gathered here will eventually make it into a Google Sheet. Follow this guide - support.google.com/docs/answer/29…

You can open the sheet and see how many customers you have per time. If you have solid spreadsheet chops, you can do a data visualization of your customer growth.

For your weekly newsletter, you can use a tool like Sendgrid or Mailchimp. Sengrid can even allow you build segements, that way, you can send targetted messages to a particular segment.

For your bookings, you can still use Google Forms and use a tool like this - gsuite.google.com/marketplace/ap… to automatically turn the form entries into calendar event.

BTW, this can be applied in any other industry, it doesn’t have to be an auto-shop alone.

I’m planning a physical workshop to help businesses make sense of their data. If you’re interested, kindly fill this form - bit.ly/making-sense-o….

Selah….