It may surprise you to hear, but the way your Workshop takes bookings plays a huge role in determining whether a customer chooses you or the competition. To increase bookings, Workshop’s need to simplify the booking process for customers.
Here are 5 Ways Mechanics Can Enhance the Booking Process for Customers.
1. Offer Online Bookings
The absolute best way to enhance the booking process for customers is to offer online bookings. Customers simply don’t have the time anymore to manually call, email or text booking requests.
By having a Workshop Website, customers can book in their next service or repair at a time that suits them best. The benefit for the customer is they don’t need to manually chase you to book in their next service or repair. On the flip side, the benefit for your workshop is you don’t need to have a mechanic allocated to taking and confirming customer bookings – everybody wins!
Related Article: Customer Trends Changing the Auto Repair Industry.
2. SMS & Email Reminders
Let’s face it, we all tend to forget things from time to time. Another great way of enhancing the booking process is to send customers an Email or SMS reminder when they are due for their regular servicing.
The benefit of sending customers reminders is it shows that your shop is looking out for their best interests. The best thing about reminders is they are cheap and easy to send. Using a Workshop Management Software like Workshop Mate, mechanics can automatically schedule reminders to be sent to customers in the weeks and months leading up-to their service due date.
Related Article: The Best Strategies to Retain Customers at Your Workshop.
3. Annual Bookings
Most people only need to go to the Workshop once a year. A great way to enhance the bookings process is to book in your customers for the same time next year when they pick up their vehicle from their latest booking.
The benefit of booking in customers recurringly is it simplifies your customers process as they don’t need to manually book every year and it also minimises your Workshops risk of having them go to elsewhere in the future.
Related Article: 5 Opportunities for Australian Workshops in 2022.
4. Pre-payment
A new trend in the Auto Repair Industry is pre-payment. Pre-payment has always been a popular option in other industries but is only now starting to filter into the Auto repair industry. With that being said, pre-payment offers workshops a great opportunity to simplify the service and booking process for customers.
By offering a pre-payment option, customers can pay for their service costs before they attend their booking. This helps ease customer anxiety as they know how much to expect to pay and are able to pay at their best time.
Related Article: 5 Ways Mechanical Workshops Can Increase Revenue in 2022.
5. Sell Additional Options
Selling additional parts and features is an important part of running an Auto Repair Workshop. A problem with many Workshops is customers are not able to see the prices and add on options that workshops sell until the day of the service. A great way to enhance the process for customers is by having your additional option available online.
By having the option available online, customers can see what add ons your workshop sell and the prices you sell them for. If your shop has a pre-payment option, customers can also pay for the parts then and there. The easier the parts buying process is for customer, the more parts you will sell, it’s really that simple.
Final Word,
To maximise customer bookings, your Workshop needs to make the booking process as fast, easy, and transparent for customers as possible. The 5 Strategies mentioned above are great ways your Workshop can enhance the customer bookings process in 2022.
We hope you enjoyed reading this article. To read more articles like this, please visit the Workshop Mate latest news page here.
About Workshop Mate,
Workshop Mate by Jeal is an Australian, Web-based, Workshop Management Software that simplifies and automates the daily tasks of running a mechanical Workshop. Using innovative technologies, Workshop Mate removes common frustrations experienced at the Workshop – opening your doors for future growth.
Workshop Mate features include Job Management, Stock Management, Quotes, Invoicing, Integrated Accounting, Barcoding, Customer Bookings, Service History, Job Allocation and more – in the one central, easy-to-use application.
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