Holiday Marketing Strategies for Auto Shops
- Automate to Stay Ahead: Use automated reminders, SMS updates, and follow-ups to reduce no-shows, improve scheduling, and keep customers informed during peak travel season.
- Leverage Local Marketing Tools: Manage your leads, seasonal campaigns, and Google Business Profile from one platform to stay visible and organized when demand spikes.
- Boost Holiday Engagement: Run pre-travel promotions, schedule festive social content, and use automated texts to fill your bays and strengthen customer relationships.
During the holiday season, everyone is on the go. From people traveling across the country to visit family members and friends to professionals who need to drive across town to get to the company celebration, the roads are packed, and the auto shops are full. As an auto shop owner, you know that this time of year means high demand for last-minute oil changes, unexpected repairs that have to be addressed quickly, and walk-in customers who want a swift inspection performed before they hit the road. At the same time, your staff is taking more time off and your own schedule is full, leaving little time for marketing during one of the most lucrative seasons of the year for your small business.
The pressure during the holidays is real, but you can alleviate some of the stress by investing in local marketing software for auto shops. With a few smart, automated moves powered by Surefire Local, you can save time, reduce no-shows, and capture more travelers during this festive season.
Don’t Get Stuck in the Office in December — Rely On Auto Shop Marketing Tools Instead
Most people don’t realize how challenging it can be to run a local auto shop during the holiday season. It’s a time when the bays are full, you are working with limited staff, and most of your customers are harrowed travelers who simply want to get back on the road and on their way to their holiday celebrations. During this frenzied season, each day is often filled with last-minute appointments, high call volumes, stressed-out customers, and endless scheduling headaches, and as the shop owner, you need to spend most of your time working in the bays or helping the customers.
By choosing a local marketing software for auto shops, you can access the marketing tools you need to automate the process, maximize your revenue, and eliminate that sense of holiday anxiety that permeates the air.
The leading local marketing platform can help you:
Automate Your Customer Follow-Ups
Manual follow-ups are nearly impossible, especially during November and December when the bays are full, and you have customers waiting for appointments. Automated service reminders and text message confirmations allow you to keep in touch with your customers and reduce the number of missed appointments on your schedule, ultimately saving you time while increasing your revenue. The bottom line is, missed reminders lead to missed revenue, so it’s important to stay in touch with your customers in a way that is easy and convenient for both them and you.
Schedule Targeted Seasonal Reminders
In order to reduce the number of last-minute requests for routine maintenance during the holiday season, you can schedule targeted seasonal reminders that nudge customers to make those appointments in advance. For example, you may want to create an automated email reminder for seasonal maintenance and pre-travel services that can be sent out in the weeks leading up to the holidays, reminding customers to book their appointments for oil changes, tire rotations, and vehicle winterizations in advance. You can leverage the power of social media as well to provide information about these services, updates about your availability, and information about promotions for customers who choose to book ahead of time.
Enhance Your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile should be an accurate reflection of your auto shop, the services that you offer, and the hours that are available. It’s crucial to keep your Google Business Profile updated, as many customers rely solely on this information in order to contact your shop and make decisions about upcoming appointments. An online marketing platform can help you update this profile for the holiday season, ensuring that your holiday hours are accurately reflected and that your profile reflects the current services that you offer. Through the platform, you can even upload recent photos that showcase the type of work that you do during the holidays and how your seasonal services protect your customers and their vehicles.
How the Best Local Marketing Software for Auto Shops Can Save Your Holiday Season
Local online marketing for small businesses requires a certain amount of niche expertise and a lot of industry-wide knowledge, which is why Surefire Local is the perfect choice for your marketing needs. Our local online marketing platform will become the behind-the-scenes assistant that you need to increase your visibility online, streamline your marketing efforts, and maintain your focus on your customers.
These online marketing tools will help you navigate the bustling holiday season with ease, but they will prove to be a powerful asset throughout the entire year. These are just a few ways that auto shop marketing tools can improve your business:
Pipeline Management
At an auto shop, your customer leads come from a variety of places. You might get referrals from existing customers, requests on social media, or phone calls to the front desk about appointment availability. Keeping track of your customer pipeline can be difficult, even during those effortlessly normal days when business is steady and stable. During the holidays, however, it can be nearly impossible.
Local marketing software for auto shops keeps all of your leads in one convenient location, allowing you to manage your pipeline from one dashboard. This technology allows you to track every service request in one spot and set follow-up reminders for your customers who have made appointments. Ultimately, it prevents you from missing opportunities for business, without requiring you to spend endless hours at your desk sifting through appointment requests and manually inputting bookings.
Automated SMS Messaging
Automatic text messaging is one of the top marketing tools that auto shop owners have at their disposal, particularly during the busiest times of the year. Automatic SMS messaging allows you to:
- Send service reminders in advance, encouraging customers to book their seasonal appointments as early as possible and reducing the number of last-minute appointment requests that you get during the holidays.
- Request confirmations for upcoming appointments, ultimately reducing the number of no-show appointments and allowing you to allocate resources accordingly.
- Provide status updates for your customers, giving them a better idea of where their vehicle is in the process and when they will need to return to the shop. Customers appreciate this type of transparency, as it allows them to plan their own time better.
By investing in one of the top online marketing tools for small businesses, you can reduce administrative headaches while bolstering your customer satisfaction ratings, allowing you to enjoy a seamless holiday season in the shop.
Efficiency Impact
Automated marketing tools eliminate the guesswork from building your brand and promoting your auto shop. By leveraging the power of online marketing tools for small businesses, you can establish channels that promote clear and consistent communication with your customers — without requiring you to spend endless hours going back and forth on the phone trying to set up an appointment or provide vehicle status updates. Instead, you can spend your time completing repair work and ensuring that your staff has the support they need during this frenzied time of year.
Need Some Inspiration? Try Out These Marketing Tactics for Auto Shops
These are some marketing techniques that can generate buzz, build your brand, and ensure that you make the most out of the holiday season this year:
- Create a social media campaign and schedule posts in advance that highlight your holiday promotions. For example, you may want to offer a discount on tire rotations during the month of November, in order to minimize last-minute requests in December.
- Schedule social content that showcases the fact that you offer hot chocolate and cookies in the lobby during December for customers who are waiting for repairs to be finished.
- Set up a December reminder text: “Heading out of town? Make sure your car is road-ready. Book your pre-travel inspection today.”
These small automations can make a surprisingly big difference in keeping the bays full and customers happy during the holiday crunch time.
Need Help With Local Online Marketing for Auto Services? Let Us Lead the Way
Combining the power of automation with the intuition of human creativity, Surefire Local is the local online marketing platform that you need to maximize efficiency while increasing customer satisfaction at your auto shop. During the hectic holiday season, you need to remain committed to providing your customers with the best possible service. By partnering with Surefire Local and investing in one of the leading online marketing tools for small businesses, you can leave the stress of marketing behind while focusing entirely on the customers who need you to come through so that they can fully enjoy all of their festive celebrations.
Schedule your demo of the Surefire Local Marketing Platform, and see how the best auto shop marketing tools can reshape your business.
