By Colby Horton
Just seven years ago, the impact of the Internet could not be measured. In 1995, just 9 percent of adults in the United States had Internet access. Businesses that had an Internet presence were among the technological elite. It seemed unnecessary to establish a Web presence because the reach was rather minute.
Now fast-forward to 2002. According to a survey by Harris Interactive, 64 percent of U.S. adults were online last year alone. With its versatile and interactive capabilities, the Internet has become a powerful entity in the global culture. And although we have recently seen a decrease in technology companies, the Internet is still flourishing, especially in the realm of small businesses. In a study conducted by the Kelsey Group and ConStat Inc., one-fourth of all small businesses are now using the Internet to provide services to their customers. If your shop is among the more than 2 million small businesses that have established an Internet presence, you have taken the crucial first step. But now what?
Marketing
Just because you have a Web site doesn't mean people are visiting it. You own a small piece of cyberspace, and getting customers and potential customers to visit that space becomes difficult. Marketing is key to the success of any business endeavor. But marketing is especially important in regard to your shop's Web site.
Even the simplest Web sites can be marketed to obtain the utmost performance. Make sure your Web address is published on everything you send out of your shop. Chuck Andrews, co-owner of Andrews Inc. of Princeton in Princeton, Minn., and a recipient of this year's Top 10 Automotive Repair Web Sites, agrees with this philosophy. “All direct mail, e-mail and magazine ads send people to our site for further information,” he said. “We find, as a result, that a very high percentage of customers use the site regularly.&3148;
Your Web address should become part of your letterhead, your Yellow Page ads, your “on hold” messages and your billboards. If you have a shop marquee, be sure to prominently display your Web address for drive-bys to see. Perhaps think about incorporating it into your logo or shop signage. You have to remember that people in your area will not just “stumble” across your Web site. Marketing is what essentially draws them to your site.
Search Engines
The Automotive Service Association (ASA) links shop Web sites to their list of regional searches in the “Find Nearest ASA Shop” section of the ASA Web site (www.asashop.org). |
A recent survey indicated that 80 percent of all Internet user sessions begin at a search engine. In fact, there are more than 275 million keyword-driven searches per day. So, most small businesses believe they need to register their sites in search engines such as Yahoo (www.yahoo.com), Google (www.google.com) or Excite (www.excite.com) to have a successful presence on the Internet. To an extent, that is true. However, if you don't register your site properly, it may be lost among the billions of other sites out there.
If you are registering your shop's site with a search engine, make sure it supports regional searches. Most major search engines allow you to select the region of the country to which you're interested in marketing your site. Dogpile (www.dogpile.com), a metasearch engine that leverages more than a dozen of the Web's leading search engines, allows users to conduct a specific regional search. In fact, users are able to narrow their search down to a specific ZIP code or city in the United States.
When registering your site, simplicity is key. Most search engines ask for a brief description of your company or services. Make sure this description is less than 20 words. This way, the entire description appears in the search results. Incomplete descriptions will cause Web users to overlook your site. A good description might be: “(Shop name) provides professional and reliable mechanical service in the (city) area. Click above for more details.” The last sentence prompts the user to click on the hyper-linked name of your shop to learn more about your services. In regard to keywords, a good rule is to register keywords that appear on your home page. If the words were not important enough to put on your home page, then they are not true “keywords.”
Keep in mind: the Automotive Service Association (ASA) also links shop Web sites to their list of regional searches in the “Find Nearest ASA Shop” section of the ASA Web site (www.asashop.org). If you are an ASA member and have a shop Web site, e-mail your Web address to asainfo@asashop.org. The link is free of charge to all ASA members.
Adding Capabilities to
Your Shop's Site
Many automotive repair shops establish a Web presence with a simple one-page Web site explaining basic services, contact information, location and hours. This is an excellent first step and provides much-needed information to customers and potential customers. However, the capabilities of the Internet have grown exponentially in recent years. The automotive industry is enveloping these capabilities and shop owners are finding such capabilities beneficial to their shop's site.
One of the most prevalent new trends emerging today is the capability to schedule a service appointment online. This capability is becoming more popular among motorists and industry professionals. In fact, in a 2000 survey conducted on the ASA Web site, 75 percent of respondents said they would schedule an online appointment. In reality, your customers are becoming increasingly too busy to schedule an appointment over the phone. Giving your customers an opportunity to schedule an appointment online any time of the day provides convenience for them, and ultimately broadens your sales capabilities.
If you have an existing Web site, there are companies that can help set up an appointment-scheduling mechanism on your site, including Cartrak Online and iCARumba.
Ken Brookings, CEO of iCARumba, explains how the company's TopShop program (www.topshop.icarumba.com) can help shops add interactive features to their existing Web sites, including an online appointment service. “The challenge for iCARumba was to find a way to provide the car owner with a 'real time' appointment system: make the appointment, get a confirmation and be done with it,” he said. “We accomplished this and have now booked thousands of appointments that work for the consumer, but do not require the shop to buy anything or change any of their current procedures.” He also said shop owners can set up scheduling templates, allowing them to designate specific days and times appointments can be made online. This is important in maintaining a feasible influx of business.
The TopShop program also allows a shop's customers to set up their own personal car care Web page. This interactive feature stores each customer's service history, technical service bulletins, appointments and other information.
The ability to track the repair progress is also becoming increasingly popular. Ultimately, the ability to track progress online limits the time both the customer and manager have to be on the phone. Basically, customers can type in their license plate number or a special code, and the progress of their repair can be accessed anywhere. There are various companies, such as B. Unlimited Group (www.bunlimited.com), that can help you set up a repair tracking program for your site. If you do not want to implement such an intricate system, there are other options. If your shop has a digital camera, you can always photograph the progress of repair and e-mail the results to your customers. Provide a link on your site where customers can sign up for the service, providing their e-mail address and vehicle type to you. Once a day, take a picture of the progress and e-mail it to their specified address. This fairly simple procedure can promote higher customer retention and increase your customer satisfaction index (CSI).
A cost-free incentive for your site is adding customer testimonials. They provide credibility to your shop's workmanship and are excellent tools to recruit new customers. Creating a customer testimonial page is a good idea. But even better, disperse the testimonials throughout your site. If visitors do not wish to visit your testimonial page, they are still being exposed to them as they visit subsequent sections of your site.
Now What?
So congratulations ... you have established an Internet presence that probably wasn't part of your business plan five years ago. You now are one-up on your competition. As more tech-savvy people are turning to the Internet for everything from flowers to movie and airline tickets, you can be sure they will be searching for a reliable automotive repair facility as well. But don't let your site fall into the deep realms of cyberspace.
