The New Normal in the automotive repair industry sees customers driving less, delaying repairs, and even ordering parts online to perform basic maintenance at home. What can you do to mitigate health and safety concerns, and encourage customers to visit your auto repair shop?Make every visitor comfortable

• Tell customers over the phone about your shop’s safety precautions related to coronavirus

• Provide curbside check-in service, where customers call from the parking lot and an employee meets them outside to take their keys

• Maintaining strict cleaning protocols in public and employee-only zones in your repair shop

• Provide personal protective equipment for employees to use in all customer interactions

• Promote your new policies in store and on all your digital channels, i.e. website, social media, email newsletters, Yellow Pages listing, and Google My Business profile

Deliver products or services differently

• Use video conferencing technology on customer calls to explain required repair services

• Create a paid webinar series for DIY automotive repair enthusiasts

• Set up a key drop box for after-hours drop-offs

• Send maintenance reminders and tips via email to help your customers increase the life of their vehicle

Rethink your repair shop’s policies

• Offer concierge service to pick up and deliver vehicles to the customer’s home

• Provide contactless payment options

• Use a steering-wheel cover, seat cover, and floor mat when working on vehicles

• Wipe down any areas of a vehicle an employee may have touched with a disinfectant, before it’s returned to the customer, i.e. door handles, steering wheel, keys, gear shift, car seat adjustment lever or switch, parking brake, etc.

• Leverage any downtime to enroll auto mechanics in virtual skills training programs

Open your garage, and thinking, to customer-driven enhancements that will add comfort, and value, to the automotive repair experience.