Our clients have been under shelter in place since March 16, 2020. Some things we have observed during that time:
Week 1: The first week of shelter in place was a shock - but the revenue hit was not significant - most shops were scheduled about a week ahead, so they were able to work with pre-scheduled appointments while scheduling new work for the following week.
Week 2: Second week saw significant drop in the effectiveness of pay-per-click advertising, and number of appointments started to fall off.
Week 3: Third week pay-per-click advertising was dead - for most clients we turned it down to a bare minimum - we still kept it running though, to keep competitors from having a free pass.
Third week was definitely the most difficult so far. Shops turned up marketing to own customer lists since new customers were scarce.
Week4: Week four showed major revenue improvements as existing customers took advantage of deals offered. We also started to see new customers looking for auto repair, as a number of competing shops in the area closed their doors (temporarily, we think).
Week 5: Week five saw continued positive results from existing customers, and for the first time Monday brought a lot of new customer calls. Week five ended up being a decent week for most shops.
Week 6: Week six saw plenty of phone calls and shops returning to 80%—90% of pre-virus revenue levels. Felt “almost normal”. Pay per click started to be somewhat productive again.
Week 7: So far, we are seeing calls coming in at a steady pace, though not nearly as numerous as during “pre-virus” times, and not as numerous as last week, but they are steady. Pay-per-click is generating calls well enough that most clients are running ppc at about 50 % of normal budgets.
Next week is supposed to be the first week of Phase 2 of California reopening. Stay tuned