Marketing for Independent Auto Repair Shops

Shelter in Place Week by Week

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