It can be challenging to have good photographs and videos for your auto repair shop if you are not hiring a professional. If you are unable to hire a professional, you can use the human element, not pictures of the inside of the shop, to show your company brand and culture.
Video Transcription (Edited): We talk a lot about pictures. It can be a challenge in marketing sometimes when we are not sending a photographer and a videographer out to a business to do a photo shoot and a video shoot. We have to take their existing assets (photographs) that they have. Sometimes we are looking up on Google Maps to get a frontage shot of the business. It is really challenging and a big part of it, in taking pictures and seeing what comes back from professional photographers; looking at the professional video that is done.
A big part of it is staging is making sure to eliminate clutter and to have a nice background. Another part of it obviously is lighting which can be a challenge. Being comfortable in front of the camera obviously is a challenge as well and getting some natural speaking from somebody that is not an actor, they do not have any experience in front of a camera. With shop pics, it is something I am really passionate about not using video from in the shop and pictures in the shop. A technician on a diagnostic computer sitting in the car is ok. A technician outside of the shop test driving a car, or bringing the car around for a customer, opening the door for a customer, handing the keys to a customer. I think those are good pictures but let’s not use the technician in the shop with dirty rubber gloves on, pulling a part out of a car.
I like to compare that to a doctor. I think we all like comparing the automotive repair industry to doctors and dentists and those professional fields that we should be holding ourselves to those standards. A joke that I always use is you never see the operating room. You never see a surgeon pulling a heart out of someone and holding it his hands. You never see bloody rubber gloves because it is kind of scary and even if you are not a stomach churning type of person we do not want to see that. I think it is the same thing. I do not want to see the transmission out of a car that looks just like mine. I do not want my transmission to be out of the car. It is kind of a negative thought there when there are other things we can be taking pictures of.
The human elements such as the technicians interacting with customers, service advisors interacting with customers, and group photos are pictures that should be taken. Many different things that can tell the story of our business and our brand, and to not focus on maybe some behind the scenes things. I think it is ok to take a customer to the shop to do a shop tour when you have them on site. I think digital inspections and photos like that are very important. But I am talking about the front page of your website, brand specific type pages, social media content, and posts and things like that. Let’s not focus on the negative, let’s not focus on the down and dirty stuff.
Let’s focus on the human element and what is going to drive value to our prospective customers and build trust in our business and help them develop a relationship with us before they arrive at the service counter so then we can focus on the more important things like getting their car fixed and the process of them having a good experience and everything that is the feel good stuff about what we do on a daily basis. Not the in the shop dirty stuff.
Learn more about our apporach to auto repair shop marketing. Click below, then watch the video.
