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Digital best practices for workshops and parts distributors in 2022

Trends

January 25, 2022

13 MIN of Reading

Digitalization will be one of the trends in the automotive aftermarket, driving a strong capacity for change in the adoption of new practices and a constant acceleration in innovation, which will significantly impact several market segments that are traditionally resistant to change.

Several studies focused on industries that are being transformed by the new economy report that an open mindset towards digitalization in B2B companies is a key factor in the spreading and sharing of new good practices created in digital environments.

Some suggestions can be adopted right now at the start of 2022 that will help focus the experience curve and thus drive a paradigm shift in the most different business processes:

1. Reinforce the digitalization of processes

2. Update the digital native presence

3. Focus on “mobile first” content

4. Engagement in a "social selling" environment

5. Expand sales online

6. Digital marketing after-sales initiatives

Digitalize processes

If you still use paper to invoice your workshop services or parts sales, suggest your customers that invoices will be delivered in digital format as a standard. Also move forward internally with this initiative in administrative processes that still depend on paper printing.

If the task of dematerializing the different business roles involves an effort beyond immediate possibilities, choose to manage this digitalization in several phases (small progresses), giving priority to those involving the relationship with customers, suppliers and other partners, in order to streamline processes and provide convenience for everyone.

Digital native presence

The start of a new year is an excellent opportunity to review your digital presence, making updates, improving contact information or the services you provide, as well as updating images related to your business, company and team.

Review your data on Google My Business and take the opportunity to reply to new feedback that has not yet been answered.

Finally, refresh the news on the website or content published on the blog - a long period of silence in the digital environment is not a positive sign for the image of the business and is highly negative for the relevance of the company and its brand in any search engine.

"Mobile First” content

Be aware of the importance of the "mobile " channel for the vast majority of your customers, taking into account that the user profile increasingly prefers to access digital content via mobile phone. This trend affects all generations of customers, not just the younger ones, who are digital natives with mobile devices and applications that are more user-friendly and standardized in terms of convenient day-to-day functions.

Statistics on search behavior on the web highlight this reality and the search engines themselves penalize content that is not responsive for mobile phones.

Engagement in a "social selling" environment

If you don't have an active social network on your digital contact channels, check whether it's time to invest in “Social Selling ” content - targeting certain social network(s) to directly support your commercial activity.

In addition publish content of interest for your customers, invite them to follow your workshop or parts webshop, taking in mind that a large number of these customers access social networks on a daily basis to read news, consume specific content and establish personal or professional contacts.

The logic behind "Social Selling " takes into account the engagement of your customers in this environment and gives them the chance of being able to contact you or receive communications about your value proposition in these channels, besides attracting the attention of other potential customers.

Extend sales to online

If you are not yet selling services or parts online, you should consider this possibility in 2022.

Both on the workshop side and on the parts side, you could start by structuring a minimum viable offer, limited to services or parts with a lower degree of transactional complexity (especially in the logistics component of physical orders) and target a first approach to a specific segment of customer(s), evolving according to the maturity of the experience and the results achieved.

Digital initiatives for aftermarket marketing

If you haven't yet had any experience in this context associated with your workshop or parts business, set aside a limitedbudget in 2022 to invest in different digital marketing activities in direct support of the sales force, technical assistance, customer service or simply to promote service offers and communicate news.

Take advantage of the high degree of automation in some digital marketing tools so that these technologies work for you and expand your contact and relationship efforts, even if they still mostly take place on the phone or in person.

Tips4y published a number of tips to attract the attention of audiences and customers using the full power of digital media and platforms. Check out or review these suggestions in 4 Tips for Attracting Customers to your Workshop.

Start the new year by digitizing your workshop or parts sales business - Contact us about our offer of digital solutions for your business.

Contact us for more information.

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