Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a staple in daily life seemingly overnight. AI-powered content generation software, voice assistant programs, and chatbots have been incorporated into apps on our phones, in searches we do on the internet, and even at the checkout machines at our local grocery store. With AI becoming commonplace, people are noticing that it can improve mundane tasks and has useful business applications as well.
The auto repair industry is one of many looking at how AI can be incorporated into marketing and streamlining a shop’s daily workflow to improve efficiency and create time for more important tasks. Adam Kushner, Founder of Business Actualization™, and Joe Pfender, Digital Marketing Project Manager manager at Business Actualization™, share how AI is being leveraged in auto repair shop marketing, how it can assist service advisors in your auto repair shop, and why auto repair shops must continue to adapt to the new technology.
How AI is being leveraged to market your repair shop
Content Optimization: Marketing companies use content generation software like ChatGPT to assist and optimize the creation of page titles, descriptions, and image tags in clients’ blog posts and website articles. AI-generated content can also be used to speed up the content creation process, though it should be noted that the jury is still out on how Google’s search algorithms will interpret AI-generated content.
Google Ads: AI and machine learning are being used by marketers to help them find the best terms/keywords for their client's company, ensuring that their shop is getting up-to-date, accurate information that will target key audiences. Business Actualization™ has been ahead of the game when it comes to using AI and machine learning to bid on ads because they have been using such software for over 5 years.
“Our AI software evaluates the market, looking at what people are searching, local search volume, competition, and various other factors to optimize our pay-per-click bidding based on the clicks that our toolset thinks will have the highest chance to generate conversions,” Pfender said.
Google Reviews: Despite the importance of auto repair shops responding to customer reviews, the process can be laborious and monotonous. Using the Business Actualization™ Review Platform that leverages AI-generated review responses, auto repair shops can make each response unique and positive and ensure that it stands out.
How AI can assist service advisors in your auto repair shop
Website Chatbots: Many shop owners struggle with the adoption of automated chatbots on their websites & business listings (GMB & Facebook/Instagram). In creating another way for consumers to ask questions & inquire about service, the most important thing shop owners can do is leverage the technology to program answers to simple, monotonous questions, essentially training the chatbot to correctly answer the questions that service advisors probably shouldn’t be spending their time on in the first place. Even though the customer can use the chatbot for assistance, they are still able to get human assistance if their situation requires it. Chatbots like the Business Actualization™ AutoBoost AI chatbot can now be programmed to respond to standard questions with specific responses, ensuring that the customer is getting correct information while helping create more time for shop employees to focus on in-person customer interactions.
Vehicle Diagnostics: Instead of calling or talking on the phone with a service advisor, in the future it is predicted that customers will use AI to diagnose problems with their cars. They can explain what problems their car is experiencing or ask what a symptom might be and get a quick, detailed, and understandable response from AI. Although AI could help with the diagnosis of the problem, the software should still advise customers to contact the shop for help. By using AI vehicle diagnostics, the customer could become more informed about what their car’s problem might be so that they can explain the problem to the service advisor more efficiently.
Point of Sale: AI can be used to remind service advisors to ask customers situation-related questions. For example, if it’s raining outside, AI software could automatically suggest wiper blade replacement or communicate the safety implications of tread depth inputted into a DVI report.
Why auto repair shops need to continue to adapt
As AI continues to evolve and usage grows, auto repair shops need to keep up with new technology and use it to their advantage. Those who learn to incorporate AI into their daily workflow will be able to manage tasks more efficiently and, therefore, have more time to focus on providing their customers with the best service possible, leading to success.
“You're not going to have to know how to do every task with the tools your shop has available,” Kushner said. “You're just going to have to understand what is possible and how to prompt AI to help you accomplish it. Those will be the auto repair shops that advance because they know how to leverage cutting-edge technology.”
