Videos can increase the likelihood that customers will approve additional needed repairs, though differences among consumer demographics exist
Fort Wayne, Ind.—Technicians often find that additional work beyond the original job estimate is required to complete a job or correct other discovered mechanical issues. How this is communicated to the customer is critical to their understanding of the additional work.
Lang Marketing has found in its latest consumer studies that video has a significant impact on how well customers understand the need for additional work. Videos can increase the likelihood that customers will approve additional needed repairs, thereby improving vehicle performance and boosting customer satisfaction along with repair orders.
Challenges and Benefits of Selling Additional Work
Many consumers, especially Millennials, fear being pressured for unnecessary work when taking vehicles to a repair outlet, increasing the cost of their visit.
Lang Marketing’s research has found that Millennials are half again more likely to be concerned about pressure for additional repairs than Baby Boomers and one-fifth more likely to have such concerns than Generation Xers.
On the other hand, showing the customer that additional work is legitimate and necessary can help to improve vehicle performance and dependability, boost customer satisfaction, and increase repair shop sales. Videos can be decisive in achieving these ends.
Communicating the Need for Additional Work
Face-to-face communication about additional work is preferred by all age groups of customers, with videos a strong second. There are significant differences between the three generations in their preferences for these two communication methods.
Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) overwhelmingly prefer face-to-face communication with shop personnel about the need for additional work. Face-to-face communication about additional work rates first also among Millennials (born between 1981 and 1999) but it is two-thirds less preferable to them than among Baby Boomers.
Videos rate second with all consumer generations, but videos are more than twice as preferred by Millennials than Baby Boomers. Generation Xers (born between 1965 to 1999) are approximately 70% more likely than Baby Boomers to prefer videos to explain additional work but over one-third less likely to prefer videos than Millennials are.
Videos Are Critical to Customer Approval
When additional work is needed, all three major consumer generations would like to see a video showing their vehicle and explaining the recommended repairs. Videos used in conjunction with verbal explanations by shop personnel can be much more effective in having additional work approved than verbal explanations alone.
Two-thirds of Millennials would be more likely to approve additional repairs if shown a video instead of only receiving a verbal description of needed repairs from shop personnel.
The positive impact of videos on the approval of additional work compared to only a verbal description of what is needed by shop personnel was about one-third weaker among Baby Boomers than for Millennials, and approximately 10% less significant to Generation Xers.
Impact of Video Within Generations
The impact of videos on Millennials is contingent on several key factors including gender, younger Millennials versus older Millennials, domestic compared to foreign nameplates, and vehicle age, to name a few. Similar differences exist among Generation Xers and Baby Boomers.
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