Best & Worst Things to Show on Auto Repair Shop TVs

When people go to an auto repair shop, they often have to spend a considerable amount of time. Auto repairs often take a good amount of time, and for many people, the car getting repaired is their only form of transportation.

Even people who are not waiting at the auto repair shop while their car is being fixed can spend a substantial amount of time waiting in line or waiting for the technician to give them an estimate. It should be a goal of all businesses to optimize the experience that customers have in their establishments.

One of the best ways to improve the customer experience in auto repair shops is to keep them entertained. To this end, TVs can play a major role. Moreover, as we will discuss at length later in this article, an auto repair shop can display much more than entertainment content on the TVs in the store, with the effect of keeping customers informed, upselling, and ultimately, making more money for the business.

Of course, some content is better to show on auto repair shop TVs than others, and some content should simply be avoided altogether. This article will talk all about the best and the worst things to show on the TVs in your auto repair shop. Your customers and your bottom line are sure to benefit from this information!

The Best Things to Show on Auto Repair Shop TVs

1. Digital Menu Boards

Digital menu boards are examples of the powerful technology of digital signage. You might be wondering why this is the first on the list because menus are generally associated with restaurants, not auto repair shops, but just hear us out, because there are tons of benefits that come from utilizing digital menu boards.

A digital menu board for an auto repair shop will have all of the services that your business offers to customers. Many people that come to an auto repair shop have no idea about the complete set of services offered by these businesses. Thus, they will often opt for the bare minimum when it comes to auto repair.

However, a digital menu board is a highly visible and effective way of alerting and piquing the interest of customers in services that they may not have thought of.

There are so many people that love taking care of their cars, and for many, the services on the digital menu board are likely to feel irresistible. Moreover, the board can display package deals containing multiple services for a reduced total price.

Digital menu boards are an extremely effective way of upselling your customers, and thus, generating more revenue for your business. That is why digital menu boards are undeniably some of the best things to display on your auto repair shop TVs.

2. Motorsports

Motorsports are a great thing to show on auto repair shop TVs because it directly relates to what your shop is trying to sell in addition to providing great entertainment to customers waiting in your store.

When people see tons of decked-out cars driving at unbelievable speeds, they will like to imagine that their car could do the same. Not that people will actually think their cars will ever need to travel at the speed of racecars or that their cars ever could, but it is the glorification of high-functioning automobiles that will stick in their minds.

Seeing these cars traveling at these speeds can have the effect of prompting customers to pay for more services in order to get their own cars in tip-top shape. Of course, there is also the entertainment value of motorsports that makes them a great option for auto repair shop TVs.

Motorsports are entertaining to a wide range of audiences and can really help the time pass quickly for waiting customers. This is where the concepts of perceived wait time and real wait time come in. The bottom line is that no one likes to wait around.

This is especially the case for people who must wait hours for their car to be fixed but this also applies to people who are waiting a few minutes in line. While not all businesses can efficiently cut down on the actual amount of time that customers have to wait, they can create an environment in which the perceived wait time is minimized.

Perceived wait time is how much time a customer feels has passed rather than how much time has actually passed. One of the best ways to reduce perceived wait time is by providing entertainment.

Thus, showing motorsports on your auto repair shop TVs can greatly reduce perceived wait time for customers, which will greatly improve the customer experience overall.

3. Store Promotions

Using digital signage solutions, like that offered by Loop TV, you can really make the best of your auto repair shop TVs and drive sales. One of the best things that you can show on your auto repair shop TVs is the special deals and promotions that your business is offering.

These can be long standing deals or limited-time promotions, displayed as calls to action for your customers. Digital signs have a plethora of benefits over traditional signs or posters. If your business is offering promotions, it can be safely assumed that you want your customers to take note of these promotions and act upon them.

Traditional signs and posters simply do not catch the attention of customers, who have for so long become used to seeing random promotional flyers and signs that they may not even register for them. On the other hand, digital signs, such as those displayed on auto repair shop TVs, have the potential to be both eye-catching and visually pleasing.

This is especially the case if these promotions are created using digital signage software and templates. With digital signs, your promotions can include images, text, animations, videos, and much more. Thus, they are far better suited to capturing the attention of customers and making the promotions seem more appealing.

On top of this, you can cut down on printing costs because digital signs can be customized, changed, and edited from your computer. Thus, you do not need to print new signs every time you have a new promotion.

Using your auto repair shop TVs to display promotions that are optimized by digital signage technology can greatly increase the number of customers who take note of the promotions, and thus, can be a great boon for sales. That is why promotions are some of the best things to display on your auto repair shop TVs.

4. Auto Care Tips and Recommendations

What customers want to feel when they come to an auto repair shop is that the shop and its employees really do care about the functioning of their automobiles, not just making money.

To achieve this, good customer service, good online reviews, fair prices, and skilled mechanics all play essential roles. But an auto repair shop can also use the televisions in the store to make customers feel like your business cares.

One of the best ways to do this is to show automobile care tips and recommendations that do not directly refer to services that customers will have to pay for at your business. You can even attach text to the slides saying things like, “Here are some tips so you can see us less and save more.”

Auto care tips can include instructions on how to change a tire, recommendations for the amount of time people should check the oil level in their cars, tips for driving in a way that reduces the wear and tear of automobiles, and tons of other great information that a mechanic would surely know best.

If you do this, customers will greatly appreciate it, and cultivating a caring environment is a great way to foster loyal customers who will keep coming back to your shop time and time again.

5. Advertisements

Making the most of your auto repair shop TVs can not only benefit the business financially by prompting more sales, customer loyalty, and an overall better customer experience, but they can also be a source of an alternative source of revenue for your business.

Automobile owners are a highly valuable demographic for many companies, so there are tons of companies that would love to advertise in the actual space of the auto repair shop.

Customers will be likely to ignore the advertisements if that is all that you display on your televisions, but if the advertisements are interspersed with other engaging content, then this is a great way to increase the revenue stream for your business without negatively affecting the customer experience.

The Worst Things to Show on Auto Repair TVs

1. Political Content

It is no secret that politics in the U.S. are highly polarized and contentious. The same political talk show or news report has the power to delight some and enrage others.

While this might make for good TV ratings, it is definitely not something that businesses that cater to a wide range of audiences want to be associated with. Playing something political on your auto repair shop TVs can potentially lead customers to associate the politics being expressed on the program with your business.

While some people might like this association, others will feel alienated and take their business elsewhere. Moreover, when it comes to news, the line between political and non-political is incredibly vague and certainly up for interpretation.

Thus, it is generally best to avoid showing the news on your auto repair TVs. An exception to this might be weather-related news, but weather reports are generally neither entertaining nor serve the purpose of promoting your services.

For these reasons, political content is some of the worst content that you could show on your auto repair shop TVs, and even news channels are best avoided or at least thoughtfully considered before being broadcast in your store.

2. Movies

What could be wrong with showing movies in the store? You might wonder. Well, it is not so much that there is anything wrong with movies. Rather, movies just are not a good fit for the auto repair store environment. Firstly, people have wide-ranging tastes in movies, and secondly, movies usually require that the viewer watches from beginning to end.

Many customers will come in when the movie has already been playing for a while, and thus the entertainment value will be lost for them, and other customers will have to leave before the movie is finished, leaving them with a sense of dissatisfaction or lack of closure as they leave your store.

What has been said about movies also applies to most TV shows, or at least most narrative-based TV shows. Some TV shows, such as cooking shows, or car-related shows, do not require that the customer watches from beginning to end, and thus, they can provide some entertainment value. Still, there are often better options.

Optimizing the Auto Repair Shop Environment

As we have discussed in this article, creating an environment in your store that is pleasant for those who are waiting inside its parameters is incredibly important for improving the customer experience.

Moreover, auto repair shops are not limited to entertainment content when it comes to what they display on their TVs. Often the best content is informational and promotional, since this type of content can keep customers informed and help drive sales.

Services like Loop TV offer over 150 channels of fully licensed content, including a wide variety of music videos in every conceivable genre, as well as a selection of non-music channels which show short-form video content ranging from sports highlights, non-political news updates, amazing drone footage, action and adventure footage and more. Plus Loop offers digital signage to advertise your promotions and additional services. It's a one-stop-shop to keep clients engaged and informed at your auto repair business.