Repair Shop Websites: Who Has One, Who Needs One, and Does it Drive Revenue?

If you have a commercial repair shop, you need a website.

Yes, we’ve shouted this from the rooftops. Just about every marketing publication and blog will also mention it somewhere in their materials. Your website is your internet shopfront. It’s how potential customers find you.

You’ve probably heard of the State of Heavy-Duty Repair report. If not,head right over here to download a free copy. It’s produced by our partners at Fullbay, and per usual, they’ve loaded it up with all kinds of interesting industry-specific data.

A portion of that data involves marketing—specifically shop websites. They also had some additional data points that didn’t make it into the report…so naturally we asked for it.

After reviewing the data, we’re handing it off to you, the commercial repair shop owner, for another look. There’s lots of information available about how a website can impact a business, but that information tends to cluster around other industries—until now, no one has talked much about heavy-duty diesel. We’re trying to change that.

So, let’s get started with thebedrock of all repair shop marketing efforts: the website.

WHO HAS A WEBSITE?

Fullbay’s survey was simple: it asked who had a website and what kind of shape it was in. Here’s what they learned:

71% of shops surveyed have a website
13% of the shops that have a website indicated that was old and/or outdated
29% of shops surveyed don’t have a website at all

We also have regional data available to us:

78% of shops in the _Southwesthave a website—the region led the pack
70% of shops in the West have a website
68% of shops in the Southeast have a website
55% of shops in the Midwest have a website
44% of shops in the Northeast have a website

Below, we’ve broken down the data further so that you can see who in each region has a website, who doesn’t, and who has a site they identify as old and/or outdated.

THE OLDER THE SHOP, THE BETTER THE WEBSITE?

We wanted to find out if a shop’s age might determine whether it had a website. We admit we went into this thinking younger shops, at least, would have a website…but as you’ll see, we were surprised.

59% of shops between 0-5 years of age had a website
71% of shops between 6-12 years of age had a website
61% of shops between 13-20 years of age had a website
55% of shops over 20 years of age had a website

While more than half of the youngest shops out there have websites, there’s a 12-point jump in the 6-12 category. Seems like a lot of shops got into the second category and promptly got themselves a site!

You can see more detail in the graph below, which tells you which shops had websites, which didn’t, and which had websites they identified as old or outdated.

In addition, we looked at the divide between independent shops and internal fleet shops. Here’s what we found:

Independent shops

58% of independent shops had a site
12%, however, said their site was old
29% of shops did not have a site at all

Internal fleet

71% of internal shops had a website
2% identified their website as old or outdated
27% of internal shops didn’t have a website

What can we take away from this? Independent shops definitely need to catch up!

DOES A SHOP WEBSITE CONTRIBUTE TO REVENUE?

When thinking about building a website or updating an old one, shop owners inevitably think of one question: Is it going to drive revenue?

Ideally, yes. Your website is your internet shopfront, and customers will find you, see that you know your stuff, and have you top of mind when they’re ready to book service.

So, does a website = money? Here’s what the data tells us:

38% of shops earning between $0-$250,000 had a website
55% of shops earning between $250,001-$500,000 had a website
62% of shops earning between $500,001-$1 million had a website
71% of shops earning between $1 and $2 million had a website
73% of shops earning between $2 and $4 million had a website
94% of shops earning between $4 and $6 million had a website
93% of shops earning over $6 million had a website

The data tells us the more revenue your shop earns, the likelier you are to have a website, which is probably helping you bring in more revenue.

SHOP WEBSITES AND HIRING ISSUES

Okay. We’ve looked at the impact a good website can have on customers and revenue, but what about the other critical part of a thriving commercial business?

Does a good website make it easier to hire technicians? We broke it down by how difficult shops found hiring in 2021.

100% of shops that reported finding it much easier to hire techs had a website
53% of shops that reported finding it much more difficult to hire had a website
59% of shops that said hiring didn’t change in 2021 had a website
62% of shops that reported finding it slightly more difficult to hire techs had a website
84% of shops that reported finding it somewhat easier to hire techs had a website

Our takeaway is that everyone had issues finding techs in 2021—that’s just an unfortunate part of the industry these days. There are just fewer techs to go around. But it does seem like shops with a website had an easier time attracting talent; shops without a website certainly reported a more difficult time of it.

Your website isn’t just for your potential customers. It’s also your gateway for potential employees. Younger techs especially are looking for a professional, modern website, because like it or not, your website represents your business. A premium site suggests a premium operation—and a good place to work.

(Lots more goes into that, of course, but we’re saying it here: appearance matters.)

SUMMING UP

You’ve seen the data. You’re on our website, so you know that we’re the digital marketing solution for the heavy-duty industry. If you’re ready to take the step and build amodern, SEO-optimized website(or update your old one), then we absolutely hope you’llget in touch with us. We can handle other critical aspects of marketing, too, likemanaging SEMandhandling paid search.

Every day, fleet managers and owners are looking for commercial shops to handle preventive maintenance and more pressing repairs. They’re looking online. If you don’t have a presence, they’re not going to find you. The experts at Dieselmatic are ready to help your shop get seen—so give us a call. We’d love to hear from you!

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