Optimising local communication within a national network with digital signage: EUROREPAR Car Service garages

A restricted sales area, offers and products that change several times a year with tens of products and references, and workers with little time to devote to communicating them. This situation is one faced by the majority of franchise/retailer networks.

However, EUROREPAR Car Service found a solution it can use to harness the power of a well-established network: digital signage. This is the ideal way to highlight garage mechanics’ services and create a successful customer experience, without the clutter of posters, product sheets and sales leaflets piled up on a desk. Looking back over the use of screens by the EUROREPAR Car Service network.

EUROREPAR Car Service is a network of 1400 garages across France, dedicated to servicing and repairing all makes of vehicle. However, communication is not always the top priority for garage mechanics, who often have neither the time nor the tools to pass on information about their range of services and service content, extensive though it may be. In fact, where communication is concerned, everything possible has been done to make EUROREPAR Car Service a well-known brand that inspires confidence: sponsorship, television, radio and Internet advertising, social networks, banners and outside displays…

There was just one challenge left for Florian Grimault, the Marketing and Digital Communication Manager of EUROREPAR Car Service France: to shine a light on the strength of the national network and link it to the skills and specialisms of each mechanic.

There was just one thing missing: a simple content management tool.

To make garages more dynamic and make life easier for partner establishments, the brand suggested to members that they equip themselves with a communication screen, without giving managers a single additional managerial task to do! This is the concept of EUROREPAR Car Service TV, which operates like a television channel. Programmes are added automatically and regularly updated by the marketing team. It also includes national monthly sales drives, advertisements, a list of services, web series etc. Without any effort on their part, each garage mechanic can present high-quality, well-made content. However, that does not prevent the garage from selecting what it wants to show: the network manages the brand content, but the manager remains master of their own garage.

For the garage manager, it is simple: starting with ready-prepared templates created and approved by the network, they simply alter the text and image to tailor the message. A short training course in the form of a webinar is available to help mechanics get to grips with their on-screen communication. Despite a lack of time to devote to communication, garages have been eager to get on board, because the added value is very clear and the on-screen communication helps them benefit from the feel of a major national brand while highlighting their more local approach compared with the competition. Results have been palpable: an improved brand image, increased customer loyalty, and more effective promotions are regularly cited.

With digital signage, all EUROREPAR Car Service’s marketing efforts have become unique resources for garage mechanics in the network.
When a customer needs the services of a mechanic, brand recognition acquired through national campaigns helps the local garages, whose communication is backed up by digital signage that is consistent with the work being done. The display centralises all the brand’s messages in a single medium and leads to improved repetition

The development of the displays in EUROREPAR Car Service garages represents a significant change facilitating members’ digital transition. It is an ideal approach, in which garage mechanics can benefit from the brand’s standing, adding in their local offers to arrive at a form of communication with high added value.