Rewards to your customer

[OnSiteAutoandTruckRepair]

So I have good friends in the restaurant business. They run a very eclectic locally sourced food place. There mission statement is phenomenoal and they go above and beyond on educating their customers on sustainable food source. One thing that I loved about there business was there rewards program. So i started to pick the brain of the owner and she told me what a success its been for them offering rewards. Pretty much she said, that without the rewards program they would have not made it to there 12th year of business. They started this after their 3rd year of business. They use a company that does everything for them. The mail outs, the points system tracking. Apparently for every dollar they invested, she said they made $34. She showed me the program that shows her who got rewards, when they were redeemed, and how much they spent. It was very interesting.

 

So it got me thinking, the only companies i see offering rewards, are the big box stores (kohls,best buy etc), airlines and credit card companies. Why not the automotive repair business. Pretty soon I will be moving into my shop and I have been thinking about signing up for this. It's one of those things that if you do not get people to sign up your not going to make it work.

 

 

Do any of you guys do this?

[Elon Block]

Reward programs work very well for restaurants and other businesses that fall into the

entertainment category because the whole idea is to get the customers to dine out

more often than they might otherwise - or dine out in your restaurant solely,
(instead of spreading your family's dining dollars out over many restaurants).

In the tire and auto repair business, your customers don't WANT to spend more

dollars than they have to. So, there may be a way to give a loyalty card instead,

such as buy 5 oil changes and get one free. But I'm not sure that's a marketing

strategy that beats providing the customer with killer service - so much so

that they automatically think of you and your shop - regardless of incentives.

[KMS]

A full service shop shouldn't need to give away anything free to get customers in.

[mspecperformance]

A good customer will want to come to your shop because you are approachable, have a great reputation, treat them fairly and honesty and overall just like you. The value of your expertise, being able to talk to their technician, shuttle service, market leading warranty and keeping up with their expectation is where you will win. Customers that you have to motivate with freebies and discounts are not the type you typically want unless you are looking for a low ARO and high car count business model.

[KMS]

A good customer will want to come to your shop because you are approachable, have a great reputation, treat them fairly and honesty and overall just like you. The value of your expertise, being able to talk to their technician, shuttle service, market leading warranty and keeping up with their expectation is where you will win. Customers that you have to motivate with freebies and discounts are not the type you typically want unless you are looking for a low ARO and high car count business model.

 

Cheap and Freebie always bring in unwanted customers and headaches! Not what we want.

[mspecperformance]

We also condition customers to expect discounts, rewards etc. It is always better when they aren't expecting something and get something from you. Try a thank you card and a pack of brownies. There is a service I am looking into SendOutCard.com that has a lot of promise. I have a lot of high ticket customers and sending them a customized card with a little gift like brownies or cookies is a great way to say thanks without conditioning the customer in expecting a discount of some sort. Just my 2c on that.

[alfredauto]

I gave out free pizzas last month to all tire buyers, it was a surprise bonus. Thanks for your business, I appreciate the referrals, I appreciate your patience, here's a gift certificate - take your friend out for lunch. They really like it, it means a lot more than taking $15-$20 off the bill.

[flacvabeach]

We use Royalty Rewards. It integrates with RO Writer. We currently have about 400 active members and I think I can truly say they love the program. They get a free oil change for signing up and then they get a $20 voucher for every $400 they have spent with us, so it's like a 5% discount for being loyal. They do e-mails and will do postcards as well. There's a reason all of the grocery chains, restaurant chains, etc do loyalty programs. Your customers may love you but your competition is trying to lure them away with loss leader specials. The loyalty program is just one more tool to encourage them to come back to you.

[UsedTireShop]

We use Maxx Traxx from Scott Systems which also has a built it loyalty rewards program. I give 3% back if invoice is paid by credit card and 5% if paid by cash. This program is new to us and so far I feel like I am giving away money that I would have already gotten. I need to find a way to market this program so I can actually see the customers are coming in for the rewards program.

 

I currently mail out a custom letter the Maxx Traxx generates. I often will add money in their loyalty account. I will add like $6.36 to their account and mail them the letter along with a letter of the recommended services.

[Apluschuy]

I think a loyalty program would help bring customers back into our shop. I love the idea of giving customers a reward for coming back. It's also cheaper to get a old customer to come back, than chasing new ones all the time.

 

I just haven't figured out which one would fit our shop.

 

 

Currently have a demo with Spot On and Royalty Rewards.

[SMMotors]

We use Maxx Traxx from Scott Systems which also has a built it loyalty rewards program. I give 3% back if invoice is paid by credit card and 5% if paid by cash. This program is new to us and so far I feel like I am giving away money that I would have already gotten. I need to find a way to market this program so I can actually see the customers are coming in for the rewards program.

 

I currently mail out a custom letter the Maxx Traxx generates. I often will add money in their loyalty account. I will add like $6.36 to their account and mail them the letter along with a letter of the recommended services.

 

Your giving away 3% on credit cards plus the credit cards are charging you 1.9-3% already? And your automatically giving 5% off if they pay cash? That's horrible business sense my friend. Why are you giving any discounts especially ones like that!

 

I can see giving a discount off an oil change if they are doing 4 tires but to arbitrarily give 5% back paying cash seems crazy.

[stowintegrity]

I'm surprised to hear that there are many who still don't think a rewards campagin is a suitable part of a successful marketing program in the auto repair industry, but this thread has been quite an interesting read, I think.

 

We have a loyalty program for our customers that has been quite successful, and the return on our investment has never been greater. We've used the rewards card program to tie together a multitude of other marketing efforts, and in 2015, we've gotten definitive feedback from countless customers who've come to appreciate the real value inherent in "being a member".

 

Believe it or not, I'm aware that I can be long-winded sometimes, so I'll be lazy for a moment, and spare you all the exciting, longer descriptions of how it works with a simple bullet list. Suffice it to say, however, we're all very excited about it....me, my staff, AND my customers. It brings people back in more frequently, encourages them to "spend more", by giving them more incentives to authorize additioanl services, and in some ways, even encourages them to "hold on" to their rewards as opposed to spending them as fast as they get them. (Like offering a free tow to our facility with only 30 "dollars" worth of points.)

 

I'm happy to comment on any part of the program, but here's some quick info"

 

1. They earn points anytime they spend money with us. (Subtotal)

2. The points are spent, using a ratio of points to dollars.

3. They earn bonus points when someone they refer to us comes in for service, based on what their friend spends on their first visit.

4. They earn bonus points for signing up for our monthly E-blast, & our Mobile (texxt) marketing program.

5. They earn points for engaging with us on several of our social media pages.

6. They have a chance to earn double rewards on services we are promoting. (Nice to fill the bays with work you WANT)

(August, Brake Safety Awareness Month...means brake service earns double points)

7. They almost always earn triple points on manufacturer's recommended maintenance packages.

8. They can spend their points at our facility on any future service at the most lucrative ratio of points to dollars.

9. They can spend their points at a dozen or so other local businesses by "purchasing" gift cards for services elsewhere. (But they spend more points elsewhere for each actual dollar gifted, than at our shop)

10. We have 3 tiers of retail gift cards available for them to "spend" their points. There are almost 100 different company gift cards we can send them, from brick & mortar home improvement stores, specialty retail, restaurants, amazon/ebay, the apple store, Google Play Store, etc.

11. Our card is also valuable at several other local businesses where they can "flash their card" for discounts that are unavailable otherwise, toward services such as landscaping, plumbing, personal fitness/training, etc.)

 

The program has helped us to tie together all our communications with our clients, and we have a central database that keeps track of the emails, texts, discounts, rewards, etc., that we offer or make. As the director of marketing for our company, I can tell you...that list is the central nervous system of our campaigns. We can cross reference it with our POS software reporting, and test the effectiveness of each segment of our marketing against actual sales & frequency of visits.

 

So...if I haven't bored you to tears, I'm guessing I've at least convinced you that I'm a real geek when it comes to this junk. I guess I should just cast my vote and say that I'm a firm proponent to the use of a rewards card program, as I've seen it work very well for us.

 

Just one man's opinion

Edited August 20, 2015 by stowintegrity

[mspecperformance]

stow, do you have a website?