Meineke Rewards sees a 30% increase in customer retention with Oracle CrowdTwist
The national automobile repair and maintenance specialist uses Oracle CrowdTwist to power its rewards program and increase customer retention.
“CrowdTwist gives us a more comprehensive strategy surrounding our rewards program, which goes above and beyond a run-of-the-mill rewards partner.”
Business challenges
Since the opening of its first site in 1972 in Houston, Texas, Meineke mechanics have been full throttle, delivering quality repair work to help get customers back on the road.
Now part of the Driven Brands conglomerate, Meineke is a national auto repair and maintenance franchise with over 800 locations across the US and Canada. Despite being one of North America’s leading automotive service brands, it wasn’t taking its foot off the gas when it came to fostering customer engagement during the pandemic.
At 70%, Meineke’s level of consumer brand awareness is high, but the business was looking for a way to convert name recognition into customer acquisition and retention. The company also needed a platform that would provide a comprehensive source of data for customer profiling, which would enable Meineke to better segment its marketing and promotional campaigns.
A new rewards program was an obvious option, but Meineke wanted to take it beyond the traditional and develop a platform that would drive effective customer engagement.
Coming out of the pandemic, one of our most important initiatives is brand loyalty. CrowdTwist comes up with creative solutions to make our Rewards program the robust, award-winning platform that it is today.
Why Meineke chose Oracle
Previously, the company underused its loyalty application. Meineke wanted to make the most of its relationship with Oracle to expand its use of the CrowdTwist Loyalty and Engagement platform.
Oracle CrowdTwist and Engagement was also selected for its ability to drive customer retention while offering relevant rewards and benefits to customers for necessary maintenance and repair services.
Meineke Rewards helps the business stand apart from key competitors and is a primary pillar of Meineke’s strategy of disruptive differentiation.
Results
Based on Oracle CrowdTwist, part of the Oracle Advertising and Customer Experience suite of applications, the Meineke Rewards program has a 70% customer retention rate among its reward members. This compares to a retention rate of around 40% for people not signed up for the program.
The franchise had seen a steady decline with reward signups during the early part of the pandemic lockdown, but after running a double rewards points campaign in September 2020, it managed to register a 100% retention rate and brought the company back on par to where it was in September 2019.
The breadth of Oracle CrowdTwist allowed Meineke to offer business-specific rewards, such as free tows, and reward points for services like tire alignments and oil changes. The platform also enabled the company to develop a library of tools for bonus campaigns.
The business now uses information derived from CrowdTwist to build customer profiles for use in highly targeted social media campaigns aimed at customers with similar characteristics.
In addition, the average transaction size has increased by 10% and the free tow benefit is estimated to deliver even greater benefits. The program also increases consumer exposure to Meineke’s popular 23-point eInspection service, a free inspection that allows technicians to share images of problem areas, such as worn tires or brakes, and arrange repairs on the spot.
Meineke’s Rewards program was such a success that it was named by Newsweek as one of America's Best Loyalty Programs for 2021.