Beggs Tire & Wheel is a family-owned business that doesn’t have the benefit of large advertising budgets that corporate-backed franchises might have. It has to be strategic and make every single marketing and advertising dollar stretch as far as possible.
That’s one of the reasons that online reviews were so intriguing to Charles Vickery, Manager at Beggs Tire & Wheel. He realized that most consumers were using online reviews to help them find and choose which tire store to frequent. But the number of reviews the business had collected didn’t accurately reflect how successful it had been over the years.
“Before implementing Podium, I think we only had collected 20 reviews over the entire time we’ve been in business,” said Vickery. “Even though we didn’t have a bad rating, having a small amount of reviews doesn’t look good to potential customers either.”
MAKING IT EASIER
The staff at Beggs Tire would ask customers to leave a review from time to time, but because there was no formalized invitation process in place, very few of those customers followed through and left a review. That all changed once they implemented Podium. Now it’s a one-step process that directs the customer right to the stars page on Google or Facebook. “Making it easier for our customers has played a huge role in our increase in online reviews,” related Vickery. “If they have to put too much effort into it they’re not going to do it.”
MORE REVIEWS = MORE BUSINESS
In the five months since implementing Podium, Beggs Tire & Wheel has collected 110 new reviews and boasts a 4.9 overall star rating, which is much better than the more well-known brands in the area. But that’s not the biggest benefit the business has realized. Vickery noted that they’ve seen month-over-month revenue growth every month since rolling out Podium – and that’s without any increase in advertising spend.
“Our competitors spend a ton of money on advertising to drive people through the door and we still rank higher than them in total number of reviews and Google star rating,” said Vickery. “And we’re doing that with just Podium and optimized social media. We don’t spend money on newspaper, radio, or anything like that.”
IMPROVING THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Beggs Tire & Wheel has also been able to use the feedback contained in reviews to improve the customer experience. For example, they recently received a review that said that the tire shop was a little messier than the customer would like. That was because there were tires laying all over the shop that weren’t immediately put away because the employees were busy.
“After we got that review we decided that as soon as we get tires delivered, we’re going to put every tire away no matter how busy we are,” said Vickery. “And since then, we haven’t gotten any reviews mentioning the shop being messy.”
GETTING MORE FEEDBACK WITH MESSAGING PLATFORM
Vickery also likes the feedback the business has been able to get with Podium Messaging Platform and has plans to integrate it more into their business communications over time.
“Messaging Platform has been nice for us because not everyone has a Google or Facebook account, so they can just text us back with feedback,” concluded Vickery. “Even if that feedback isn’t a review it lets us know they had a good experience and helps us build a better relationship with them.”
