Ziebart provides aftermarket automotive services to keep your vehicle looking like new. We're a legacy brand in our 63rd year of business, so both our customers and franchisees have mixed needs and interests when it comes to communication preferences. The way we communicate with our customers needs to grow with us, which is why we’ve shifted our focus to convenience. Text Request seemed like the perfect solution to cut down on phone calls and reach our customers the way they most prefer.
We tested the platform in our corporate location first, then we rolled it out to our franchisees. The texting function we built into our point-of-sales system using Text Request’s API was seamless, and there were no complicated actions franchisees had to take on their end, aside from telling us their phone provider. Our field marketing manager was able to work closely with the Text Request support team to get set up, but after that everything was intuitive for our team to roll out the program.
We primarily use Text Request for appointment reminders and confirmations. Customers now receive texts when they schedule appointments, as well as 24 hours before their appointment. We also send text reminders for annual maintenance. A customer will come in and get their car serviced, then they’ll get a text when it’s ready for pickup. Customers love the convenience of instant notifications and reminders, and our franchisees love being able to connect and communicate with customers instantaneously.
New technology can sometimes be difficult for franchisees to accept and learn, but we had no problem rolling out Text Request. We don't often receive tons of feedback on the tools and programs we share with our franchisees, but we’ve gotten non-stop praise for Text Request. Franchisees will enroll and tell us things like, “Our customers are absolutely loving this! It works!”
Text Request helps us stand apart in our industry by cutting out the phone calls that normally take place between the face-to-face aspects of our services. With this in place, our franchisees can spend more time servicing customers at the most critical part of the customer journey. It’s been an overwhelmingly great experience so far, and we look forward to expanding our use of the platform.
