Pep Boys Customer EngagementPep Boys is among the best when it comes to customer engagement, according to the latest Customer Engagement Awards from Retail Touchpoints. The company took home a Gold Award for its innovative Instagram Monitoring system, powered by Yext. The system was developed in early 2015 as a way to engage customers on a more local level.

The journey to an award-winning engagement tool began with a question: How can Pep Boys increase customer engagement? The company launched an initiative called, “Search and Response,” which focused on improving social media presence and actively responding to relevant posts from customers. Rachel Silva, Pep Boys Assistant VP of Marketing told Loyalty360, "Pep Boys is dedicated to helping each individual customer no matter which location they are visiting or which social platform they are using." 

In particular, the company set their sights on Instagram, the popular image-sharing platform.

According to the Yext website, “Pep Boys recognized that customers might engage with its brand beyond listings and noticed Instagram's high user engagement rate as a potential way both to reach more customers and also to amplify brand loyalty with existing ones.”

The hurdle faced by Pep Boys was the manner in which Instagram allows content searching. Users can sort by username or hashtag, but not by location. In a business as community-focused as Pep Boys, this was an issue.

Using Yext’s social media technology, the company is now able to monitor and track Instagram posts according to location, offering countless opportunities for engagement in local communities.Pep Boys Customer Engagement

“Thanks to Yext, Pep Boys can now see all user-generated content tagged at any of our 800 locations in a single, searchable feed and reply to them directly— without ever leaving the Yext dashboard,” said Emily Smith, Pep Boys’ Online Marketing Manager. “We also leverage Yext’s real-time tracking and response capabilities to respond immediately to customers who have urgent questions and concerns, which has really elevated our quality of customer service and helped us build better customer relationships.”

In addition to strengthening existing customer loyalty bonds, the program has allowed the company to reach out and engage potential new customers when and where it matters most: In one of Pep Boys 800 locations nationwide. Since launching in early 2015, the company has tracked more than 6,400 posts.

“We love partnering with forward-thinking brands like Pep Boys who understand the importance of leveraging technology to engage today’s mobile-empowered customers,” said Yext CMO Jeff Rohrs. “Through Yext’s platform, Pep Boys is effectively harnessing the power of location to expand its social media audience and create more meaningful engagement that has a positive impact on its customer experience.”

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