Posts tagged as:

discount tire

Post image for How Social Media Has Changed Customer Service

How Social Media Has Changed Customer Service

May 6, 2010

Friday, May 30th was a seemingly normal day in the Twittersphere. Trending Topics took place in increments of 10, hashtags were retweeted and new hashtags were born. A few thousand people tweeted about #Glee.

Yet seemingly unnoticed, an exchange happened.

Enter Troy B., of Grand Rapids, MI. On Friday, Troy was looking for new tires and did what many of us do daily—he tweeted about it.

A business responded with a deal, but it wasn’t a mom and pop operation, it was Discount Tire.

How? Because they wear their listening hat at all times. 

It’s easy to respond to an @-reply or question to your twitter account or Facebook page, but when individuals aren’t a follower or fan of your brand on various social media touch points, there’s a certain barrier to interaction. Simply checking your “@-replies”, like you’d check an email inbox, doesn’t mean you’re listening. Extra, proactive steps must be taken to identify your consumers (or potential customers), listen to their needs and provide value when, where and how they want to receive it. Even if that means on the weekend or after normal business hours. This takes valuable time.

Not only did Discount Tire retain an individual’s business through Twitter, but they formed a one-on-one relationship with the customer. Better yet, this interaction took place publicly for anyone to see. The one-on-one interaction had infinite impression potential.

What’s more, they utilized social media to humanize their more than 700 store brand. All through social media, Discount Tire the corporation became Discount Tire the local business. That’s what is significant. That’s worth the listen.

Post image for Social Media Sells Product & Generates 300% Increase

Social Media Sells Product & Generates 300% Increase

December 22, 2009

As we’re all gearing down from last-minute, overnight-shipping, how-do-I-wrap-a-basketball frenzy, it’s good to reflect on exactly how some of our favorite gifts came to us. No, not by sleigh, but e-commerce. Social media drove online sales up 300% for one dR client.

In the last few months surrounding Thanksgiving and Christmas, we collaborated with our clients who sell products and merchandise online about how to utilize their preexisting social media presence and relationships to direct new and existing consumers to their online stores.

Discount Tire was one of these clients. After leaking promo codes and directing consumers to offers via Facebook and Twitter, Discount Tire experienced substantial results in terms of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, over-indexing from years prior.

But even if your brand isn’t in the business of exclusively selling retail products, perhaps e-commerce is a portion of your overall business. Take the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) for example. The UFC and UFCStore.com needed initiatives that would inform consumers that they could still order gifts in time for Christmas, as well as direct them to their online property–free of off-tone, sales gimmicks. Enter Dana White. UFC President Dana White and UFC personnel selected a handful of their favorite apparel items, both male and female, from the UFC Store and shared them with their online network. Dana White posted his favorite hooded sweatshirt to nearly 1 million followers on Twitter, as well as his Facebook page. It was a personal touch that combined e-commerce and social media for astounding results.

The same year-to-year increase in sales were seen for the White Sox, who employed not an official White Sox account, but the social media channels of mascot Southpaw and Vice President of Communications Scott Reifert, encouraging fans to consider buying White Sox merchandise for their friends and family.

Social Media Partnership: PGA Golfer & Corporate Brand

November 10, 2009

America’s largest independent tire distributor and a PGA Tour golfer with a sense of humor formed a revolutionary partnership—a social media partnership. Enter Discount Tire and Bubba Watson.

The two social savvy brands bantered and supported each other entirely on social media platforms that included Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The result was that both Bubba Watson and Discount Tire grew their online presence by tapping into new consumer segments and strengthening their preexisting online networks.

The key to making Digital Royalty’s concept of a social media partnership a success was identifying touch points of natural integration versus forced interruption. The video above explains how this was accomplished.