Remarkable Results Radio Podcast Feb 3, 2026

Beyond the Repair Order: The Strategy of Customer Loyalty [RR 1077]

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42:08

Car

Chevrolet Trax

The Chevrolet Trax is a small SUV that is easy to drive and park, making it great for city living. It has enough space inside for passengers and their stuff, but it's not too big, so it won't take up too much room on the road. People talk about it because it's a good option for those who want a reliable vehicle without spending a lot of money.

Term

horsepower

Horsepower is how we measure the power of an engine. The higher the horsepower, the more powerful the engine is, which usually means the car can go faster.

Term

dynamometer

A dynamometer is a tool that measures how much power an engine produces. It's often used by car tuners to see how well an engine is performing and to help improve it.

LIVE

This is the Automotive Repair Podcast Network.

Hey everybody, Karm Capriotto,

remarkable results radio, good to have you here.

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share episodes, so much in it, Automotive Repair,

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I'll also see you in New York City area,

Tarleton, New York at the TST big events,

Saturday, March 28th, 2026.

Here from educators Andrew Fisher,

Ken Zanders, Adam Roberts, go to TSTSeminars.org,

A lot of people from New England and Pennsylvania,

Delaware, of course New York, they all go

and the keynoter is Tracy Capriotto this year.

I think I know her.

Hey, we've got some great, great partners on the show.

We have to give them great homage.

Hey, you know the technician shortage is real

but Napa AutoCare has a solution at no cost to members.

The Napa AutoCare Apprentice Program

builds tomorrow's technicians

through a two-year nine-stage curriculum.

Learn more at member.napaautocare.com

or talk to your Napa representative today.

Hey, did you know that Napa Trax has on-site training

plus six days a week support?

It all starts when a local representative meets with you

to learn about your business and how you run it.

After all, it's your shop, so it's your choice.

Let us prove to you that Trax is the single best

shop management system in the business.

Find Napa Trax on the web at NAPATRACS.com.

Hey, welcome back.

It's ready to go.

Guess who I'm with?

Buffalo Boy, Jeff Rudnick from Pit Crew Loyalty.

Hello, Jeff.

Well, hello, Carm, how are you?

All right, so we're gonna kind of give you an idea

when we're recording this thing

because before we turned on the mics,

we had our violins out for the Buffalo Bills.

Yes, we did.

And we fixed everything.

We did.

Unknowing to them, we know exactly

what they should be doing now.

If we had recorded it, all problems would be fixed.

I know, that's exactly right.

Pit Crew Loyalty, you know, I'll tell you,

this episode's gonna be about

transacting with clients,

obviously from a marketing perspective,

and how we make clients feel good

and what do we have to offer them?

Maybe, you know, pre or post transaction.

Jeff and I got together,

we chatted about a whole bunch of things.

I'm so excited to have them back.

Pit Crew Loyalty.com, by the way.

You know, I find so fascinating about your company

and you're one of our sponsors

and we so appreciate that, Jeff,

is you do email and SMS reminders, digital gift cards,

customer referrals, reward dollars,

reward gift certificates, employee spotlights,

oil change clubs, charitable giving,

and business cross pollination, pollinator.

And segmented messaging.

I mean, where'd you come up with all of this?

It was an overnight idea that happened

over the course of 25 years.

You know, it's weird.

In the beginning, it was all about features.

You know, we've been driven so much by CRM

in this industry for, and there's some great CRMs out there,

you know, and I partner with the lion's share of them.

But what was missing was really strategy.

And then how do you make that strategy automated?

Because our client base, and you know, it's no secret.

I mean, you can come up with all the cool things you want,

but if people can't use them, they're no good.

It's easy in some ways to get people revved up

about really cool ideas and have them buy something.

But then they sit there and go, how do I use it?

What makes this thing go?

And there's not enough time in the day.

So I always think in percentages, if you,

in the beginning, I would sell this product,

which was great, but maybe 1% of the shop owners

would dive in and use the thing.

And I'd be beating on them and beating on the advisors,

how to make the loyalty rewards program work.

And the evolution was really to make,

there's that phrase that art imitates life.

Well, software has to imitate life.

And the life of an automotive shop owner

and automotive service advisors,

and even automotive marketing people.

So many of the marketing people I work with at a shop,

they say they're the marketing coordinator,

but I'll be darned if you can get them to, you know,

to have one third of their time focused on marketing,

because they're doing, they're wearing all these other hats.

Software has to imitate life.

Software has to imitate the life

of an automotive shop owner, the service advisor,

the marketing coordinator.

And that's where we focus to just be able to

convey the ideas, do the setup, which is no easy task.

You know, someone says, yes, we have 300, 400 things

to get ready so that we can then automate.

You make so much sense.

I don't care what it is that is a system inside

of a business, and let's just call it software as an example.

The underutilization of an entire suite of software,

all the features, all the options.

I have had so many discussions over the years

with owners of software companies, and I've said,

are you monitoring who's using all this neat new stuff

that you put out?

Is there someone on the phone that picks us,

hey, Charlie, did you see that recent thing,

that category thing we did in point of sale?

Yeah, I heard about it, have you tried it?

Don't know how, I started to read about it.

There's so much, I tell you, I would be a kid

in a candy store if some of the software that we use,

the owner of it or a leader of it picked up the phone

and says, can I show you a neat new feature?

And I would say, yes, kid in a candy store.

And I think the underutilization of a lot of our stuff

in our business, because life is traveling so fast,

is a critical component.

So if what I'm hearing from you is that the challenge

that you have at Pit Crew to take all those things

that kind of rattled off in the beginning

and get them to be of a high usership

inside of a business, I'm paying X for something,

am I getting my ROI, and is my customer

even playing in our sandbox too, right?

We've had to develop and develop and develop

and now we're getting, I wouldn't say overwhelmed,

but the usage is skyrocketing.

Number one, the automations, having it look embedded

inside of the shop management systems for some of them.

But also, well, we created a tool called

Loyalty Marketing Made Easy so that we can not only

set up all the options for a good loyalty rewards program.

Okay, we should really sort of cover that a little bit.

It doesn't matter if it's mine or anyone else's,

but a loyalty rewards program has this consumer facing

aspect to it that they need to look at and say,

wow, that's cool.

I'm getting this, this, this, this, and this.

So they can competently understand what they're getting

and how they keep it and how they move into better benefits.

That's like the customer facing thing.

And that all has to be in service to the overall goal

of what's good for the vehicle, is good for the consumer,

is good for the shop, and is good for the community.

So you have to be able to convey all that stuff.

And then through Loyalty Marketing Made Easy,

take the piece that's really, really good for the shop.

Like, how do you get a consumer to feel you

and to be in a relationship with you

rather than a transaction?

Because that's where you go from good to great.

And so that's how we've built it.

Jeff, I so agree with you and in absolutely

the last couple of months,

the guests that I've had on the show

and the topics that we've covered,

we have been using the word relationships

more and more and more versus,

and then the word transactional comes up

is we got to stop being transactional

and we have to learn to be more relationship.

Years ago, I'm talking about 22 years ago,

I read a book from Neil Rockman

all about transactional versus relationship.

As much as I thought I was smart back then,

it hit me like a ton of bricks.

And I still think it's hitting a lot of leaders

and owners in our industry

to stop being in the transactional business

because, and again, here comes Pick Crew Loyalty

and all the other loyalty companies

that are out there that are so clever

trying to connect me.

I mean, Lowe's, Tractor Supply,

all of these people that I do business with

here in my community,

I had to give them my phone number or my name.

They're bombarding me and they're telling me,

come in and get a free bucket or do this.

It's amazing how much I get,

and I don't erase them.

I want to stay in the know with them

and they're trying to have a relationship with me.

They don't want me to be just a transaction.

And so it's so smart that in our industry today,

we do more of that,

but it's not like a local shop owner

is not a national company,

but he can use Pick Crew Loyalty to feel and act like that.

Yeah, these tools are being driven

closer and closer and closer to the source.

And I look at the source as the small business owner.

These tools are accessible now.

They didn't used to be.

When you would go to a Lowe's or a Home Depot

and if you dove into the genesis of their loyalty rewards programs,

they had hugely expensive consultants coming in

to build these things and build the linkages

to the point of sale system

and then dive into the strategies and how do you use them?

We've done that heavy lift.

And I would argue we've done the heavy lift

more than others have.

I don't think that'll remain the case forever,

but I'm very proud of what we've built,

but it's about, like I said,

the making your customers feel.

And it has to be authentic.

So just a quick stat,

for your customer to believe your loyalty program is worth it,

they need to get something from it within the first seven days.

There has to be something that they see of value.

And it doesn't have to be if this isn't about discounting,

this is about, well, this is different.

And you can go back to the genesis of this

and just in our industry,

if you remember Bob O'Connor at all from our L.O.

O'Connor and associates, and he's passed on,

but it survives now at the Institute with Cecil

and the fellows over there.

I remember way, way back when,

back in the, for me, the early 90s,

but he was doing this and preaching this in the mid to late 80s,

every time someone leaves your shop, give them one thing.

It's just a simple thing.

And psychologically, you're trying to get the consumer

to pay less attention to the transaction

and more attention to the caring.

And so that could be anything that,

back in the day, what would they do?

Well, I noticed your rear view mirror was loose

and we fixed that or we fixed the window, crank,

anything that you can do.

We cleaned your vehicle, we sent it to the car wash,

and then it has evolved into a whole suite of not giveaways,

but things that trigger and address

real behavioral psychology needs of a consumer.

For the listener, this might seem scattered for me,

it's because I live it, it's from the heart,

but we're based like we've talked about

on self-determination theory,

that every human being needs to be content at life,

to have a chance to love someone other than themselves,

be loved by someone other than themselves,

feel competent and worthwhile at something,

and feel a part of something bigger than themselves.

That is anything, family, spouses, children,

extended family, the community that you live in,

your reason for being.

So when you have a bad day, you can feel

that you have all this other support group

and absent that just as humans,

not in the automotive industry, but as humans,

when you don't have these things present,

the bad stuff happens, hopelessness, despair,

gangs, drugs and alcohol,

you really minimize the possibility of people going

in the wrong direction from a societal standpoint

when they have these things present,

support groups, stuff like that.

But it's much deeper with consumer psychology

and behavioral science and consumer behavior.

People want to work with and transact with people,

number one, that make them feel good about themselves.

That's actually overriding in life.

You're going to attract people into your life

and keep friends and have relationships

if you make them feel good,

if they get a general sense of wellbeing.

And so if you're a merchant,

it kind of blows me away how few people focus on this,

but just make them feel good about something other than

the money that the transaction they just had.

So so many shops are diving into community now,

as you and I talk about.

I believe that we've had a hand in that,

it's been 25 years of preaching about it,

but this is like universal in life.

And it's now the evolution of business

and in particular small business.

People want to feel you,

you need to inject heart and soul into your business.

And I'm not saying a loyalty rewards program

is all you rely on for that.

You still need to be involved and do your fundraisers

or you're more importantly get involved in the community.

But if you can make people feel instantly

through your rewards program,

here's the benefits and then here's an opportunity

to participate as a team with the shop to do something good,

whether it's transact with another local business

through the local business cross-pollinator

or to do a small fundraiser,

which you and I have countless stories

of how this has changed shops lives,

like right down to return on investment,

putting a spotlight on your customers.

I know you told me I can talk forever and I will,

but it's so incredibly important,

but this leads to why a loyalty rewards program,

I do all these things.

If you look at how the larger businesses

are functioning in the world,

I was at the Institute for the Mars Conference

and forgive me, but Wayne Marshall,

the CEO of the Institute,

his daughter works for a company,

it's a pizza place, I forget the name now in the Midwest.

They funnel everything through their loyalty rewards program

from their fundraisers and their community involvement

down to their promotions

and their promotion specific for loyalty members.

Here's the reason I make this point

and she made it so well for me at that conference.

Marketing people, marketing departments,

small businesses, what's in it for them?

It's marketing efficiency.

This is such a cool little megaphone

where it's a sandbox, it's a playground

where your ideas come to life.

And I'll just give you one example, just one example.

So we've been signing up a lot of performance shops

now recently that tuner shops,

people that have, they're helping people increase horsepower

and the fun stuff.

And he said, as part of this,

I wanna reward people that come to me for their tuning

and I wanna give them a complimentary session

on my dynamometer.

And I'm like, all right, this is perfect.

In order for him to do this before,

he would have to sit at his desk

and try to dive through his data,

who's everyone that's had a specific type of a service,

who's someone who's behaved a certain way

that qualifies for this.

And then how am I gonna message them?

How am I gonna make it work?

Well, with the Loyalty Rewards Program,

it's idea, it's a query that gets written

to grab those people.

It gets populated with a graphic

directly into the customer loyalty account pages.

And that consumer that's eligible for that

is directly notified that they're eligible

for this complimentary session at the exact time session,

the exact time when the consumer wants.

So now the complex marketing idea

that has a hundred to-dos underneath it

when the shop owner's sitting there,

we're scribbling them down in the notepad,

now becomes a couple of phone calls and a quick session.

And with the right tools that we've developed,

the graphics get designed, lickety-split,

it's up in the system, it's on the marketing calendar, go.

I've seen it, it's really slick, yeah.

Today's world, it's hyper-personalization,

but it's strategy too.

You've gotta have these strategies baked in

so that the shop owner doesn't have to think about them.

So that's how we build these things.

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This is good stuff, thank you so much, Jeff.

One of the things that we talked about,

and I want to be sure that we cover this,

you hit me with a stat that kind of blew me away.

The percentage of new callers

that have already decided to do business with you.

Oh yeah.

And how we can stumble the ball on that.

Can you tell our listeners what that stat is?

You said 70% of new callers have already decided.

From a one and done rate standpoint

is what we really talk about.

So right now, the average across the industry

is 54% of the people that come into your shop

for the first time will not come back

with a loyalty rewards program,

with our loyalty rewards program.

That 54% drops down to 30%,

as long as they know about the program.

And the way they know about the program,

it's a couple of ways, it's the poster in the shop,

it's the advisor hopefully talking about it,

but it's us inviting them

and telling them about the program.

They're already pre-activated

and they get their welcome message.

So that is one stat.

But another amazing stat,

when you're doing direct mail for new customers,

and there's a lot of them out there,

we know Upswell, Mail Shark,

they're all good at what they do.

But we've seen one and done rates on those,

I call them carpet bombs, two new customers.

And this is where it made me think

I might have been talking about that.

The one and done rate that we see on that is 70% to 80%.

They come in once and never come back.

We drop that as well down to 30%.

If you're using a direct mail company

and you don't have an actual plan

of what you're gonna do when that customer gets there,

other than what you normally do,

you're simply selling yourself short.

And it doesn't have to be a loyalty rewards program.

Again, like with our program,

you know that it's a first-time customers.

We just launched that where we're telling the advisors,

everyone on their calendar that's a first-time customer,

so that you can throw a party for them.

Because if you get them in once,

if you can increase the likelihood by double

that they come in again,

if they use their rewards program on the second visit,

they're gonna spend 40% more over the next two years.

That's just based on all the numbers that we have.

But if you get them to the third visit,

the likelihood that you have the fourth through nine visit,

that goes up by like 65, 70%.

So it's all about knowing where they are in the cycle

and giving them something other than just good service.

One of the things that we also discussed,

and you may not remember this,

because maybe you've partied since we talked last.

I don't know this.

Well, I did have surgery.

Oh, that's right, you did.

God, I hope you're still doing well.

Okay.

I'm fine.

You basically really hit me over the head

by saying when the phone call comes in,

it's karma, it's really not a selling moment,

it's a confirmation moment.

Well, in that regard, yeah,

that person has a need for sure.

I've seen people handle these.

And we start talking, oh, we got this die-egg fee,

we got all this stuff going on,

and it makes it so complicated and confusing to the client.

And he says, hey, listen, so glad you called.

How did you find us?

You know, we've got all these ASC,

and I think there's a confirm why they're on the phone with you.

Yeah, I know they want you to solve their problem.

Yeah, I know they're maybe looking for an appointment,

but there's so many other opportunities that exist there

instead of just sell, sell, sell, schedule, schedule, schedule.

I used to listen to a lot of these phone calls.

I don't anymore as much,

but it's amazing to me how many times a advisor

or an owner will chase away a person on the phone

and where they won't lead

with their real unique selling point, not lead,

but listen to the customer, see why they're calling.

Greg Sands, you know, I learned this way back from him.

His thing was just book the appointment, you know,

and don't try to talk them out of booking the appointment.

They're not asking you if you're booked out two weeks.

They're not asking you a lot of things that you're volunteering.

They're asking you, can you see their vehicle?

Of course we can see the vehicle come drop it off, right?

And if you're having trouble or if it's a price shopper,

what we've done is try to educate the advisors

to close with their benefits,

their loyalty rewards benefits.

And we've seen a huge increase in closing,

but we also built into our program the automation

if the advisor wants to.

You know, when an advisor gets a phone call,

they will know, is it a customer that I want?

Is it a job I want?

And is it a vehicle that I want?

They kind of know that.

And then they get really giddy

about trying to close the deal eventually.

But let's say you can't.

Well, we've built it so that you can send them

the details of your loyalty rewards program

and a digital gift card with a graphic.

Come check us out.

We really, you know, and you could,

they can type in a message

because you have their phone number.

It's almost always a cell phone,

like 90 something percent, it's a cell phone.

Send them that graphic, thank them for the call,

invite them to come in.

And that has been the shops that have built that

into their program are closing a ton more appointments.

And that's a smart protocol to have at our counter.

This isn't going to happen automatically,

but you have to recognize the opportunity,

feed it into the system and let the system do its thing.

Correct.

You have to get them into your system.

Well, we haven't talked a lot about fundraisers.

You're probably going to guide me down that road,

but I've never seen a better source of everything

that we're trying to achieve in terms of making the consumer

and the community feel you more than running

a strategic fundraiser.

And it doesn't mean you always have to do it

with the rewards program, but get involved.

People inherently want to know that you're a good person.

And when you do good things, it gives everybody hope

and people flock to people that give them hope.

Yeah, we're talking to my friend Tom

about the cross business pollinator

and the fundraising that's going on

and these captured moments for social media,

not that that's why you do it,

you do it because your heart says you should do this,

but the opportunity to boast a little bit

because your heart's in the right place.

I love the inside of the loyalty, if you will,

strategy that you have at Pit Crew.

I mean, so many other companies have it,

but you've made it part of the constitution of your program.

It is, it's the lifeblood.

It's about showing the world that you care

about more than just making money

and that you're all in it together.

So the system allows you and we do it for you

to set up these little fundraisers,

which Tom, if I'm thinking correctly,

that's probably total automotive

and that they all work really well

in terms of just showing your inherent goodness.

But you touched on something that's really important

about how this stuff flows out to social media as well.

If I could identify the biggest challenges

that the shop owners have and every small business has,

it's not a lack of ideas, it's execution.

And how do you take this idea with all its to-do lists

and make it sing, but then have it all worked efficiently

with all the touch points,

meaning so you have a loyalty rewards program,

the customer loves it, you have strategies like fundraisers,

local business cross pollinators, employee spotlights.

All of these things address one of the biggest challenges

that any small business and shop has.

How do you find something fun and engaging

to talk about on social media that people want to listen to?

And I'm in these rooms with the social media people

at conferences and we talk about things

and even over a drink or even laugh.

I got a phone call, the social media people be like,

the shop owners wants me to make his business more interesting.

And a lot of it is like, how?

Well, people don't care necessarily.

We've gone beyond the fun, the recipe thing.

It's people want to work with people

that make them feel a certain way

and that are good for the community,

not just for their vehicle,

but overall are impacting the world.

And any loyalty rewards program, if it's done correctly,

and you can research all this stuff that you want,

you can look up self-determination theory.

They talk a lot about loyalty rewards programs.

Harvard Business Review talks about

what makes a good one versus a bad one.

I have shops all the time that say,

we're only interested in the referral program.

I cringe because you want to have a loyalty rewards program

and you want to lead with the one thing that's self-serving.

So you only want to do it if it brings you more business.

Loyalty rewards programs work if you lead the other way.

If you lead with rewarding a customer

for doing what's right for the vehicle,

because it's good for the vehicle themselves,

the shop and the community, right?

Because a well-maintained vehicle is a happy vehicle.

It lasts longer.

It runs cleaner.

It's a safer vehicle for the consumer.

Environmentally, it's better for everybody

and safety means it's better for everybody.

And then if there's a little piece

to give back to the community, that's good for everybody.

You want to lead with all of it,

not just I'm going to make more,

do you like me, send a referral, I'll pay you for it,

and I'll get more business.

It falls flat.

In the world of the psychological world,

it's intrinsic or extrinsic value.

So the intrinsic way to do it,

which is always going to yield a better result,

is they're referring you because they want to.

And you always want to give them choice in the referral.

Do they want to earn dollars on their rewards program

with the referral?

Or do they want to donate to the charity?

Or do they want to double the benefit

for the new customer they're referring?

Maybe they're referring it to a friend in need.

Well, don't pay me, give it to them.

And that speaks directly to self-determination theory.

So self-determination theory holds,

if you want to build a great team,

or if you want people to be motivated,

number one, they have to feel competent at what they're doing.

So if you're hiring someone,

they have to know what their job is

and how do they get it done in such a manner from A to Z

that they make the boss happy.

That's just the basics of it.

Step two, to really make them feel like they like the job,

they need to have a little autonomy in the job.

Am I being micromanaged?

Do I always have to do it the same way?

Can I inject a little bit of my own flair into it?

And then step three is the relatedness.

Why am I doing this?

Is it just to get a paycheck?

Or is it in service of some greater good?

When you have all three,

then you have a highly motivated person

and you have a highly motivated team.

And flip it over, you have a highly motivated customer.

If they can see your loyalty rewards program,

which is a snapshot of the purity of your business.

And so they can see all of that in one fell swoop.

The more I hear what you're saying,

the more I keep distilling this down

that this is gonna live or die based on the leader.

So if someone decides to get your program

and they only do referral,

but you've got a dozen other great features

that can be, if you will, gripped or integrated

inside of a loyalty program, a community program,

a charitable program, all these things,

it seems like if your, if you will, capacity usage fall short,

it's the leader who says, you know,

it goes back to you send a service advisor

to service advisor training and they come back

and they start doing some of the great strategies

that they've been taught.

And the owner says, well, we don't do that here

because the owner wasn't schooled

into the power of the value of doing certain things

in building a real relationship, not a transactional one.

That's what I'm hearing from you.

It's totally true.

And it also early on, I said,

we have to make it easy for everyone, right?

It's not enough to build this thing.

If the owners have to babysit it all the time,

it's not gonna work.

It just won't.

So the listeners, I don't want anyone to think

that they have to live and breathe

this loyalty program all day long, not at all.

It's, do you get the concept?

Then we guide you through it.

We have a new client that launched,

I don't know, let's say two months ago

and I got this message that said,

Jeff, I'm really disappointed.

And I'm like, oh boy, here it comes.

He said, my clients love this thing,

but I would have thought that by now

we would have been launching all the other features

of the program.

And I went back through our CRM

and we had sent this person,

the loyalty marketing made easy,

invited him to all of our meetings, right?

We do two of them a week for anyone to join.

So what I need from clients is simply,

I told them, I said, I love that you want this more.

And I own that I didn't personally call you

and get you to jump on one of these meetings.

But here is how we roll this out for real.

You just have to say, yes, I want to do the strategies.

I'd like to do one fundraiser and maybe do one a quarter.

I'd like to do cross pollinators.

Are you gonna go out and talk to the businesses?

Or here's the list of the highest rated businesses

and here's the letter to send them.

They, all the businesses say yes.

So we have mechanisms, but yeah,

I'll state it to everyone in the whole world.

Do I need some engagement from the owner?

Absolutely.

You do, and I'll tell you this.

We look at the CRMs of every single shop that we sign up.

Do you know 50% of them don't even know

how to log into their CRM?

When we do look at what,

because we don't want to send messages out that conflict.

We partner, we're not the CRM.

So when we look at them,

most of them are only doing two to four messages

and they don't know which ones they are.

So there's a happy middle ground here

of a shop owner taking some responsibility

to set a meeting and keep a meeting.

It's all we ask.

And then we will drive the rest of it.

So here's my thinking.

You might take away from this.

You gotta put in some muscle.

And I don't care if it's this program,

if it's your SMS, it doesn't matter.

If you sent your team for training

and you don't put some muscle behind what they just learned

and how it can help the shop

and how we can teach everyone else,

you've gotta put muscle.

Maybe that's the wording that a CEO or leader

of the business realizes.

No matter what you invest in,

you gotta put some muscle behind.

Some muscle or empower us to do it for you.

I don't think he'd mind.

I know he wouldn't.

But with Greg Buckley, he's pretty involved,

but we've taken the reins.

He's like, okay, I believe in this stuff.

Let's build it out and just do it.

And a lot of our shops are doing that now.

And we even give the social media posts to him.

We don't do the social media posts.

But if you're not leveraging this tool in all phases,

you're going to get incremental results.

And the incremental results are really, really good.

Like you're going with any rewards program,

not just my tool.

In fact, even if you didn't have a rewards program,

if at the counter, at the end of every transaction,

you had a list of thank you very much

for choosing total automotive.

We believe in this, this, this,

and giving back to the community.

We pride ourselves on having ASC certified tax.

We do this follow-up phone call, whatever.

We wash every car.

You can make a list of your benefits

without having a loyalty rewards program.

It's just psychologically,

it's about getting that customer to think about something

other than the bill they just paid.

And there's a lot of successful shop owners

that have that, that incremental ad on almost every

transaction, every time you're in the shop,

something different is being done.

If it's from the bottle of water, if it's the wash,

if it's we fixed the light that was out.

We just did it.

Why? Because it was like my grandma's car.

I'm going to do it.

I just got to fix it, I'm going to make it right for you.

And I studied these people, you know,

before the program was really fully baked, you know,

I'm always sort of onto this next idea, you know.

So when I was repping parts and accessories,

I was developing this thing,

because I was talking to shops and,

and I was, you know, doing websites on the side,

you know, back in the day,

and doing little aspects of this.

And then I met a guy named Mitch Harmats.

Mitch Harmats, this is one of the cool things

about getting a little bit, you know, older,

been around for a while, you know.

And I used to cold call all these shops.

I don't know how many I've been in,

but Mitch had a shop in San Pedro, California.

And I went down there and rolled out my program

and we're walking around town.

And San Pedro is kind of like a little peninsula.

It feels like a small town in a really big city.

And everybody knew Mitch and Mitch had, you know,

you pulled up, Mitch had that kind of white glove,

1950s service and someone ran out to the car

and they wore a certain uniform.

And he gave everyone hats and shirts of his business.

And he was on the board of the food bank.

He was on the board of the local theater

and the Bedard women's shelter and the PTA.

Even those kids weren't in school anymore.

And this was just Mitch.

Mitch was the guy who went from five in the morning

until 10 at night, go, go, go.

And I just thought to myself,

there's been many light bulb moments,

but how do I bottle Mitch?

You know, cause Mitch was kind enough to use my program,

but Mitch really didn't need my program.

But a lot of people aren't genetically,

so luckily this is where software squeezes in to fill a gap.

Got it.

Most shop owners aren't genetically programmed to be Mitch.

So how do you find a tool?

So we wrote it like Mitch would do it.

Did it like Mitch would do it?

What would Mitch do?

Well, Mitch would be fully involved in the community,

which he was, right?

We didn't even have the fundraising tool at that point.

That was a Genesis to start building the fundraising tool.

It was Mitch and Mitch would give a hat and a T-shirt

to every new customer that came through the door.

That became what I now call

throwing a party for a new customer.

Least expensive advertising by cost of impression

you'll ever have is to have a really cool

compelling brand or logo and put it on things

and give it out to people.

You don't need a software company to do that.

I think it was Town Automotive and Buffalo

that did that forever.

Karm, you probably know who those guys are.

Sure do.

Yeah.

Look, I gotta tell you, I think what you did

in this episode, Jeff, was really highlight.

You know, what a Pick Your Loyalty does

with a loyalty program does, the app,

but there's so many other, I guess,

what I heard from you is,

ooh, we gotta do this, can I program it?

Can I make it easy?

Can I put an easy button inside the software?

Can I create graphics by just pressing this button

and doing it for people?

Not that you're trying to be the marketing company

who's managing websites and social media,

but a lot of us just want something quick,

done and down and dirty.

And so you've said, oh, you probably don't shut off,

your brain doesn't shut off like mine.

Goes what, 24 hours a day?

Sadly.

Yeah, I know.

And thank God, St. Anne puts up with it.

It's a curse and it's also a blessing.

Pickyourloyalty.com.

I know you'd be the happiest guy in the world

to pick up the phone and talk to anybody

if they contact on your website

because I think the stuff that you're doing

is really brilliant.

I've seen it through a great friend of mine

here in Buffalo who's doing a lot with it.

He loves it and business cross pollinator.

You gotta come back.

I wanna dedicate almost an entire episode

on how this is working and maybe we just bring on

somebody who's doing it so well in a local community

and we need to hear.

I can't talk about it now, come on.

I would love to, but I think we need another 20 minutes

to do this.

We really do.

I'm looking at the kinds of business relationships

that a good business leader,

solid community person would have, Jeff.

And they've not really realized that that connection,

friendship, relationship that they have

with the local restaurant down there, the Habadashree,

I don't know if that even exists anymore,

but there's so many businesses.

Riverside Men's Shop still exists.

Oh my God, you're right, see Jeff.

So there's a way to connect you to them and them to you.

I think there's a brilliant piece of what you guys are doing

that you could call a cross-business pollinator.

Then you're so good at that yourself.

Come back within, say, the next couple of months,

let's jump into an episode and get deep into that

because I think there's some,

we always wanna toot our horn about who we are

and what we do, but I think to be known as the friend

of this great Greek restaurant down the road

and the bake shop over here and the paint shop.

Yes, and all that's missing is a mechanism

so that the world can see it.

And then that increases all the chatter

at dinner tables online.

So you're just looking for, again, that easy button

that can make your social media take off.

Well, Jeff Rudnick, pitcruelloyalty, pitcruelloyalty.com.

Thanks for your friendship, a buffalo boy.

Thank you very much, Karm.

We appreciate your support and sponsor in the show

and all the great work you're doing.

I just love where this has evolved to

after what, 25 years of doing this?

Yeah, November of 2002 is when it started, yes.

Good for you.

Been a long road.

Talk to you soon, my friend.

Thank you guys very much, I appreciate it, Karm.

Thanks for being on board to listen and learn

from the Premier Automotive Repair Business Podcast,

Remarkable Results Radio.

Get your episodic education on the ARPN listening app

at automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com.

Also enjoy the podcast on our Karm Capriato YouTube channel.

Karm is all for advancing the professional

automotive service industry.

Until next time.

About this episode

Exploring the dynamics of customer loyalty in the automotive repair industry, Karm Capriotto and Jeff Rudnick from Pit Crew Loyalty discuss strategies to enhance client relationships beyond mere transactions. They delve into the importance of making customers feel valued through effective loyalty programs, automated marketing solutions, and personalized communication. The conversation emphasizes the need for shop owners to leverage technology to create meaningful connections with clients, ultimately fostering loyalty and community engagement. Insights into the psychology of consumer behavior and the evolution of loyalty programs provide a fresh perspective for automotive professionals.

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Original notes

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Watch Full Video Episode

In this episode, Jeff Rudnick of Pit Crew Loyalty explores the powerful shift from transactional business models to relationship-driven customer loyalty in the automotive repair industry. He challenges shop owners to rethink marketing and branding through the lens of real human connection—introducing the idea that “software has to imitate life.” In other words, technology should support the natural, community-minded instincts of great owners by automating “white glove” service at scale.

The conversation dives into the behavioral science behind loyalty through Self-Determination Theory, which shows that customers, like employees, stay committed when they feel competent, autonomous, and part of something bigger than themselves. Rudnick backs this up with industry data, noting that the average “one-and-done” rate for first-time customers is 54%, but can be reduced to nearly 30% through intentional, relationship-based loyalty programs that make customers feel valued from day one.

Listeners will learn practical strategies for creating meaningful customer experiences, including:

The Confirmation Moment:Treating first-time calls as opportunities to confirm the shop can solve the customer’s problem, not simply close a sale.
Throwing a Party:Using automation to identify new customers so teams can celebrate and welcome them, increasing the likelihood of repeat visits.
Cross-Pollination:Partnering with other local businesses to build community networks that benefit everyone involved.
The Easy Button:Leveraging systems that automate complex marketing tasks like fundraisers, digital gift cards, referral programs, and social media graphics.

Rudnick also explains how loyalty rewards software can simplify community fundraising, referrals, and cross-business promotion, making high-level marketing accessible even for busy shop owners. Rather than relying on discounts, he emphasizes building strong brands through personalized rewards, authentic leadership, and genuine community involvement.

Ultimately, this episode demonstrates how combining smart automation with human-centered leadership can dramatically reduce customer churn, strengthen local relationships, and drive long-term profitability for independent repair shops.

Jeff Rudnick, Pit Crew Loyalty

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast: - Follow on Facebook:...

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Carm Capriotto, AAP

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