Team Throttle
The Client
A leading Grease Monkey franchisee, and the largest franchisee within its brand network, operates more than 30 locations across multiple markets. Known for its consistent service standards across locations, the organization serves an established customer base in a highly competitive environment. The company maintains a customer database of 745,985 records across its locations
The Challenge
As a long-time Throttle client, the Grease Monkey operator had an active marketing program and a strong base of existing customers. But a portion of those customers could not be reached.
Contact information had not been consistently captured during earlier visits, leaving gaps in mailing addresses and limiting the effectiveness of follow-up campaigns. These customers were already in the system but could not be reached.
The challenge was to reconnect with this segment, drive return visits and improve the quality of customer data moving forward.
The Solution
Throttle, a customer engagement and marketing solution from Matrix Imaging Solutions, developed a direct mail strategy to re-engage customers in the Grease Monkey franchisee’s POS system who had incomplete or inaccurate mailing information.
The strategy was developed in collaboration with the Grease Monkey team during an in-person session and led to a partnership with a third-party vendor to clean and append mailing data. This enabled outreach to customers who had previously been excluded.
Using appended mailing data, Throttle launched a targeted direct mail campaign across 30 locations. Over an 11-week period, 19,479 postcards were sent to customers in the existing database from the last two years.
The campaign was designed to drive more than a one-time visit. When customers returned, the locations had another opportunity to capture accurate email addresses, phone numbers and mailing information. This allowed those customers to re-enter ongoing marketing efforts and remain reachable in the future.
Results
The campaign delivered measurable performance and demonstrated the impact of improved customer data.
Customer data quality had a direct impact on performance. Among the 941 redeemers included in the customer data analysis, 46.3% had a valid email address on file, compared to 22.2% across the full customer base. Customers with an email on file were more likely to redeem, reinforcing the value of complete customer records.
The campaign also improved future reach. Within the same analysis group, 650 redeemers provided a valid mailing address, making them eligible for future campaigns without additional effort. The remaining 291 could not be efficiently retargeted without additional data capture.
The strongest return window was 91 to 180 days, which produced the highest share of returning customers and the highest average ticket.
Incomplete customer data is not just a recordkeeping issue. It directly impacts revenue and reduces the ability to stay connected with customers after they leave the shop.
- 19,479 postcards mailed
- 1,164 coupon redemptions
- 5.98% response rate
- $164,661.76 in revenue
- $18,817 investment
- 8.75x return on ad spend
- $141.46 average ticket
Moving Forward
By correcting mailing data and targeting previously unreachable customers, Throttle turned an overlooked segment into a measurable source of revenue for the Grease Monkey franchisee.
Each return visit also created an opportunity to strengthen customer data. As more accurate information is captured, future campaigns become more effective, and a larger share of the customer base becomes reachable over time.
Following the initial campaign, Grease Monkey franchisee approved an additional round of mailers targeting the same audience, excluding customers who had already returned. The company is also expanding its outreach efforts through a separate fleet customer initiative.
Industry
Quick lube and automotive maintenance
Objective
Reconnect with lapsed customers and maintain consistent engagement
Solution
Targeted postcard campaigns, customer segmentation and performance tracking.