Ways Brands Win Customers: Why I Like Giving My Money to O'Reilly Auto Parts

CustomerManagementIQ.com is proud to welcome Eric Dodds as its newest contributor. Dodds, also the community chemist for BrainsOnFire, moves past generic "best practices" and overhyped theories as he looks at examples of the often-simple, yet always-compelling ways real brands can develop real customer loyalty.

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"Brand" is a weird word, isn’t it? It can conjure so many different thoughts. Sometimes we think about brands by what they say about themselves – who do they tell the world they are? Other times we evaluate brands based on a really good customer service experience or an excellent product.

Recently I’ve had a few experiences that have made me think about what sends brands to commodity-land. It’s a classic question: how do you differentiate yourself?

This week I have an example that looks a little more closely at employees as differentiators.

My dad is one of the more mechanically-inclined men that I know. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him come across an engine that he couldn’t get to run, whether it be a car, lawn-mower, motorcycle, or tractor. Needless to say, my brothers and I grew up with wrenches in our hands, and part of our responsibility was to change oil and keep fresh brakes on the cars that our families owned.

Over the years I’ve visited almost every auto-parts game in town a handful of times. AutoZone, Advanced Auto, NAPA, Pep Boys, etc.

I developed a pretty good feel for the landscape of brands, and the primary conclusion to which I came was that none of them were great, so whichever one was the closest would win my business. Simple convenience.

One day, a new show called "O’Reilly Auto Parts" came to town. Because the auto-parts stores in our town are deep in commodity-land, I flocked to the shiny new show just to make sure they were the same as everyone else. And they were. Unless there’s a special running, oil is about the same price as all of the other places. So are brake pads.

After going a few times, though, I noticed that I really liked the way that the manager treated me. He wasn’t especially personal – in fact, he seems like a pretty quiet guy. But he did two things that were just uncommon enough for me to notice. First, he treated me like a normal guy who was buying a part for his car. Weird to notice, right? Oftentimes, though, I get one extreme or the other. Either you’re treated like you’ve never opened the hood of your car (most common), or there’s some sort of assumption that you should know everything there is to know about your engine. Both are equally frustrating in that they make the process of getting what you need much more difficult, especially when a few simple questions can help you determine how best to help a customer.

Secondly, he remembered me. We weren’t buddy-buddy and he never gave me discounts, but he knew who I was and and made a visible effort to make sure I was getting what I needed. I didn’t feel like an anonymous dollar-sign walking through the doors.

So last week, when my car needed a new battery, I found myself driving to O’Reilly. On the way over I realized that I had chosen their store over the competition consistently. "Why do I keep coming back here?" I thought. The answer was pretty simple: I liked giving my money to the manager at that store more than I liked giving it to the other guys.

Could they do more to increase my loyalty? Absolutely. Would I stop going there as much if another store consistently wowed me? Most likely. It’s commodity-land.

The lesson remains, though: in an industry where my brand-loyalty was entirely based on personal convenience, differences (even small ones) in my relationship with an employee won my business over time.

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