Two years after its initial test in Baltimore, Monro Inc. has extended its ability to install tires for Amazon.com shoppers at all of its stores in the U.S.
As of the end of June 2020, that provides Amazon customers with installation options at 1,247 stores owned by Monro in 32 states. (As yet another sign of Monro’s fast growth, when the company initially announced its partnership with Amazon in July 2018 it had 1,174 stores in 27 states.) Among the new states Monro entered in that time: California.
Monro CEO and President Brett Ponton said, “The rollout of our collaboration with Amazon.com across our entire store base represents a key milestone in the development of our online presence, a critical component of our Monro.Forward strategy. Our collaboration enhances Monro’s customer-centric services and omni-channel capabilities, while providing Amazon.com’s customers with direct access to one of the nation’s largest automotive service companies. We are excited to work alongside Amazon.com to provide increased convenience and high-quality professional service to their customers in 32 states.”
The Amazon initiative is part of Monro’s company-wide effort to improve its omnichannel business.
As part of Monro’s latest quarterly financial update, Ponton told investors, “We continue to see positive feedback and strong customer satisfaction metrics in response to this initiative which builds upon the success of our other online tire retailer agreements and is an important step in furthering our customer-centric engagement efforts.”
Ponton says the company’s customer satisfaction ratings have reached an all-time high of 4.6 stars. And since the onslaught of COVID-19, the company has “focused on optimizing our SEO performance for key product categories like tires.”
The result, Ponton says, is that about half of the company’s stores now rank among the top three results in online searches. And that “has led to significant improvement in online consumer actions whether that’s scheduling an appointment at the store, making a phone call to the store or clicking to get directions to a Monro location.
“Importantly our targeted investments in digital marketing and advertising combined with our digital phone system allow us to acquire and retain customers at a lower cost while driving stronger results,” Ponton said.
