Pep Boys Leverages Yext to Improve Search Visibility and Engage Local Consumers

Since Manny, Moe, and Jack founded the company in 1921, Pep Boys has aimed to be the best place to shop and care for your car. What began as one auto shop has grown into a multi-billion dollar nationwide retail and service chain with over 800 stores in the United States and Puerto Rico. The company provides service for more than six million cars and car owners each year, and more than 26 million Rewards members have signed up to earn points — on car repairs, routine maintenance, and Pep Boys purchases — that they can then spend on other parts, tools, or services.

In light of this, Pep Boys wanted to engage local consumers and ensure that its brand is always top of mind — and at the top of search results — when customers search for auto care.

Pep Boys selected Yext to manage, verify, and update its brand information across approximately 175 digital services globally, including Apple, Bing, Facebook, Foursquare, Yelp, and Yahoo.

"With the Yext Search Experience Cloud, we can make updates in real time across one or all of our business listings on every site in the Publisher Network," explains Rachel Silva, AVP Marketing. "Yext helps Pep Boys ensure our brand information is always accurate, consistent, and filled with rich content to improve the brand experience and bring more customers into our stores."

With Yext, Pep Boys has tracked thousands of social media posts and has received more than 60k Facebook 'Were Here' Check-ins. The brand has also substantially increased local consumer engagement by improving its visibility in search wherever customers search for auto care.

"By leveraging Yext to improve our social media presence in general, we are able to attract the attention of new users who have not interacted with our brand before and thereby grow our customer audience," says Silva.

Since launching Yext, Pep Boys has meaningfully increased its search visibility — leading directly to an increase in customer engagement.

Pep Boys also recognized how many customers engage with its brand beyond listings, and the brand has also leveraged Yext to track posts on social media as a way to reach more customers, as well as to amplify brand loyalty with existing ones.

According to Emily Smith, Online Marketing Manager, "We also leverage Yext's real-time tracking and response capabilities to respond immediately to customers who have urgent questions and concerns, or who were less than satisfied with their brand experience. Car maintenance purchases are often considered grudge purchases, so our connecting with customers in a timely manner means that we can improve their experience and convert many into satisfied customers."