Give her credit, because Beth Barron can admit when she is wrong.
She didn’t believe customer financing could be a sales driver for Chabill’s Tire & Auto Service.
The company had offered other automotive-branded credit cards in the past, but none had moved the sales needle. They all had their own names and branding, and she didn’t want to promote another company at the sales counter.
“I never really bought into financing because I didn’t want to have a Goodyear card or a Firestone card. If we’re gonna have a credit card I want it to be a Chabill’s Tire card. The financing companies, in order to get your own card, the volume always seemed so huge to me,” she says. And she was uncertain if her customers would respond favorably in order for the stores to hit those high-dollar goals.
In 2019, another credit card opportunity presented itself when Chabill’s Tire began ordering direct from Bridgestone Americas Inc. The tiremaker made an emphatic pitch for the card and bank it owns — Credit First National Association (CFNA).
She was hesitant, but at the same time impressed by the program, which offered a low interest rate and low transaction rate. Bridgestone ultimately agreed to front all the upfront expense of creating the Chabill’s Tire-branded card and the marketing to support it. The catch: customers had to put $1 million in sales on the card in 15 months.
She had zero confidence the business would hit that goal. And if it didn’t, she’d have to repay Bridgestone for those upfront costs.
It was her husband who convinced her it would work.
“I had heard all the stories about financing and the higher ticket average and more repeat business. I just didn’t believe it,” Barron says. “But when we do something as a company, we do it. We built a program around it where it was very advantageous for customers to get the Chabill’s card. We made it part of the sales people and the managers’ commission programs. And I think we did $1 million (in sales) in six months.
As of August 2024, about 36% of the company’s total retail sales flows through the Chabill’s Tire credit card every year.
It has increased average ticket sales and “taken our business to a completely different level,” Barron says. “It gives our customers a way to pay that we never were offering, (with) six months interest-free. Plus, it’s a lucrative program for us on the backside. It’s been an absolute difference maker for us.”
The card now serves as a customer loyalty card. First-time users can receive either $50 off a set of tires, or 10% off service work.
The service discount is available in perpetuity, as is a $10 coupon on every oil change. There are additional seasonal rebates that apply, too.
The calculation on the cumulative price of those discounts is “staggering,” but Barron says it pays off with repeat customer traffic.
“Every incentive we do in our company is around that card, and our gross profit percentage has grown and our overall sales has grown,” Barron says.
In the company’s Morgan City store, Manager Heather Guarisco and her team ring up 52% of total retail sales on the Chabill’s Tire card. “And she’s the number one store in this company when it comes to profit percentage.”
