Zoned for Service: Customer Care Drives Autozone’s Marketing Rally

Autozone Inc. is using a new customer-centric parts look-up system to drive in-store sales, which it plans to soon extend to its Web site.

The $6 billion company, which sells auto parts and accessories, has two customer segments, “do-it-yourself-ers” and professional technicians. A continual hurdle is that you must have the exact item the customer needs.

“Substitutions don’t work in the auto world,” says Ken Brame, CIO. “You either have the part or you don’t.”

The auto part segment is fairly small, and the players haven’t gotten into price wars, so that isn’t a differentiation point between stores. Likewise, location isn’t a huge factor, because Autozone’s competitors have moved into the areas they already have a presence in.

“Customer service is the last remaining area where we can differentiate ourselves,” says Brame, who spoke at the recent ERI eXchange event in Boston.

Autozone has over 50,000 employees, but there is huge turnover. And there’s also a limited number of people have the necessary knowledge of the products. The challenge was to turn every employee new or old into a “parts pro.”

This led the chain to create “Z-Net,” an in-store automated system where employees can enter the year, model and make of a customer’s car, and come up with the correct parts needed. Images of parts are also shown, and a text description capability was also created, as not everyone is well versed in automotive technology.

The ability to look up needed parts in other stores, salvage facilities and “hub” stores, which stock double or triple the amount of parts normal Autozone locations keep on hand.

“Our goal is to never say no to a customer,” says Brame.

The system was rolled out to all 3,800 stores over a six week period in November and December, and has been promoted in radio and television spots.

Autozone is in the process of redesigning its Web site, to get it up to speed with the store. Brame notes that because customers now do a lot of research online before they do in store, the goal is to have all the information available on autozone.com that salespeople can access in-store.

At present, customers can reserve a part on the Web, but they can’t pay for the item online, a situation Brame says the store hopes to soon change.