Customer story
Reviews to revenue: How Fix Auto UK used Trustpilot to win new business
Problem
Few drivers escape the inevitable trip to a body shop. A rock-solid reputation is paramount for Fix Auto UK, a division of the global auto-repair service dedicated to easing this stressful experience. To solidify its position as a customer-centric leader, the UK operation needed to amplify its message of care and trust.
Solution
Fix Auto UK’s goal was to disrupt the market positively by demonstrating its customer service strength through reviews. The Fix Auto UK senior management team turned to Trustpilot to develop a review strategy to respond, monitor, and review performance efficiently across their network of 120+ vehicle repair centres.
Result
Fix Auto UK used Trustpilot to foster customer excellence across all levels. The marketing team leveraged reviews for competitor benchmarking, elevating the brand's visibility through a targeted PR campaign across both B2B and B2C channels, and generating compelling social media testimonials
About Fix Auto
Fix Auto is a global network of independently owned auto body repair shops and understands the power of customer reviews in building trust and improving business development. The business is growing, with over 900 body shops in 10 countries.
Fix Auto UK is a thriving network in the United Kingdom encompassing over 100 independently owned, fully branded, and franchised vehicle repair centers. Established in 2005, the enterprise has grown to become the leading franchised auto solution in the UK and has recently extended its footprint into Northern Ireland. Fix Auto UK’s body shops work with insurance companies, providing repairs for customer vehicles involved in accidents.
“Trustpilot has been the reason we’ve secured new business, as it offers a non-negotiable snapshot of the nationwide, high-quality services we and our independently-owned repair centres are able to offer.”
Grace Weddell
Head of Brand and Communications at Fix Auto UK.
17%
Increase in click-through rate from Trustpilot automated emails.
4.7
'Excellent' TrustScore.
14,616
Trustpilot reviews.
Building customer engagement with Trustpilot features
Trustpilot has found a useful place at the end of Fix Auto UK’s customer journey, acting as a toolkit for building better customer engagement. Whether it’s automated or organic, once a vehicle is repaired, Fix Auto UK engages with its audience by inviting customers to review their experience through email by providing their unique Trustpilot profile URL. Fix Auto UK has optimised this process by utilising other Trustpilot tools.
“We have API integrations, which have opened the door to more reviews from our customers and allowed our TrustScore to flourish. Our API is used on a certain segment of our customer base, and we have a simple email template designed with efficiency in mind as we find customers don’t want to have to scroll,” says Grace Weddell, Head of Brand and Communications at Fix Auto UK.
In addition, Fix Auto UK leverages Trustpilot widgets like the carousel widget on business site-specific websites. The company also uses Location Reviews so that customers can see the positive reviews generated from their specific location when they are in the research phase of their journey.
“We use location-specific reviews on our site websites and social media. Each site has cultivated a local following, and sharing the reviews helps to illustrate our services to a relevant customer base,” notes Grace.
Sometimes traffic is a good thing
Motorpoint's extensive eCRM (Electronic Customer Relationship Management) program wielded a powerful email marketing campaign featuring Trustpilot in every send, helping them greatly improve their online traffic.
The Motorpoint team ramped up their targeting to prevent repetition and showcase the variety of reviews received. In email sends, reviews were hand-selected based on the email subject and store location.
“We also used the filters within Trustpilot to ensure anyone clicking through to read more reviews viewed content most relevant to them,” says Alex.
Overall, the team found that including longer, more informative reviews worked best in day-to-day email marketing and resulted in an 11% increase in CTR.
“From an eCRM perspective, we can use the invitation data to understand at what point in the post-sale journey our customers are most likely to leave us a review and quantify the value of including additional CTAs in the wider journey. For example, using Trustpilot analytics, we found that sending out reminders helped us increase the number of reviews we could collect by almost a third,” says Alex.
Meanwhile, Motorpoint developed a testimonial page with embedded TrustBox widgets for customers searching for reviews at the research stage. “We find that integrating the widget works well when building out landing pages in Salesforce – to support new store openings,” said Alex.
This action also enabled the team to capture significant traffic that would otherwise have gone directly to review platforms – keeping car buyers on the Motorpoint website.
Reviews, a driving force in marketing
“Above all, we share our ‘Excellent’ rating, which will always be our success indicator. While we know the TrustScore (4.6) can shift for us, we like using the recognised positive vocabulary that the platform promotes,” says Grace.
Fix Auto UK leverages Trustpilot reviews on social media for strategic impact. On Facebook and Instagram, they emphasise detailed customer service testimonials to validate their brand for newcomers. Its Trustpilot success is a central theme consistently echoed in all press materials and its bi-monthly newsletter. From achieving significant milestones to showcasing its impressive TrustScore, every aspect is meticulously chronicled to reinforce the message that each repair centre consistently delivers "Excellent" customer service.
LinkedIn showcases praise from insurer partners, highlighting success and reliability to attract business clients. Email signatures consistently display individual shop TrustScores, reinforcing trust with all stakeholders. This tailored review-sharing approach builds trust and stands out in the competitive car repair market.
“Sites also have their TrustScore and a link through to their profile within their email signature widget, so that the message is consistent when they’re emailing customers or suppliers,” mentions Grace.
Looking ahead
Overall, the relationship between Trustpilot and Fix Auto UK has yielded tremendous success, says Grace “With the customer journey becoming more complex, we’re encouraged to see that reviews still sit at the heart of that decision-making process. Taking a distressed customer and providing a life-changing service is something that we pride ourselves on, and our Trustpilot is kudos to that.”
