How utilizing something seemingly simple can make a big impact on your future sales and customer loyalty!
October 2025 | PerfectGift Experts | 5 minute read
Cars are no more foreign to us than in today’s world than having mini computers in our pockets thanks to cellular technology. Though cars weren’t always what we know today, just like our phones, they have gone through an evolution, and with every evolution we have to go back to the beginning to see where it all started…
With most great inventions there are multiple “parents” of the concept or thing they’ve made. We’re first looking at maybe the most well known inventor, Carl Benz who made the “Patent Motorwagen Nummer 1” in 1886 which is widely regarded as the first automobile operated on gas. But if we go even further back to 1770, Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot's “Fardier à vapeur” was built which is a self-propelled mechanical land vehicle.
Nowadays we have cars that can drive themselves, as well as cars that run solely on electricity, but like any machine, routine maintenance is important for its health. That’s why we have a wide range of automobile repair shops or “garages” as they’re colloquially named. You, as a decision maker in the automotive industry, may be a part of a bigger franchise or own your shop, either way you know that you are the life blood that keeps cars running. With this routine maintenance you help so people can go to work, school, run errands, pick up friends and family, go on long road trips, and a myriad of other things.
But running a garage is hard, especially if you’re trying to stand out from the crowd. So we thought: how can we draw in new customers as well as keep their business? By encouraging routine maintenance and repairs with gift card incentives of course! In the past we’ve talked strategy before through Stretching Your Gift Card Budget: 25 Cards, Maximum Impact and we’ve seen how it can help SMB flourish so we thought we’d steer our way onto garages next.
In this article you’ll read about:
- How Gift Cards Can Make Great Incentives to Retain Customers
- Building Customer Loyalty
- Increase Signups to Your Mailing List
- Improve Customer Satisfaction
- Why PerfectGift.com is Ideal for Small and Big Businesses
- Conclusion: Encouraging Routine Maintenance and Repairs with Gift Card Incentives
How Gift Cards Can Make Great Incentives to Retain Customers
Make sure to include a caption!
There is obviously more than just one way when it comes to retaining customers, especially in today’s world with social media and the sheer force of advertisements in everyday life. But utilizing gift cards is proven to be an effective strategy to not only boost sales but build customer loyalty as well.
Gift cards, no matter their form physical or digital, offer the choice of flexible rewards that suit personal preferences. Think of the amount of times you in your own life have received a gift card as a part of a birthday or holiday present. In that moment you’re thinking to yourself:
“Oh sweet! This is like…free money! It’s not coming out of my bank account and it’s for x store which I love to shop at anyway.”
And that’s just if the gift card is for a specific store, if you choose an open-loop card like the Visa gift card which can be used at any registrar accepting Visa as a form of payment. You customers will be able to shop where they want with virtually no restriction as most businesses accept Visa which will entice more business because they know they are gonna get something they’d actually use.
We pride ourselves on our Visa gift card experience as you can add a photo to create a custom Visa gift card and get it to you fast. PerfectGift prints and ships our own Visa gift cards, so we can guarantee same day printing & shipping (if ordered by 4:00pm ET Monday through Saturday). Since we are all in-house, no one else can beat our turnaround time because a lot of other spaces use third-parties to get their stuff ready.
You will get real-time fulfillment, reporting, and budget controls. We have no order limits – no minimum & no maximum number of gifts or purchase value which makes us a great option for your garage.
To recap, with Co-Brand Visa Reward Cards:
- Used anywhere Visa is accepted
- $1 – $1000 denominations
- Personalize with a message
- In-house production facility
- Same-day production & fulfillment
- Funds never expire
- No minimum volume requirements
- No pre-production required
We know how annoying it is to not have reliable customer support, so don’t worry we have dedicated account manager(s) with 365-day support so if you need to get things moving quickly we can help you ASAP.
If you as a business owner are intrigued by the idea of using gift cards as incentives then you’ll be happy to know that there’s a ton of market research into what customers want, like WalletHub found the Best Gift Cards in 2025 which you can take into account and pick and choose what cards you think would make most sense for your auto shop.
Everyone, and we mean everyone, likes stuff and getting free stuff or good promotions with a product or service they are already going to be getting further incentivizes them to complete that purchase.
🚗Building Customer Loyalty
Managers know that real businesses thrive when we get repeat customers because nothing says success like steady and reliable income. Customers we know will be more likely to speak nicely about your garage to other potential clients which further expands sales and routine maintenance check-ups.
Loyalty programs are a great way to build rapport amongst familiar faces. The more they shop with you the more rewards they will unlock. You can choose the rewards that best fit your business. Things like a free oil change, discounted check-ups, points for future purchases, and gift cards would make signing up for a loyalty program enticing.
🚗Increase Signups to Your Mailing List
Similar to loyalty programs, mailing lists are great for those looking to spread the word of their business. Select people who sign up will get advertisements, updates, reminders for annual car checkups, and exclusive offers. Obviously we know that mailing lists can sometimes be annoying, especially for overeager companies looking to bombard customer’s emails or mailboxes with flyer after flyer. But what you can do to make your mailing list stand out is be upfront about the frequency of how often they should expect a flyer, not be overzealous, and offer a reward if slash when they sign up (like a $5 - $10 gift card).
🚗Improve Customer Satisfaction
When you do a good job at the service you’re providing, you are already improving customer satisfaction, but when you add something to that process, you are creating bonds that will lead to more sales. Firstly, customers who are incentivized to come in for tune ups regularly will have vehicles that work better thanks to those regular tune ups, and you as the professional can catch any potential issues earlier so they’ll feel like they’re cared for and get good service. By being more proactive both parties win.
Why PerfectGift.com is Ideal for Small and Big Businesses
No matter if you’re working for a big company that has multiple shops or are running a small-medium business that draws in local community members, we have ways to help you.
About us:
PerfectGift.com is all about finding, well, the perfect gift. Combining the efforts and knowledge of our sister sites, GiftYa, GiftCardGranny, and GiftCards.com, we've made PerfectGift the place for you to find the exact right gift for your friends, family members, clients, or peers. With hundreds of popular eGift card brands available, you can personalize and send someone their gift in just a few minutes. It's an easy process too, choose an amount up to $500, customize it by adding a picture and message, then decide whether you want to send it via text or email. We have our own fulfillment center which allows us to print and ship customized cards same day with next day delivery available.
For small businesses you’ll be able to pick between ordering 1 to 50 cards with a $10,000 limit; and for corporations you’ll be able to buy 50+, emphasis on the plus as we are the only on-demand fulfillment center in the country that can print & ship up to 50,000 cards with your logo - same- day, cards at a time.
Since we talked so much about the Visa gift card before we can give you a preview of what it would like if you were to order in-bulk:
Upload your company's logo so you can keep up advertising and let it be a reminder to the customer who this is from (and a reminder to bring their car through the shop). All of our gift cards can be bought as a physical or digital option, you can send them packaged individually or via the customer's email or phone.
If you are indeed a bigger business, corporations will have to create a business account with PerfectGift to get started on an order of substantial size.
Conclusion: Encouraging Routine Maintenance and Repairs with Gift Card Incentives
Routine Maintenance and repairs is imperative to making sure your car runs, and continues to run as smoothly as possible. It extends the vehicles lifespan so you get the most out of your money, it keeps you as safe as you can be, if you’re looking to resell your car you’ll be more likely to get a better deal with if you keep up with its needs, and it will prevent any embarrassing breakdowns off the side of the road which you know will cost even more in the long run.
We know these things as auto shop owners, but the general public is more likely to forget or put off check-ups because of the million of other things they have going on in their day-to-day so with mailing lists and reward programs employing gift cards as an inventive you’ll be more likely to build a stable customer base and increase sales in the long run.
