Automotive News - September 23, 2019 - Best Practices Supplement - A27

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 | 27
WESTON DEALERSHIPS, GRESHAM, ORE.

Group's customers are in for a surprise
Oregon stores' gas card
giveaways increase
referrals, repeat business
Published in Automotive News April 22, 2019

Danielle Szatkowski
autonews@crain.com

very Friday, Jacob and Josh Weston
are on a mission: hunt down a vehicle
with a Weston Dealerships license
plate frame or pick someone at random from the Weston customer database.
Once they find a match, the Weston brothers are ready to deliver their Free Gas Friday
prize. Camera in hand, the Westons or other
employees of the Gresham, Ore., dealership
group surprise the lucky winner in person
with $50 in gas station gift cards and a Weston
Dealerships baseball cap.
For Jacob and Josh Weston, each a general
manager at the dealership group's Weston Kia
and Weston Buick-GMC stores, the program is
a way to connect with the company's customer base and the community.
"We've always been very fortunate to have a
very high repeat referral ratio here, and it's
just another way to keep close to our customers," Josh Weston told Automotive News.

Program's origin
The brothers credit friends at an Arkansas
dealership for originating the Free Gas Friday
program.
"This wasn't Weston Dealerships' original
idea," Josh Weston said. "We have some
friends that work at Harry Robinson BuickGMC, in Fort Smith, Ark., that came up with
this idea."
The Westons borrowed the idea "with their
permission," he said.
Weston Dealerships, which sold 3,300 new,
used and wholesale vehicles last year, began
playing around with the idea in the fall of
2014. Now there are more than 100 Free Gas
Friday videos, complete with a catchy music
introduction, uploaded to the group's Weston
Kia YouTube channel.
Free Gas Friday has boosted word-of-mouth
marketing, driven customer traffic to Weston's
dealership websites and increased the number of first-time customers who visit the
stores, Weston Dealerships President Jay
Weston said. He is the uncle of Jacob and Josh
Weston.
"The program allows Weston Dealerships to

From left, Jacob Weston and Josh Weston of Weston Dealerships in Gresham, Ore., surprise
winners of Free Gas Friday with $50 in gas station gift cards and a Weston Dealerships cap.
Weston Dealerships, in Gresham,
Ore., surprises customers each Friday
with free gas cards as a way to thank
them for their business and drive
word-of-mouth marketing.

make a lasting connection with its customers
by confronting them on their home turf, as
opposed to in the dealership," Jay Weston
said. "It gives us the chance to personally
thank them for their business. For people that
don't know us, it's a possible way for them to
learn something about us."
The benefits come at a modest expense. Josh
Weston estimated the retailer has spent about
$9,000 on the program in four and a half years.
That has enabled the winners to buy around
3,000 gallons of gasoline.
And the Free Gas Friday program has
helped push Weston Dealerships' already
stellar referral numbers even higher.

Picking a winner
Winners are chosen a few ways. The brothers will either target a customer they know has
given back to the community, choose a customer at random from their database or drive
through parking lots at local businesses and

reward a person driving a car with the Weston
Dealerships license plate frame.
"We prefer to catch them off guard, but a lot
of times we'll have to let someone at their
workplace know that we're going to stop by
and reward them," Josh Weston said. "If it's a
local business, for example, a grocery store,
we make sure to let their management team
know that we're going to film the surprise real
quick so that they're on board with it."
The art of the surprise visit is what makes the
program so beneficial for the dealership
group, the Westons said.
"It's obviously kind of fun to do, and when
you confront someone off the dealership
premises, it allows them to see a different side
of us," Jay Weston said.
They make sure to record every spontaneous visit, and a video is then posted to the
dealership group's website and Facebook
pages so customers can share the fun online.
The Weston stores get many repeat customers who report that they enjoy watching the
videos. Those customers often jokingly comment, "When is it my turn?" or "How do I
win?"
"It's a lot of great engagement with our current customer base," Josh Weston said. "But
we also get new people who respond to the
videos as well." a

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