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Express oil change lanes

ATLAuto
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ATLAuto Rising Star

ATLAuto

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I was just speaking with my banker the other day, and he made the following statement, "Yeah, I don't go to you guys for oil changes, since I know that it will take too long. Rather, I save the big stuff for you and go to Jiffy Lube where I can get in and out in 10 minutes."

 

This got me thinking a bit ... a ton of customers do this. We see them in our shops all the time with competitor's stickers on their windows and invoices in their glove boxes. They use us for the tough stuff but give the easy (and profitable!) work to the chain stores. Why? Convenience. Look at what most of these oil change shops do ... you drive in, stay in your car, they do the work and bring a credit card terminal to your window, and you are out of there in 10 minutes. Look at what we do ... they park, come in, talk to the service adviser, take a seat, wait .... wait some more ... wait some more. Maybe, they will be out of there in 30 minutes, but that's pretty optimistic. Many will be waiting there 45 minutes to an hour.

 

This got me thinking ... could I setup a couple bays in the shop to do just this? Has anyone in here had any luck with setting up some express lanes on the side of their shop? ...or even dug a pit underneath a few bays to allow the customer to stay in their vehicle?

 

Any thoughts on getting this work back into our shop would be much appreciated.

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  • 2 weeks later...
nmikmik Enthusiast

nmikmik

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Don't know how it is in your town(s). We usually look at the oil changes as the money loosing "opportunity".

Just calculate how much real cost goes into the regular (not synthetic) oil change and I doubt it will look very profitable. That is with very high liability of the work done. I think the most money the quick lubes make are in the upsell of the other services like air, cabin, whatever filters etc. It turns into much longer than 10 minutes and $29.99 oil change for the customer, but perception is still "a quick lube" place :) I am sure we have members here that can set you up with some rough data.

If i had a choice, i'd prefer the customer to get the oil change elsewhere, but come back to me for everything, and I mean everything, else.

I suspect you can find a much better use of your "real estate" than quick lube.

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weighit Enthusiast

weighit

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Happened to be in a small town in Texas a couple of years ago and needed a oil change for the PT Cruiser I had. Pulled in and checked in and noticed their sign they did rotation and balancing too. Said sign me up, I was really impressed with the speed and while the oil was done on one rack and the tire work on another, it was very fast. In talking with the owner I asked how the added service was working? He said to me it has been a real money maker and turned his 'dead' flat stall into real money. He said he cross trained the employees and gave them some spiff money for any tire work sold. One stop shop for me and I was happy.

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    • Joe Marconi
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      It always amazes me when I hear about a technician who quits one repair shop to go work at another shop for less money. I know you have heard of this too, and you’ve probably asked yourself, “Can this be true? And Why?” The answer rests within the culture of the company. More specifically, the boss, manager, or a toxic work environment literally pushed the technician out the door.
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