Add-on Services at the Quick Lube
By Chris Tolsdorf

It is quite possible that you could live your entire life without shopping anywhere else but Wal-mart. Walk into one of these giant superstores today and you can buy groceries, clothes, electronics, get your prescriptions filled, buy some camping equipment for your vacation, and get the oil changed in your car. You can even visit an eye doctor and grab some lunch. Wal-mart would, in fact, really like it if you never went anywhere else, and so they are always looking for new products and services to add. Why would they want to run the risk of you shopping somewhere else if they can conceivably fill your every need?

Many quick lube operators feel the same way. Why should you risk your customer going down the street for a tire rotation or a safety inspection if you could offer that service yourself? What if they never come back? Beyond the potential loss of a customer, adding additional services also offers the chance at increased revenues and profits. Additional profits can come from each customer buying more of your services, but it can also come from more customers coming through your bay doors because of the products and services you offer.

There are many important factors that you must take into consideration when adding a service. There will be the cost of additional equipment, additional liability, and additional training. But you also should consider whether or not the service fits the quick lube business model. This model has been built around speed and convenience. That is what makes us unique and is the difference between us and all the other service providers out there. If you lose this in your quest to become the Wal-mart of car maintenance then you lose a huge part of why people come to your store. Speed and convenience will always be in demand and the more you can claim that niche in the market, the better off you will be.

So what should you add to your menu of services that will fit into the unique model of the quick lube, make you more money, and keep your customers coming back to you?

A/C RECHARGE

Less than half of quick lubes across the country currently offer this service, but in many respects it fits very nicely into the quick lube stable of services. The service itself uses an almost fully automated machine that hooks up to the vehicle very easily. Generally the service takes under 30 minutes and it is possible for the technician to perform other services on other vehicles at the same time so you aren’t tying up a technician the entire 30 minutes. The cost of goods is very low — the only cost is the refrigerant. Looking to the future, even electric cars will have A/C systems.

There is one aspect of the service that ventures outside of the normal preventative maintenance that quick lubes traditionally offer. A/C recharging is not really preventative maintenance. It is not a ser-vice that you can recommend by mileage. Customers will ask for the service to be performed because their A/C system is not working. They are hot and they want you to fix it. Fixing things is generally not something quick lubes do, and a customer will expect that when you are done working on their A/C system they will be able to experience the difference. This is something that they don’t experience with new oil or a new air filter. It is a subtle but important distinction.

Just because an A/C is low on refrigerant does not mean there is a leak that needs to be repaired. No system is tight enough to keep everything in, and over time refrigerant leaks out. After a few years, the system will not cool as effectively and may eventually just shut down. This is good timing for the quick lube industry as most of the vehicles we service tend to be a few years down the road.

Certification
Before performing any service you will need to make sure that any technician working on the A/C system is Section 609 Certified. This certification is required by the federal government and ensures that any technician working on A/C systems is trained to properly handle refrigerant. There are significant penalties if you operate without this certification. A great place to start is the Mobile Air Conditioning Society Worldwide at www.macsw.org. For a small fee you can get all your technicians certified. They also offer an abundance of training materials that can give you a basic knowledge of A/C systems, which is a must when training your technicians and educating your customers.

The machines that perform the service are almost fully automated but they are expensive. A/C re-charge service does command a high price, however. When properly promoted an average quick lube will pay for the machine in about six to eight months. Of course, depending on where you are located, that can be one or two seasons. Either way, the payback time is very good.

Waiver
Once you have the machine and have certified and trained your technicians you are ready to start doing services. It is highly recommended that you have every customer sign a waiver before beginning a service. The standard practice is to have two prices for A/C service. One is charged just for hooking up the machine, and in the event that the system cannot or should not be recharged, this is all the customer pays. If the system can be recharged the customer pays the full price.

A waiver lets the customer know that there are parts of the A/C system that you cannot inspect or test. As long as the system was previously functioning normally, a recharge should restore the system to working order. The waiver protects you, however, in the event that you cannot get the customer’s A/C system working again with a recharge. At that point you have performed a service for the customer by diagnosing that they have a more significant problem than being low on refrigerant.

Other than disappointing a customer, as long as you have all your technicians 609 Certified, there is no other liability associated with the A/C recharge service. It is fairly easy to perform, does not take a long time or take up a lot of time for your technicians and is highly profitable.

RE-REFINED OIL CHANGE

At first glance a re-refined oil change may not seem like a service. Can you really put it in the same category as headlight restoration or cabin airfilters? After all, it is simply another oil, just like a high-mileage oil or a full synthetic. It also doesn’t seem to fit in with the idea that you need to offer services that your customers might go somewhere else to have done and run the risk of them never returning. No one else is likely to even offer it and your customers probably aren’t aware the oil even exists.

Distinction
It is exactly because of this that you should consider adding it as a service choice for your customers. It won’t keep your customers from going somewhere else (there is probably nowhere else to go to get the service) but it will help set you apart from your competitors and could bring you new customers.

Although re-refined oil may have negative associations for some people, it is a high-quality product. It meets all the same API and ILSAC specifications as virgin motor oil, which means that it will meet the warranty requirements of any car. The United States Postal Service, the US Military, and many state and local municipalities have been using re-refined motor oil in their vehicles for years. Today’s re-refining processes produce a base stock that is on par with virgin base stock, and less energy is required to make it. It is the right thing to do for the environment, but it has to be the right thing for your business, too. Offering this service will probably not provide a quick lube operator with a lot of extra profit. Customers will not pay a huge premium for re-refined oil. That is not where the benefit of this service lies.

Beyond the positive environmental impact, where the true benefit of this service shines through is the way that it sets you apart from everyone else in your market. Offering a “green” oil change is a story that your local press will love. You can create a press release to talk about what your store is doing for the environment. Just by offering the service you can create a buzz in the local community that will have the name of your store in more potential customers minds.

Get the Word out
The next step is to turn that buzz into more customers. Hybrid vehicles may still make up a small percentage of the cars on the road, but generally people who drive them are always looking for greener alternatives in everything they do. My guess is that many hybrid owners also mistakenly think they need to return to their dealer for service. After all, they drive a complex, state-of-the-art vehicle, who else but the dealer can service it? You can, and you can do it with a green oil change. Perhaps you even give them a free bumper sticker that says “This car runs on recycled oil” with your logo on it. They can put it right next to their “Eat Local” sticker and show off their eco-friendly pride.

You can also attract new customers who might not be driving a Prius, but still want to do what they can to preserve our natural resources. You can offer them a low-cost way to be a part of the solution without making any sacrifices.

The benefit also extends to your current customers. Although you may make only a marginally increased profit on the oil changes you convert to re-refined, you will be assuring their return to your facility by being a market leader with the only store in town offering this type of oil change.

TO COME...

The future will only see more opportunities for additional services to add to your quick oil-change menu. Diesels offer the chance to refill diesel exhaust fluid that helps control the nitrogen oxide emissions. Perhaps we will convert a bay to a quick charging station for plug in electric vehicles. Maybe we will be hot swapping vehicle batteries. Whatever the future holds, a continued focus on providing the fastest and most convenient automotive services will keep our bays filled.

Chris Tolsdorf is the owner of four Tolsdorf Oil Lube Express locations in Chester County, PA, and currently serves as the president of the Automotive Oil Change Association. You can visit his operation at www.oillubeexpress.com.