CASE STUDY

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HOW I DID IT

T I M E I S M O N E Y.

The idiom is as fundamental in the quick lube world as the oil itself. Optimize bay time and you can increase car counts. Increase car counts and, well, you’ll be doing just fine in this business. But the constraints of space and time have their limits. Oil must be drained. Services must be checked and double checked for quality. On a good day, cars must wait in line.

At a certain point, time dictates another part of the business: capacity. Sure, operators would love to have exponentially larger car counts. But customers don’t see it that way, particularly if there’s always a line to slog through. “What’s your point where the customer says, ‘I just can’t wait longer than 30 minutes?’” says Michael Meuret, co-owner of the Einstein’s Oilery network in Idaho.

Operators have variables with which to play. Adding labor can help with speed or overcrowd a bay. Adding a shop is an expensive proposition. How can those forces be balanced?

Meuret and his team have considered these questions and have a case study in capacity management.

The Challenge Think of the most steady times of the week at your shop. It’s probably between Thursday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. or sometime nearby. How long is the average customer waiting?

One challenge is always to get a quicker experience for the customer without sacrificing quality. But that’s just scratching the surface. More specific to your operation, the real challenge here is how you can manipulate your variables to gain speed.

“In those times, if you can’t move those cars or keep them under a half hour wait, you’re probably going to get to a point where you’ve got to do something differently,” Meuret says.

You can shift staff or add staff. Add a bay or add another location. Improve your process to reduce service time. Each shop has its own variables, and Meuret says there are a few things to consider.

The Solutions Labor Up Meuret says that some operators might look at him sideways when he schedules at least a dozen people for a busy

two-bay shop. That’s two pit techs for each car, two hood techs for each bay, two running customer contact in the line and two more doing courtesy services in that queue.

“On a busy day, we bring enough personnel and do enough things in advance as far as queuing the car that once you’re on bay, it’s five minutes,” Meuret says. “The customer doesn’t feel that they got any less because they were receiving all the attention in between while they’re waiting.”

EINSTEIN’S OILERY

OWNER: MICHAEL MEURET AND STEPHEN TAYLOR

LOCATION: BOISE, IDAHO AREA

STAFF SIZE: 105

SHOP SIZE: 2 BAYS EACH AT 12 LOCATIONS

AVERAGE DAILY CAR COUNT: 40-50

TICKET AVERAGE: $80

Counting Cars If customers are waiting longer than a half hour, Michael Meuret knows something needs to change at the shop level.

To accomplish this, Meuret pays close attention to his process to make sure there aren’t bottlenecks with that many people. Management must keep a sharp eye on that efficiency.

But while his labor cost might be a bit higher, there’s nothing like a smooth operation to keep customers happy.

“I’d rather pay a little bit more in my labor costs in order to create a higher top line and, ultimately, a better bottom line,” he says. “While you might be losing some margin on your labor cost, you obviously just increase volume in gaining margin in your other fixed costs.”

Consider Options for a New Locale Expansion is a good thing, as long as the operation is ready. Meuret’s 30-minute rule is a factor that led him to consider adding a location, though it shouldn’t draw car counts too much away from the first shop.

If you’ve manipulated the variables in one shop and customers are still waiting too long, then it might be time to consider another location. Of course, competition sometimes dictates this as well.

“I’ve opened some locations that are taking 30 percent from existing locations,” he says. “Our intent in that expansion wasn’t necessary to remove cars from shops that were too busy, but there were markets that were growing, and if we didn’t move into those markets, our competition likely would.”

Einstein’s has expanded to 12 locations in the same number of years, and some are in close market quarters with each

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Higher Quality By focusing on quality oil sales, Einstein’s Oilery shops sell more higher-tier oil changes. Additional services make up a small amount of total sales. other. But the growth has been sustainable for the brand.

Which KPI to Chase? There’s a philosophical debate over which key performance indicator shops should chase: car counts or ticket averages. It’s baked into the time-as-capacity idea, because the theory is that higher car counts typically mean quicker service times. Higher ticket averages often mean longer service times (and lower car counts). The debate intensified as car counts have suffered across the board for most of the industry. Which maximizes profit?

For Meuret, the core of the business is the quick, simplified service.

“I think a lot of people are trying to offset longer oil change intervals and drops in car counts for a variety of reasons,” he says. “They’re trying to

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supplement with ticket averages and supplemental services, but I think you’re ultimately reducing car count even more.”

It’s always going to be a balance, because techs can still recommend additional products that will help customers. But if the customer is the focus, Meuret says that the short service time should be as well.

The Aftermath Einstein’s Oilery shops offer additional transmission, radiator and other services, but Meuret says they account for less than 15 percent of sales.

There’s still room for a quality ticket average. That’s come in large part from the types of cars that are more often coming into the shop. Newer vehicles are more often coming along with more specific manufacturer recommendations. “We’re at a point now where so many cars are requiring full synthetic oil and customers opting for high mileage oil,” he says.

Those synthetic oils have grown to be 75 percent of oil sales, and it has helped keep his operation’s tickets strong, even though car counts are the priority.

“I understand it’s hard. You’ve got to incentivize employees to offer your products and services,” he says. “But that’s not your purpose. That should just be a byproduct, in my opinion.”

Customer time underpins Einstein’s commitment to car counts as well as its capacity and expansion strategy, and it has worked as the company looks to expand its geographic reach.

The Takeaway If the system can handle it at the same level of quality, there isn’t necessarily a car count limit to a shop’s capacity.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever reached a capacity at any shop in over 23 years,” Meuret says. “And I’ve had shops that get up to 60, 70 per day.”

While there isn’t a limit to a shop’s appetite for cars, the limit lies in the customer’s appetite for wait times. An expectation forms, and retention is earned when a customer expects to get in and out in a reasonable amount of time. One of the big secrets here is that Einstein shops really focus on maximizing the time before the car reaches the bay, and employees are doing that role all day. Then the actual bay time is minimized. “I don’t think there can be enough said for getting things queued,” Meuret says. However you measure success in your shop, the conversation of capacity should start with a measurement of customer time.

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FREE-TO-USE TECH TOOLS

Utilize these free tech tools to help boost your marketing tactics

BY ABBY PATTERSON

IT’S A DIGITAL WORLD NOW—WE’RE JUST LIVING IN IT. AND AT THIS POINT, IT’S where you have to be, according to Olivia Hensley, founder of Smart Marketing. “There’s all sorts of things we could do to market, but the reality is, that’s where they are,” Hensley says. “When you have limited resources, you are going to cast your net where you get the most amount of fish.”

It’s not just about your business being on different digital platforms—it’s how you use these platforms that will make or break your business growth. John Joback, owner of 10 Minit Oil Change in Fort Myers, Fla. does all of his own marketing, and in his own unique ways.

Since taking over the failing 10 Minit Oil Change from the previous owner only 1.5 years ago and utilizing these tools, he’s almost tripled business revenue. On top of this, his sales went up 119 percent.

“With the amount of traffic and attention [the videos] are getting, no one else is doing that in the automotive and oil change industry,” Joback says.

If you aren’t ready to hire someone to do the work, there are free tools out there for business owners to utilize that’ll get the job done. Yes, there are email marketing, newsletters and blogs, but have you thought about trying these options?

Social Media Connecting with Your Customers Building a relationship with your customers is an important part of marketing, and social media serves this purpose. Hensley says posting content, an ad or not, helps your shop stay on the top of a customer’s mind. In essence, posting on your Facebook page, for example, is like free advertisement. For example, when a customer sees a post or two from your Facebook page, they may not need a service at that moment, but when they do, your shop will be the first one that comes to mind.

So, when it comes to social media, it’s important to post regularly with eye-catching content.

“It’s invaluable advertising,” Hensley says.

Through Facebook and other social media platforms, Joback engages with employees to keep his business at the top of their mind.

“Facebook and social media are cheap when it comes to what you get in value,” Joback says. “Engagement is the No. 1 thing to turn social media into cash.” Because most everyone posts their information and what they’re up to on social media, Joback can engage with his customers in more personal ways, like sending messages to customers on their birthday, or reaching out when he sees a customer is having a bad day. By engaging with them, Joback says you are helping your chances of getting them into your shop.

Google Becoming the Authority If you want to gain lots of traffic to your site, Google is your go-to app. To prove her point, she says about 93 percent of people utilizing search engines in the world are using Google as their platform. And that’s the point; Google is meant to gain traffic and send the right customers to the right locations.

Google and Google Maps go handin-hand. Hensley says when you need something, you say, “OK, Google, show me oil changes near me.” The shops that pop up are paid advertisements, but a lot of times, Google map listings pop up. And usually, a customer is going to choose the first shop that pops up with the most information. Hensley says it’s essential to fill out your Google listing. If it isn’t filled out, there isn’t a complete picture of what they are getting. “There’s nothing very emotional about getting an oil change, but if I had to choose a listing that had nothing on it versus 90 reviews, had pictures, and says it has WiFi, I’m going there,” Hensley says.

Need help figuring out what a relevant ad looks like? Google can also show you how. Hensley says Google has a lot of resources available on the backend of their platform that people may or may not be aware of that can help with pay-per-click functions and ads that you are running.

For instance, Google has a free, online analytics academy where you can learn how to utilize analytics, including pay-per-click and tagging tools. The Google Analytics Academy teaches you how the platform works, utilize report, even how to track and measure your campaign ads.

Video Standing Out from the Crowd With everyone doing direct mail and coupons, it can be hard to differentiate your shop from all the others. Making video advertisements is not only engaging with your customer, it’s a unique approach. The best part? It’s completely free of charge.

In fact, videos are one of Joback’s biggest sellers. After watching realtors make videos on Facebook about houses on the market, he thought, “Why can’t I do the same?”

Soon, he started making his own videos of himself out in front of his shop. Using his phone, he’s front and center in the shot, displaying the shop’s logo in the background, talking about the shop’s promotions. His most popular promotion? A video to win a free $20 bill. The winner is the first person to come to the business and grab it. Without the money having any connection to the oil change shop, most people have taken it to spend on an oil change.

“One person took the $20 to get an oil change and it turned into a $200 ticket,” Joback says.

His videos have each gained between 1,000 and 5,300 views. That video in particular is one introducing all of the shop’s staff in a completely unique way. With a couple YouTube tutorials on how to use iMovie under his belt, he created a dramatic, suspenseful promo that, to be honest, felt more like a movie preview than a quick lube ad.

“Everyone does direct mail coupons, and they don’t always work like they used to, so you have to provide value in other ways,” Joback says.

10 MINIT OIL CHANGE, LLC

OWNER: JOHN JOBACK

LOCATION: FORT MYERS, FLA.

STAFF SIZE: 6

SHOP SIZE: 1,600 SQUARE FEET

NUMBER OF BAYS: 3 (2 INSIDE, 1 OUTSIDE)

AVERAGE DAILY CAR COUNT: 46

TICKET AVERAGE: $100

WordStream A Source of Information Learning how to advertise effectively is important in being successful with your marketing tactics. If you’re not too keen on marketing tactics, WordStream will help get you there. Created by Neil Patel, who Wall Street Journal calls a “top influencer of the web,” the platform works as a guide to free tools and digital marketing advice. Hensley says the data the site produces is statistically reliable and has become one of her favorite resources that her own company uses.

“In its hiatus, it probably managed 10 percent of all Google ads,” Hensley says. WordStream is a paid resource if you utilize their marketing services, advisors, and consultants, but there is a free tool to help evaluate your current advertisements—one of Hensley’s favorite parts of the site. The AdWords Grader is a free evaluation tool that will provide a final grade for your overall Google ads, Facebook ads and your site’s landing page performance.