For quick lube service shop owners, car count is one metric that matters above all else. Car count is the number of vehicles serviced each day. For quick lube shops offering basic car service and maintenance repairs like oil changes, transmission service, and tire service, increasing the number of vehicles you service daily is the best way to increase your profit margin.

In a previous blog in 2016, we shared a few tips on how to increase your car count. But it’s been several years since then, and we’d like to share some updated strategies and tools to help you bring in more vehicles. To illustrate how important this metric is to quick lube shop owners, we want to share the details of a recent case study from NOLN on a local Utah quick lube shop owner.

Oil-N-Go Case Study
Ryan Frisby is the owner of two quick lube shops in Utah. His first shop is located in Payson and operates as Payson Oil-N-Go. This shop is located in a mature neighborhood and has been a staple in the community for some time. He has a dedicated customer base in the area and is trusted for reliable service. He has a regular and steady business but struggles to move his car count past the established numbers he’s regularly pulled in.

Frisby’s second location is in Spanish Fork and operates as Spanish Fork Oil-N-Go. This location is much newer than his Payson location and only opened in 2011. Because of this, Frisby employed several strategies to build up a solid customer base at his Spanish Fork location. His ideas worked, and he started to consider ways to apply his growth strategies to his Payson location to build up his car count numbers there as well. Let’s explore the methods he used to build up his car count at the two locations.

When he first opened his Spanish Fork location, Frisby focused on promotional marketing tools to get the word out. He uses flyers, ads, and deals to attract customers to the shop. But he knew he needed a long-term marketing strategy to keep customers returning. So here are a few methods he used to bring up the car count in his shops.

  • Establishing a customer database: Building a customer database is a crucial step for quick lube shops. Your ideal database should include your customer’s contact and vehicle information. Using the data in your database, you can set up auto-reminder emails, texts, and other promotional tools to remind your customers to bring in their vehicles for service or to announce sales. For example, Frisby opted to set up a system that sends alerts to drivers every 90 days to remind them that it’s time for an oil change. These alerts can be sent via email, text, or even through a physical postcard. He credits the method for keeping his shops in customers’ minds so that they are the first place they think of when it’s time to service their vehicle.
  • Fast and quality service for his customers. Another tool that Frisby credits for increasing his car count: a commitment to prompt service for his customers. He meets this demand by ensuring he has enough staff to service the vehicles that come in quickly and efficiently. He has two service bays at his Payson location, and at his Spanish Fork location, he has three, and at each location, he has 12 staff. While that might seem like many people for such a small number of bays, Frisby believes that it makes a difference. He says: “I’m committing to having the extra staff number, running a four to five-man crew to offer consistent business. So when customers come in the door, they are getting a good experience.”
  • Offering extra and specialty services: Another way Frisby increased his car count numbers was by focusing on ancillary services. He focuses on training his team on the latest trends and technology so they can service any vehicle. Because of this, his shops have developed a reputation for servicing high-end vehicles. But that’s not all. Frisby remains committed to a customer-focused service model and looks for any opportunity to go the extra mile for his customers. In fact, he found a really simple way to offer a free service to his customers: resetting the oil change notification on newer vehicles. This service is usually only done in dealership centers.

These are just a few of Frisby’s strategies to increase the car count at his quick lube shops. He’s seen these strategies work, but he credits his overall success at increasing his car counts to his partnership with an outside marketing firm. Their help was so invaluable to him that Valvoline also began working with the firm for their quick lube shops.

Marketing strategies that can help increase car counts at quick lube shops
As the case study above shows, there are strategies you can try to increase the car count at your shops. But as Frisby found, specific marketing strategies for quick lube shops are highly effective. He found help from a firm that specializes in marketing for quick lube shops, but if that’s not in your budget right now, that’s okay. Here are three marketing campaigns you can try on your own to increase your car count.

  1. Post-transaction campaign: Don’t miss the chance to keep a transaction going with a customer after they’ve paid. Setting up a post-transaction campaign to stay in contact with the customer after service is vital for long-term growth and retention. Some of the things you can do for a post-transaction campaign include:
    • Sending a customer service survey after payment
    • Asking for a customer review on Google, Facebook, Yelp, or other review sites
    • Setting up post-transaction touchpoint emails with deals for future service.
  2. Service Reminder Campaign: This type of campaign is designed to draw previous customers back to your shop. Ideally, you would reach out to customers from your established customer database and send appointment or service reminders personalized to their vehicle needs. These campaigns are most effective when they are personalized and well-timed, so create a database that tracks your customer’s vehicle information and service needs with automatic reminders in place.
  3. Lost customer campaigns: A lost customer campaign is designed to bring back customers you may have lost over time. These are customers who have only used your business once or where a long period of time has lapsed between services. To make these marketing campaigns effective, you need to offer an incentive to the customer to bring the vehicle in by offering a discount or new service.

Many of our customers at Greg’s Petro are quick lube shop owners. We work with them to supply them with the lubricants, fuel, and automotive supplies they need to stay in business and offer service to their customers. Our goal is to help our quick lube customers remain competitive and build their businesses, which is why we’ve shared this case study and marketing tips today. So, if you’re looking for a way to increase the car count at your shop, we recommend giving these tips a try or reaching out to your Greg’s Petro representative to see if we can help with your quick lube branding!