Lube Talk

This month in Lube Talk our forum discusses changes they have made in their businesses and the future of the fast lube industry.

Sean Krassman
Krassman is owner of The Oil Drop with two locations in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Q: What was the biggest change you made in your business during 2011, and what was the result?

A: The biggest change with my business in 2011 was related to staffing at one of my locations.

In less than two weeks there was a complete change in both managerial positions and also tech staff. This proved to be a positive outcome, as the current staff has increased car count by 30 percent and ticket average by 20 percent. They have demonstrated excellent customer service and teamwork skills. Customer satisfaction has increased greatly.

Scott Morrison
Morrison is president of City Garage in Dallas, Texas.

Q: What was the biggest change you made in your business during 2011, and what was the result?

A: The biggest change I made in my business in 2011 was that I changed my attitude in how I dealt with problems in my business.

Like a lot of business owners and operators, I spend a lot of my time dealing with problem situations caused by employees who are not following or adhering to company policies or procedures. The failure to adhere to company policies and procedures created problems in our stores that sometimes resulted in customer dissatisfaction and complaints. I constantly had to modify policies or change programs or systems that we had established to prevent these types of situations from happening. It was the old 20/80 rule rearing its ugly head again: eighty percent of the problems or issues that I was spending time and effort to address were being created by 20 percent of my employees who did not follow our systems, policies or programs.

Finally, it came to me one day driving down the road. I was spending my time rethinking and redoing procedures that had worked for this company for years to accommodate a handful of long-term employees who were not doing the job they were paid to perform. I was trying to change the way 80 percent of my employees had to do business to pacify 20 percent who were not doing their jobs correctly. That practice is not good business.

Right then and there I made up my mind. I was not going to operate my business in this manner anymore. I was not going to create policies and procedures that forced the majority of my employees to change their successful business practices because of a few long-term employees who would not perform their job requirements to the same level.

Why should I waste my time and effort on people who are not going to perform in my business and will not take our business to a higher level of performance? As I get older, I find that I have less tolerance for employees who refuse to do the job that they are paid to do, after I have spent my time, money and effort on edification, education and exemplifying why performing all of the tasks are important. If the employee does not do their job, remove them from the company and get somebody who will. Only spend your time on positive elements of developing and growing your company. Remove the negatives and naysayers from your business life.

My business is better and my employees are happier since I adopted a policy of eliminating the non-performers, no matter their position or length of tenure in our company. I spend more of my time now with positive thinking and business elements that will take our business to the next level of customer satisfaction.

Q: What do you see as a great opportunity for the fast lube industry in coming years?

A: As car manufacturers continue to make cars harder and more expensive for the DIYer to repair, service and maintain, I know that more of them will become DIFM customers.

Every time I see a car manufacturer introduce a new product, like General Motors has with dexos, I know they are just making it more expensive for the DIYer to continue servicing vehicles.

I like to see the manufacturers make auto service more complicated and confusing to the car owner, and I like to see car dealers try to educate their customers on their cars’ maintenance needs to sell more maintenance services to their customers. You probably do not see it or believe it, but all of these actions by the car manufacturers and their car dealers is creating more business for the aftermarket and creates more barriers to entry from new upstart competition, which further secures our future in the automotive service business.
Hold on — the next few years may be a little bumpy for the unprepared, but for those of you who have your act together, it is going to be one helluva ride.

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