The Key to Additives Retail? Just Ask Customers

Sept. 20, 2019

Hear one shop owner's take on how additive sales helped boost ticket averages.

Fuel treatment additives remain popular as a quick but effective retail option to boost sales. Part of the appeal is in the ease of adopting the retail. Just pick a vendor and carry the stuff on your shelves.

For Bill Floyd, operator of Lucas Oil Centers in Indiana, it started when he began telling his techs to keep an eye out for cars with gasoline direct injection engines. With the deposit buildup problems that plagued early models, they were good candidates for additive sales.

“When we started this, we were asking every GDI customer and recommend a bottle of treatment,” he says.

It didn’t take long before Floyd was offering treatment to every customer. All vehicles can benefit from the different kinds of additives.

It’s also a good way to boost sales without taking up any more shop time. Floyd says that once he had his techs ask each customer, the success rate was over 50 percent.

“It allows you to change your ticket average per car $10 to $15 for 50 percent of cars and all you had to do is ask,” he says.