Once you add up the cost of your oil, the filter, the fluids that you use to top off, labor and more, the profit you add could be less than a dollar. One claim or unseen repair, and you are losing money. Now how you make the money is with the add-ons. But not all of these are good for your bottom line, unless you have a good mix.
Filters are King
We can start by talking about the easy stuff, the things that the customer can see. Air filters are the most obvious here. They are easily pulled on most vehicles and can be gotten from a supplier for a decent price. In order to really get the bang for the buck, these should be priced no more than just under 30 percent cost of goods. Now, many of you do not have the control of this part of the process, but you are the most important in it. The key to the sales is the pulling and presentation. Because the customer can see this, it's usually really easy. Set a goal for your teams to hit and keep track of it daily.
There is another filter in the car that can be even better on the profit side. Many are very comparable to the engine air filter in terms of cost, however we usually charge more for these filters. This is because of the locations of these cabin air filters. Many of these are in tough areas such as behind the glove box, under the cowl around the engine bay (and the awesome Nissan filter lodged in the middle of the lower dashboard).
They are actually pretty easy to sell, though. What we do is explain two things to the customer with the filter out. One is that this could be a reason that you may have reduced air in the interior. The second is the most important reason that you have this filter.
“This is the filter for the air that you breathe. Would you like us to put a new one in?” Big tip here is YouTube for installation. Just search “cabin air filter in ____ car,” and here comes 10 videos on how to pull it and install it.
Going Further
Here is the best service that you can add on because it costs you absolutely nothing! A tire rotation has absolutely no cost of product, just cost of labor. This is why some shops add this on for free during promotional coupons or special services. It is also a service that the wrong crew will just hate, because it actually requires effort and work.
Think about asking about this service at your initial greet and do it first. This will allow your teams time to look over other areas of the car and even the brakes if you do Multicare-style work.
Most of your sales people will try to focus on those big-ticket items, like fluid exchanges, and those are great. They also come with higher cost to you as well. This is due to the cost of that automatic transmission fluid or antifreeze. Many of these services come with a predesignated amount included, but that can still be upwards of 40 percent or more in cost of goods.
Some companies have set up goals like two to three percent. That means that they are only looking for two or three in every one hundred vehicles serviced. Likewise, air filters could have goals of 16, 18 or 20 percent.
In the end, to make the most money and bottom line net income, you want a good mix of all of these. Work on being consistent in presentations and pulls. This is the start to increasing your ticket average, gross sales and bottom line profit. Everything still starts with that oil change that your customer drove up for, so get good at oil selections and these add ons and you can turn that forty dollar service into triple digits.
