How to Keep a Customer for Life

It’s the kind of déjà vu everybody wants. That customer who brought their car in for the first time a few months back is standing again at your front counter. Or the one who’s showed up every three months like clockwork for the past five years just pulled in right on cue.

What keeps them coming back?

According to one successful shop owner, it boils down to how you treat your customers, service their vehicles, and build up their trust.

Know and Serve Your Area

Nestor Gutierrez is the CEO of Rancho Express Lube in Rancho Cucamonga, California, about 40 miles east of Los Angeles. He started at the business as an employee in 2016, back when it offered only oil changes and wiper blades.

When Gutierrez became owner six years ago, he decided to offer customers more. So he built out his team from six employees to 13 today.

“I expanded the services, and we started offering preventative maintenance services like coolant flushes and transmission services,” he says. “We also integrated tires into the business, and we do suspension. We literally do everything except things like engine or transmission swaps.”

At Rancho Express Lube, you never know what kinds of customers—or cars—you’ll see in San Bernardino County, where the shop sits.

“When it comes down to whatever car it is, whether it’s a Lamborghini or a classic or just about any other, we’re able to maintain it,” Gutierrez says.

Know What Customers Need

Three years ago, Gutierrez decided to focus on providing value to the customer.

“One of those things is convenience, the quick stuff,” he says. “And also we’re able to do more than the rest of the people around here. For example, a lot of people don’t do tires, unless they’re a tire shop.”

Gutierrez understood, though, that customers wanted to go to just one place and do everything there “because they trust that one spot,” as he puts it.

However, he notes, “One of the problems or pain points for the customers was that they didn’t have someone they trusted. Maybe they had one for their oil changes, but not for their brakes and tires. So I wanted to be that one person.”

Gutierrez says he views the quick lube Industry as a people business first.

"It's a service-based business," he says. "So people want to be heard, and I feel like sometimes when they go to other locations, maybe it's more transactional.”

An important caveat, though: It’s important to realize that not every customer can be made happy. As Gutierrez sees it, “That’s part of the population, you know? It’s a tough world right now. But I’m that person that takes responsibility in everything, good or bad. I always tell my guys, ‘You know what? I feel for the customer.’”

Know What Instills Trust

Gutierrez says Rancho Express Lube does digital inspections of the vehicles that roll in, and for him, that’s been an important first element of building trust with customers.

“We educate them on what their car needs, basing it off the maintenance schedule and whatever the car may require at those intervals,” he says.

For example, his crew may tell a customer, “Next time we do an oil change [we can] also do XYZ, and that’s going to cost approximately this much.”

For Gutierrez, he wants his customers to be able to plan for the maintenance their car will need down the road, so it doesn’t take them by surprise.

“What has happened is that our average ticket price has increased a good bit because we plant the seed,” he adds. So, when customers come back later for their oil change, it’s common for Gutierrez and his crew to hear, ‘Can you also add on the other services from last time that you guys told me about?’”

He stresses, “To me, it’s all about trust.”

Gutierrez also stays involved with the community at large, where he does local networking and is a member of the area's chamber of commerce.

Know how to present information and dole out perks

Consistently, Gutierrez also puts himself in the shoes of his customers.

“I’m a visual guy. I want to see why, and that way I can make a decision based on the information that’s provided to me,” he notes. “People will buy the things you can actually explain and they can actually see, versus just saying, ‘Hey, you need a cabin filter,’ or ‘Hey, you need your brakes done.’”

Rancho Express Lube also gives its customers something that Gutierrez says nobody else does in the area: a free car wash each time they get a full synthetic oil change. As he describes, “Our neighbor is literally a car wash. So they come here for an oil change and we give them a voucher and they go next door.”

Gutierrez consistently promotes his business on social media, too, and he doesn’t take his foot off the pedal. “I market a lot on Facebook, Instagram, and Google, so I’m pretty much omnipresent,” as he puts it.

Know How to Keep Learning and Growing

Just as Gutierrez focuses on giving his customers what they need, he focuses on giving himself what he needs as an owner.

“A lot of the things I’ve been doing, honestly, are things you don’t learn at school,” he says. “I’ve been paying a lot of money to get mentorship from other people. I’ve learned a lot from other business owners. A lot of ideas and creativity come from fellow mentorship.”

In addition, Gutierrez makes sure his employees are getting what they need to grow.

“We train at least twice a week, and we meet as a team three times a week—Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays,” he describes. “Mondays are for the team, Wednesdays are just for the front counter, and Fridays are a recap of how the week went.”

In closing, Gutierrez shares a simple but profound philosophy on hiring the right people to help keep his customers coming back: “I want people that want to be here.”