What if you could fine-tune your shop’s compensation so it’s straightforward and helps motivate new and existing employees?

Here’s how one quick lube industry veteran approaches employment and pay, and how he lays out a clear road map for teammate advancement and career opportunities.

It Starts with a Solid Structure

Preston Willard, president of Toxaway Automotive Group and one of its owners, is a Take 5 Oil Change franchisee with corporate offices in Atlanta. The company has 14 locations in Georgia, three in New Jersey with more on the way, and still others in the mix in Delaware.

The team under Willard includes Vice President of Operations Kurt von Schilling and several district managers who focus heavily on daily operations.

“At the beginning when we opened our first store, I was there all day, every day,” Willard says. So he knows intimately what it’s like to be both in the pit and in front of the customer.

Another leg up for Toxaway Automotive Group, as Willard sees it, is affiliation with a strong brand.

“We’ve enjoyed the Take 5 brand and the corporate support,” he says. “That’s why we’re really leaning into it and continuing to open new locations.”

Giving Employees a Full View of What to Expect

Willard’s Take 5 Oil Change locations are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. And, as is the brand’s calling card, their main focus is the oil change, with a limited number of other services on the side, such as wiper blades and air filters.

As much as volume, speed, and quality are part of the business model, customer service is at the pinnacle.

“We’re in the customer experience business. We just happen to be changing oil,” as Willard puts it, so his team focuses on saying “yes” to every car that pulls onto the lot.

“(Inside,) we have at least two people on every car at all times,” he says. “That’s how we get customers in and out (quickly).”

In this demanding environment, Willard says he looks for prior customer-facing experience as a non-negotiable, whether in a restaurant space or any other space.

He adds, “Automotive experience is not a requirement to come on board our team.”

Since Take 5 is all about the oil change, Willard says he can teach employees what they need to know fairly quickly.

Where the customer-facing experience requirement comes in is that every employee knows how to do everything—change oil in the pit and take care of customers.

As Willard describes. “Everybody ends up on the computer and in the service writer position, where they’re interacting with customers.”

So, what does compensation look like?

“If you’re starting out in an entry-level position, it has both an hourly wage and a commission-style pay,” says Willard. “We organize our commissions on a tiered system, and we categorize those tiers based on a percentage of the cars.”

By design, the system encourages employees to work the process the way it’s intended—and it doesn’t promote a pressure-selling environment.

“The few other services we offer alongside oil change that technicians can get additional compensation on. They really just sell themselves,” Willard notes.

Moving Mile Markers in Workers’ Lives and Careers

As Willard’s employees continue to develop and get promoted—to positions of lead technician or assistant manager, for example—the tiered compensation system remains in place.

“But then there’s some profitability bonuses that come into play, too,” Willard describes. “We share all of our profitability, our P&Ls, and our financial statements.”

Willard and his leadership find that if they can educate their team members on how to run a profitable business, it benefits their Take 5 locations exponentially, as well as the employee down the road—whether at Toxaway Automotive Group’s business or someplace else.

“We envision our business as a place of development,” he stresses, “so we’re always taking a developmental approach with our team.”

For Willard, there’s another critical type of compensation that Toxaway offers through its Take 5 Oil Change businesses: invaluable business connections and experiences for employees.

“A prime example of this is when I had to go in front of the city council to get a permit for a building we were doing,” he says. “One of our store managers was curious about the process and had never been to a city council meeting before.”

So, Willard invited him to come along and be a part of the meeting.

“It ended up that six of our store managers and two of our district managers showed up, and I got to stand up and recognize them during the city council meeting. And we came away successful there,” Willard shares.

Willard and his management team also offer an event, Powered by Women, specifically for women who work at their Take 5 Oil Change locations. “Women have made up an awesome part of our brand,” he says. “Two out of the three district managers are women who started as technicians and worked their way up.”

Then he adds, “I think our team understands that we’re really trying to help everybody develop themselves personally and professionally as much as possible.”