Customer questions in the quick lube industry are often repetitive and frequent. So much so that it is easy for quick lube employees to formulate blanket responses that are short and sweet and get straight to the problem. Although giving customers a standard response is easier and faster, quick lube employees should recognize customer questions as an opportunity to further educate themselves and their customers.
For quick lube operators like Melissa Vail, owner of VP Racing Fast Lube in Jonesboro, Louisiana, and John Brittain, owner of Brittain’s Express Oil & Lube in Elgin, Illinois, these interactions have become a cornerstone of their businesses. By using their expertise and turning customer questions into educational opportunities, they not only build trust but also empower customers and staff with valuable quick lube knowledge.
Vail’s Experience
As co-owner, Melissa Vail knows the importance of utilizing daily interactions as teaching moments for her employees.
Having worked in the insurance industry for 17 years, she is the first to admit that she had to learn a lot of what she knows about automotive maintenance on the job. After her husband and she acquired the shop in 2019, Vail was thrown into the deep end.
Starting out, Vail and her husband didn’t know what the income from the shop would look like, as a result, Vail’s husband kept his job at an offshore oil rig while they became acquainted with the ins and outs of franchise owning. But because of this, Vail was often left with the responsibility of managing the shop when her husband was away.
“I had to learn everything from the ground up,” Vail says. “It all got laid in my lap, from hiring people, and learning where to find what we wanted at our shop. I had to teach myself how to do everything. It’s crazy because running a shop was just not something that I ever expected I would be doing.”
As she took on her management role, Vail found out very quickly that customer questions were often very common in nature.
“They'll usually say something along the lines of, ‘my car's making a noise, can you listen for that and see what's going on?’ From there, we’ll usually try to nail down what's going on with their vehicle. They also frequently say, ‘My car is leaking oil, where is it coming from?’ Most of the time people come in and don't know what's going on with their car.”
When the customers ask these types of questions, Vail has taught her employees what the most common symptoms to the problems look like. By treating it as an investigation, they can see the clues that lead to the bigger issue.
“We'll show them, it looks like it's coming from the oil pan, or the remain seals leaking, or even the transmission,” Vail says. “So, if it’s anything like that, we all talk to each other, so we know what to look for. We make sure that our employees are aware of things like that whenever things are coming in, so just making sure you’re giving, your employees things to look out for.”
Brittain’s Experience
In addition to teaching employees about the symptoms of possible problems, it’s also important to use customer questions as a teaching moment for the customer. This is what John Brittain does at his quick lube shop.
Brittain’s dad started the business in 1986, and he started working there in high school in 2001. When his dad retired in 2018, Brittain took over as owner of the business.
With over 26 years of experience at his shop, Brittain has heard all sorts of questions. The most frequent question that his shop gets has a deeper answer than customers suspect.
“One of the more popular questions we get would be people asking about oil change intervals and how long they can go,” Brittain says.
My answer to them is I usually try to reiterate that, yes, you can go longer on an oil change with synthetic oil, but it doesn't mean that instead of going 3000 miles, you're going 6-7-8-9-10,000 miles more on an oil change,” Brittain says.
It is important that customers know that just because the quality of the oil might be better doesn’t mean that they can stop personal upkeep of their car, he adds.
“They can’t just ignore your car for 10,000 miles until your car says, change the oil,” Brittain says. “That's where I try to reiterate to them and my employees that cars burn oil, and that's a big thing. It’s important that they ensure that their fluid levels are always being checked.
“Just because they’re going longer doesn't mean they can neglect their car or just not pay attention to it, because a lot of cars, you know, go with extended drain intervals like that. Oil will get low at some point, and they'll need to add to it. If they don't, then they're really doing themselves no favors, going longer.”
Regardless of the questions that Brittain gets at his shop, he always ensures that his customers leave the shop knowing more than when they came in. Any question that comes into a shop, no matter how difficult, should always be looked at as an opportune moment to teach customers and employees new information that they might not otherwise come across.
