5 Tactics for Running a Rock-Solid Lube Shop in 2025

Jan. 29, 2025
Smart planning can help operators identify opportunities for improvement and position their shops for ongoing success.

It’s no secret that New Year’s resolutions can be notoriously short-lived. This applies to professional life, too, where it takes smart planning and ongoing monitoring to keep your business in top form for another strong trip around the sun. 

This is how Brian Morrison, a quick lube owner and operator in the Carolinas, starts the process: “We have an end-of-year wrap-up with each store’s manager, looking back at the previous year and seeing if we hit our targets. Where did we excel and where did we fall short? Are we up and down in cars or sales, and what do we want to focus on in the new year?”  

The following are simple moves that can help owners answer questions like these and set up their lube shops for ongoing success.

1. Ask your managers questions – then sit back and listen 

Drawing on his experience owning six successful SpeeDee Oil Changes and 11 Grease Monkeys, Morrison has found that what he learns in those wrap-up meetings can be used to plan budgets and programs for the next year. “But don’t wait till January,” he advises. 

Two other successful lube shop owners around the country – Luke Self, owner of Ripley Fast Lube in Ripley, Tennessee, and Patrick Wilder, owner of Manteno Quick Lube in Manteno, Illinois – agree that getting intelligence from individual store managers is critical for ongoing success. 

“I set benchmarks for my team, and [that involves] daily, weekly, and monthly discovery on my end,” Self says. “I discuss it with my managers, and we also look at everyday goals.”  

Aspects of the business that Self and his team monitor range from the everyday costs of doing business, such as whether the utilities are running higher, the cost of wages and insurance, and what the numbers look like compared to last year. Upon review, they determine which parts of the business may need adjustment. 

Wilder says he pow-wows with his managers to gain market intelligence. “We look at what the market can bear in terms of pricing, and [so] we try to secret shop our competitors a little.” 

No matter the approach, if you want to be successful each new year, Morrison suggests, “[Don’t] go into meetings just pushing out information. Instead, ask [managers] questions and then figure it out together.”  

2. Forever be on the lookout for ways to build up customer loyalty 

People have a lot of choices when they get their car’s oil changed. As Self puts it, “There’s a pile of us around. If your customer service is the best, though, price will only matter a little. Build loyalty and they won’t go anywhere else, regardless of whether you’re $2 more than the shop down the street.” 

Quick lube owners can strengthen their relationships with customers by empowering employees to make situations right for the customer, says Morrison. “I use the analogy of when you go into McDonald’s and if the food takes too long, they can fix the problem with the customer right there and give them some fries,” he says.  

Similarly, Morrison’s store managers are empowered to resolve customer concerns up to $300, while district managers are given a $500 cap and regional managers up to $1,000 – without making a customer wait for the manager to get permission. This is why: “When we get it wrong and a customer is looking for a solution, the last thing they want to hear is, ‘That’s above my pay scale, I’ll have to run it up the flagpole and someone will call you back.’ Customers expect you to take responsibility and fix it now.” 

Morrison adds, “We give our [managers] these two mottos: ‘Always do the right thing,’ and ‘Don’t fight, make it right.’” 

For Wilder, great customer service involves anticipating his customers’ needs.  

“Chairs, fixtures, anything that’s a customer benefit, spend the money. You’ll get it back,” he says. “Too many shops trip over pennies, and they don’t want to spend $100 on a new chair or [even] care if the toilet is leaking. But not spending the money is costing you money. Because if customers come in and see a leaking toilet, they think, ‘What are they doing to my car?’” 

At one location, Wilder recently purchased a $30 cell phone charger for customer use, and he notes that even these little things mean a great deal to customers. “Spending a little makes a good bit of sense – especially when it means a customer won’t have to leave [my business] to get what they need,” he notes. 

3. Reduce employee turnover by consistently paying well 

For Self’s business in Tennessee, he says adequate compensation is the best way to get his team onboard to produce another successful year of business. 

“To get good people and keep them, pizza parties and a pat on the back won’t cut it,” he says. “Give them good money (at his shop, that means above average industry pay), and they’ll stick around. If you take care of your people, they’ll take care of you.” 

Self learned this lesson during his early days working for others. “In my current situation, for the past two years, I haven’t had to hire another new person. I even got a letter from the state of Tennessee reminding me that I hadn’t been reporting new hires.” 

He continues, “I believe it’s because I pay my crew very well. I have been in the industry for 22 years, starting out as a pit tech, and worked my way up to district manager before buying my own shop, and I saw firsthand how other companies treated employees. I’m doing everything I can to be the opposite of most.” 

Self adds this caveat, though: “My employees have to work for it. They have goals to meet if they want to achieve their bonus each month.” 

4. Tune up the shop’s aesthetic appeal 

Whether your lube shop looks consistently clean and fresh – outside and in – has an effect on your bottom line. So, it’s smart to consider year-end upgrades and improvements. Sometimes, that can look like a full-on exterior or interior design update, but sometimes it’s just a serious scrub. 

“Internally we clean our own shops, but once every three to four months, we pay somebody to really clean them. And it looks way better than what we can do,” Wilder notes. 

Morrison says that the months of December, January, and February are an excellent time for his businesses to receive major TLC. “[The weather here] starts to slow us down throughout the whole system, so we use this time to do what we call spring cleaning – maintenance and painting projects.” 

Wilder adds that sometimes a pause is in order while a store is refreshed and put back into service. “I’ve seen companies close a store for a month or two,” he says. Wilder notes that the death of one of his shop managers caused him to close a store, remodel, and reopen after a pause. While the location was closed, Wilder and his team spent the time repainting the exterior and interior and updating furniture, fixtures, and installing new shop equipment where needed.  

5. Study an individual shop’s performance for clues to future success 

Any given lube shop will not reinvent itself overnight, according to Morrison. And it will have a history that shop owners can learn from if they pay close attention. 

“See what [a] store has done in the past three years,” he suggests as a good end-of-year activity. At SpeeDee Oil Change locations, comps like these allow him to examine loss of top-line revenue, areas for cost control, and potential staffing issues, so he and his team can consider whether different investments in people or equipment will help improve a given shop’s performance. 

“Whether the store does brakes, tires, tune ups, we let the store organically figure out what it is, who it is, and what its community needs. And then we sell the customer what they need,” Morrison says. “We’re not a one-trick pony.” 

About the Author

Carol Badaracco Padgett

Carol Badaracco Padgett is an Atlanta-based writer and NOLN freelance contributor who covers the automotive industry, film and television, architectural design, and other topics for media outlets nationwide. A FOLIO: Eddie Award-winning editor, writer, and copywriter, she is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and holds a Master of Arts in communication from Mizzou’s College of Arts & Science.