Behind every system is a well-thought-out strategy. Take a company like FullSpeed Automotive, which is home to familiar quick maintenance brands such as Grease Monkey, SpeeDee Oil Change & Auto Service, and Kwik Kar.
There are multiple perspectives at FullSpeed that work in tandem—from corporate stores to franchise locations. An effective strategy from leadership is imperative to getting the word out about what these brands have to offer and how to best reach customers.
Stacey Pool joined FullSpeed as chief marketing officer in May 2024. She spoke with NOLN for a Quick Lube Q&A about what her role involves and why this industry is exciting.
NOLN: Stacey, you have over two decades of experience in e-commerce and marketing. What drew you to FullSpeed Automotive?
Stacey Pool: I will answer that a couple of ways. First ... my whole career really has been based off learning different industries. I have a very strong technology background. I then transferred over (to) marketing. Between the two of them, I’ve been able to leverage those skills and those experiences across many different industries.
What drew me to FullSpeed was experiencing a new completely different industry, but yet being able to leverage what I’ve learned throughout my career to help drive the business forward. That was a really big reason why I entertained the idea of coming to FullSpeed.
But the second thing (that I think is even more important) is the opportunity that is ahead of us. That was really exciting. My whole career has been about building things, and FullSpeed’s in a very special moment right now where we have the opportunity to really transform this space. And I have a lot of experience in doing that.
Whether it’s through leveraging different digital technologies, how we use data to be smarter about how we reach customers, (or) what the real experience should look like at all of our locations.
And so, for me, that was the driving force was just wow—the opportunity ahead of us is so cool—and being able to be part of something that could really transform the industry was really appealing to me.
NOLN: What does your role as chief marketing officer entail?
Stacey Pool: There is one thing that I am supposed to do, and that is to drive revenue. That is what my job is, and the way that we do that is by bringing cars into bays. I was hired on because of my ability to understand customer behavior (and) understand how to leverage data to drive that behavior.
That is everything I look at every single day. Are we driving sales? And the way that you do that is by bringing cars into bays and ensuring that we are trying to drive that ticket up as well. But for me, my full focus right now is bringing cars into bays.
NOLN: Ever since you took this role in May 2024, what have become some of your favorite parts of doing this work?
Stacey Pool: Every time somebody asks me this question, what I always answer with is, I did not realize the energy that is within the industry. What I mean specifically about that is when we’ve gone into shops, what I expected was in all honesty, is to not be as interested in the work of what’s happening in the shops. And what I was so surprised about and what’s been my favorite part is this energy and the dynamic nature of doing the service, whatever type of service it is.
There’s this passion and this energy that I just didn’t expect. And so that’s been really fun for me is to see the movement and the energy that happens at the shops. So, that’s my No. 1 thing is being able to experience that.
But my second thing is really around ... being able to work with a team that is genuinely motivated to change the industry and to really grow the business. And that was surprising to me too ... I call it like I’ve kind of found my people.
There’s ambition, there’s change that they want to make happen. And so, for me that’s been the second part of it is just the team is fantastic here and they’re really in it to win—and I love that.
NOLN: What is unique about developing marketing strategies that are specific to the automotive space?
Stacey Pool: I think every company right now is trying to figure out how to best utilize data to make better decisions. But what I think is really unique about the automotive space is just the AMOUNT of data that is available to make smarter decisions. That’s the thing that I’ve been so excited about is, you get the car information—you get the VIN, you get the license plate number—and then you get all this rich data behind it.
And then when you pair that with demographic data (and) behavioral data, that is just extremely, for me, really exciting. How do we take all of that data together, improve our segmentation, improve the offers that we’re putting out there, (and) improve the messaging that we’re putting out there?
Knowing how and where to reach these customers is not unique to the automotive space, but the piece that’s, to me, very valuable and even more unique is just the amount of data that we collect. So, I think we ... can make more impact to the results—faster.
NOLN: Why is an effective marketing approach crucial to the entirety of FullSpeed—including individuals who are franchisees in the FullSpeed brand portfolio?
Stacey Pool: What a CMO’s role really entails is that our job is to drive revenue. And the way you drive revenue is you’ve got to change the customer’s behavior and when you change the customer’s behavior, what that does is ... it’s all about stealing market share.
Our job is to be able to utilize that data to understand how we can change the behavior. So, rather than having them go to a competitor, they are coming to us. (In) an effective marketing strategy, especially when you have a data-driven strategy, you should be able to steal market share to help grow your business. And I think that’s important for not only company-owned stores, but to your point about the franchisees, is that our responsibility to differentiate the brand, it’s to understand the customer, it’s to change their behavior, and it’s to get them to spend more.
The strategy underneath it of how we do that should in turn ... drive cars to any of our brands, but it should benefit both the company-owned stores and the franchise stores.
NOLN: What's most exciting to you about being involved with this industry at this time?
Stacey Pool: The age of cars is getting higher. People are definitely holding onto their cars longer than they historically have. I think that also, being that it’s either the top or the second most important asset in a household makes it really exciting to think about how we can bring trust (and) how we can bring great service (and) high quality into households.
Being in this industry at this time, we know that people need to get their cars worked on. We know that they value this asset tremendously, and we know that we offer great service (and) we offer high-quality products. So, how do we connect those two things together to really help drive our business that way?
Being in the industry, for me, is a great opportunity to change the experience—be able to use data to change the experience and really have our brands stand out in a unique way so that we can help people trust the service (and) trust the quality that they’re getting so that they want to continue to come back more and more.
NOLN: Big picture, what would you like FullSpeed to be known for?
Stacey Pool: I’m going to answer that (in) two ways. I would say I want them to be known for exceptional service—so, delivering exceptional experiences and that ... you see that people are willing to recommend us and that’s one of the primary drivers of why people go to the shop that they do is because they’re getting a recommendation.
I want to be known for exceptional service so that people will recommend us to their friends and their family. And then the other thing I want to be known for is ... a great place to work, especially for many young individuals—young in their career—that they can come to FullSpeed and work at any of our stores and feel valued, feel like they’re learning, feel like they’re growing, (and) feel like they have a career ahead of them.
I think those two things go hand-in-hand: If you have a great employee experience, you should be able to deliver an exceptional customer experience. So, those are the two things that are really important to me.
