As a quick lube operator, it is necessary to teach your team how to change oil. It is also necessary to teach your team to complete any inspections you might include in your service, replace a cabin or engine air filter, and maybe even to collect payment from the guest at the end of the service. But what is the most important thing you teach your team?
I recently heard a story from someone going through cancer treatment. At each visit for chemotherapy, before getting the patient checked in, hooking up the machine, or doing anything else, the nurse would bring over a warm blanket to the patient. After several visits, the patient noticed this trend and realized it wasn’t just one nurse who was doing this. It was every nurse. Then it dawned on her. This was a process that was trained. The nurses were trained that the most important thing they do each day is hand out a warm blanket. It was providing comfort to a person having some hard days. And that prioritization set the tone for the rest of the process. The nurse focused first on hospitality, then went about the task of providing the treatment.
Creating a culture of hospitality is about training your team on the most important thing they do each day. Hint: It is not how they change the guest’s oil, inspect their vehicle, or collect payment. Teach and train your team that the most important thing they do each day is interact with the guests in your bays. Once your team recognizes this, overnight you will create a culture of hospitality in your service center.
Hospitality is the “friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.” Hospitality is often used to describe the restaurant or hotel industries. Hospitality is not a word often associated with an oil change operation, yet we all have encountered hospitality when we enter a friend’s home, arrive at a party, or even walk into a business. The team greets you smiling, likely by name and with a hug. Your friend might even have a cold beverage to offer you as you walk in the door. The doorman opens the door before you even think about it. Hospitality isn’t limited to restaurants or hotels. In fact, hospitality is what brings guests back to any business.
You get what you talk about. If the only things you talk about with your team are metrics, staffing, or car count, then that is what your team knows to focus on. At Oilstop, we teach hospitality to every team member in our organization. We do this directly through leadership classes and training courses. But we drive those lessons home by making it something we always talk about. Our director of mission, Ben, keeps the pulse on whether our mission statement, hospitality, or “why” we are doing what we do is being talked about enough with our team. We aren’t perfect. Sometimes we get in a rut of only talking about service center metrics or operations. But then Ben or someone else on our team calls it out. So, we recalibrate and get back to talking about “why” we do what we do: to serve our guests and provide excellent hospitality. And the great side effect of this? Those guests who experience that hospitality will come back.
Ben Franklin once said, “The handshake of the host affects the taste of the roast.” And the same is true with an oil change. The quality of the oil change to your guest is most felt by how your team greets and acknowledges them. Prioritizing hospitality in your bays will help your service “taste” better to your guests—and bring them back!
