SHOP STATS: McPherson Quick Lube Location: McPherson, Kan. Operator: Jon Jantz Average Car Count: 40 Staff Size: 4 Shop Size: 3 bays Ticket Average: $60
Inviting Exterior
Jon Jantz is a prideful native of McPherson, a town of roughly 14,000 in central Kansas. As a result, when he built the structure for McPherson Quick Lube back in 1998, Jantz spared few expenses on making the shop as attractive as possible.
Calling upon the services of an architect friend, Jantz saw to it that the 3,750-square-foot facility featured three rooflines, and put full glass doors on his three-bay shop area, and positioned those bay doors so that vehicles can exit the side of the building fairly easily, on to Kansas Ave.
Expenditures like that added up to a $100,000 investment meant to make the facility look as appealing as possible.
“In doing that, it made for an attractive building,” says Jantz, whose overall financial figures
have improved each of the last two years. “I wanted it to look [good] in my hometown.”
Catering to Customers
The customer waiting area at McPherson Quick Lube features no shortage of amenities. There’s free WiFi, a high-definition TV with seemingly every cable channel in existence, and a coffee bar that features soft-complemented blends from Prairie Fire Roasters of Wichita. Plus, there’s a “kids corner” that features a truckload of Legos.
But the amenity that really inspires long lines at the owner-operated facility is, somewhat surprisingly, the free air that’s available on the east side of the building.
“That gets used an unbelievable amount,” Jantz says of the free air. “I do things like that because it’s my community. I’m the only on-demand oil change in (the) county. I’ve got towns west, southwest, and north of me and they no longer have a quick lube; they’ve all closed.”
Location, Location, Location
Jantz’s shop sits on a corner location, near Main Street in downtown McPherson, right across the street from a refurbished and picturesque courthouse. The intersection is one of the busiest in town.
If that weren’t enough to draw a steady stream of customers to McPherson Quick Lube, the fact the facility boasts glass bay doors also helps significantly.
“People have figured out that they come by this location quite a bit, and they just look and see if they see cars in the bay and cars in line,” Jantz explains. “If they do, they keep going, because they know they’ll be back by here later that day or the next. Full bays keep them moving, and empty bays generate work, so it has really helped our overall workload.”
