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We are opening a new quick lube center about 150 yards away from the main store but on the same property. It will be 4 lanes, 2 deep with a fully automated carwash behind. Our plan is to have one of our longtime serv advisor and move her down there to be the lead person. She has experience as an advisor and the objective is for the quick lube to feed the main store.The tech's will be doing a multi point inspection on every car. The lube center will work on everything. I will be the person that they come to if there is an issue. So being a parts manager, which I will still be doing, I have a couple of questions. Does any one have a quick lube set up like this? We are looking for a pay plan that will compensate them for the quick lube business but also entice them to upsell work for the main store. All the advisors have a base salary. What out thought was, if the Quik Lube advisor upsells work for the main store and whether the customer gets the work done now or the advisor make an appointment for later they will split the commission with the advisor at the main store. We want to encourage the QL advisor to check out cars for possible work.
Any thoughts, suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks


[This message has been edited by longtimepartsguy (edited 02-06-2009).]

[This message has been edited by longtimepartsguy (edited 02-06-2009).]

WHAT A GRRRREAT IDEA!!!!! We have 3 main stores together with a vacant saturn store across the street that we could turn into a quick lube center.I'am sending this to my DP
right now for his peruse....

We have a quick lube (pit style) in our store.

I have my lead guy on a bonus program based on the percentage of up-sell. It starts at 20-29% and goes up from there. Since our GM MPI sheets come in triplicate, I have the quick lube guys keep one of the copies and turn them into me. I go though those each day to see what has been sold, and what was recommended. I can then track how many items were sold vs/ how many vehicles came into the quick lube.

I spiff the other "lubies" any where from $.25 to $5.00 depending on the up-sell. The work then goes into my shop.

not to jack the thread here, but I have a question also on Quick Lubes. We have just installed 2 new quick lube lifts in the shop specifically for this service and I would like to know how to handle the inventory that is going to be stocked at the lube site. Oil filters, Oil, air filters, etc...

if anyone has any info or suggestions I would appreciate some help.

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[This message has been edited by dodgeboy (edited 02-10-2009).]

3 answers

1. Status quo where the lube tech still requests parts and the parts dept sells the parts to the lube RO.
Upside-parts maintains control of inventory
Downside-time per order

2. Parts sells boxes of filters to the lube dept. Replenish as necessary.
Upside - time
Downside - another inventory to control

3. Purchase quick-lube software (RR and ADP offer this)
Upside - quick write-up/close process with minimal keystrokes. Should be able to open/sell/close the RO in a single screen
Downside - initial cost and setup time

Other considerations.
1. Manual (books) or automated (SPS or SPG) filter selection
2. Upsell opportunities. Must fit RO process and writer must be trained to sell.
3. Integrating with main shop. Do all LOFs go to these guys, or just the customers that only request an LOF.
4. Cashiering
5. Proper accounting without a lot of admin posting.

Dodgeboy if you do a search there are a couple of threads that address this exact issue. As long as a control is in place to verify correct quantities of parts it isn't an issue.

If it is legal in your state and with your franchise it is advantageous to make this quick lube (I recommend quick service encompasing much more than quick lube) a seperate corporation. The technicians are not included in any factory required training programs, not averaged into tech pay calculations, and you can use lower cost after market parts programs. You can utilize lower cost technicians without getting a lot of flack from the main shop (who do the serious repairs and "brain surgery" work).

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I would really take your time on this. I have seen these take a pile of work away from the service dept. I have ran with one and did away with it. It was in my main building and all we did was get really fast at changing oil. We did not check anything over, did not upsell, etc. The customers got wise and simply wanted a quick(fast) oil change and did not take time for the walk around with the added sales pitch for maintenance. A friend of mine did what you are thinking and after killing his service dept he closed it and brought a fast service back into his operation to try and build service back up. It works for some and not others. Be very careful to not take business away from your main shop. Good luck!