Oil change industry

 As more and more customers are owning cars, there is a market needs for oil change and regular maintenance. Besides changing oil by themselves, there are two ways customers tend to use to change oil for their vehicles.

The first one is car dealership. Every dealership usually has a service center that can do regular maintenance as well as repairs. They usually have highest labor costs, yet they attack the customer through customer services like coffee, and TV on waiting area, free snack bar etc. The customers mostly consist of original car buyers and people who are older and have time to wait and relax. One interesting fact is that the dealerships usually give you the latest model when you request a rental car. It's a test drive without us realizing it. It helps with the marketing of the new model and increases the customer service at the same time.

The second one is the local quick-lube stores. Jiffy lube is one of the leader brands in this case. Local stores promise you fast and reliable oil change services. However, they don't have the ability for the complicated repairs, and some of them do not have the inventory to do the same day tire change. They tends to attract young customers who needs the job done fast and cheap. Because of the recession, more people are holding onto the same car longer than before, and they also tend to drag the gap longer between car services. The effect is the loss of revenue for the local stores.

To compete with the large dealership, the local stores can increase their customer services. Their advantage is the proximity to the customers' home. They can offer to pick up and drop off for the customers at the promise of a long term commitment, for instance, customers can enjoy the service for free if they agree to prepaid three years' services. Another way is to schedule the services in a way that can optimize operations. The store manager can arrange the same type of the cars coming in the store on the same day to be worked on the same pit. This way they can raise revenue by cutting the operation costs.

In conclusion, local quick-lube store needs to keep and grow customers to compete with dealerships.