Preventative maintenance services can be low-investment and profitable for shops—but are often overlooked. Why?
According to Brad Stuck, Valvoline Professional Series (VPS) Brand Manager, there’s an immense pressure for shop owners to turn vehicles as quickly as possible, which results in service writers failing to recommend preventative maintenance services. Today’s vehicles are built to last, though, which means they have increased oil change intervals and may require less time between maintenance checks. This presents the perfect opportunity to let preventative maintenance services increase your shops bottom line and improve customer retention, even though you may not be seeing those customers as often.
With all the pressures that come along with owning and operating a shop, it can be overwhelming to add one more thing to the list. That’s why partnering with a trusted brand, like Valvoline, can help ease this burden and increase your profits.
Don’t Ignore Preventative Maintenance
“Most of these services are quite profitable,” Stuck says. “Overhead is time and chemical costs, that’s it.”
Many shop owners see preventative maintenance as one more product to order and sell rather than seeing the benefit of it, which is a low-cost investment that yields easy profits and helps with retention. There’s a misconception that offering preventative maintenance is a large investment, and that’s not the case, Stuck explains.
“We don’t want machinery to stand in between our customers and being able to perform, we like to work with them,” Stuck says.
Another reason for hesitation is that many shop owners see EVs and autonomous vehicles in the news and think that oil changes, for example, are on the way out. This isn’t true. Most vehicles on the road today are roughly 12 years old (IHS Markit), meaning they’re in the sweet spot for preventative maintenance. Mainstream adoption of these technologically advanced vehicles may not happen for at least another decade. Don’t wait for something that may happen in the future, focus on your customers’ needs today.
Educate Yourself on Valvoline Professional Series
Valvoline Professional Series (VPS) has enhanced training, incentive programs and selling tools that can help you grow your business. VPS has a portfolio of chemical products that will increase profits and revenue. Its chemicals ensure critical vehicle systems are free of harmful deposits or damaging build-up, which can give you peace of mind that your customers are safe on the road while also increasing your profits.
Offering these products at your shop can help create an additional revenue stream without a major overhead cost.
Make the Most of Your Partnership
Once a shop decides to sign on with VPS, a Valvoline representative will analyze the shop’s business needs. Stuck explains they will look at what the shop is currently doing and what it has the capacity to bring in. The representative will also get a clear understanding of the shop owner’s goals and help them reach those goals by giving a recommendation for a package of services and products.
The VPS portfolio is customized to your business model, making it beneficial for large and small operations alike. If you’re a one- or two-person operation that’s hesitating because of the overhead costs, Stuck explains that there are products available that can be used without having to make a huge investment.
Visit partner.valvoline.com or click here to learn more about the Valvoline Professional Series.
