ROI: Fuel Efficiency Service Menu
Depending on where you’re at, and regardless of the actual amount, gas price averages across the country are up $0.75 or more from a year ago. And as a result, consumers are spending more on fuel, and less on everything else … including vehicle repairs and maintenance.
So instead of fighting with every other business for your customer’s spending dollar, why not help vehicle owners with a service grouping focused on improving their miles/gallon, and their discretionary income. You can call it whatever you want, but here’s one suggestion for a new menu item that can help your customers save some money at the pump, while generating extra revenue and legitimate business for the shop.
Fuel Economy Inspection Service; consisting of:
- Tire pressure check and fill.
- Air filter check.
- Alignment check.
- Performance diagnostics.
Charge: $79.99 (plus tax. This price does not include the cost of replacement parts or services that may be needed after closer inspection.) It was obtained by averaging the hourly diagnostic rates and normal labor rates of shops across the country. We then added a $5.00 premium to the price.
Here’s how you can position this offering, along with some added benefits in the up-selling of other necessary services that might be revealed during the process.
Tire pressure: Simple, but effective. Yeah, it’s something your customers could do themselves, but they don’t and won’t. You’re saving them time and the hassle of finding an air compressor. Plus, the benefits are real. The better inflated the tires, the more efficiently the car rolls, and the longer the tires will last. Up-selling opportunities here include new tires, as well as changing, balancing or rotating the current ones. Any air for inflation is obviously free.
Alignment: The straighter the car is headed, the more efficiently it will move forward. Again, you’re improving their tire life and helping the overall functionality of the vehicle. Up-selling opportunities are obvious if you find the vehicle out of alignment. Check with the customer, and if they want the vehicle properly aligned, you’ve just generated some extra business.
Air filter. Hybrids haven’t taken over yet, so as long as your customers are running an internal combustion engine, clean air is vital to the overall functionality of the vehicle. A clean air filter stops more crud from getting into the mix and slowing down engine function. The up-sell is a minor one in comparison to the opportunities of the alignment check and road test, but again, it helps out the customer and gets a couple extra bucks in the shop.
Diagnostics, scan tool check, road test, whatever you want to call it: Not only is the customer getting a professional technician behind the wheel to listen and feel things out during operation, but having a scan tool hooked up during the road test can help pinpoint bad or failing fuel system components that are limiting the vehicle’s overall performance, and therefore negatively effecting gas mileage. The scan tool will also indicate any additional service opportunities.
The bottom line is:
- If you’re charging $79.99;
- But there’s nothing needed except for a new air filter;
- And it takes 1 hour, costing the shop owner $25.00 in labor and $5.00 in overhead;
- The shop makes $49.99 for the time and another $5.00 on the filter.
But the real opportunities come from the other stuff you’re destined to find. In the end, both the shop and vehicle owner win, as the customer saves money at the pump with a more fuel-efficient vehicle, and your business has generated extra revenue from valuable and necessary services that help preserve a vehicle for the long haul.
