Why Extended Drain Intervals Will Work In Your Oil Change Business

The oil change business is becoming a cut throat business with shrinking profit margins and less customer loyalty. There is a simple answer to this and if you're ready to investigate a proven method to make more money in the oil change business then please read on.

It's important that I mention this up front before we explore the benefits to selling extended drain synthetics; if you have doubts about extended drain intervals or you're just a firm believer in changing oil every 3,000 miles and you always stick to manufacturer recommendations then this opportunity is not for you.

We can discuss the validity of 25,000-mile oil changes later, but for now we will focus on the benefits of extended drain intervals and making money from them. This article will not debate warranty issues because that is usually the first question that comes up. If you need or want further information on these topics please feel free to visit my website listed at the end of this article for those topics.

Back when I operated my own oil change business I wasn't having much luck with petroleum based products. Then one day I figured it out and realized all I was offering was the exact same product as everyone else. There is nothing unique about petroleum based motor oils. They are all basically the same product offering the same useless benefit of having to change it every 3,000-miles.

Switching to Longer Life Oils Drove my Profits through the Roof

Getting customers wasn't that difficult, what was difficult was getting them to come back to my shop for every oil change. You see regardless of how great our service was all we were doing was selling a commodity. A simple commodity that anyone can get at just about any quick lube in the country. In order to keep my customers I needed to come up with something the quick lubes wouldn't do and after some pain staking research I found out what that was. And that answer was Extended Drain Oils, the quick lubes wanted nothing to do with these types of oils because they felt threatened by the high quality and the reputation that these synthetic lubricants commanded in this industry. Quick lube owners are well aware that once people switch to high quality synthetics they never go back to petroleum oil and costly 3,000-mile oil changes.

I went from making about $150.00/day to over $400.00/day switching my customers over to longer drain intervals. Plus I was able to eliminate most if not all my advertising because now my customers were advertising for me by telling all their friends. Nothing beats word of mouth advertising and this is just one more benefit to selling full synthetic oils.

Extended Drain Intervals Saved my Business

After doing some extensive testing with full synthetic oils in my own personal vehicle (this test took over 1 year to complete) and getting educated about synthetic lubricants I made the decision to offer extended drain motor oils to my customers. There were two things I found out immediately. First, my customers trusted my judgment and recommendations especially when they heard how extensively I tested full synthetics in my personal vehicle. Second, my customers were more interested in saving time then they were money and I will explain why in just a minute.