Lube Business Success is Threefold

In a world of convenience, Cloister Wash & Lube has created a high-end model for fast-lube success. As a team, we identified three key elements that we believe have the greatest impact on our ability to run profitable lube shops: employees, management and community relations.

With three combination wash-and-lube locations, we let our history of success in the carwash world lead the way in the lube arena. Here is a closer look at what Team Cloister heralds as the key elements to fast-lube success:

Employees

Our employees are the backbone of our best product. Don’t hide your lube technicians; showcase them. We teach our technicians to interact with customers, to put customers’ needs first and to take pride in the environment they help to provide. Employees understand from their first interview that Cloister provides more than just an oil change.

We pay a good wage and do not allow our technicians to accept tips from customers. We also do not pay commissions. Our stringent interview process supports how serious we are about presenting our customers with a spotless, friendly and welcoming environment. All of our employees, including lube technicians, are responsible for upholding the standard of quality for which we have become known.

One out of approximately every 15 applicants who interview may be hired. Our corporate appearance standards are published in our employee handbook, discussed in the interview process and reinforced by our site managers. By providing a clean and safe work environment, Cloister makes employment appealing. In turn, our employees consistently provide our best product and, thus, secure our company’s profitability.

Manage for Success

We strive to always be in a position to proactively and closely monitor specific goals and metrics. Our site managers and senior corporate management meet every Wednesday to review the previous week’s numbers and set goals for the following week. Key elements of this meeting are discussions about total tickets, labor percentages, customer service issues and sales strategies.

By keeping our tickets above industry average, monitoring wait times and bay times, we can focus on our customers and their needs. Additionally, most of our lube managers have a carwash background. This means they are familiar with the industry and the need to work hard and fast.

Our service review area is second to none. During service reviews, our lube technicians go over every factory recommendation for the vehicle and present advice to customers. We formalize this process by utilizing a separate, clean and safe review area to confer with customers. This allows us to fully gain customers’ attention, keep them in a comfortable environment close to the waiting area and review all of our product and service offerings with them.

Each lube operates and is managed as its own individual profit center.

Community Relations

Support community relations and take pride in your reputation. Doing the right thing in a community can do more for your marketing than you can imagine. At Cloister, the carwash has been our consistent leader in becoming involved in the community, and we have given more than $2.³ million dollars back to the community with our successful fundraising program.

In 2007, we also distributed free carwash coupons to the surrounding township firefighters who serve our locations, thanking them for their commitment to our communities. In fact, we give away thousands of free coupons every year to area organizations. This has positively impacted how people feel about doing business with us.

In addition, we participate in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life each year and run a successful Children’s Miracle Network “Change Bandit” campaign each February. We are the corporate chair this year for a regional Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Walk to Cure Diabetes event and last year started washing mother’s cars for free on Mother’s Day. Perhaps our most well-known effort is providing free carwashes to veterans on Veterans’ Day. This program fondly has become known as Grace for Vets and encourages the participation of other wash operators around the world.

We are proud of our community relations efforts and they continue to have a positive impact on our business. All of these efforts solidify our commitment to the community and promote loyalty from our customers. By practicing community goodwill, people think highly of us and feel good about being our carwash and lube customers.

We strongly believe that our employees are the backbone of our success. By managing for success and supporting our local communities, we have become a successful leader in the lube industry.

Diann Roffe is director of business development for Cloister Wash & Lube and a two-time Olympic medalist in alpine skiing. Cloister opened its first lube shop in 1997 at its Ephrata, Pa., carwash location and today operates three combination wash-and-lube locations.