With gasoline and diesel prices sky rocketing with no end in sight, the housing market crashing and unemployment problems affecting the average American's pocketbook, many vehicle owners are trying to find ways to control their budgets they can take care of the basic necessities for their families. If a person has to buy food, take care of medical expenses and other basic family needs, vehicle care becomes a lower priority even though a vehicle is needed to get to jobs and ferry the family around.

At the same time, vehicle manufacturers have worked hard to improve the quality of their product by using better materials, improved fluids and mechanical designs which in turn has allowed them to be more profitable due to paying for less warranty repairs. They have also worked hard to lower the cost of vehicle ownership by creating vehicles that need less maintenance, get better fuel economy and require less major repairs. For instance, instead of setting of oil changes by miles and time, many manufacturers are using oil monitoring systems that track how the engine is used to let the customer know when to change their oil.

Unfortunately, many automotive service centers are threatened by this lower cost of vehicle ownership because they will lose sales from services that have been common to offer at 15,000 and 30,000 mile maintenance cycles such as fuel system clean services, transmission and coolant flushes. Yet the real question is whether you personally would want to go to a company where their goal to sell you anything for the sake of sales or use a company that will help you properly take care of your product?

For example, if we were to add up the labor hours for the first ten maintenance service visits under the guidelines of the manufacturer's maintenance log book for an average vehicle, they might add up to 5-7 labor hours with none of the services being the transmission or coolant flushes. Most of the services listed up to the first 60,000 miles are oil changes, air filter replacement and tire rotations plus a few inspections. A number of manufacturers require that customer only follow their guidelines or it could void the warranty. So, these are required services to protect the warranty, too.

None of them recommend or require fuel system cleans unless the system has been compromised by poor quality fuel or similar problems. Fuel system problems have clear drivability symptoms and then the fuel system service is actually a type of repair. Regularly replacing the air filter and using good brands of fuel, especially Top Tier rated fuels, with the proper octane rating will minimize or eliminate fuel system problems and allow the customer's vehicle to maintain the best fuel economy.

Alignments are not a yearly maintenance item anymore. There are clear symptoms when there is an alignment problem. With the newer laser alignment machines, a vehicle can literally be pulled up on the rack and the machine can print out the results within seconds to let the customer know if their vehicle has an alignment problem. I am seeing a lot of service centers offering free alignment checks, especially tire stores. This is brilliant and it is showing the customer a real vehicle need and could also lead to other related sales such as tires, shocks or struts. The best part is that the customer can see the need and do not feel they are being sold something for the sake of salesperson making a sale.

Vehicle walk around inspections at time of write-up also establish real needs by visually inspecting wipers, tires, belts, upper hoses and visible fluids while the customer is still there. Then following it up with a formal inspection sheet from the technician documenting the condition of the vehicle also builds trust between the customer and the company.

Sadly, there are still companies using computer generated recommendations without any visual inspections. Customers are starting to notice that these recommendations are not based on any real needs other than what the service center wants to sell them.

On the bright side, a lot of service centers are creating quick service lanes for the simple services that a customer can get done in less than an hour. As the customers return with their vehicles to use the quick service lanes, then the company is able to provide a wider range of service needs for the older vehicle. A great plan to build customer loyalty and retention.

I guess it is a question of integrity and the ability of a service center to build a loyal customer base. The longer the customer owns their vehicle the more legitimate services will be needed for the vehicle such as tires, brakes, wiper blades, etc.

However, if a customer can't find companies that will help them properly take care of their vehicle without overselling them, many times they just don't do any services at all.

© Copyright, 2008, J. Daniel Emmanuel, AutomotiveServiceManagement.com

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