SiteWatch for Quick Lube from DRB Systems and Loveday's Quality Quick Oil & Lube
- Great American Success Story Southgate, MI
Challenge: To keep pace with the increasing management demands of a growing family-owned quick lube.
Solution: Boost productivity by using SiteWatch to control inventory, run weekly mail campaigns, and track customer service histories.
Can a quick lube center grow and prosper without a computerized cash register system? In some cases, the answer is "yes." Consider the impressive track record of Loveday's Quality Oil & Lube, a 4-bay quick lube in the Detroit suburb of Southgate, Michigan that handles over 120 vehicles a day, including trucks and RVs (two of its bays are 14').
Founded in 1986 by oil industry veteran Ed Loveday and his wife Helen, Loveday's grew from a small shop into one of the Motor City's busiest stand-alone quick lubes without using a computerized POS system. But even a successful quick lube can become more profitable and efficient when it's computerized. This was the lesson that Loveday's children, Norm Loveday and Connie Loveday learned when they installed SiteWatch at their busy quick lube center.
According to the Lovedays, SiteWatch has saved their business over six hours a week in inventory paperwork, and almost an equal amount of time in preparing weekly mailers. In addition, the computerized cash register system has helped shorten lines (and increase volume) on busy days by allowing customers to be processed in less time.
"Looking at all the benefits we've received from adding SiteWatch, I'm sorry we didn't make this move earlier,” said Norm Loveday. "We always had a healthy business, but SiteWatch made us a much more efficient operation, and eliminated hours of paperwork. This is not just a computer system for chains, it also has a very positive impact on the single site quick lube.”
Norm and Connie, along with their brother Bob Loveday, assumed control of the family business after their father passed away. The Loveday children began looking for a computer system a short time later. This search took on greater urgency after brother Bob Loveday passed away unexpectedly. "With Bob gone, each of us had more to manage, so the getting the computer made even more sense,” said Connie.
After studying their computerized cash register options, the Lovedays choose SiteWatch from DRB Systems. "We felt that SiteWatch was the most flexible and user-friendly system out there,” said Norm. "We also liked the fact that we could run two static sticker printers off the same computer. All in all, we felt that SiteWatch would do a good job helping us manage the business more tightly.”
According to Norm Loveday, SiteWatch has exceeded his family's expectations. He points out that using SiteWatch to manage inventory at the high-volume quick lube is saving over six hours a week in paperwork. "We used to pull receipts manually to reconcile our inventory of filters and other products,” he explained. "Now we run the SiteWatch inventory reports, and what used to require hours, takes only minutes."
Loveday's has accomplished equally impressive time and labor savings managing its weekly mailings with SiteWatch. In the past, the Lovedays would manually go through invoices every week for names of customers who were scheduled to hit the "90-day since your previous visit" anniversary. Now these names are filtered out of the customer database automatically by SiteWatch, which then prints the mailing labels. "This job used to take us about an hour a day, now it requires 20 minutes a week," said Connie.
The Lovedays also rely on SiteWatch to track customers. Using their computer system, they call up every customer's service history as soon as a vehicle enters the bay. "This allows us to greet customers by name, and have their service histories right at hand," said Connie. "This has made us better at recommending extra services to customers, so we've increased our dollars per vehicle."
Having customer histories readily available has also sped up service at Loveday's, according to Norm. "We're able to start the oil change process faster, because we have all the information on the work order from the customer's last visit," said Norm. "Since the overwhelming majority of our customers are repeat, this winds up saving a lot of time. Our lines are much shorter on busy days, so we have fewer people driving off because they don't want to wait."
Based on their experience with SiteWatch what advise do the Lovedays have for other quick lubes that aren't computerized? "You may think your quick lube is doing well, and maybe it is," said Norm. “But until you install SiteWatch, you won't fully appreciate what you're missing. It will make every part of your business run more efficiently."
Bottom line: SiteWatch Quick Lube Pro increases your average sale amount and makes you more efficient.
