Why do we need your car for the whole day?
Silvia S. gave us an overall good Comment Card, but not perfect…
“I don’t understand why an oil change should necessitate leaving the car all day.”
That’s a perfectly reasonable question! Sure, our Minor Interval Service is more than just an oil change but even our most meticulous Technicians don’t need a full day to do it. Why is your vehicle here for the whole day anyway? There’s two answers… it’s all about you, and it’s not about you at all.
It’s all about you
Our priority is superior mechanical care for each client’s vehicle, so when you come in for an ‘oil change’ we aren’t here to change the oil and shuffle you out the door. We’re here to give you the full-service, in-depth, quality service we promise and you’re paying for. We have clients, not customers, so it’s never about a one-and-done sale. It’s all about you and your vehicle for the long term.
What, PRECISELY, do we do in a Minor Interval Service? Click here to find out.
Since we don’t work off ‘Service Interval Menus’ (where packages of services are planned at major mileage intervals regardless of the vehicles’ condition) we used the standard 4000-6000-mile schedule for oil changes to create our Minor Interval service. It includes your critical oil change, but the other things we do as well change it from ‘just an oil change’ to ‘proper vehicle care’.
We start by reviewing your vehicle’s history for anything we’ve noted in the past that we should be on the lookout for now. We take the vehicle on a road test to hear and feel how it responds in the real world. When it’s actually on the rack we’ll check things like suspension, filters, cooling system, brakes, fluids, and more. If you bought tires from us, this is when we can do your free rotate and balance. Another Tech reviews all the work in our Post-Service checkout, tops off fluids and pressures, and makes sure the vehicle is ready to go. Our Service Advisor prioritizes any recommendations and reviews them with you, without any pressure at all to buy anything you don’t need.
That means in every Minor Interval service, at least two and probably three ASE-Certified professionals will be using their years of experience and technical know-how to evaluate your vehicle, based on real-world performance AND a detailed history of maintenance and repair. And, of course, we change your oil. We can’t do all that in a half-hour, we don’t want to, and you SHOULDN’T want us to either!
It’s not about you at all
But even if we did want to pack all that work into a short timeframe we couldn’t.
Our team of 4 Service Advisors and 10 Technicians deals with about 100-150 people and their vehicles each week, and we stay over 98% on-time and on-estimate while we do it. That’s a very, very complex operation with high standards for success, critical windows for timing, lots of opportunities for error, and serious implications for failure. Coordinating a schedule with that many vehicles and their owners is like choreographing a ballet with centipedes.
In a Flat Rate shop, Technicians are paid by ‘book time’ for the services they do, and ONLY for the services they do. There’s no downside to a Shop’s expenses to having Techs wait around (unpaid) hoping work will appear. Flat Rate encourages speed over quality, but the upside to the customer is there’s always someone ready to work whenever you’re ready to come in.
Tom Dwyer is an Hourly shop, so we pay our Technicians for all the time they spend on your vehicle. That encourages quality over speed, but the downside to us is that we have to pay our guys while they’re on the clock so we need to have work lined up for them. When they clock in they expect (and we plan) to have a vehicle ready to work on, they’ll work on that one till it’s finished, then move to the next. That works great as long as every client brings their vehicle in on time, as long as no repair takes longer than planned, as long as all our parts vendors deliver on time with the right parts, as long as nothing new is found during work, as long as… well, you get the idea.
Every client is special to us, but when your vehicle’s in for service you’re in with at least a hundred other people who are also special to us. We won’t bump these people to get you in any more than we’d bump you to get them in. In a perfect world we could take you without appointment, do all our service magic while you wait, then have you out the door in an hour. We are successful because we know we don’t live in a perfect world and plan accordingly. We can’t promise half-day turnarounds because we can’t always deliver, and we won’t make promises we can’t keep.
What if convenience matters more than quality?
Look, we get it. It’s inconvenient to be without your vehicle at all, and sometimes a full or even a half day is downright impossible. Our Advisors are told to give the same advice they’d give their family and friends, so if Mom was planning a long drive and couldn’t get an oil change with us before she left, here’s what we’d tell her… go somewhere else!
That’s right! If you found yourself, for whatever reason, in a situation where you just CAN’T spend the time for proper car care, then as Tom says, “some oil is better than no oil at all”. Go by a Quicky Lube and get the fresh oil you need! Don’t buy anything else, don’t let them TOUCH anything else, and make sure the drain plug is put back properly when they’re done, but go and get the oil you need. Convenience lube changes are like fast food… they’re OK in a pinch, but you don’t want to make a steady diet of them. We’ll still be here for you when convenience isn’t your overriding goal.
Price. Speed. Quality. Pick two.
One of the wisest pieces of advice ever given can be summed up in just 5 words… “Price. Speed. Quality. Pick two.” The lesson lies in the fact that no one can have everything, and there’s always a price to be paid for any choice.
At Tom Dwyer we picked ‘Quality’ and ‘Price’. Our business model is set up to deliver top-notch service at a reasonable price, but that means we can’t do it quickly too. Other businesses are set up to deliver different choices and there’s nothing inherently evil about that, but those choices come with their own consequences. Quick-Lubes are designed to deliver ‘Speed’ and ‘Price’ at the expense of Quality, and have become successful by serving the millions of people who want that balance in car care. Other companies might choose the third option, offering ‘Quality’ and ‘Speed’ at a very high price. Getting quality service at your whim seems very attractive, but auto care is already expensive and will only get worse when you’re paying directly for convenience.
Relax. You’re doing it right.
So we’ll look forward to seeing you for your next service. Come by when you don’t feel rushed, when you can feel good about spending the proper time to let us care for one of your biggest investments. Say hi to the guys, look at the rocks, grab something from the candy bowl. We have a waiting room so you could relax and read something from our library, but why stay here? Take the opportunity to out for lunch in our vibrant Sellwood neighborhood or to enjoy the day in one of our gorgeous parks. Then when you’re done, pay a fair price for the value you received and go home with the confidence your vehicle is running at its best and the peace of mind from knowing you didn’t have to fend off vampires trying to sell you stuff you didn’t need to begin with.
