Quick lube shops rely on constant vehicle turnover to stay successful, which is why the customer service experience is so important. Because quick lube shop visits are so short for customers, a great experience can turn a one-time customer into a repeat customer or even lead to referrals of their friends and family. But how can shops measure the success of their customer experience? Chevron has a solution!

The 2023 Xpress lube® Shopper Program™ is exclusive to Havoline xpress lube® and Chevron xpress lube® locations. This program is a mystery shop and image audit program that gives owners valuable insight into the customer experience in their shop. Here’s how it works:

The Mystery Shop Experience
This part of the program is designed to give business owners valuable insight into how customers feel while getting their vehicles serviced. Mystery shoppers, trained by Chevron, visit the shop for vehicle service without identifying themselves. While their car is being serviced, they pay attention to the customer experience, and when their service is over, they complete a detailed questionnaire grading the shop. Mystery shoppers visit once a quarter, and their questionnaires focus on four main customer satisfaction areas, including:

  1. Customer Service Interaction: They pay attention to the greetings from staff, how the staff treats customers, answers questions, promotes services, and gathers information. They consider customer service qualities like empathy, assurance, and responsiveness.
  2. Location Upkeep: They pay attention to the cleanliness of the shop and the exterior curb appeal. They will check if the waiting room is clean, well-maintained, and comfortable, including the customer restroom.
  3. Shopper Opinion Ratings: They will provide an opinion rating on their impressions of the services and how well the staff services their vehicle.
  4. Digital Presence: They will also go online and check the business’s digital presence. They check for four-star Google reviews, whether the location is listed on Yelp or has a website, and how well the location appears in search results.

The Mystery Shopper program is designed to be discreet, so no one at your shop will know that an inspection is happening. This is intentional because it helps business owners collect data on how their shop performs for the average customer. After the mystery shopper visits, their questionnaire data is uploaded to a portal for owners to view. The owners will receive an email notification that a visit occurred and the data is ready to view. Then, they can log in and see how well they performed and where they need to improve. Shops must score a minimum customer satisfaction score of 80% to maintain facility branding with Chevron or Havoline.

The Image Audit Experience
Like the Mystery Shopper experience, the image audit portion of the program is designed to showcase what the customer sees when they visit your shop. But in this case, the program must adhere to the brand’s image guidelines. The auditors are specifically trained to recognize excellence in facility appearance. Unlike the mystery shopper program, image auditors will identify themselves when they come for an inspection with a verified letter from Chevron, which they will provide to business owners or managers upon arrival.

Once the auditor has identified themselves, they will walk around the facility, taking pictures to support their findings. Like the mystery shopper, they will complete a questionnaire that focuses on the visual identity of the shop, including:

  • Overall site appearance: They will check how neat the landscaping is for the shop and if it needs to be maintained or repaired. They will also check exterior lighting.
  • Street signage: They will check all ground mount signs to ensure they are correct, properly installed, free of obstructions, and have sufficient lighting.
  • Building Signage: They will ensure that all building signage is correct and in good condition and that any lighting for the signage is operational.
  • Customer Ambience: They will check and document the cleanliness of the waiting room and customer restroom, including if the waiting room is well stocked, if the TV is operational, and if the customer service counter is well maintained and stocked with paper goods.
  • Service Bays: They will document the cleanliness of the service bays and evaluate the organization, as well as make sure pit covers are installed, and all windows, walls, and ceilings are clean and well maintained.
  • Personal Appearance: They will ensure employees wear neat and clean branded uniforms.

Participating shops in this program will be given image audit guidelines to see what the auditors will check for when conducting an inspection. Auditors will do their best to be discreet during their visit and avoid disrupting the customer experience. When their visit is over, they will upload the result of their questionnaire to the owner portal for review. To pass an image audit, shops must score at least 90%. If a shop fails the inspection, they will receive an action plan email of things to fix within 15 days. If the shop owners disagree with the results, an appeals process is in place, but they need to do so to ensure the shop retains facility branding.

What are the benefits of the Xpress lube® Shopper Program™?
When Chevron created this program in 2020, they piloted it at 5 Havoline xpress lube locations. Each site was evaluated five times throughout the year, and the business owners were pleased with the results. The combined score for the year for the mystery shopper visits for all five stores was 81.56, and the image audit score was 97.20. This data showed these stores were doing great, especially in the image audit results. The biggest area of concern from the pilot test was customer service interaction results, and scores dropped for some stores because of their digital presence. This feedback helped business owners to see how valuable digital presence tools can be for their business and to take steps to improve.

Since the pilot test, several businesses have signed up for the program. It’s easy to enroll and costs $825 a location, including four mystery shop visits and two image audits per year. Business owners who enroll get 24/7 access to the reporting portal and are eligible for Chevron customer service rewards and incentives for their shop and employees. This program is a great tool if you’re looking for hard data on the customer service experience in your shop. As a fuel and lubricant supplier and a Chevron partner, we highly recommend this program to improve the customer experience in your quick lube branding!