Navin Bhatia, 49, owns nine Valvoline Instant Oil Changes in San
Antonio, Texas, employs 90 people and brings in $6 million
annually. He has had not just one innovative masterstroke that
Valvoline has incorporated into other stores, but two. First was
Bhatia's "good, better, best" marketing strategy,
which differentiates each type of motor oil and includes
recommendations specific to the needs of each customer's car.
His second idea evolved into the Maximum Vehicle Performance (MVP)
program, which allows Valvoline employees to schedule services
based on the model of the car and the driver's traveling
habits.
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Go Ahead, Get
Creative!
The question remains: How can you be as innovative as Bhatia?
* Determine whether your store follows
your basic philosophy. The MVP program came about
because Bhatia wasn't comfortable with employees giving general
advice to customers. They started referring to an industry
publication, giving specific recommendations for customers'
cars. "We were doing what was good for their vehicles, not
necessarily what was good for our bottom line," he says.
Impressed with Bhatia's system, Valvoline headquarters
developed a computerized database to make specific auto-servicing
recommendations.
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* Look for problems before they become
problems. Bhatia bought a formula for running a
business, but when meeting with managers, he asks, "How can we
enhance the system?"
* Don't forget that you once had a
life outside of franchising. Bhatia's "good,
better, best" marketing strategy was inspired by his former
job with American Express. Just as American Express users upgrade
to Gold, Platinum and Centurion cards, Valvoline customers get
grades of oil based on their cars' needs.
It's Your
Store
"There is a general misconception that franchisees are just
managers, but our success is 100 percent based on our ideas,"
explains Chris Taylor, who co-owns an Arlington, Texas, Fastsigns
location with his wife, Jean-Ann. The Taylors developed a marketing
magazine targeting apartment complexes; the franchisor later
adopted the Taylors' fresh idea for all its franchisees to
use.
"Creativity," says Jean-Ann, "is what separates
our store from other stores in the system. In that sense, we're
not all the same."
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Contact Cincinnati writer Geoff Williams at gwilliams1@cinci.rr.com.
Contact Sources
Originally published in the September 2002 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine
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