I took my car to an authorized Honda service center to get an oil change around 5 pm today. There weren’t that many customers there, and the only cars that were there were already being looked after. The staff that wasn’t looking at the cars was either doing paperwork or sitting around. I told one of the staff members that I was there for an oil change. He said it was too late for an oil change, since any oil change after 3 pm required an appointment. He further said that all the people who specialized in oil change had left for the day. He did, however, have people who specialized in the 30K service, which was “only $130 including tax.” Oil change costs only $19.95 these days at most Honda dealerships, so he further explained that the $130 was a bargain as that would include the oil change and a host load of other tuneups.

I asked him if the oil change done in that 30K car service would be “of the exact same premium quality as the $19.95, using the same premium oil and the same tools?” He responded with a confident “yes“, telling me that it would be “exactly the same thing you expect from Honda.” I then asked him that if the 30k car service specialists could just do an oil change since, like he said, they were qualified to do that. The look on his face was a very interesting one at that exact moment. He looked at me for about 2 seconds, then opened his mouth to say something, while breathing at the same time, and looked at the side wall without moving his head or saying anything; I’m guessing he regretted answering my question with such enthusiasm. After a few seconds he said that those 30k specialists were required to work on the 30k service customers as a priority, and that they already had customers waiting in line to get a 30k service. I could see no cars waiting anywhere other than the ones that were already being worked upon. I left the place, hoping to get up early tomorrow morning and going to a service center nearby.

What’s up with businesses not wanting to be more flexible? They can use the services they already have, utilize any resources that are available, like those 30k specialists who were not all busy, and use them to have another satisfied customer and a little bit more money? Those mechanics work there fulltime as Honda specialists, and thus get paid by the hour, regardless of how many cars they actually work on. Management could avoid having too many customers on certain days to give the mechanics a break for the rest of the day, which can be understandable on some levels. However, the management staff was willing to put those mechanics to much more work, which would take hours compared to a 20 minute oil change, when that work brought in $130 instead of the $19.95. Thus, if money is the focus, why not get something instead of nothing?

This narrow-minded approach to doing business would work great when you’re selling only one service, or only one specific product which cannot be customized. However, if you have more than one product or service that overlaps with other products or services offered by you, it is wise to teach all staff to be more flexible into customizing a service or a product to meet the need of a customer, who otherwise would not be a customer.