Jiffy lube is a fast oil change company formed in 1979. It operates over 2000 stores that offer services based on quality and speed. The company serves an approximated 21 million people in North America annually and is a distinguished brand in the quick lube category. It offers oil change services (“About History and Mission”) and other car preventive maintenance services. Jiffy lube is a subsidiary of the shell company.
In a competitive market environment, companies become affected by external factors that affect their normal operations. These could be economic, cultural or regulatory practices that hinder their full productivity. There are also market and non market forces that can influence a company’s operations.
Jiffy lube relies on lubricant pricing strategy in order to compete favorably against its competitors. This enables the company to grow and retain a bigger customer number regardless of price fluctuation using a value based approach. Jiffy lube utilizes a branding strategy to minimize the effects of external forces in the lube industry. Customer perception towards the services offered by jiffy lube offers an opportunity for the company to grow its market share despite rumors on grounds on unethical behaviors. The landscape in the lube industry is competitive and rival companies are opening more outlets to gain from a large distribution network.
In terms of the economic conditions, the recent slump in economic growth has made people cover fewer miles with their personal cars, hence reducing oil changes that directly affect the oil change business. This is because cars that cover fewer miles need fewer oil changes, and hence reduces the overall car maintenance and oil change costs. Nonetheless, this also calls for an oil change discount to maintain a regular flow of customers. Jiffy lube offers lube change discounts through coupons, which eventually affect other market characteristics such as reduced market rates among players in the lube industry. The company also adopted other policies due to stiff competition in the lube industry. The grooming policy influenced the overall company performance, by ensuring that only well groomed employees work in some departments. This is because the company needed to attract customers, hence the need to station well dressed representatives at strategic locations.Jiffy lube is an exemplary service provider with a commitment on training aimed at improving operational excellence. The company continues to lead in the lube business, scooping awards in training and development. This training program improves skills among the franchisee employees (“Jiffy Lube International Ranks Number One on 2014 Training Top 125”), in order to maintain the overall brand and grow the business. The lube industry is quite competitive hence businesses such as jiffy lube need to find ways to keep the business growing. It is important for businesses to adopt ways to help in mitigating the effects of external environmental factors. This can help companies such as Jiffy lube to remain sustainable under poor market conditions faced with stiff competition.
The innovation strategy that jiffy lube utilizes are in meeting high customer expectations. This enables the company to retain customers who service their vehicles at jiffy lube (Martinez and Hobbi, 117). Jiffy lube practices an excellent driven approach towards its customers by exceeding customer’s expectations. This differentiates it from other competitors within the market. The company exceeds customer expectations by ensuring that customers who drive their cars notice the efforts offered by their services technicians. On the other hand, jiffy lube ensures its operations are much faster giving customers a quick fix on their cars, through a ten-minute service to most of its customers hence turn productive.
This fosters a business to customer relationship that helps retain customers. This made jiffy lube service centers be known to offer exemplary services to its customers, hence grew to one of the most successful business chains, spreading to national level. Jiffy lube capitalized on their customer ever expanding desires for quality services. Most customers look for such a service elsewhere, of which most outsourced their services to jiffy lube service points. This made some customers outsource the services to the company due to the perceived value obtained from the company. Apart from this, jiffy lube employs warm, friendly and experienced technicians who offer exemplary service in the shortest times.
Jiffy’s innovation strategy is also in network development, in which the company offers training programs to attract franchisees, due to training offered to other business startups on how to offer successful businesses. This makes jiffy lube franchise stores grow in large numbers of franchise business model. This helps the company attract other prospective franchise opportunities that have made it achieve a nationwide distribution network.
Jiffy lube continues to align itself strategically in the lube industry. Its training program is a success story that has made it achieve great strides, despite the shaky oil prices. The company continues to align its operations through franchises, growing its brand and maintaining service leadership. Its leadership is exceptional, and that is what has made the company where it is.
Works Cited
"About - History and Mission | Jiffy Lube." About - History And Mission | Jiffy Lube. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. <http://www.jiffylube.com/about/historyandmission.aspx>.
"Jiffy Lube International Ranks Number One on 2014 Training Top 125." Franchising.com. N.p., 25 Feb. 2014. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. <http://www.franchising.com/news/20140205_jiffy_lube_international_r
Martinez, Mario, and Bob Hobbi. Building a Customer Service Culture: The Seven Service elements of Customer Success. Charlotte, N.C: Information Age Pub, 2008. Print.
