Latest / Small Business Success with Fexingo: Local Companies, Main Street Stories, and Community Commerce / How a Local Auto Shop Built a Monthly Membership
Transcript
- Lucas: So, Luna, you know that feeling when you take your car in for what you think is a simple oil change, and the mechanic comes back with a list of fifteen things that urgently need fixing, and suddenly your Saturday is gone and your wallet is lighter? Luna: Oh, absolutely. That's the auto repair experience for most people. It's stressful, it's opaque, and it's expensive. Lucas: Right. Well, there's a shop in Columbus, Ohio, that's trying to flip that script entirely. It's a family-owned place called Delgado's Auto Care, and they've built something they call the Car Care Club. It's a monthly membership that covers the basics, but the real story is how it's changed the whole relationship between the shop and its customers. Luna: Okay, I'm intrigued. So how does the Car Care Club actually work? Lucas: So for thirty-nine dollars a month, you get an oil change, a tire rotation, brake inspections, and a multi-point vehicle check. That's the core. And it's month to month, no long-term contract. But the thing is, the margin on that thirty-nine dollars is thin. The real value is in what happens next. Luna: Let me guess. They upsell you on the repairs that come out of the inspection. Lucas: That's the obvious play, sure, but Delgado's does it differently. They send you a video walkaround of your car, with the technician pointing at the worn brake pads or the cracked belt, explaining what it means and what it would cost to fix. And here's the kicker, they give you a score, like a health score for your car, from one to a hundred. So you're not just being told 'you need this,' you're seeing the evidence and understanding the priority. Luna: That transparency alone is worth something. I've had mechanics show me a part on a screen, but a video from the actual tech? That builds a lot of trust. Lucas: Exactly. And the numbers back it up. Maria Delgado, who runs the shop with her brother, told me that about seventy percent of members who come in for a free inspection end up scheduling a paid repair within six months. And the average repair ticket for a member is about three hundred and fifty dollars. So the math works out pretty nicely for them. Luna: Seventy percent is huge. So the membership is basically a customer acquisition tool that pays for itself. Lucas: It's more than that. It's a retention tool. Before the club, they had the classic problem: a customer comes in for a repair, you do great work, but you don't see them again for two years until something else breaks. With the membership, they're in the shop every few months for the routine stuff. You build a relationship, you catch problems early, and you become their shop. Luna: So it's almost like a subscription that smooths out the revenue curve. Instead of feast or famine, they've got predictable monthly income. Lucas: Right. And that predictability became really valuable in 2025 when the parts shortage hit. Remember, that was the year a lot of shops had to wait weeks for basic components. Delgado's could tell their members, 'Hey, we know your brake pads are at forty percent, we can order them now so they're here when you need them.' They were proactive instead of reactive. That's a massive shift. Luna: So how many members do they have now? Is this a huge operation or a small pilot? Lucas: They're at about four hundred members, which is honestly a lot for a two-bay shop in a suburban strip mall. They had to actually cap it for a while because the demand was outpacing their capacity. And that scarcity, believe it or not, made the club even more desirable. People saw the sign saying 'memberships full' and they wanted in. Luna: I love that. Scarcity as a marketing tool. But what about the members who just want the cheap oil change and never do the repairs? They're basically costing the shop money, right? Lucas: Yeah, there are definitely some freeloaders, if you want to call them that. Maria was honest about it. She said maybe ten percent of members are just there for the oil change and never bite on the upsell. But she's fine with it because the other ninety percent more than makes up for it. And those ten percent, they still tell their friends about the club. Word of mouth is their biggest marketing channel. Luna: So it's not just about the direct revenue. It's about building a community of advocates. Lucas: Exactly. And they've also used the club to smooth out their scheduling. They reserve the first hour of every morning for members. So they have a guaranteed stream of work to start the day, which means their technicians aren't standing around waiting for the phone to ring. It's a much more efficient operation. Luna: That's a smart operational tweak. But I'm curious about the pricing. Thirty-nine dollars a month feels low, especially if it includes an oil change that might cost fifty or sixty bucks on its own. How are they not losing money on every member? Lucas: So the trick is that the oil change is a loss leader, but the real costs are in the labor and the parts. The oil itself costs them maybe fifteen dollars. The filter is a few bucks. And the technician can do the oil change and tire rotation in about forty-five minutes. So the actual cost of goods and labor is maybe twenty-five dollars. They're making a small margin on the membership itself, but that's not the point. The point is the lifetime value of the customer. Luna: Right, because the real money is in the repair work. But how do they make sure members actually come back for the repairs? I mean, a video and a score is nice, but what's the hook? Lucas: They offer a ten percent discount on all parts and labor for members. So that's an incentive. Plus, they have a loyalty points system where you earn points for every dollar spent, and you can redeem them for future services. And because they see you regularly, they can catch a small issue before it becomes a big, expensive one. That's the pitch: 'Hey, your serpentine belt is starting to crack. If we replace it now, it's a hundred and fifty dollars. If we wait, it could snap and damage your engine, and that's a two-thousand-dollar repair.' Luna: That's a compelling argument. And it's actually better for the customer, too. You save money in the long run and you don't end up stranded on the side of the road. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the story we're seeing across a lot of service businesses lately. It's not about being the cheapest. It's about being the most convenient and the most trusted. And a membership model can be a great way to build that relationship. Luna: You know, this reminds me of something we've talked about on the show before, like the bike shop with the repair pass. There's a pattern here, right? Lucas: For sure. We've seen it with the coffee roaster's roast club and the barber's membership. The through-line is taking a service that's typically transactional and making it a recurring relationship. And it works because it solves a real problem for the customer, not just a gimmick. Luna: And in this case, the problem is the anxiety of car ownership. The unknown costs, the fear of getting ripped off. Delgado's is selling peace of mind. Lucas: That's exactly it. And the Car Care Club is a great example because it's so tangible. You can see the numbers, you can see the logic, and you can see how it could work in a lot of other service businesses. And it's a great reminder of why we do this show, you know? Luna: Yeah, we get to talk to smart small business owners who are doing creative things and actually making them work. It's inspiring. Lucas: It is. And speaking of that, I know we've mentioned before that we deliberately don't run ads on these episodes. That's a choice we made so we can have these conversations without any outside pressure. Luna: And if you're listening and you've gotten something useful out of these stories, whether it's an idea for your own business or just a little boost of optimism, the best way to support that is to buy us a coffee. The link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: It really does help us keep the lights on and the podcast ad-free. So, back to Delgado's. What's next for them? Luna: Yeah, are they planning to expand the club or open another location? Lucas: Maria's got her eye on a second location, but she's being cautious. She wants to make sure the systems and the culture can be replicated. The club has a waitlist, so there's clearly demand, but she doesn't want to grow so fast that she loses that personal touch that makes the club work. Luna: That's a smart approach. A lot of businesses would just try to scale overnight and end up watering down the experience. Lucas: Right, and that would be a shame, because the personal relationship is the whole point. When you walk into Delgado's, they know your name, they know your car, they know your history. That's what you're paying for, not just the oil change. And that's something the big chains can't easily replicate. Luna: So what's the one takeaway you'd give to a small business owner listening right now? Maybe they run a plumbing company or an HVAC service or something similar. Lucas: I'd say look at your most common service call and think about how you could wrap a monthly subscription around it. Not as a discount, but as a relationship. The key is to make it a no-brainer for the customer and a predictable revenue stream for you. And don't be afraid to cap it at first. Scarcity and quality beat scale every time. Luna: That's a perfect way to put it. And if anyone's in the Columbus area and wants to check out Delgado's, the Car Care Club is definitely worth a look. Lucas: Absolutely. And we'll put a link to their site in the show notes. Until next time, keep supporting your local businesses.