Castrol 11-minute Oil Change relies on experience

June 4, 2009 2:09 pm
Gary Garvin works in the well on the air-conditioning unit of one of his customer’s cars recently.
Gary Garvin works in the well on the air-conditioning unit of one of his customer’s cars recently.

Gary Garvin

Castrol 11-minute Oil Change opened in late 1985 as a family owned and operated business. This store was the first of its kind to the Renton Highlands and has always been committed to quality service to all our customers. I started as manager more than 20 years ago on Dec. 15, 1987. I purchased the store in September 2002.

I have never seen times this bad before. With the increase in competition we are all cutting back to survive. It has been hard to stay competitive and still survive. I have cut down on the number of employees and have retrained them on more quality service, AKA, work smarter not harder. I now can afford to increase their wages a little; so, for now, we are staying alive. I have compiled a lot of experience through the years. I have watched families grow up; changing their kid’s oil sure makes a person feel old.

As a locally owned and operated business, we do not see the discounts on products that these other franchised chain stores have and makes it very tough to discount services, especially with the rising costs of Castrol products. It is nice to see that people are starting to take better care of their vehicles to make them last longer. The fact that people are starting to see the real benefits from doing routine preventative maintenance has also helped the bottom line.

Survive and Thrive

Every business owner has a story of success to tell that can help others get through these tough times. To share yours, contact Dean Radford at dradford@rentonreporter.com.

Most of my longtime customers already know I am very strict on how I want things done, so I really train my employees hard on honesty and integrity. It is sad to say that sometimes other shops will say things that just are not true to get you in and take your money. We have nothing to hide, and in fact we monitor and record all services and never recommend any services that are not fully justified. We stand behind our services 100 percent and in the rare case something has gone wrong, if in fact we are responsible, we have always taken care of it in a prompt and courteous manner.

We also have discounts on services at castrol11minute.com to help with these trying times.

Castrol 11-minute Oil Change is at 4233 N.E. Sunset Blvd. No. 1, in the Highlands. The phone number is 425-235-8228. Gary Garvin is the owner/operations manager.