Managers are a company’s first line of defense—and offense— in delivering superior customer service. With increasing competition for all companies—even those at the top of their industry—the ability to deliver consistent quality to customers is a competitive advantage. A leader in the quick lube/vehicle maintenance business, Jiffy Lube International, Inc., proved in 2014 that training could be at the forefront of this effort. Improved new manager programs, new technology (including a leadership simulation and electronic follow-up system), and the continued ability to support significant new product launches, were just a few of the important contributions made by Jiffy Lube’s Learning team.
MODEL MANAGERS
“The store manager is vital to the Jiffy Lube system as the manager has tremendous influence over service center technicians, customers, and the bottom line,” says Manager of Learning & Development Kenneth Barber. “Jiffy Lube International wanted to improve the training for this key role, so we took an aggressive approach in developing a program to optimize success.” Working collaboratively with the Jiffy Lube Association of Franchisees Training Committee and Jiffy Lube International Operations team, the Jiffy Lube University Learning team conducted an in-depth study of top-performing store managers, as well as those who were considered average-performing managers. “After gathering data from numerous managers across the system, our findings indicated that while all managers are engaged in similar duties, the primary differentiator between a top-performing and an average-performing manager is the time they spend developing their team members. The time invested in development by top managers was twice that of average managers,” Barber explains.
Armed with this information, the company significantly enhanced its management training curriculum by executing four major initiatives:
E-Learning: Older courses were updated and service topics were converted from instructor-led training to e-learning to ensure the 14-topic curriculum for managers is current, relevant, and consistent, regardless of when or where learners take the courses.
Instructor-Led Training (ILT) Leadership Training Class: Trainers leveraged the best resources they could find on leadership and business, along with expertise from industry leaders, to create a new three-day leadership class. The class was piloted in January 2014, and then rolled out system-wide in February 2014.
Electronic Follow-Up System: An electronic assessment tool for leadership class participants was launched in March 2014. Both the participant and his or her supervisor now are asked to assess their leadership capabilities immediately following class and then again at 30, 60, 90, and 180 days.
Leadership Simulation: “A Day in the Life of a Store Manager” program was developed to serve as the proficiency exam for leaders. The interactive simulation consists of 33 scenarios with various solutions for addressing each. Managers receive points based on the quality of the response and must achieve a minimum 10,000 points to pass and earn a Leadership Certification.
“In the first nine months, more than 35,000 management e-learning courses have been completed, with 3,000 certifications earned. More than 1,000 students have completed the Leadership Training class and the simulation, with approximately 50 percent of those utilizing the Electronic Follow-Up System,” says Barber. “The impact has been significant. Within three months of a manager completing the enhanced training, the service center experiences an improvement in customer counts and satisfaction.”
NEW PRODUCT SUPPORT
Managers’ preparedness came in handy last year as they found themselves supporting a significant new product launch. The majority of Jiffy Lube service centers offer Pennzoil motor oils. In April 2014, Pennzoil launched Pennzoil Platinum with PurePlus technology. The product was produced through first-of-its-kind technology that converted natural gas into pure liquid base oil. The challenge for the Training team was to prepare and deploy an educational curriculum for more than 2,000 Jiffy Lube service centers across North America in less than six months. “While the overall message was technical,” says Barber, “the team needed to ensure that the service center technicians could easily understand the technology behind the product, as well as the product benefits and value, so they, in turn, could communicate to their customers.”
The Jiffy Lube University team developed a combination of e-learning, instructor-led training, and virtual instructor-led training courses to educate not only the service center technicians but the Jiffy Lube international field team. To create excitement and passion for the product, stakeholders were rewarded with incentives for completing advanced levels of training. “We also worked collaboratively with the Pennzoil team to develop and display video communications on JLU Tube to raise awareness and generate enthusiasm around the product,” says Barber. “The courses were finalized in less than two months and made available to stakeholders in early March. Within 45 days, more than 12,000 Jiffy Lube store employees (65 percent) had completed the e-learning course. Additionally, JLU Tube had more than 23,000 views, and more than 4,500 technicians had completed instructorled training sessions.”
FINDING—AND KEEPING—STAR EMPLOYEES
Making it easy for employees to receive college credits for corporate learning is good for employees—and good for retention of high performers. Attracting and retaining top talent is an ongoing challenge for most companies, but especially for those in retail, Barber notes. Internal research showed that 45 percent of Jiffy Lube service center employees were either enrolled, or considering enrollment, in college or technical schools. “To address this need, we went through a review with the American Council on Education (ACE) in 2011, and the Jiffy Lube University curriculum was recommended for seven hours of college credit,” says Barber. “As we wanted to provide even greater benefit for the time invested in Jiffy Lube University training, we went through a second ACE review in 2014, which resulted in the Jiffy Lube University curriculum receiving ACE recommendations for 25 hours. For service center technicians interested in college or a technical school, these hours provide a significant jumpstart toward helping them achieve their professional development goals. And this benefit serves as an additional recruiting and retention tool for Jiffy Lube franchisees.”
To help attract and retain Jiffy Lube service center employees, Jiffy Lube University also provides a comprehensive development path, the Jiffy Lube University Roadmap, which allows service center employees to take control of their development. “Being able to see a path to personal and professional development beginning on day one is a tremendous benefit,” says Barber. “Service center employees can clearly see what is expected and the standard timeline for development. This clarity empowers them to take control of their development to reach their personal and professional goals.”
Along with bolstering recruitment and retention, providing detailed career planning feeds the system’s leadership pipeline. “The Jiffy Lube University Roadmap is not only a career development guide for service center employees, it serves as the foundation for the development of future leaders. From the Roadmap, employees then are able to use the certifications they complete to move up the corporate ladder. As service center employees complete various Jiffy Lube University certification levels, they enter into a manager position,” says Barber. “Leadership training provides them with the guidance they need to build a successful team. Successful store managers often then are selected to serve as district managers, overseeing several stores on behalf of the franchisee. When they look back, it was the Jiffy Lube University Roadmap that started the process and gave the individuals an opportunity to move ahead professionally.”
LOOKING AHEAD: REVAMPING VIRTUAL INSTRUCTOR-LED TRAINING
Jiffy Lube will be paying special attention to the training it delivers in 2015. “With more focus on efficiency, we must identify options to do more with less without compromising the quality of the training provided. Virtual instructor-led training classes appear to be a solution,” Barber notes. “We conducted research with a group of service centers utilizing an instructor-led training course compared to a similar group of stores being taught the same curriculum using virtual instructor-led training. The participant feedback and the business impact were almost identical.” As a result, Barber says, “we know using a quality platform and excellent virtual instruction techniques can yield positive results.”
In 2015, Jiffy Lube is planning to leverage virtual instructor-led training as the primary delivery method for a system-wide initiative and to incorporate virtual instructorled training as a viable option for other training courses. “Based on results to date,” says Barber, “we are confident that a good experience with virtual instructor-led training sessions will raise the acceptance level among Jiffy Lube franchisees and make virtual instructor-led training an accepted and preferred option moving forward.”
Given the company’s many training accomplishments to date, Barber offers the following advice to others: Successful training programs always embody the SAM Principle, meaning effective learning programs are simple (not confusing or needlessly complex), aligned with business goals, and measurable enough that trainers can track the coursework’s effectiveness for stakeholders. “When the SAM Principle is in place, and everything works together,” Barber says, “it is a beautiful thing.”