Jiffy Lube Email: Does It Drive Customers to Give Feedback or Just Crash and Burn?

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Jiffy Lube Email Grade: [D]

October 14, 2014 –

Organization Overview

Jiffy Lube International, Inc. is a chain of more than 2,000 franchised businesses in North America that offer oil changes and other automotive services. Based in Houston, TX, the company is a subsidiary of Shell Oil Company. Jiffy Lube is the largest system of franchised auto service centers in North America and ranks among the top franchising opportunities for entrepreneurs. The company’s core offering – the Jiffy Lube Signature Service Oil Change – provides a comprehensive vehicle maintenance service designed to help enhance the reliability and longevity of vehicles. Jiffy Lube also offers other preventive maintenance services including for fuel systems, drivetrains, air conditioning, cooling systems, air filtration, and transmissions.

Subject Line and Preview Pane Need More Gas

This email was sent to a customer who had recently visited a local franchise to get a Jiffy Lube Signature Service Oil Change. The subject line – “Thank You … Your Opinion Counts!” – together with the Jiffy Lube From line, indicated to this recipient that the email contained a survey generated as a result of recent service. Yet the subject line doesn’t clearly state that. And although some customers welcome the opportunity to rate their service experiences at retail establishments, this subject line likely would have motivated more opens if it let recipients know right up front that there was an incentive for completing a short survey.

The preview pane without images is weak. The images have been resized, resulting in large blank spaces, and there’s no alternative text to entice recipients to download the images. Unless recipients carefully read the small text in the preview pane, they wouldn’t even know the email was from Jiffy Lube. The link to the survey is included, but with no call to action or alternative text, recipients can only guess where it leads.

No Call to Action … and an Unclear Message

In this email, there is no clear call to action, so the eye path essentially leads nowhere. In addition, the email message is vague. There’s a big “Thank You” with a long link under it; however, until recipients click the link, they have no idea that it leads to a short survey.

Including a very clear call to action, such as “Take our Survey,” and then adding beneath that “and get $7 off on your next visit” would have been much stronger.

If recipients complete the survey, they receive a coupon that can be used on a future Jiffy Lube service. Although the offer is a good one – $7 off a Signature Service Oil Change – recipients never know that unless they actually complete the survey. There’s also a sense of urgency, however, as the coupon is good for a little more than a month. But oil changes typically are every 3 months or 3,000 to 5,000 miles, so the customer who isn’t due for an oil change could feel a bit duped by getting a coupon that expires so quickly. Providing more time to redeem the coupon might be a great idea.

Give Your Customers a Choice with an Unsubscribe Link

Jiffy Lube is a recognized national brand and, therefore, has credibility with customers. Although one could argue that this email is transactional and, hence, may not need to abide by CAN-SPAM, it may be a good idea to include an unsubscribe link anyway. Certainly, if customers don’t want to hear from you, let them off of your list. That’s better than getting spam complaints.

This type of email is a great way for companies to thank customers for their business, find out if the customers are happy with the service they received, get additional demographic information about their customers, and give customers both a reward and an incentive to generate even more business. In this case, the recipient figured it out, clicked the link, completed the survey, and downloaded the coupon. With some major tweaks, however, this email would likely perform much better.

Disclaimer: FulcrumTech does not have access to the performance data relating to this promotional email, so any tests performed on this email can’t be reflected in FulcrumTech’s commentary.