For Jeremy Richardson, the manager of the Speed Lube No. 2 store on East Pershing Road in Decatur, Illinois, the third time was the charm. After finishing third the previous two years, he was the runaway winner of the 2018 Full Throttle Tech U Training & Rewards contest sponsored by ITW Professional Automotive Products.

For his efforts, Richardson collected the grand prize of $10,000. During the year-long contest, he sold a Full Throttle Fuel System Cleaner or GDI+2 Fuel System Cleaning Service to more than 2,400 of his customers, which represents 16 percent of the total amount of cars that his store serviced last year.

“I attribute the success we had with this contest to being extremely consistent with the service we offer and carry out for our customers,” said Richardson, who has worked at Speed Lube for 10 years, the last seven and a half years as a manager. “I am an extremely competitive person and after coming close the previous two years, we made it a point to get all the guys on the same page for this contest.”

ITW Professional Automotive Products developed and introduced the contest in 2016 as part of a comprehensive training program for service advisers and technicians involved in the quick lube business. The national Tech U Training and Rewards program is free and consists of six courses: Fuel System, Oil System, Transmission, Cooling System, Power Steering System and Wiper Blades.

After overwhelming success, the program was expanded last year, according to ITW. Contestants could earn more rewards on oil system cleaners, oil and transmission additives and power steering fluids. They also had availability to the recently updated Full Throttle Performance Products brand of automotive aftermarket maintenance chemicals.

“Employee turnover rates are normally high in the quick lube business,” said Joe Farr, director of sales-Quick Lube/WD for ITW Professional Automotive Products. “A training and rewards program of this caliber works to help reduce those rates because technicians see the positive results from their efforts. They can leverage their training and it becomes easier to properly educate and recommend services to their customers.”

With a total of six Speed Lube stores available to service customers in the Decatur market, Richardson said the training program offers many benefits.

“I believe the Tech U training program is very informative with lots of good information to learn from. The rewards program is great for the incentives it offers for participating in the program. I am eligible and will be participating for the fourth time this year. My advice for others is to treat your customers the way you would expect to be treated. I would also recommend being very consistent with the service you offer to those customers.”

Donatto De Leon, the 2017 champion who works for The Oil Well store in West New York, New Jersey, finished second. Jorge Lacayo of Jiffy Lube in Gaithersburg, Maryland, placed third in the contest, which split a total of $40,000 to the top 40 contestants.

The 2019 Tech-U Training & Rewards contest is now underway. Visit fullthrottleproducts.com for more information.