Mark Philipp worked for 35 years with Compaq, HP and Dell in the technology industry selling hardware across a large territory. But, after plenty of unpleasant experiences with the TSA and one too many overloaded planes, he decided it was time to make a change.
Philipp was visiting his son in Dallas and the pair began talking about investment opportunities and things Philipp could do next. His son commented on the number of car washes popping up, so they drove around the area and looked at a bunch of washes. When Philipp returned home to Utah, the real work began.
“I spent the next four years doing research and talking to many car wash operators,” Philipp said. “The more I learned, the more I liked. I thought it looked like a great opportunity to build a business that was something of value to the customers in the area and to me as an operator.”
Philipp did everything he could to learn as much as possible about the industry. “I subscribed early on to CAR WASH Magazine and studied up,” he said. “And I talked to people I respected and spent a lot of time outside my area talking to car wash operators to see what they liked, and what they would do differently.”
The diligent research ultimately helped Philipp build a better wash. Of course, it helps that Papa’s Express Car Wash is located firmly in one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. From 2000 to 2010, the city grew from a population of just 1,003 to a population of 17,781 according to the U.S. Census. It’s projected population in 2018 was nearly 32,000, or almost 77% growth.
“I looked at several locations,” Philipp said. “There a lot of young families here, the area is rapidly growing, and there have been eight elementary schools built in 10 years.”
Those elementary schools have likely been a large part pf Philipp’s success to date. He started early with a program that gives back to the community and has seen his unlimited monthly pass subscriptions skyrocket. Approximately 78% of washes at his location are monthly unlimited members.
“We give 10% of a monthly membership or wash to a customer’s chosen nonprofit via a four-digit code entered at the pay station,” he said. “Last quarter we gave back several thousand dollars to the community through the program.”
— Mark Philipp, Papa’s Express Car Wash
Of course, the charter program he started with his unlimited program was pretty successful too. “In the first month, we went from 0 to 1,200 unlimited members,” Philipp said. “We offered a $5 discount each month for 12 months and that catapulted our numbers pretty dramatically.”
The express exterior sits on nearly 1.25 acres of property, with a strong car count, and good ingress and egress. Volume is strong, and the location continues to see more first-time customers every day, even after two years in operation. “I thought it would fall off after about a year,” Philipp said. “But we continue to see a lot of new customers in our market.”
According to Philipp, the key to the early success comes down to a couple of things. One, is his employees. “In general, customer service has seen a pretty big drop off in recent years,” he said. “The first thing I talk to my employees about is the places they like to go, and what they like about it. That helps our employees make sure customers feel welcome and want to come back.”
The other is ensuring you have a trusted vendor partner in your operation. For Philipp, that manifests in a distributor who can make sure you’re not down for the weekend when you have a hose break on a busy Saturday. “We didn’t have the equipment to repair it ourselves at the time and we thought we were going to be down for the entire weekend,” he said. “But our great local distributor was out in an hour and a half and had us fixed and ready to go.”
At the end of the day, Philipp gets great satisfaction out of being able to provide customers with a positive experience. “My favorite thing is walking the lot and talking to customers when they come out,” he said. “It’s fun to talk about customers’ happy experience with the wash.”
