Phil D’Agostini has been interested in the car wash industry for decades, but he didn’t take theplunge until a few of his cousins opened car washes and shared their experiences.
D’Agostini was living in California, where he was investing in real estate properties. “Californiawas getting expensive and crowded,” he said. After visiting Utah while his kids were living in the statefor school, he decided he liked the idea of living there too. “It’s beautiful, has all four seasonsand is easy to get around,” he said. “When I was looking for a change, both in business andgeography, Utah seemed like the right fit.”
After the reassuring conversations with his cousins who were part of the industry, D’Agostini feltcomfortable with the idea. “I had been looking for investment properties in Utah,” he said. “Whenthis car wash came up for sale, I thought this was it. I’d always wanted to get into this industry and nowit was available. I just jumped in at that point.”
D’Agostini has owned the Utah Auto Spa in West Valley City, Utah, since May 2011. He’s learned a lotsince those early days, especially the challenges of running a business that’s available to customers 24hours a day, seven days a week. “We’re open 24/7, so basically it’s on your mind 24/7. It tookme a year to settle down and think that if something’s not working, it’s OK, we can fix it tomorrow,”he said. “That was the biggest thing for me to get used to. I like when things are working. When thingsdon’t work, I get upset and frustrated.”
In 2018, D’Agostini and his team decided it was time to renovate. “We’ve been here seven years.When we originally bought the wash, we looked at it mostly as an investment and we figured that the seven-yearmark would be a good time to either sell, if we weren’t liking the business, or renovate,” he said.“As we’ve gotten more into it, we really enjoy it and decided to renovate it and stay in thebusiness. The recent tax changes were also part of that decision. We knew it would help us write off ourimprovements faster, so we thought it would be a good time to do it.”
Since the renovation, the team has noticed a change in business. “We’ve seen quite a bit ofdifference,” D’Agostini said. “We’ve hit some highs we’d never hit before just inthe first few months of summer. Even our lows aren’t as low as our old lows. We have to see what happensas the months progress, but so far we think we made the right choice to do the renovation.”
With renovations complete, D’agostini and his team are looking forward to the next phase of their future, which in this case, involves hiring.
When customers visit the renovated Utah Auto Spa, they have quite a few options for cleaning their vehicles. Thelocation features four self-serve bays and two in-bay automatics. The renovations also saw the inclusion of ninenew hoop vacuums, along with a dedicating a space for shampooing.
Another change at the wash is the new monthly unlimited pass. “We have a number of customers who want toget their cars washed whenever they want, without worrying about whether there will be some rain to ruin thewash they just got,” D’Agostini said. “So far it’s been good, but we’re hoping toincrease our marketing efforts in the next few months to get even more customers interested.”
D’Agostini and his team have been working hard to put the customers in the center of what they do. “Thegood thing about the car wash business is that most of the time, people are happy. They’re happy to behere and want to have a nice, clean car,” D’Agostini said. “But we do have unhappy customersonce in a while, which we’re striving to change, and I think we’ve done a good job. The improvementswe’ve made through the renovations have contributed to that. We made some changes to the lighting, whichhas an impact on the safety element for many customers, especially women. It’s important, becausecustomers like to feel safe. On top of that, they can see their car while they’re cleaning it.”
D’Agostini is also thinking longer-term, and considering it was his cousins who helped him make the jumpinto the business, it’s only fitting that family continues to play a role. “I’m getting olderand don’t want to do this forever,” D’Agostini said. Thankfully D’Agostini has a son whowas in the construction business who wanted to be part of the car wash business.
“I made him an offer and now he’s on board,” said D’Agostini. “As a millennial, heknows the ins and outs with technology and social media and other aspects of marketing. He’s been a hugehelp with that. His push to do more marketing and more managing has helped get other family members interestedin the business, so we’re bringing them in too. Not everyone who works here is family, but as an Italian,that’s the way it is – there’s always family around and that’s important to me. I haveother investments, and those family members help with those properties as well. That’s really important tome.”
For those interested in joining the car wash industry, D’Agostini said it’s a balance between havingsome obstacles you can tackle on your own while knowing when you need to call in the experts. “The carwash business can be a good business if you’re mechanically inclined and like to do things yourself,”he said. “If you’re not, you can still make it work, but you have to pay those people who are goingto do that for you. I think our business is a combination. We do a lot of things here, but I know when to relyon my talented suppliers and vendors to help us keep things going.”
D’Agostini also recommends reinvesting in your business. “You gotta put money back into the businessevery year,” said D’Agostini. “People let their place get run down, which makes it hard forcustomers to want to visit your site. Try to get at least 10 to 15 percent of your profits back into yourbusiness every year to modernize and keep up with things, otherwise the competition will drive you right out.”
