Marla Mayer knows her way around a car wash. Raised in the family business in Phoenix, Mayer cut her teeth doing everything from cashiering to inside windows to pumping gas at the wash. “I was fortunate to be born with a towel in my hand,” she said.
Today, when she’s not hiking one of Arizona’s mountain peaks with her golden retriever, Luna, Mayer can be found managing financials, placing purchase orders or responding to customers (often with Luna by her side) as one of the owners of Weiss Guys’ Car Wash in Phoenix.
A third-generation owner, together with her father, Jerry, and three uncles, Jay, Howie, and Roland, Mayer is dedicated to the success of the family business. It was this same dedication that her grandfather, Paul Weiss, had when he started the company in Cleveland, Ohio, back in the 1950s. Of the many things that she loves about her job, the variety in her work is most satisfying. “I thrive on the daily challenges of the business,” she said. “It keeps me on my toes.”
It was partly this variety that brought her back to the industry in 1986 after leaving for several years to complete a college degree in Communications from Arizona State University. After graduating, she pursued other opportunities outside of the car wash business including retail, real estate, and property management before making her way back.
Mayer said her respect and love for her family brought her back to Phoenix and ultimately back to the car wash. And the learning that came from re-entering the family business has been worth the price of admission.
“What my father and uncles have taught me is invaluable,” Mayer said. “Being in the family business offers something you can’t learn in a classroom. There’s just something about the way the family interacts with each other and with the customers.”
Mayer, a wife and mother of two, has taken that wisdom from the office to the boardroom as she was recently elected as just the second female president of the Western Carwash Association.
As president, Mayer sees the organization’s greatest impact on the regional and local level where they can help operators and vendors with networking, advocacy and education. By providing regional meetings, roadshows and education summits, the WCA is able to do for its members what as individuals they cannot do for themselves.
One way that the organization has been able to focus their efforts is through partnership with International Carwash Association. According to Mayer, this allows her organization to do what it does best. “When we can come together as an industry we are much stronger,” she said.
In an industry that is constantly changing and growing with new profit centers like dog washes and air dryers and tire shines, some things don’t change. Like the fundamentals of washing a car, or the basic tenet of putting the customer first. “We are very customer-service oriented,” Mayer said. “We know that we owe everything to our customers.”