This interview is an excerpt from “The How of Car Washing” podcast. For the complete interview, please visit www.thehowofcarwashing.com.
By David Begin
During my career as a car wash owner, I’m sure that I made every mistake in the book, two or twenty times over. I operated my car washes with a set of assumptions that, looking back, were probably not serving my employees or my customers. But making matters worse, they were not serving me and how I looked at the business.
Let’s review the top five assumptions that I made that didn’t serve my organization or me.
1. EMPLOYEES THINK LIKE ME
This assumption took me a long time to overcome. For whatever reason, I assumed that everyone else thought about their life and career like I did. I thought every employee was highly self-motivated and would eagerly seek out new opportunities and challenges. I thought each employee would take every opportunity to learn and improve, be willing to work as much as they possibly could and always want to move up to the next level of management. I eventually learned that employees were motivated differently and not everyone was willing or interested in devoting the same amount of time and energy to their careers. Once I learned this, I was able to meet the employee where they were and offer appropriate encouragement and advice for career development.
2. MISTAKES SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN
For some crazy reason, every mistake that the car wash team made was a huge surprise to me, especially when it cost me money. Why was I naive and thought that everything would always go according to plan? After much soul searching, I decided that my overall peace of mind was too important to let the unplanned breakdowns and mistakes that employees made affect me. I started budgeting for unplanned events and employee mistakes. If the expenses did not exceed the budget, it felt expected. I was prepared for it, and I used the mistakes as teaching moments to make the car wash team better instead of wringing my hands and shouting to the sky, “Why is this happening to me?”
3. CUSTOMERS WILL SEE IT MY WAY AND UNDERSTAND
Customers do not always understand, and generally don’t really care how automated car washes work. They don’t understand why their jeep doesn’t get perfectly clean after a weekend of off-roading in the mountains. They can’t understand why the equipment occasionally breaks down or why we can’t honor a rewash 6 weeks after they claimed to have washed it. I learned over time that some people will act in an irrational way when communicating why they believe you should do this or that. As the owner or manager of a car wash, I learned that it’s important to be patient with customers and explain our position and why we have the policies that we use to run our business. I became more empathetic, took time to explain how car washes work and what it can and can’t accomplish. In the end, I was able to educate most of my customers, and they developed a new-found appreciation for how complex car wash systems are. As for the customer I could not reach, I tried to understand their perspective and make the situation right. I stopped the practice of bad-mouthing customers after they left and taught all my employees that we treat all our customers with respect, and bad-mouthing them degraded our high standard culture.
4. EMPLOYEES CAN READ MY MIND
My dear wife, Brenda, always accuses me of being vague in my communication. I can’t understand that, because I always know what I am talking about and I always know what I want. Why doesn’t everyone else? After several years in the business, I realized that effective communication was critical if I wanted an efficient organization. As the owner, I had to take the responsibility to make sure I was clear in my communication so the team could execute on what I wanted and not what they thought I wanted. The best method was the written word, through email, policy and procedure manuals and group texting tools, such as Slack. Written communications leave less chance for misinterpretation of my intent.
5. EMPLOYEES THINK “IT’S JUST A JOB”
I realized that motivated employees want to be a part of something greater than themselves. It was then my responsibility, as the owner, to develop a great place for them to work, develop their skills and allow them to show our customers how much they care. The greatest gift you can give your employees is to create a culture of high standards and expect them to strive for those standards. Motivated employees want high standards. Poor performing employees don’t want to be around high standards. High performing employees don’t want to be around employees who don’t like high standards. Once the culture turns around, the culture “self-corrects” any employee problems.
This list could go on for many more pages. Although it took time to learn how to be an effective owner and manager, we did a lot of things right. If you are just getting started in the car wash business, or if you have been a car wash owner or manager for many years, look at your management and ownership style and see if you are helping or hurting your team. Self-reflection and some input from people you trust, such as other car wash owners, can give you valuable insight into your business and management style and change your business for the better.
I learned over time that some people will act in an irrational way when communicating why they believe you should do this or that.
For the more information and tips on operating a successful car wash, we invite you to listen to The How of Carwashing podcast. The How of Carwashing podcast is a free on-demand audio program focused on helping you start, operate and grow your car wash business and you can find it at www.TheHowOfCarwashing.com.
