Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Why Metro Car Wash is a Lot Like the Rolling Stones

I know what you’re thinking: I’m stating the obvious.

Sure DJ DripDry has the same swagger as Mick Jagger. Sure, his business partner OG Celentano (prior to the success of the Patch) burned just as many cigarettes as Keith Richards. And yes, yes, yes: the screaming fans and all that. But the similarities run a bit deeper than most people realize.

For starters, it took the Rolling Stones a little over eight years to become the biggest band in the world. Likewise, it took Metro Car Wash about eight years to become Tucson’s favorite car wash. It takes time to grow a fan base, no matter who you are. Word-of-mouth advertising is great; you just have to be patient. The Rolling Stones started in 1962 and by 1970 (when they were recording “Sticky Fingers”) everyone recognized them as a band at the top of their game. Metro Car Wash started in 2002, and as of 2010, with the release of Metro 2.0, we feel like we’re on our game too. We’re far from perfect, but we’re working harder than ever to be the best service business in Tucson (not just the best car wash).

It’s also interesting to note that, just like the Rolling Stones who started off with Brian Jones as a key member of the band (he was actually the founding member) and then fired him in the middle of their success, Metro Car Wash started off with three partners, but had to make the tough decision early on to lose one also. It’s never easy to make these calls. But sometimes, the most difficult decisions are the best ones. Personnel (that fits) and teamwork are vital to a band’s success (and a business’s).

Here’s another similarity: In 1971, when The Rolling Stones were recognized as the biggest rock band in the world, they were also essentially broke. They’d gotten into tax trouble and contract trouble, and had to flee to France to record “Exile on Main St.”, the album that has just been re-released. Now, rest assured, the guys at Metro aren’t broke (knock on wood), but it is interesting that customers always think things are rosier than they seem. They see the lines of cars and the crowded lobbies, and they assume car washes are money machines. They aren’t. Unless you’re inside an industry, you can never really know how expensive it is to keep things going, especially if you want to maintain high standards. At Metro, we’ve been plowing every spare dime back into the business. We have a long-term outlook on financial growth. And like The Rolling Stones, we don’t anticipate hitting Easy Street until we’re a little older.

Which brings me to my last point: we plan on being around as long as Mick and Keith too.

One of my favorite things about The Stones is that they seem to never to get tired of what they do. They always do a great job, and when things get boring, they re-invent themselves. At Metro, we’d like to think we’re no different. We’ve made a lot of changes over the years. And we’ve re-invented ourselves too. Our customers seem to like the changes, but were not done yet. We’ve got some big things planned for this year—not necessarily a world tour—but we think you’re going to like them.

Stay tuned. And as always, stay clean my friends.

DJ DripDry

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The Customer Isn't Always Right (But You Can Feel Sorry for Them)

One of my least favorite sayings (ever since becoming a business owner) is: “The customer is always right.”

No offence to H. Gordon Selfridge who supposedly coined the phrase, but it really is nonsense. No one is always right. And more importantly, there are actually some very bad customers out there—customers that aren’t only wrong, but whom you really don’t want as your customer at all.

There is a lot that has been written about businesses “firing” their bad customers, of course. And that discussion is nothing new. But in today’s economy, when you’re doing everything possible to bring a customer through the door, it’s a lot harder not to stand there and take it … to actually let the customer always be right. And unfortunately, it feels like there are more and more bad customers every day.

Now I want to be clear: if you are a business delivering poor customer service, or poor quality, you get what you deserve. The consumer market is obviously the very best assessment of your value and you need to always measure this (at Metro we utilize a Secret Shopper Program). If you’re getting consistent complaints about your business, you need to listen to your customers and fix something. This is not what this blog is about. No, what I’m talking about here are the just plain mean, nasty, greedy, ungrateful, rude customers. The ones with a scowl on their face before ever entering your door; the ones a magic genie couldn’t make happy. And let’s face it: they’re a beast of a different color altogether.

The good news, of course, is that these customers are actually few and far between. At Metro, we wash about 800 cars a day—that’s a lot of people’s lives we touch, if only for a few minutes—and almost every one of them is pleasant and appreciative of the service we provide. It’s just that the nasty ones (the ones that do or say things that leave your jaw hanging open in astonishment) are the ones you remember. They’re the ones you go home thinking about; the ones that get in your head and can wreck your day (and then perhaps have a negative impact on the good customers too). These individuals are few in number; they just make deep impressions.

I don’t know that there is a perfect way to handle them, btw. I just know that they will inevitably cross your path. And for what it’s worth, here’s what I do to keep myself sane:

First, I really do try to see the logic or the sense in what they’re saying. I listen to them intently and see if maybe we’ve done something wrong. If we’re not (wrong), and they’re just being rude and unreasonable, I calmly take a step back and remind myself of something my wife once told me: “When you see someone that’s mean and bad-tempered, there’s a reason. Someone’s making their life hard. Someone’s hurting them. It may be a very bad day, or it may even be a very hard life. You just happen to be the one they’re taking it out on.”

I like the sense in that. It doesn't ever make their actions justified, but it puts things into perspective. For me, it allows me to let them escape from my day (and my life) without leaving too much of a negative mark. I feel sorry for them. I feel sorry for whatever story lies underneath their nasty demeanor. And with this hurting economy, those bad stories are only getting more common.

Last weekend, a man with a scowl on his face walked up to me and my manager as we were talking. He pointed at his car that was in a Detail Bay for a hand wax; then he pointed a meaty finger in our faces. He said (and I quote): “No one’s started waxing my car yet! I’m a cop. If you don’t get someone working on that car, I’ll make one call and this business will be !@%*# up!”

I wish I was making that up. I’m not (although I do want to say we wash the cars of several great police officers who have become our friends).

In shock, we looked over to the car. What the customer couldn’t see was that one of my best workers (also my shortest employee) was just finishing the wax on the opposite side of his car. My manager pointed this out to the customer. In response, the customer said: “Oh. I didn’t see.” And that was it. Not a hint of an apology. He just turned away and continued to scowl.

As my manager and I backed away, I could see my manager was upset. And he had a right to be. The guy had just accused us of something that wasn’t true, he had threatened us, and neither of those things seemed to matter to him. Inside the lobby, we found our cashier a little flustered. She described the same man; she said he’d been rude and short to the point where she’d felt uncomfortable. Obviously, this was a nasty customer. And unfortunately, he had gotten into the heads of my employees.

I told them both to shake it off. I quoted my wife. I told them to enjoy their day. Whatever was behind that guy’s attitude was awfully sad. I told them not to be bothered by him; just feel sorry for him. And then I told them to be thankful they didn’t have anything that bad hanging around their neck.

It may not be a perfect solution. But really, what else are you going to do? My advice: get them out of your head as quickly as you can. Don’t let a rotten customer pass their mood on to you. Smile. Go shake the hand of a good customer and then thank them for their business. Slap an employee on the back. Roll your shoulders and be grateful. You’ll be surprised how quickly you get your mojo back.

Stay clean my friends (and happy).

--DJ DripDry

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Working at the Car Wash Blues

Let’s face it: washing cars is not glamorous. I get that. I doubt any parent has ever said: I hope you turn out to be a doctor, an engineer, or maybe even a professional detailer! College kids aren’t listing their local car wash as a career aspiration; we don’t get the same resumes as Google or Apple (although maybe BP now); and we never make anybodies annual list of Best Jobs. It is what it is.

But what’s unfortunate, I think, is how this translates into a perception of the type of person that actually works at a car wash. It isn’t a good one. There is a stigma attached to car wash employees (and car washes in general). All you have to do is go to Yelp or Yahoo and read reviews of car washes; the negative comments follow these businesses like toilet paper stuck to their heel (except for Metro, of course). Or cast your memory back to Jim Croce’s song “Workin at the Car Wash Blues;” that one did wonders for the industry—funny, but a lot of truth there too.

Working at a car wash is a tough, labor intensive job and the pay isn’t great. The people who work at a car wash are rarely there by choice. They're there because it's a paycheck. And for the most part, it’s an industry that will overlook a lot of past baggage. In other words, it is often times a last resort.

But at our Saturday morning meeting this past week, as I was looking around at the rather engaged faces of my employees, I realized just how sad it was that our customers couldn't see this side of Metro Car Wash. I have a feeling they'd be stunned.

First, you need to know that we have meetings every Saturday morning at 6 AM. The meetings rotate between our two locations. It's mandatory only for the Location Manager and our General Manager (and me), but it’s open to any employee that wants to come (again, at 6 AM on a Saturday morning). The point of the meetings is to step away from the details of our jobs and focus on the bigger picture—what we’re doing to stay ahead of the competition, what we’re doing to create a positive work environment, what we’re doing to make ourselves better. We discuss marketing concepts, secret shopper evaluations, books, and business theories. We have homework assignments. We set up company and personal goals (that we actually go back and measure). And we review financials; we teach and learn the details of a Balance Sheet and an Income Statement.

Granted, it may not sound as exciting as a Lady Gaga concert. But here’s the interesting thing: we now have about 15 employees showing up to these meetings (a lot of them on their days off). And they’re there with note pads and questions and fresh ideas. The meetings last one hour. No one ever falls asleep. And usually, we’re cutting off a good discussion in order to get set up for the day.

It’s probably not what you would expect … from car wash employees.

Yes, there are people in these meetings with baggage. There are people with tattoos; people still learning English; people that are recovering alcoholics; people who have been in trouble with the law. There are some sad stories, for sure. But more importantly, there are some great stories. When you look around at our meetings, you see individuals who are just beginning to realize that they have something valuable to offer. You see confidence begin to grow as others listen to their ideas. You see attitudes improve as they realize that they are part of a business culture that believes they matter.

Look, I’m not saying that Metro Meetings are changing the world or the source of Dali Lama-like inspiration (they are not). But they do prove to me just how wrong stereotypes can be. We’re all guilty of ascribing to preconceived notions of what someone is like (based on their gender, or their careers, or the color of the skin). It’s a difficult thing not to do. But it also makes us miss meeting some great people (or maybe finding inspiration in an unlikely place).

So the old adage still rings true: Don’t judge a book by its cover. And the next time you’re at a car wash, shake an employee’s hand. You might be surprised to find out you just read the same great book on marketing.

Stay clean my friends.

DJ Drip Dry

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Here we go ...

Well, here it is: our first blog. Maybe we’re a little late to the game. But then again, for a car wash, maybe we’re early.

We’ve given this quite a bit of thought, btw—the reason we’re blogging. Obviously, we hope it somehow gets us noticed (more). But we also just started feeling like we had something to say. Being a successful car wash company, we see hundreds of people every day, from every walk of life, in every different mood you can imagine. It gives us a unique perspective. It leads us to believe we have a little bit of a finger on a little bit of the pulse of our community. And with that being said, there is also the possibility that this Metro Car Wash blog just might be able to bring a little value to Tucson. It’s what we’re hoping for.

This is not a political site. And it is not a site dedicated to car care (although we might mention a few things about cars along the way … it is what we do, after all). Ultimately, we're a small organization in a struggling economy and we're fighting to stay alive. We're doing everything we can to improve our business, our customer service, and the lives of our employees. From that, stories are born (funny stories, sad stories, hopeful stories, and honest stories).

This blog is an effort to capture the spirit of our community, therefore, as well as the spirit of Metro Car Wash. In some ways, maybe it’s just a car wash diary. In other ways, it might become our new best tool to communicate with our customers. Regardless, we hope someone likes what they read. We'll be discussing everything from why Car Washes make America great, to why they help hurt America's image. We'll let you know why we believe car washes are a bell-weather for the local economy and why they’re a great tool for measuring a community’s attitude. We'll discuss our success stories, our failures, our business model (like Metro 2.0), our employees and you, the customers. Everything’s fair game. And we’re really looking forward to this.

Stay clean, my friends!

-DJ Drip Dry