The “Prime Shine Way” – Twenty-ish Concepts for Success
By Evan Porges
(assistant manager, manager, district manager,
general manager, vice-president, president – Prime Shine Inc.)
Preface.
It’s been six years since the sale of Prime Shine. I am often asked about what was done at Prime Shine that made the twenty-unit chain so unique and high functioning. Admittedly, it wasn’t always a well oil machine. It is normal for all companies to experience growing pains, and Prime Shine was no exception. As the company grew and the volumes of cars being washed through our system increased, there was pressure to standardize and professionalize the organization to achieve company goals and meet leadership’s high expectations.
It is important to realize that from the start we never thought of ourselves as just a car wash. Car washing tends to be thought of as a low-end occupation and a low-end business. Prime Shine sought to change the way people thought about washing cars and the way employees felt about working at a carwash. We did this by creating an environment with facilities that were inviting and comfortable combined with employees that were professional and a product that was not only high quality but was also high value. Accomplishing this did not occur overnight and Prime Shine did reach a “Malcolm Gladwell Tipping Point.” In the early 2000’s we were experiencing very high turnover on the front lines, almost 300%. Although we thought we were pretty good employers, we decided to do an employee survey to see how we stood. Fortunately, employees responded brutally honestly with how they felt about the company, management and ownership. Bottom line, they didn’t trust us. This is the point that leaders can scoff at the feedback and do it “their” way or the “highway,” or leaders can swallow their pride, roll up their sleeves and go to work. It took the next two decades of intense focus to the business, desire to improve and investment by both ownership and all the dedicated employees to achieve what Prime Shine ultimately meant to employees, the community and the industry.
Business cultures don’t change by themselves or by just one person. It takes an incredible team, and Prime Shine was fortunate to have assembled a high functioning group that wanted to be part of something special. Thank you to my business partner and father Norm Porges for founding Prime Shine and providing a platform for us to excel. Although there are so many members of the team who made an impact along the three-decade path a few that need to be mentioned are Thomas Randler, Cory Simpson, Corey Meyer, Brandon Campbell, Austin DiPirro, Jay Japka, Ken Smith, Ellie Gordon, Tonja Searles, Staci Coffey, Aron Silva, John Schneider, Peter Kroeze, and the incomparable Tim Harms, who had the third longest career at the company behind Norm and me. Tim did a little bit of everything since joining the company in 1998 and ended as our professor at Prime Shine University (PSU). All these folks and many more had, as we liked to say, blood that flowed Prime Shine yellow.
(20-ish concepts…not in any order)
Back of the House.
Concept:
The back of the house should be as clean if not cleaner than the front of the house. All businesses have an area of operation that isn’t seen by the customers. At Prime Shine we were hypersensitive to how our equipment rooms were designed, organized, and kept spotless. The theory was if we kept behind the scenes clean, this would set the standards for the areas that the customers do see (i.e., vacuum/self-serve stalls/tunnels). If we didn’t care about the back of the house, why should we care about the front? We used to have a saying that we should be able to have Thanksgiving dinner on our equipment room floors…this was the cleanliness standard.
Focusing on the back of the house sent a signal to our staff that we care equally if not more about an area of the operation that is generally only seen by our employees. (i.e. we used all copper to plumb our systems, PVC is a lot cheaper but doesn’t last as long or have the same look and feel as copper). This built loyalty and showed our employees just how important they are to us and how much we care about them and their working environment.
Question:
What is your back of the house, equipment room, storage closet, office, garage, etc.?
Is your back of the house clean or organized or a place that is a mess because just employees see it?
Brand is Critical (but it’s a lot more than just a logo)!
Concept:
Simply defined, a brand is how both your employees and your customers perceive you as a business. (i.e. think Disneyland). Everything that your business does that is employee and customer facing should be “on brand.” A well-designed logo is a part of the brand but is by no means the brand of a business. Branding at Prime Shine started when an employee applied to the company. We used a customized application (not the Office Depot generic) that we created to be specific to our company’s brand and information needs. This set the tone at the very first touch point for what kind of company Prime Shine was. For customers our brand started at the point that their car’s tires hit our driveway where fresh flowers and beautiful landscaping welcomed them. Our stylish and cool buildings (we spent a lot more than we needed to), the clean and tidy vacuum stalls with the hoses wrapped up the same around the vacuums, the coordinated uniforms worn by attentive and happy employees, the bright cheery colors, the consistent customer experience and product, the clean tunnels with all the equipment working all the time, stickers for the kids, dog treats for the pets, wishy washy’s to wipe customers’ dash…I could go on and on with the items that Prime Shine painstakingly focused on to create our “brand.”
Three legs of the brand. All businesses have three legs to their “business stool” that encompasses their brand. 1) customer service 2) environment 3) product. Owners must be aware that it takes focus of brand on all legs for the business to thrive and have a shot at repeat business. If two of the three legs are satisfactory to a customer, then there is a chance that the customer will repeat. If only one leg is on brand, chances are a customer will look else wear. Of course, the goal is to ensure that all three legs represent your brand consistently.
Employees want to work at companies that have a fun and cool brand. Competition for the best employees is a challenge. If you want to attract the best, you must provide a fun, attractive and awarding/rewarding environment for the best to want to be. Prime Shine didn’t think of other car washes as the branding competition for quality employees. Instead, we set our bar that we wanted to compete with Starbucks and In-and-Out Burger for quality employees.
The Prime Shine logo evolved from its original. The original logo had the words “express” as the prominent part of the logo. This encouraged the consumer to refer to us as “express car wash.” In the early nineties when Prime Shine was introduced to market the concept of express services was relatively new to consumers. Soon everything in the retail services business was express…express laundry, dog grooming, delivery, employment, coffee, clothing, etc. I LOVED the name Prime Shine and wanted that to be our name instead of competing with or being confused with all the other express named companies. A logo change put the words “car wash” prominent and made Prime Shine larger and a more significant part of the logo. It wasn’t overnight, but eventually we were known appropriately as Prime Shine Car Wash.
Question:
How do you think your employees and customers would describe your brand?
Is your brand consistent amongst all “legs?”
Is your company fun to work at?
What message does your logo send to your employees and customers?
Grassroots/Guerilla Marketing.
Concept:
Created in the early 1980s by the late business writer Jay Conrad Levinson, guerrilla marketing is the use of non-standard and out of the box marketing concepts to further the brand of a business. All businesses are first and foremost marketing companies. Without intense focus on furthering the brand, companies will not realize their full potential for outside sales. Grassroots marketing was a strategy Prime Shine used prolifically. This concept refers to those efforts other than the mainstream media such as radio, tv, newspaper, etc. Although Prime Shine did use mainstream media, we used it strategically and often with partnerships. Mainstream media is expensive and can be very difficult to determine the success of campaigns. Mixing in grassroots marketing efforts helped Prime Shine spread the word about our product without spending lots of major media dollars. Examples of Prime Shine’s grassroots/guerilla marketing efforts are:
Sunny One-O-Tuesday, co-branding concept for trade with Sunny 102 Radio. Sunny 102 contemporary adult radio would provide free advertising for Prime Shine on Tuesdays in exchange for free washes and getting another business to give away free items (sandwich, yogurt, etc.) on Tuesdays to all car wash customers. Businesses providing free items were also a part of radio advertising messaging. Win-win-win. The radio station was able to provide their listeners with a free item for listening, company giving away item received free advertising and potentially new customers, Prime Shine received free advertising and lots of good will from existing customers.
Wishy Washy towelette to get logo in the car. I was trying to figure out how to get our logo inside our customers’ cars so the brand would stay with them. After dining at Tony Roma’s ribs and being handed a branded wet nap, it hit me that this was the way. We created the “Wishy-Washy,” which was a wet towelette in a private labeled package that was given free to all customers to wipe their dash or hands.
Paws for a Cause – free washes on busy sunny Saturdays at all locations for a donation to the Sheriff’s department to purchase new K9 dogs. Often partnered with radio for trade to promote event. 100% of donations went to Sheriff.
Flood Relief for Red Cross – Similar to Paws for a Cause event that was disaster specific. Norm and I were honored by Governor Wilson on the State Capitol steps for our contribution to help those in need through this effort.
Strategic to be awarded “best” business awards by chambers, etc. Used these awards in our marketing and advertising.
Targeting businesses for coupon promotions (barbers, insurance, doctors etc.)
Sponsoring community events, Earth Day, Chocolate Festival, Car Shows, etc. Physical presence with pop up tents that were full branded. Provided a great opportunity to give away washes and branded swag.
Sponsoring non-profit organizations’ fundraising events to partner with well-respected local non-profits to create a de facto endorsement of our brand and service.
Bought a full-size bus for Modesto Junior College and vinyl wrapped it the MJC/Prime Shine Pirate Express bus to move students from one campus to another.
Free Car Wash give-away direct mailers when opening a new location to everyone within a three-mile radius. Direct mail typically has a less than 2% response, we received upwards of 25% response with the free wash. Nothing gets a new customer in to your business better than free, no strings, no restrictions.
Car wash programs with auto-dealers. Dealers bought car washes to give free to customers after having their vehicles serviced in exchange for Prime Shine providing five free washes to all new car purchases. Washes were presented in a professional co-branded coupon book. Created comfort to consumer that car dealer is endorsing Prime Shine to wash their new car.
Free car wash “post it “on the cover of the Modesto Bee (80K) during the great recession to help do our part for those going through financial challenges.
Created a comic book, Prime Shine Man for kids who came through the wash. Get kids requesting to go through wash regardless of car dirty or not. Parents pretended wash was a roller coaster or sea monster…lots of washes were done just for entertainment for the kids.
Handed out Prime Shine branded stickers to the kids and dog treats for the pets. Think Disneyland!
Branded all our service trucks with fun graphics and sparkling chrome wheels. Maintain the high end of our brand on these moving billboards and made the maintenance department team members feel special driving nice trucks.
Golf balls with “return for free wash” printed on them.
Collect unique stamps by visiting all different locations to be eligible to be put into a drawing for a big screen TV for the super bowl.
Hallothanksmas! Created a holiday that lasted from Halloween through Christmas, Hallothanksmas. We put our wash passbooks on sale for this yearly holiday promotion that sold nearly 1M in prepaid washes that helped fill the bank accounts going into the winter months.
Used the monthly Chamber magazine where they listed new members and anniversaries of existing members. Wrote a letter to each recognizing them and giving them a free car wash. I personally signed each letter and added a personal note.
Prime Shine burger. Had co-marketing program with several restaurants that with the purchase of a “Prime Shine burger” customer received free car wash coupon with their meal.
Think Big “B” Business.
Concept:
At Prime Shine we always thought of ourselves as a much larger company than we were, hence a Big “B” business and not a little “b” business. This helped guide us as with every decision we made and helped set expectations for ourselves and our employees. Even with only one location and ten employees in the early nineties we had complete employee manuals, full training systems, accountability reports, full financials, and checklists on top of checklists.
It was always a compliment to us in the early days when often customers would ask if we were a franchise. This was intentional. We wanted to look larger than we were as this (franchise look and feel) is comfortable for the consumer and the employees.
From day one we called our office “world-wide” headquarters…now that’s thinking big!
Question:
Do you think of your business as just a “mom and pop,” shop or as a large, sophisticated business?
Be Present.
Concept:
There is no substitute for the owner/manager of a business to be present at the business. I would not have been able to be president of Prime Shine had I not spent a decade on the front lines washing cars, doing the equipment maintenance, helping install new equipment, dealing with customer challenges, hiring, firing, cleaning, etc. In the early years it was critical to be the first one at the store and the last one to leave, this was a culture that was later shifted to our management teams.
Do ALL the jobs at the business. I was in the “pits” cleaning them with the worst smell and muddy environment. I would join the team to scrub the vacuum stalls and clean the walls of the tunnel. Be the leader and don’t ask anyone to do a job that you won’t do.
Weekends, holidays and all hours. There is no worst day in customer service than Sundays and holidays and no worse time of day than closing shift. This is typically when the owners and managers are off. Don’t do it. Work on the weekends and mix up your hours and ensure that your employees and customers know that you are around. This sends a signal to your employees that there is no job or role beneath you and no day of the week or time of day that is less important to the company.
Facetime and hours spent with employees is the only way to set an example of how you want the business to run. Employees want to be lead, but left to their own choices, they may tend to do things differently than you want.
Question:
Are you spending enough time at/in your business?
Do you have knowledge of all the systems and operations at your business?
Are you more of a “point and do as I say” manager or one that rolls up their sleeves?
Employee Centric.
Concept:
Why would anyone want to work at a car wash? For years recruiting and retaining quality employees was a challenge for Prime Shine. Despite our best efforts our turnover was consistently around 300% per year. The cost of turnover in both time and money was crushing. We decided to do an employee satisfaction survey to see what our employees thought of us as employers and what we could do better or provide more of. The results were shocking to the leadership team. Generally, employees at all levels felt that they were not respected or cared about. They provided specific examples of their needs and wants to consider Prime Shine an employer of choice. We could have reacted defensively, but instead we decided to embark on a ten-year cultural shift to turn Prime Shine into an employer of choice to compete with top end employers like In-and-Out Burger.
All decisions were made through the eyes of employees.
Yearly employee satisfaction surveys to get feedback on the company’s performance as an employer.
Monthly manager meetings, quarterly full staff safety/operations/update meetings with some type of fun event associated to them to build trust and goodwill.
Created Prime Shine University with full time professor to teach life skills to employees.
Focus on making employees better people…so that they will be the very best employees.
Created career positions with career wages and benefits, including guaranteed hours.
Created Best Places to Work Central Valley with Opportunity Stanislaus, a yearly third-party employment survey to hold employers accountable with their benefits and job offerings. It was an honor to yearly be awarded this recognition and helped with our recruitment and retention.
Created Shining Shorts, a text-based video weekly communication sent to all employees that included company updates, employee recognition, holiday greetings etc. Shorts featured members of the leadership team and front-line employees to engage everyone on staff to enjoy these less than two-minute video messages. These quickly became a favorite communication tool in the company, particularly as the company grew and became more geographically spread out. Humor and creativity were used (remember “brand”) to keep messages fresh and on point.
Instituted Shine Line, a third party outsourced anonymous reporting system for employees to call if they felt that there was an event that was inappropriate while at work.
Question:
What do you think your employee survey would say about your leadership and company?
What additional benefit do you think your employees would want to improve their experience?
Do you believe that there is an ROI on employee satisfaction?
Do you think your employees feel safe and appreciated at your company?
Mentors.
Concept:
It is vital that leaders have mentors to help develop leadership and management skills. Mentors can be found in multiple areas including friends, leadership cohorts, family, clergy, professional services and industry leaders. Bouncing personal and company decisions off someone else who may have experienced similar issues is an important part of growing leadership and decision-making skills.
Just because one is a mentor to you, doesn’t mean that you must do everything they say or advise. I think it is equally important for you to learn your own style and how you may make different decisions or act differently than a mentor, this is what mentors are for…learn what to do and what NOT to do.
I was fortunate to have several mentors in my career both personally and within the industry. My father has had a significant impact on my career and development as a business professional. I was also fortunate to have two additional mentors within the industry who operated in cities outside of California who became vital sources of guidance and advice for all aspects of the car wash business. Chuck Kaady and Bill Dahm are industry legends who I was intentional (Chuck I knew from day one) to develop relationships with, trade ideas and to learn back best practices to bring back to Prime Shine. Chuck and I remain very close friends to this day. As a side note both incredible business operators and people always kept an open mind on what they could learn from Prime Shine. This was a huge lesson in my life that you NEVER know it all and you NEVER stop learning from anyone and everyone. Without Chuck Kaady, Prime Shine would not have become what it was, period.
Non-profit boards. Serving on non-profit boards is not only a great opportunity to give back but also an opportunity to see how other leaders think and make decisions. Board service may be a way to find personal mentors and see how other businesses are run. Non-profits have the same business challenges as for-profit businesses, and I was fortunate to serve on many besides some of our community’s most successful businesspeople.
Board of Advisors. Prime Shine started a board of advisors that acted as a formal set of mentors for the company. Meeting three times a year we shared all financial information with these advisors. They were a sounding board of experts in their field. No one was in the car wash industry, and no one were “friends.” We were intentional in selecting people in the community who were experts in an area of our business that was critical, i.e. human resources, real estate, government, power/water, etc.
Question:
If you were to be intentional about seeking out a mentor, who would that be?
“In the Room.”
Concept:
Often leaders will describe their decision making as “from the gut.” But how does one’s gut get the training necessary to make these types of decisions. A critical part of the leadership and management training experience is to be what I call “in the room.” At all opportunities when meetings are occurring young and up-and-coming leaders need to be in the room to hear the conversations and see how others react to situations and make decisions.
I was fortunate that my father exposed me from a very young age to all possible meetings with all our professional advisors and government leaders. This not only provided me with the opportunity to “be in the room” and learn and observe, but it also made for a seamless transition of leadership with our professional advisors and vendors as my father’s role changed over the years.
Question:
Are you providing opportunities for your young leaders to be in the room?
What are other ways that you can get gut experience if being in the room isn’t an option?
Hire the best internal/external that you can afford.
Concept:
When it comes to hiring employees and contracting with professional outside services it is critical that you hire the absolute best that you can (and sometimes can’t) afford. Assembling a quality team to lead your business will be the difference between success or failure.
As a leader you must be comfortable with surrounding yourself with folks that are smarter than you and have the passion for being a part of a high functioning team.
Leaders don’t always have to have the answer. When I was a young manager, I thought that having all the answers to problems was my role, it isn’t. Recognizing problems and then using the talented people in your organization to solve the challenges is the role of a leader. When one realizes this, they become a much more mature and effective leader.
Prime Shine first professional hire was our CFO. We grew to such a size that we couldn’t keep up with the accounting and financial needs of the business internally. The board of advisors strongly suggested hiring a CFO to help. Our outside accountants helped with the search. This was the start of professionalizing our business and executive team. Director of human resources, director of information and technology, director of engineering and director of operations completed the executive team.
Question:
Why is it important to be intentional and strategic with key leadership hires?
What would it mean to “professionalize” the leadership in your organization?
Systems and standards run the business.
Concept:
We had a belief at Prime Shine that systems run the business, and managers simply monitor the systems. By doing this we were able to achieve a high level of consistency with our operation which can be particularly challenging as the business scales. Everything we did at Prime Shine had a system and a standard associated with the action. The way we greeted customers, the way we appeared, the way we washed the car, the way we cleaned the vacuums, everything had a written standard that were kept meticulously in operations manuals and updated regularly.
Standards for how leadership expects the operation to run don’t exist unless they are written down in employee operations manuals. We were fanatical at Prime Shine about documenting everything we did from opening and closing the store to how we take out the trash. By management setting the standards and expectations we prevented “rogue” standards from forming. Rogue standards occur when management doesn’t monitor the systems and correct inconsistencies immediately when they occur.
If it’s not written, it’s not a standard! (i.e., Prime Shine’s PRIDE GUIDE)
Creating systems for all the company’s operations not only creates consistency but also eliminated the need for employees and managers to spend time thinking how to operate the business. Most decisions were already determined. If a standard or system needed to be changed or updated, recommendations would be made, and managers would discuss and decide to update or not.
Question:
Does your company have systems that specifically define how roles and operations are to be performed?
Are your standards written in manuals?
Do you correct standard inconsistencies immediately or wait for meetings to address?
You’re a MARKETING company first (Internal and external)!
Concept:
It doesn’t matter what type of company you operate, product you make or sell, if you don’t think of yourself as a marketing company first and foremost then you will be destined to be mediocre. All your efforts must be driven by how you present (market) yourself to your customers, your community and your employees.
Marketing is not simply advertising, although it is a component.
Marketing is not simply sales, although it is a component.
Marketing is how a company uses its “brand” to achieve sales revenue. Sales are a result of successfully marketing your company to your customers, your community and your employees.
Prime Shine spent nearly half its marketing effort marketing internally to its employees to make them feel a part of a business that is special, unique and put them first. These efforts paid off in employee loyalty and effort which resulted in more cars washed and ultimately more top line revenue and benefit for all.
Question:
Why is it important to market internally to your own employees? What information would you market to them?
Hire smiles! :).
Concept:
There is nothing more important to a business than the people working for it. Employees are the backbone of any business. If you are not an employee-centric organization, it will be impossible to achieve your company goals and objectives.
Prime Shine only hired 1% of employees that applied, we didn’t subscribe to the “mirror test!” (put mirror under candidates’ nose and if it fogs up you hire them 😊)
If one made it through our online testing and algorithms during the application process and was granted a live in person interview, the candidate must smile during interview at least five times or they were not hired. Smiling was an indication of how nice and friendly the candidate was.
Hire attitude and train skills. We weren’t hiring people that could wash cars. We were hiring nice people who wanted to be around other nice people. Our concept was benchmarked from Ritz Carlton who states that “We are “Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen.” It was always intriguing when an applicant believed that they had an advantage because they worked at another car wash or knew how to detail cars. These weren’t the skills that were necessarily going to be successful at Prime Shine.
We made our employees feel and look like professionals. Car washing is often looked down upon as a low level and entry level occupation. We worked very hard to professionalize the company by treating employees as professionals, give them career opportunities and provide them with a professional appearance. If we looked professional, we acted professionally.
Question:
What are the most important qualities that your company looks for in employees.
Never forget your advantage or “superpower.”
Concept:
When Prime Shine opened in 1991, it was as if sliced bread was being released onto the market for the first time. California had not been introduced to a high quality, express exterior car wash yet. The options for washing one’s car were the time-consuming full service, self-service spray bays, free gas station roll overs and doing it yourself in the driveway. When Prime Shine opened its equal or better quality than the full service in a fraction of the time and cost, it was truly revolutionary. The early nineties were the beginning of the concept of time savings becoming a value for the consumer experience in service businesses. As other quick serve businesses were becoming the norm, exterior express car washing was filling the need for quality AND speed.
We always said that if we lost our speed advantage the consumer would choose the full-service model or do it themselves. More important than quality, customers regularly reported in surveys that speed was the number one reason for coming to Prime Shine. This was the reason that we became so focused on production. A car wash is nothing more than a conveyorized production facility, our product was a clean car. The better we processed the more cars we washed. Speed was our “superpower “and we would regularly time with a stopwatch how long it took a car with its back tires on the street to our pre-wash area…if a car waited for more than eleven minutes for this to happen, we were losing our advantage.
We forgot our superpower when we introduced a quick detail service, The No Time Hand Shine. As a reaction to customers requesting more services from us than just a wash and a desire to increase revenue, we introduced a $14.95 quick wax. After the car wash was complete customers would come around to the back of the wash and an employee would hand apply a spray wax and hand buff the vehicle. Although the product was decent, it was more suitable for the full-service car washes that had more room and more employees to do the service. When a customer wanted the detail, we would have an employee from the car wash line do the service. This prevented us from being able to produce on the car wash line efficiently and our production dropped significantly and forced customers to wait too long for the car wash. We hired more staff for the detail service, but the service was unpredictable and caused us to have too many employees on which made our labor percentages soar. Ultimately, we decided to drop the quick wax program because it was in direct conflict with our superpower, speed.
Question:
What is your company’s superpower?
Have you ever made a decision that conflicted with the reason why your customers use your product or service in the first place?
Have you ever had to cease a product or service because it didn’t fit with your organization?
Mission, Vision, Values Statements…keep it simple!
Concept:
Too often a company’s mission statement is paragraphs long. Developed by consultants and CEO’s these statements mean little to nothing and don’t achieve what their intended to do. To be most effective mission, vision and value statements should be brief and to the point. One or two sentences that clearly define your business’s purpose for existence in a way that can be remembered and recited by any employee at any time.
Prime Shine used an acronym for most of its life to describe its values. PRIDE defined what was most important for us as a company and directed our decision making for years.
PRIDE was developed through employee and management focus groups. It was important for Prime Shine for our values to be developed bottom up to get the buy in necessary for PRIDE to have meaning and to be taken seriously. PRIDE was developed by Prime Shine’s employees and became a significant part of our company’s culture.
In the latter years as growth was our main goal, we simply used the sub-mission of 20X20 (20 locations by the year 2020) as our guiding mission and everyone in the company was hyper focused on this mission.
As a marketing company we developed a logo and marketing program to promote the 20X20 theme internally to make sure every employee was in sync with the mission.
Question:
Recite your company’s mission, vision or values statements.
Was your company’s MVV developed top down or bottom up?
When was the last time your company updated their MVV?
How do you promote and market your mission, vision and values?
FOCUS!
Concept:
Running a company successfully requires an incredible amount of laser focus on what you do best. It is easy to get caught up in distractions that are irrelevant and out of your control. Blaming competition, the economy, politics, city hall, lazy employees, crummy customers, etc. is a waste of time. Everyone has the same challenges in business. Running a business isn’t a part time job, it is all consuming and if you are doing it right, it should keep you up in the middle of the night. (Keep a notepad and pen next to your nightstand, all the best ideas happen around 2am!)
Prime Shine had competitors that would park across the street and count the among of cars we were washing on a busy day instead of focusing on their businesses. How many cars we were washing was irrelevant to their business.
Do what you do best and continue to make it even better…this intense focus on your specific business is what will separate your business from the others. AVOID the attraction to “over diversify.” Diversity within your scope of business is fine…i.e., taking on another line of product to distribute. But be cautious not to diversify into a business that doesn’t fit within the main business’s goals. At Prime Shine we decided to open a quick lube next to our wash. We ultimately ended up leasing the lube to a lube operator who was much better at it than us. Why? The car wash operation was quick service, low labor, no inventory and little exposure to the vehicle. The lube was the complete opposite, slow service, required more labor, lots of inventory and high exposure when something went wrong (we bought our share of engines). So, although there was some synergy (both car services) between the two businesses, operating them was very different. Before you diversify, make sure the additional business/service is aligned with the main business. When we were spending 90% of our time on 10% of our business, it was time to reconsider.
Question:
What were lessons learned if you have ever been distracted from your businesses main focus?
Don’t focus on the $$$/share your KPI’s.
Concept:
Understand your sales, margins, P&L’s, balance sheets, etc....but don’t focus on making money as your main goal for owning and operating a business. I realize this sounds counter intuitive, but the point is that making money is a byproduct of how well you are running the business. The more intense one is committed and focused on running the business the better the financial results will be.
Set financial goals to achieve and share these goals with your employees. The best organizations are those that have all employees working towards the same financial goals. To this end simple KPI’s are the best easiest way to monitor and reward progress and accomplishment. Pick those KPI’s that mean the most to your company and make it a part of the company’s everyday communication structure. At Prime Shine we focused on cars/hour, day and month to understand our vehicle production and business performance. We monitored sales of the Unlimited program members and dollars/car to track our top line sales. These numbers were hourly/daily/weekly/monthly shared with the front-line employees so that they could share in the excitement of the success.
In addition to sharing the excitement of the goal, we shared in the dollars as well and every employee was under some sort of performance bonus based on front line car’s washed production. As earlier stated, at Prime Shine there was nothing more important than washing lots of cars.
Didn’t show full profit and loss to entire company and didn’t distract front line with net revenue or expenses. These weren’t necessarily in their control so we honed their focus on what they could directly control.
For the first ten years of operating Prime Shine all financial information including cars washed per day was closely held information only for ownership, this is not unusual for start-ups. However, as the company grew and matured and general business norms evolved it became important to share certain data to help employees feel a part of the company, have increased “buy in,” and be rewarded for their efforts. Remember, Big “B” business thinking.
Question:
How do you use KPI’s in your business to inform or reward employees?
Is getting the next big contract, customer or deal the only focus in your organization?
Is net profit and margin so important to your organization that you cut expenses that shouldn’t?
Give back to the community (time, talent, money).
Concept:
Simply stated, it is good business to give back to your community. Give back as much time, talent and money as the company can afford. Prime Shine was always a company that gave back. We had a product that had a relatively low variable cost of goods sold (soap, water, power) so we were able to give away free car washes to all the organizations that made requests. However, giving away free car washes was just one element of Prime Shine’s “give back” strategy. Yes, it was a strategy. In the early days before Prime Shine became more “philanthropic” our hard cash donations were primarily for event sponsorship. Non-profit organizations realized that companies like Prime Shine had little to no “donation” budget, but probably had a budgeted line item for “marketing.” At the intersection of small business marketing and non-profit support was a win-win for both organizations. Of course, in return for these sponsorship dollars we made sure that our brand was well represented and prominent. Often much of the negotiations were where, how big and how often would the Prime Shine logo appear.
An additional strategy Prime Shine used when opening a new store was to find out what the main event in town wash and to be the headline sponsor for that event where we could out free carwash and get our name out at the city’s signature event.
One of Prime Shine’s favorite community give-back program was to partner with organizations such as Red Cross and the Sheriff’s canine unit to raised funds after a tragedy or for a new canine. Prime Shine would wash cars for free on a busy Saturday and all donations received went directly to the organization.
In later years as the brand became more recognized the marketing side of community giving became less important.
In 2013 Prime Shine established the Prime Shine/Porges Family Foundation withing the Stanislaus Community Foundation. The business funded the account with 10K/month and a comfortable sum at the end of the year to reduce taxable income. This legitimized our philanthropic activities, and the efforts became more strategic.
In 2017 (last full year the Porges Family owned the business), the total value of donated car washes and cash was almost $240,000.00.
Prime Shine didn’t just donate washes and cash, but also its executives’ time and talent. It was mandatory that everyone on the executive team donate time to a non-profit organization of their choice.
Question:
What does your organization have that can be donated back to the community?
Culture is everything.
Concept:
Every company has a culture. Culture is like the blood of a company, it runs through every department, keeping it alive and functioning well. Culture is the personality of the company; it sets the tone for expectations at all levels. Culture, like standards and systems run the company when management isn’t present. With a strong culture of excellence and high standards a company can manage itself without much oversight. A strong culture makes coming to work fun and enjoyable for everyone. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. Company ownership and leadership must determine what kind of culture they want at the company. Is it ok to be late to work and leave early? Is there a dress code and expectation for how employees appear? Are employees respected and treated as valuable assets to the company? Is excellence in the job done the expectation or is doing “good enough” work acceptable?
It was often asked what was the one big thing that Prime Shine did that made the most impact on our culture? The reality is that there wasn’t “one big thing.” The Prime Shine culture was an evolution of hundreds of “little things” that were done to set the tone for excellence, some examples include:
Two days paid time off for bereavement
Holiday pay time and a half
Recruitment bonuses
Tuition reimbursement program
Academic performance bonus
Employee free washes
Free 5.11 uniforms including footwear
Paid day off for birthday/free birthday wash for customers
Years of service/anniversary bonus
PRIDE points earned for positive performance and redeemed for items from company store
Handwritten birthday and anniversary cards from ownership
Top of the line maintenance vehicles with shiny aftermarket wheels
Childcare reimbursement program
Health club reimbursement program
Executive team Halloween dress up and visit each store to pass out candy
Video review system that positively reinforced employees for performance
Giving all front-line employees the power to make the “right” customer service decisions, we called these “Shining Opportunities.”
Yearly employee satisfaction surveys
Managers on the front lines and not in the office
Full-service maintenance department on-call every hour that the washes were open to respond to any equipment issues
Best in class chemistry that did not include ANY acids, better for employees and environment
Water recycling to ensure the most water efficient way to wash…highly marketed to employees
Safety department with quarterly safety meetings for all employees
Top of the line equipment and investment in cutting edge technology at all levels
Visible/accessible ownership and executive team on the front lines
Shine Line…HR compliance reporting system
Free items for the customers, stickers for the kids, dog treats for the pets, wishy washy’s to wipe the inside dash, vacuums
Community involvement
Professional leadership (CPA, MBA, SHRM, SPHR, Technical Certifications, etc.)
Fundraiser wash program for schools to remove the gas station street corner washes
Prime Shine University, comprehensive training system with a celebrated graduation including “diplomas.”
No tips ever accepted…same great service for the same great price
Open 363 days a year, rain or shine
Etc., etc., etc., …
Question:
Who has determined the culture of your business, leadership or employees?
What items have been done at your business that has set the tone for your culture?
Is ownership present and setting the tone for the culture?
Trade Shows/seminars/trade groups, find the “nuggets.”
Concept:
In business there is never a time when the company can stop learning. Much of Prime Shine’s growth and advancements were discovered while attending industry trade shows and local/regional leadership and management training courses.
The International Carwash Convention was a yearly event generally held in cities such as Las Vegas, Nashville or Chicago. Prime Shine used these shows as an opportunity to take key employees to expose them to the larger world of our industry. We wanted the leadership to see a larger picture of the car wash industry and not feel as though Prime Shine was an island. We took the trade shows seriously, we were there for business and enjoyed some fun. It was a time for the team to bond and spend time together “off campus” and away from the fire to think and discuss opportunities to make Prime Shine better. We would organize our activities by setting an agenda for which seminars each of the employees was to attend and which vendors we would visit. Sometimes we had maintenance team members go to a marketing seminar because you never know where the next great idea might come from. At the end of the day, we would convene and recap the seminars each of us went to and discuss what was learned and what “nugget” might be possible for Prime Shine to consider.
Prime Shine took full advantage of all seminars offered by local chambers or business advocacy groups. Leadership, marketing, technology, etc., if it was offered, we were there. We utilized the American Management Associations training system for much of our early leadership training. These $199.00 seminars in regional hotel conference rooms provided valuable insights for our young up and coming managers.
As a byproduct, sending Prime Shine employees to these learning opportunities was not only another way to reward the employees but demonstrated that the company was investing in their education and continued education, this enhanced the loyalty felt by both the employee and the company.
Prime Shine was invited to be a member of a best practice group, The Enhancement Group. These “Twenty Groups” are common in most industries and provided us with the opportunity to learn from other best practice operators across the country. Competition and trade secrets were not an issue as all members were in vastly different markets. Financials and all marketing materials were shared. Each member was tasked with bringing to meetings their one best idea to share. When hosting a meeting, members critiqued every aspect of your operation. This was nerve racking and humbling, but the best way to improve the operation.
In addition to the formal Enhancement Group, Prime Shine teamed up with other operators across the country and made visits to each other’s washes and other washes around the country that had a reputation for being out of the box and being unique. This provided Prime Shine with another opportunity to expose its leadership to other wash systems across the country.
Question:
What has your company done to take advantage of learning opportunities in the community or regionally to always keep up with business trends?
Reading business books/biographies and trade journals.
Concept:
Another way that leadership kept up with best practices and latest trends was to subscribe to and thoroughly scrub each month was the industry’s multiple trade journals. Every industry has them and this was a great way to read about highlighted operators across the country and the latest technology from vendors. Prime Shine had multiple subscriptions to have the magazines at all the locations. It was rewarding to see front lines employees reading the magazines and thinking about car washing.
Business books by well-known entrepreneurs are a must read for leaders. The stories weave common themes of challenges, and each provide unique insights into how problems were solved. It is irrelevant that these books are not industry specific, they are business specific and are full of invaluable tips and suggestions.
Prime Shine established an internal “library” and book club. The library stocked hundreds of business and leadership books that employees could check out. The book club focused on one specific title at a time that the company bought for all club members and once a month the club would get together to discuss.
Prime Shine found much of its inspiration for operation efficiency, company culture and employee relations by “benchmarking” from large companies outside of our industry such as Jamba Juice, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines and QuikTrip. We would be great observers and students when utilizing these businesses. When Prime Shine was guiding you onto the conveyor did it look like how a plane is guided to park on the tarmac? Were the colors and marketing at Prime Shine reminiscent to those of Jamba Juice? Were Prime Shine employees benefits a chip off the Starbucks block? Yes, yes and yes!
Question:
What other industries do you think your business could benchmark best practices from?
Get up early!
Concept:
The most effective leaders are those who start their days early. The early morning provides a sense of quiet and tranquility that offers the most unique opportunity of the day to be alone and think. There is nothing more exciting than the start of a new day and watching the sun rise each day signals a clean slate and enthusiasm for new ideas.
At Prime Shine arriving several hours early before opening the store allowed the leader to walk the property and review the cleanliness standards from the night before, review schedules for the day’s shifts, do any last-minute cleaning necessary and test all the equipment before the hustle and bustle of the day began. At the office, arriving early provided invaluable time to review and reflect on business systems and reports without interruptions once the regular flow of business began.
Remember the old Army’s slogan “we do more before 9am than most people do all day!”
Prime Shine had an early bird promotion that even rewarded customers that got up early and started their day with a clean car. Prime Shine opened at 7am.
Question:
What could you and your leadership team do for a few hours each day before the day’s hectic activity begins.
Do you feel as though you have enough time in your day to think and reflect?