At first glance, a sparkling new chrome and glass building in Holland, Mich., looks nothing like your typical car wash.
You are struck by the way cars glide through it on a 2-minute voyage. Colored lights flash and giant brushes join with jet-powered arches of stainless-steel washing equipment to give the vehicle a sparkling look when it rolls out the other end.
“It’s the opposite of what you think when you think of a car wash, of normally a dark, dirty little shoe box,” says Ryan Essenburg, president of Tommy Car Wash Systems, a family-owned company that opened this site in December. “This has big towers on it, angled side walls, the clear roof and a wide wash bay to make the customer feel very invited and welcomed.”
The results have been staggering. In the first two weeks of operation, the location, called Totally Tommy Express, washed half of what a typical car wash does in an entire year, says marketing director Tom Dodson.
In January, Totally Tommy washed 35,000 vehicles, more than 1,000 a day. The 130-foot conveyorized tunnel topped out at 1,500 vehicles one day. By the end of the first month, it was running at near capacity of 200 cars per hour, or more than 3,600 cars a day.
So what’s the secret of this company’s car-wash success?
All in the Family
The Essenburg family, led by brothers June and Jacob (“Sonny”), got into the car-wash business in 1969, when it opened a dual rollover bay automatic at a different location in Holland. It did so well that the company soon closed one bay and rebuilt the facility into a 60-foot tunnel wash.
In 1971, it opened an integrated gas station, c-store and car-wash facility in the area. Now it operates six locations in western Michigan, all but one with c-stores and gas.
Location has been critical to the company’s success, says Mandi Essenburg Brower, a third-generation family member who is general manager of parent company Quality Car Wash and Ryan’s sister. Holland does not have an inner city as such, so Quality has built its locations around the town’s perimeter, typically bordering an adjacent community and, thus, broadening its reach.
Over the years, it modified and improved the car-wash operation and named it Tommy Car Wash System, after June’s son Tom, who is CEO of Tommy Car Wash Systems.
Two of the locations, including the newest, feature a Tim Horton’s inside the c-store. This latest one, says Ryan, who is the grandson of company co-founder June Essenburg, “is quite literally the latest and greatest.”
“It’s a little more iconic, new, cutting-edge and modern design,” he says. “Over the years, we’ve developed this thing to transform the experience [for] the customer on a whole new level, to make the car wash an enjoyable experience, more than just to have a clean car.”
From the wash to the 5,000-square-foot c-store, Tommy’s latest is its most refined, says Brower, from the matching high-end fixtures in the restrooms and the seating area in the Tim Horton’s.
“Some of [our customers] wash their cars every day,” she says. “They just love coming to their site. They sit in the area that we have with the fireplace and the TV. They are bringing their kids, they’re getting doughnuts. The kids love the colors and the things like that with the wash.”
The wash, store and restaurant are open from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. Employees are cross-trained to work at all three businesses. And the company has undertaken an aggressive marketing campaign to drive customers to the three businesses.
Customers can buy a monthly club pass for $20 to $30, depending on the type of wash (instead of paying $6 to $15 for a single wash), and club customers have their own express lane into the wash. It’s working: Club passes are selling at 250 per month.
The company also offers a book of five washes with a sixth for free. Customers are allowed to use that “free” coupon for coffee or a fountain drink at the c-store/restaurant instead of a car wash.
“That keeps them coming back to the gas and the store, and to the car wash as loyal customers,” says Ryan.
CONTINUED: Promotions & Results
Social Standing
The company has added social media to its marketing portfolio, in addition to traditional radio and billboard advertising. Realizing that younger drivers, as well as women ages 25 to 40, are on Facebook and Twitter, the company constantly posts or texts specials, reminding and encouraging drivers to pull in for a fill up, a snack or a car wash. The company estimates 55% of car-wash customers are women.
“Surprisingly,” says Brower, “we have several younger drivers on a monthly club. I typically wouldn’t think that a high school or college kid would go on a monthly club for a car wash. Whether it’s social media, whether it’s friends-driven, I think that social media does have a big part in that.”
One example she cites is a 12-day “Recovery After Christmas” campaign that tapped social media to get the word out for daily promotions, such as gas discounts or free coffee. “We’ve been using that to maximize all the profit centers,” integrating the car wash with the gas station, c-store and restaurant, she says. Among other initiatives:
- Texting: Club members are told exactly when the price is going to change and by how much.
- Mobile Payment: The company is developing an app to make it easier for customers to pay and be part of the frequent-buyer club.
- “Perc” Up: Quality offers free coffee on dreary days when gas prices are going up, another incentive for regular customers to come in.
As a family-owned business, Quality Car Wash does not reveal its sales figures or revenues. But by far, according to the company, the fuel pumps provide the highest gross-revenue numbers, while the car-wash operation is the profit leader.
In fact, says Ryan, “Each day more than 90% of the bottom line is generated in the car wash”— even in the locations with c-stores and Tim Horton’s.
But the real key to the company’s success is that each of its components feeds into the others. “The site is strategically laid out,” says Brower. “The store is just as important as the foodservice in the restaurant, which does have a drive-thru for the restaurant as well.”
See Me, Feel Me
The Tommy Car Wash was designed to be “fun, exciting and welcoming,” says Ryan. In the past decade, the company has been spreading the Tommy Car Wash Systems around the world. In 2011, it introduced the first Totally Tommy model to a business outside of Michigan. There are now 18 sites that employ the Totally Tommy building/equipment platform, with an undisclosed number under construction or under contract, the company says. And there are several hundred tunnel washes around the world that use Tommy Car Wash System equipment.
It’s not a franchise per se, explains Dodson: “It’s franchise-like in that the building design and integrated equipment package is a duplicable platform from Tommy Car Wash Systems that delivers a consistent quality wash and is easily recognizable from one location to the next.”
The Tommy system, says Ryan, “is the opposite of what you think of a car wash. We’re trying to change that perception to the consumers, as well as to some cities that have really felt that the car wash is a negative thing.
“Now some cities are starting to catch on. ... This is a top-notch, special, very franchise-like experience.”
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