If you ask full-service carwash owners what their biggest challenge is, many will lament over their inability to hire quality people. Can’t find ’em, can’t keep ’em. A common refrain might be: “I love this industry. Now if I could only get clean-cut, sober people who will show up on time and work every day of the week.”
Operators are plagued by turnover rates of 100 percent, 200 percent or more among production staff and from 30 percent to 50 percent among managers. Worse, we are dying a slow death from undetected or ignored mediocre customer service performed by employees who make poor decisions on a daily basis. I think most owners will agree that one of the biggest obstacles to growing a multisite carwash business is the ability to effectively supervise service levels at more than one location.
It’s such a problem that the highest profit segment of the industry — full service — is evolving into a low-labor “express” model. While there are several demographic and economic trends driving express-model popularity, staff challenges remain a huge driver among experienced full-serve owners.
Several technological innovations are focused on eliminating people from the production process. Think automated pay stations, tire shiners, mat shampooers, etc. These innovations may be a valuable way to increase profitability and perceived value in the customer’s eyes, but imagine a service industry that meets the goal of many current carwash owners — no people.
I propose that the huge missed opportunity (read huge missed profits) is to actually become good at hiring, training and retaining high-quality staff at all levels and getting those employees to deliver world-class service without you watching over their every action.
Great idea, but admittedly this isn’t always easy considering today’s staffing realities. So where do you start?
Leadership
A long time ago, in a place far, far away, I was a soldier — an infantry lieutenant in the U.S. Army. My job title was platoon leader. Missions ranged from disaster relief to full-on war-time invasion. During those five years, I was mentored by now-retired Gen. David Barno. He was famous for saying, “Lieutenant, there is no such thing as a bad private, just bad generals.”
This lesson was a not-so-subtle reminder that the difference between a bad, good and great performance stems largely from the leadership qualities of those in charge. Now, after six years of full-service carwash ownership, I can speak from hard-earned experience that Gen. Barno’s leadership advice from a decade ago readily applies to my business today. The carwash translation: managers drive success in this business.
But how does one recruit and hire great managers for a very difficult business? Further, how do you weed out those individuals who have a good resume, interview well and even pass the inspection of other leaders on your team, but ultimately would not make the best managers for your organization? These are the toughest for me.
Talent acquisition requires a system, just like maintenance, customer service or sales. The system I use has a schedule, an ideal candidate profile, and a list of outside checks or tests that I perform for each job position. By definition, the system has specific standards. What do you expect employees to do and how often? How will you measure success? You might start with a detailed job description that describes the entire scope of the position.
For example: “The carwash manager is responsible for site profitability of a 5,000-square-foot, 1.25-acre retail carwash facility that serves between 3,500 and 6,000 cars per month for carwashing, detailing and retail accessory sales. Successful performance is measured by customer satisfaction and overall site profitability.”
This should be followed by a list of specific tasks that the candidate is expected to perform, such as:
- Complete physically demanding work outside in all weather conditions.
- Hire, train and retain 10 full-time and 15 part-time production employees in four duty positions (service adviser, production staff, detailers, production supervisors).
- Implement current preventive maintenance program to ensure 99 percent uptime within current budget ($800 per month annualized).
- Deliver remarkable customer service to all customers.
Next you will need an extensive list of interview questions. Pick very specific questions that you will use for every candidate. For example, you will want to investigate the candidates’ personnel management skills and maturity. You might ask them to describe a specific incident in which they counseled a staff member on poor work quality.
Keep in mind that it is critical to ask open-ended questions and let the candidates talk. If a candidate is providing short answers say things like “tell me more,” “give me more details about the situation” or “sell me with multiple, specific examples about your ability to manage a large team.”
It is important that everyone who interviews a candidate use the same questions. You will want to see if the candidate is consistent across interviewers.
A critical part of any good hiring system is independent testing, resume verification and background checks. This may be surprising to some, but there is an enormous amount of misleading descriptions on resumes, or