Bobby Willis knows his stuff. He's worked in operations, marketing, distribution — at nearly all facets of the car wash business, at big and small operations alike. He's an expert in the field, having authored hundreds of articles for industry publications. But perhaps most important, over and above being a respected consultant, he's been running his own car wash operation for 15 years. If anyone knows the car wash business, it's Bobby, from materials and labor all the way down to point-of-sale purchase optimization.

"Now technology is catching up, and Mosaic is in the right place at the right time."

Bobby is an especially valuable partner for Mosaic because he shares his deep experience in the industry with our team, which helps us improve our platform. "The car-wash industry has always lagged behind other industries when it comes to technology," he says. "You have a lot of old operators who aren't willing to take on new technologies, but that is changing by leaps and bounds. Now technology is catching up, and Mosaic is in the right place at the right time."

Unlimited Washes = Unlimited Customer Happiness

When we first met Bobby, he was laser focused on what he wanted to accomplish with his business. "I'm always looking for a way to level out our income stream," he says, "And the best way that I found to do that is by putting in an unlimited wash program." In the past, Bobby had worked with different manufacturers to get close to offering unlimited washes, sometimes in half-step solutions utilizing fleet cards, but he found that trying to do all of the billing in-house was too much. "Mosaic's offering was right along the lines of what I was thinking," he notes. "I thought, this is how to make this program work."

Implementing an all-you-can-wash program can feel scary at first, but you can temper usage with the Mosaic app by creating your own boundaries. "It's nice that you can set the parameters," explains Bobby. "We're limiting it to one wash per day because we have seen abuse at one of our RFID sites. Some customers are always going to push the limits," he says, spinning out one of his many observations about the ins and outs of the car wash business. "At one of our RFID locations, we allow up to three washes per day. And we have this one guy who goes through three times every day. I don't think he's missed a day since he's had that membership!"

"We have some folks who only come once per month. The novelty of it has worn off for them, and now it's like a gym membership. But they want to keep it because it's still a bargain."

For every story of potential RFID abuse, though, there are countless examples of people who underutilize their Mosaic-driven memberships. "We have some folks who only come once per month. The novelty of it has worn off for them, and now it's like a gym membership. But they want to keep it because it's still a bargain."

As he explains, getting that balance right is the nature of the subscription business. "I've been doing it long enough and done enough research to know that over a period of time most customers will visit us from two to four times a month. That's where you're making the money."

Flexibility Around Customer Service in a BOGO World

Car wash operations live and die by customer service, so it's naturally at the top of the list of concerns for Bobby. "One thing that Mosaic has been working on that we're really excited about are gift subscriptions or even the ability to buy a month membership and we'll give them a month membership." Bobby likes the flexibility of using one-off memberships and coupon codes to solve customer service issues while simultaneously moving customers to the mobile app. "What we're going to do is give you one month of free washing because of the issue you had. Download our app, and we're going to gift you one free month. With Mosaic, we can go above and beyond and offer a customer experience that will keep them for years to come."

So far, his can-do approach to customer management is paying sweet dividends. "People don't write a whole lot of letters anymore, but we were surprised the other day when we received a letter from a lady who said, 'I had a minor problem at the car wash, and the next thing I know I got two free codes for a wash. You guys went above and beyond. I'm a customer for life.'"

RIP RFID?

Like a lot of wash operators, Bobby has been moving rapidly away from RFID tags. "Right now, if anyone comes up and wants to sign up as unlimited member, we're no longer offering RFID tags," he notes. "Within the next month, we're planning a big roll-out, putting up all new signage to really start pushing the Mosaic app hard. For instance, we're putting QR codes on all the signage. People can just scan the QR code, and it takes them right to the link to the download the app."

One thing we've learned about Bobby is that when he commits to a goal, he works methodically to make sure he's successful. "We'll have a salesperson in every line of every pay station handing out literature, talking about why it's good. We've actually dropped the pricing to try and get as many people on it as we can. We'd like to get up to about 10,000 members. Once you have that type of momentum, it's going to create a lot of buzz and drive a lot of traffic on the lots."

Client Level Support

Dedicated client level support is one reason Bobby chose Mosaic, but so is our track record as a provider. "There's a lot of what I call one-and-done companies out there. They pop up at trade shows, and they have these great ideas, but they don't have the support to to back it up."

"Mosaic's data is going to help us steer our business in different directions to help us save money — and at the end of the day make more money, keep customers satisfied, and produce that clean, dry, shiny car.”

As we do with all of our clients, we tailored our offering to match Bobby's deep knowledge of his customers. "Mosaic spent a lot of time and effort making the ease of use there for the customer. There are a lot of apps out there that when you open up the app there's 4,000 things going on. Mosaic has laid it out so well that people download it, and they're washing their car in minutes — no questions about it."

Judging by his success so far with the Mosaic app (currently sporting 5 stars in the Apple App Store), Bobby is firmly where he wants to be, harvesting technological insights and efficiencies to drive Cool Wave's success. "Mosaic's data is going to help us steer our business in different directions to help us save money — and at the end of the day make more money, keep customers satisfied, and produce that clean, dry, shiny car.”