My name is John Grefe, and I am one of the managing partners of Empire Car Wash Group. Together with my colleagues, we own and operate four tunnel washes in Long Island, NY. We all come from business backgrounds, and have built successful car wash operations over the past 10 years. But despite all of our collective experience, we could never get membership right.
We tried doing things on our own, but it was an utter failure. We couldn’t wrap our heads around what to charge for each plan, and how to manage the program on the backend. It was a ton of work, even for the 50 or so members we had. We always thought, “If managing 50 members is this difficult, how is it even possible to get to 500 members, let alone 1000?”
It wasn’t until we acquired Hampton Bays Car Wash that we learned how successful membership could truly be. That location already had EverWash in place, and that was my first experience with the company.
Learning more about EverWash, and their approach to membership sales and management, opened our eyes to just how much revenue could come in through membership. Best of all, it can all come in without the headaches we were creating for ourselves in trying to manage membership on our own.
After experiencing EverWash in action, my partners and I decided to implement the platform at all four of our locations. We were shocked at how fast we got to 500 members everywhere — I’m talking about 60 days. We have seen revenue growth of more than 40 percent in a year because of our membership program. This membership-driven infusion of revenue has been central to our growth, and EverWash has been critical to our success. It’s pretty crazy to think just a few years ago, 50 members had our heads spinning in the worst possible way.
I’m managing four car washes. I’m a very busy guy. I love that EverWash takes on all the signage design, production and shipping, in addition to taking lead on our marketing and membership management. Last but not least, their Member Support Call Center is able to directly take care of my customers’ needs. You won’t find a package like this offered in one place by any other company in the car wash industry, and certainly won’t find a group of professionals willing to go out of their way for you and your business like the EverWash team does.
We credit our tremendous growth to EverWash — it’s obvious that we couldn’t have gotten here without them. I personally speak with several folks at EverWash regularly, and love that I can pick up the phone and get Scott Caplan, EverWash’s President, on the line anytime. That’s what stands out the most: EverWash is a very different experience than simply offering membership through a paystation, or through another 3rd party software vendor. They are great partners and totally accessible whenever I need them.
– John Grefe, Empire Car Wash Group
