Your car can be an invaluable investment, and you do not want it to look shabby or break down on you in the middle of nowhere. Thus, caring for and maintaining your car is of utmost importance.
Imagine your car feeling new again! This precise attention to detail is what Spiffy® brings to you.
Spiffy is an on-demand technology and services company with the mission to redefine the car care experience everywhere. It is available in 29 markets (and counting) across the USA.
At The Franchise Universe, we caught up with Scot Wingo, Co-founder and CEO, to learn more about Spiffy and what draws franchisees to choose them to start their business.
Offering Complete Car Care
For the uninitiated, Spiffy is the premier mobile auto service provider. They offer their customers cleaning and preventative maintenance services, including hand car washing, advanced detailing, oil change, tire installation and repair, and more. Every service is conveniently performed on-site at fleets, office parks, and residences using the Spiffy Green™ system, the eco-friendliest way to service a vehicle.
Spiffy takes care of its customers’ cars so they can focus on their productive tasks and save time with their car care.
Innovating, Creating, and Bringing Best Ideas to Life
Scot is a serial entrepreneur in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina that has successfully exited three previous companies, including ChannelAdvisor, which he took public in 2013. Moreover, he is an industry thought leader in E-commerce, E-service, and the future of mobility.
Scot has appeared on CNBC and The Today Show, and has contributed thought leadership to the WSJ, New York Times, Forbes, and many other publications. Beyond that, he is also the co-host of The Jason & Scot Show podcast, and regularly speaks about E-commerce and E-service across the country.
Being from an e-commerce background, Scot rode the wave of the digitalization of products. After he had his first ride-share experience over ten years ago, a lightbulb went off for Scot, as those services were going to go digital too. And the idea for Spiffy was born.
Accelerating Digital Adoption
Talking about the impact of the pandemic, Scot mentions that in the short term, COVID-19 has made fleets evaluate their policies around disinfecting, especially when there are multiple drivers of the vehicle. For fleets that operate passenger vehicles, the consumer has become hyper-aware of cleanliness and odors. Thus, Spiffy is finding a rise in disinfecting, active communication around disinfecting, and odor elimination.
In the long term, Scot believes that COVID has accelerated digital adoption. One can see this in the E-commerce data, and Scot thinks it will also appear in the automotive data. The most significant impact is going to be changing ownership models, and Spiffy already sees those accelerating.
Being Convenient, Trusted, Professional, and Green
Working at Spiffy means having the opportunity to do what no one has done before. Spiffy is a unique, market-leading company that is blazing a new trail. Its team is constantly innovating, creating, and collaborating to bring the best ideas to life.
Spiffy’s values are being convenient, trusted, professional, and green. To the team at Spiffy, “convenience” is about choices in how customers interact with it (i.e., app, website, or phone) and where customers want their vehicle(s) serviced (i.e., home, work, or fleet). “Trusted” promises technicians with 100+ hours of classroom and field training. “Professional” guarantees that customers are proud to have Spiffy in their driveway, whether they are individuals, property managers, or fleet managers. Finally, “green” is at the heart of everything Spiffy does, from low water usage to reclamation and recycling.
As of mid-2021, the organization has saved over 11 million gallons of water! Additionally, Spiffy became certified carbon neutral earlier in 2021.
Ensuring Efficiency and Eco-friendliness
Spiffy’s technology stack is developed and supported by its in-house engineering team. It includes a consumer app that allows customers to book a service in under 2-minutes, a fleet portal that enables digital scheduling, tracking and payment for fleet managers, a technician app for tracking and documenting services, and management software for scheduling and reporting.
In addition, Spiffy also has an R&D team constantly innovating on the hardware inside its mobile service vans to ensure maximum efficiency and eco-friendliness.
Disrupting the Car Care Industry
Spiffy is disrupting the car care industry, and a milestone for achieving that would be getting to 10% to 20% of automotive transactions being digital and mobile. The way Spiffy thinks about growth is across three dimensions: geographies, services, and lines of business.
Customer Satisfaction is the Key
Scot advises budding franchise leaders aspiring to venture into the franchise industry to understand the underlying trends because he believes that’s the long-term aspect of this business.
He says, “As for the short term, it’s all about making the customers happy. Customer satisfaction is the overwhelming driver. If you have high net promoter scores, the rest comes, so we spend a lot of time focusing on that.”
