Spiffy launches mobile maintenance franchise

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Get Spiffy Inc., a mobile car care service, has launched a franchise program to expand its business model into new markets.

Spiffy operates more than 200 mobile service vans in 17 major cities in the U.S., offering car wash, detail, disinfection, oil changes, tires and fleet fueling.

CEO Scot Wingo said that a third of all service requests on its app come from outside of Spiffy's established markets, prompting the company to broaden its footprint through franchising.

"We started Spiffy six years ago with the idea to leverage digital technologies to disrupt the existing automotive service industry," Mr. Wingo said.

"We've seen tremendous demand, and our move into franchising opens the door for an army of enthusiastic entrepreneurs to join us as we provide a digital 10X better customer experience."

One would question the wisdom of launching a franchise during a pandemic, but Mr. Wingo told Tire Business that the company has considered franchising for a while.

"The pandemic gave us time to actually hunker down and work on it," he said. "We had kind of this little dip in our business and it gave us the ability to breathe and say, 'All right, should we do this franchising thing now and what should it look like?'

"And it gave us the space to actually have time to work on it. In a way it was pandemic-related but it was more for just having the bandwidth to work on it and make sure we could put together an offering we felt was super compelling and unique, compared to anything else out there."

The company will continue to operate its own vans in the 17 metropolitan markets where it's already active and focus on expanding into the 50 largest markets in the U.S.

"But when you come a tier down, there's a good 300 markets where we think Spiffy would work great, but we'll just never be able to get there," he said, noting that franchising will bring its services to more people outside its target markets.

Ever since the company started, "the number one request is, 'I want to franchise with you,'" Mr. Wingo said.

The company is in the process of signing its first franchisees, and so far the interest has been "overwhelming," he added.

"We wanted to do five to 10 (franchisees) and we got demand for 10 times that. So we want to be real careful about how we tell folks we can't do this with everybody. So far, indications are that the demand for this is quite strong."

Every state has different rules for franchising, so the first cut is the states where it is easiest to obtain franchise licenses, he said. Spiffy has set its sights first on the Southeast, then the Midwest and Northeast before heading west.

While the bulk of people interested in a Spiffy franchise envision a stand-alone business, Mr. Wingo said the company has received inquiries from potential investors who already operate a business, such as an independent car dealership, and who want to add services.

He said a Spiffy franchise can be adapted to a brick-and-mortar operation, such as a tire dealership.

"The problem with a brick-and-mortar location is, it's feast or famine," he said. "You've either got no one there, or it's like every bay is full and customers are banging down the door.

"With mobile technology, when it's kind of slow, then you can go to the customer, and then when it's busy, the truck could stay there and be excess capacity. It's almost like adding a mobile bay, if you will, to a lot of existing operations," Mr. Wingo said.

Franchise fees depend on the city where the franchisee is located. Spiffy recommends franchisees rent a location to house their operations.

Initial investment can range from $100,000 to $300,000, which includes a $40,000 license fee, rental of mobile vans and purchase of equipment. There is also a 10% royalty fee on gross sales.

"Like any business when you launch it, it's not going to be profitable immediately. So you're going to incur some losses as you gain that customer base and get to a profitable operation," Mr. Wingo said.

He touted the franchise offers uniformity with a companywide app, marketing support and training.

"Everyone uses the same app, the same customer care group, and we help on the front end for the consumer experience and help create demand in your market and get your folks busy servicing customers," Mr. Wingo said.

The company handles launch support for a franchisee in a new market by issuing press releases and promoting on social media platforms.

The program offers franchisees support services such as upfitting service vehicles with proprietary equipment designed by the Spiffy Labs team; appointment booking and monitoring handled via in-house software development; access to a experienced leadership team; and a suite of corporate support resources, including accounting, customer service and marketing, the company said.

Mr. Wingo said franchisees get a license to use the company's proprietary software.

Spiffy offers an app on the front end for customers to schedule, rate and pay for an appointment. A Middleware called Conductor allows franchisees to look at schedules and optimize routes and jobs.

Then every technician has a custom Technician app that shows a list of jobs, customer requests and other details.

Depending on the market, franchisees also can have access to national fleet account business. Franchisees are ensured exclusive territory, usually within a 20- to 30-mile radius.

While auto service experience is helpful, it is not necessary and Spiffy offers all franchisees a two-week training program that assumes zero familiarity with auto service, Mr. Wingo said.

"We want to make sure you're doing it the Spiffy way, if you will. Because when you're mobile, the sequence you do things matters and there are a lot of things that are a little bit different than traditional operations. So it's not a requirement to have auto service experience. We have training for all those services."

On average, a mobile van can expect to service four or five consumers a day. At a fleet location, a van can service 10 to 20 cars a day on average, depending on the services needed.

Spiffy began in 2014 offering wash/detailing for residential customers at homes and offices.

"It turned out when you give consumers a choice, they really like things done at their office park, where they work," Mr. Wingo said, noting that, before the pandemic, office parks were the lion's share of Spiffy's consumer business.

"Over the last two years, fleet has really grown tremendously for us. There are big trends in the car industry where you're going from less personal ownership to more business ownership or fleet ownership."

He said Spiffy services traditional fleets, such as U-Haul rental companies, to non-traditional fleets, such as Turo car-sharing.

Over the years, Spiffy has added more services, including tire mounting and balancing last January.

The company said it formed a partnership with PRTI Inc., a Franklinton, N.C.-based company to recycle its customers' scrap tires into carbon char, steel, oil, etc. using a patented "thermal depolymerization" process.

Spiffy works with Tire Rack and other online vendors as part of their installation network.

"Our goal is to be a one-stop shop for taking care of your car. Be it us doing it at Spiffy or a certified third-partner, we want to make sure that we can bring that convenience to everybody on every part of their car," Mr. Wingo said.

He noted that the mobile services are available year-round, even in northern states.

"We have technology that allows us to do car washing year-round. And then what you find is consumer demand goes down, but the fleet (business) actually increases (in the winter).

"Fleets love our mobile capability, and there's no reason you can't do an oil change job or a tire change in the snow. You find an area where you can do it safely," Mr. Wingo said, noting the company has inflatable heated enclosures for its techs to work in.

During the state shutdowns in the spring, mobile service demand increased and consumer appointments shifted from office parks to residential sites, Mr. Wingo said.

"Part of (the demand increase) is we introduced disinfecting services so those become quite popular, also with our fleet customers. But the rental car companies were definitely impacted for the first 90 days of COVID because people weren't traveling."

The boon in the used car market has also helped Spiffy, as the operation services Carvana and other used car dealerships by reconditioning vehicles.

"That has been growing very, very rapidly as we've gotten through COVID," he said.