Tech-Enabled Service Makes Car Care Easier for Consumers, Fleets

For consumers and fleet managers alike, getting a vehicle cleaned and maintained is a chore that takes time they’d rather spend doing something else.

To solve this problem, car care company Spiffy brings those services to the customer, with a mobile service offering car washing and detailing, disinfection, oil changes and tire service at the customer’s home or workplace. The service can be ordered via app, website, phone or chat, and payments can be made digitally. Because Spiffy’s vans are so visible, the company also gets a lot of walk-up customers. Spiffy has enabled its technicians to make appointments in the field and scan a credit card.

“The convenience-oriented consumer loves to multitask, and what they love is that they can take car care off their task list,” Spiffy CEO and Co-founder Scot Wingo told PYMNTS. “It’s like an annoyance in their day — it’s not a strategic thing — and they can take care of it while they do other stuff.”

Fleets, too, cannot be without their vehicles. Plus, amid a labor shortage, they’re having a hard time hiring people to care for their vehicles. On top of that, fleets are keeping their vehicles longer because new ones are in short supply.

“The value of the vehicle for the day has gone up, so the opportunity cost for having it sitting at a quick lube place is very high,” Wingo said. “So, that’s become a really nice tailwind for us.”

Marrying Car Care and the Digital Experience

Before starting Spiffy, Wingo, a serial entrepreneur, already had a background in eCommerce and in the car wash industry. In 2013, he took his first ride in an Uber. He saw that a zero-friction experience like that would become one that consumers would expect.

At the same time, he saw that in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), consumer services are twice the size of consumer goods — so the opportunity for eServices, or tech-enabled services, is twice the size of eCommerce. What’s more, eCommerce had already laid the groundwork of digital payments and mobile apps, so tech-enabled services could get going faster.

“All that culminated in an experiment that became Spiffy that I started in 2014 to essentially marry car care, the digital experience and everything I’ve learned from eCommerce, swirl it all together and think about, ‘Could we provide a better way of doing things around car care,’” Wingo said.

Spiffy started doing car washes and detailing for consumers in Raleigh, North Carolina. Today, the company pitches its services not only to consumers but also to office parks and fleets. It owns and operates the service in 26 markets and has franchises in others; Spiffy offers franchises in metro areas that have fewer than a million people and has corporate-owned and -operated services in larger areas.

In addition to car washing and detailing, Spiffy now offers oil changes and tire rotations, installations and repairs. The company is now working on offering brake service as well.

“Our vision is, ‘Spiffy everywhere,’ so we’ve got to be everywhere and provide every service so that we can say to you, ‘Give us a club membership and we’ll just take care of your car here,’” Wingo said.

Taking All the Friction Out

If the customer has a connected car, they can give Spiffy permission to access to unlock and move the car without having to hand over their keys. The customer needs only log in to their vehicle owner app or website and give Spiffy permission.

“If they’re working from home, they can be on a Zoom call and their car’s being taken care of. If they’re working in an office, it doesn’t disrupt their day,” Wingo said. “We’re pretty obsessed with taking all the friction out of this.”

Spiffy uses Stripe as the payment processor for its mobile app and website. Spiffy also implemented its own gift card program. The company doesn’t accept cash because it’s hard to track, and because people don’t carry much cash nowadays.

Integrating with Fleet Management Companies

With fleets, the company has a normal accounts payable (AP) relationship and receives payments via automated clearing house (ACH) or check. For fleets that are leased through fleet management companies (FMCs), Spiffy has integrated with FMCs’ back-end systems and can route the repair order and get the payment there.

Wingo expects that all services will become digital, with apps that give customers visibility into the services they’ve ordered and the time the service provider will arrive. These eServices will spread to home services and all other services, he said.

“We think that’s going to sweep through the whole industry,” Wingo said. “I think that’s great for the payments industry because, again, it’s a set of transaction volume that ultimately is twice the size of eCommerce.”