How to start a carwash: Finding and keeping employees - Professional Carwashing & Detailing

How to start a carwash: Finding and keeping employees

With the right attention to your employees, your carwash can run even more efficiently and it can better serve the wants and needs of customers.

The employees of your carwash can be a powerful force for your business’ success. Because customers may interact with them more than the owner, employees affect the impression customers have of your carwash.

Common practices like hiring without a formal interview process, lack of proper training and workers feeling underappreciated often lead to ineffective employees. With the right attention to your employees, your carwash can run even more efficiently and it can better serve the wants and needs of customers.

Below are three tips provided by Steve Gaudreau, president of Brink Results, LLC, and a 25-year carwash industry veteran. Gaudreau also is author of Creating Exceptional Managers and So You Want to Own a Car Wash.

How to start a carwash Tip #1: Formal interviews

A formal interview reinforces the image of a business with good merit. Instead of hiring workers who walk in off the street and are hired with no legitimate process, ask for and check the potential hire’s references.

Make sure the person is someone your customers can and should trust. Have another person conduct a second interview. Call the applicant back and let him or her know there were multiple applicants, but he or she earned the position. This will avoid any negative attitude, create a reputation of good merit for the business, and let employees know you expect good performance.

How to start a carwash Tip #2: Employee training

Proper training will help retain employees. Training employees at a carwash takes commitment, but it is not difficult. Workers who have been invested in will possess a higher opinion of the business, and it means their job performance will be high.

How to start a carwash Tip #3: Showing appreciation

Not feeling appreciated is the number one reason people leave their jobs. A business will reap the rewards if it makes an effort to keep employees who have performed well over time.

Employees can be appreciated in numerous ways, including positive feedback, one-on-one time and individualized support. Non-monetary or monetary gifts can be used as well, although care should be taken with monetary gifts to ensure no problems are created.

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