Clayton Clark

Clayton Clark, chief operations officer of Bubbles Enterprises, a 13-site chain of Bubbles Car Washes in the Houston area, also said they look to their staff for guidance. "We have monthly meetings with all customer service staff to let them know how important their roles are in building our business and sharing with them the 'Bubbles Vision," Clark said. He also shared that management holds a daily conference call to focus on different ideas and scenarios that may come up daily.
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Expanding your carwash needs to be carefully thought out, according to Gesund and Clark.
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Clark said his company hopes to open two locations later this year and even more in the future years in the greater Houston area. He said understanding the needs and expectations of their core customers in this marketplace is important.
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Clark said that at the beginning of 2009, Bubbles called together its management team and key personnel to lay out the company's game plan and discuss strategies for the year. "Our philosophy was as long as we got the weather to cooperate we should have our best year ever," Clark said.

The group assembled at the meeting looked at every expense to "cut out the fluff," as well as negotiated with vendors on lowering prices and motivated staff to encourage excellent customer service. "We couldn't afford to lose a single customer," Clark explained.
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Clark revealed the company also relies on "word of mouth" advertising. "I believe that there are many ways to entice a new customer to visit you," he said, "but we really work on retaining our current customers and they with their 'word of mouth' do the rest."

CLAYTON CLARK, V.P. & General Manager

Clayton Clark, vice president and general manager of Bubbles Hand Car Wash in Houston, was reviewing his computerized sales reports on a busy Saturday last spring, when a surprising statistic jumped off the screen.The service and sales associates (SSAs) at one of the chain's five locations were selling Bubble's $29.95 "Ultimate" package to 42 percent of the wash's customers, well over the 28 percent benchmark that management had established for this option.

Although most carwash managers would have cheered this performance, it triggered a red alert for Clark, who rushed to the site to correct his sales team's "mistake."

Gathering the four SSAs together, the general manager told them to stop talking about the Ultimate package, and focus instead on Bubble's "Express Hand Wax" option, which costs $45.95.

The net result

In the hour following Clark's talk, the SSAs sold 21 Express Hand Wax options, generating an extra $336 in revenues for Bubbles.

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"The fact that our SSAs were hitting such a high percentage of Ultimate sales, meant that they weren't spending enough time talking about our Express Hand Wax," explained Clark."Our theory is that if customers are willing to spend $29.95 at our carwash, at least some of them can be moved up another $16, if we explain the benefits of our Express Hand Wax.It's all a matter of how our sales people focus their attention."

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However, Lawrence and Clark are quick to point out that Claytonomics does not involve pushing unneeded or unwanted services on customers.
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"Our philosophy is to sell the customer only those services that offer him or her a real benefit," said Clark."The job of our SSAs is to sell by informing customers about the things they need."

When selling these services, a Bubbles SSA will never simply ask customers if they want a specific extra service.Instead, the SSA will inform the customer about the added benefits that an extra service offers.

For example, when a customer buys an Ultimate, the SSA will not ask, "Would you like to trade up to an Express Hand Wax?"
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According to Clark, asking a question makes it very easy for the customer to say no. On the other hand, stating a benefit will give the customer something very positive to consider.

Establish goals

Lawrence and Clark have established five Claytonomic goals for Bubbles' SSAs:
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Clark also trains salespeople not to focus on customers who have no real interest in extra services.

"Like all carwashes, we get people who roll their window down two inches, and say, "All I want is a basic wash.' We tell our SSAs to be very polite, thank these customers for their business and wish them a good day, but don't worry about trying to sell them anything extra."

This type of customer isn't interested in anything more, and the SSAs are just wasting time and energy that could be better spent on other customers.Hearing no from too many customers may discourage employees, making them less enthusiastic when dealing with the next customer.

Performance reviews
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Clark reviews the performance of SSAs every Friday during Claytonomics classes.Bubbles' computer system produces reports that show each individual SSA how he or she is doing in terms of meeting the five Claytonomics sales goals.According to Clark, this reporting is critical to the success of his sales strategy.

"Sales people do much better when they're given feedback on their performance," he said."If an SSA sees that he's selling Ultimates to 36 percent of his customers, he knows he has to start talking more about the Express Hand Wax.In almost all cases, this re-focusing will be enough to produce the desired results."

Clayton Clark, chief operating officer of Bubbles Car Washes in Houston, TX.
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Clayton Clark
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Clayton Clark
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Clayton Clark
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Clayton Clark

Clayton Clark, senior vice president of operations for Bubbles Hand Wash and Bubbles Express, is a minority owner in the express companies in Houston and Dallas.

Clayton Clark, senior vice president of operations for Bubbles Hand Wash and Bubbles Express, is a minority owner in the express operations in the Dallas and Houston areas.

Clayton Clark, vice president of Bubbles, started as a part-time service advisor.Years later, he became the founder of an innovative sales tactic that has changed the way Bubbles does business.
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Finally, all service advisors attend weekly classes, conducted by Clark, on bettering sales performance and overall customer service.

Clayton Clark, vice president of Bubbles, started as a part-time service advisor.Years later, he became the founder of an innovative sales tactic that has changed the way Bubbles does business.The system is called Claytonomics and is based on the idea that less is more.In other words, it is not necessarily in a carwash's best interest to exceed the expected sales on a lower- or middle-priced wash package.

Whereas a lot of carwash owners would be pleased to sell one-third of their customers a $30 wash package, Bubbles only wants to sell that package to 25 to 28 percent of them.

"If that many people are buying that package, it is too easy.
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Finally, all service advisors attend weekly classes, conducted by Clark, on bettering sales performance and overall customer service.All employees are cross-trained to perform duties ranging from cashier to service advisor.

Exposure

Six years ago, Bubbles Car Wash launched http://www.bubblescarwash.com/.At this time, carwash Web sites were a rarity, and offering options such as scheduling a detailing appointment or filling out customer-service surveys online were basically unheard of.