By Jim Utter
Director of Journalism
Fresh off the purchase of a new vehicle, what customer wouldn’t want the ability to maintain that new car clean, if only for a while?
Shine & Drive is a customized car wash program that connects car wash operators to car dealerships with the result being car buyers having the opportunity to walk away with courtesy car washes or even memberships.
For the maximum benefit, Shine & Drive needs growing participation from car wash companies as well as dealers. Dealers don’t want to provide courtesy washes or memberships to customers who then must go well out of their way to use them.
“So, we started in the Midwest and now into Texas and also on the East Coast,” Peter Macaluso, one of the company’s agents heading its national expansion, told Car Wash Daily News. “We’re starting to branch out.
“Our goal is to expand our networks. We’re open to working with all car wash operators – from big chains to independents. I mean, it’s really free marketing. By being involved, hopefully a customer that wasn’t exposed to them before gets a chance to experience what they can offer.”
How it works
Shine & Drive provides car dealerships with the ability to offer car wash memberships anywhere from six months to three years in length. They can also do one-off courtesy washes.
Once a dealership has joined the program, they are free to offer the memberships any way they wish, although most use it as an “add-on” to complete a sale and not as a separate hard sell.
When the customer completes the purchase, they are given a membership number and directions to download the Drive & Shine app. By entering the membership number and other information, the app then shows the customers the nearest participating car wash locations where they can use it.
“Dealerships can use it in multiple different fashions when selling – generally new cars, really any vehicle,” Macaluso said. “We don’t sell to the general public. The car wash companies agree to participate, and the dealers determine how the memberships are distributed.”
Expanding the network
When it comes to growing the program, there is a delicate balance – you need participating car washes in the general area of dealers to make the benefit worth it to the consumer.
“We try to hit basically like major metropolitan areas first. There are some places we have like Atlanta right now where we have a full network. In Tampa, a full network; Charleston, S.C.; a full network in Myrtle Beach,” Macaluso said.
“There are some other areas in the Midwest where we have full networks that if dealerships wanted to sign up with us, we definitely could offer them a product.”
Right now, Macaluso said Shine & Drive is approaching 1,000 individual car washes in its network, including the recent addition of Whistle Express and Take 5. It has around 150 dealerships signed up.
Macaluso said dealerships can sometimes be the harder sell, in part because of the technological aspect of using a mobile app.
“I think sometimes they’d rather print out a coupon and hand somebody a piece of paper,” he said. “But besides that, I mean, it’s an inexpensive product.
“It’s cheaper than offering a set of floor mats and let’s face it, everybody wants their car washed.”
Interested?
Interesting in participating in the Shine & Drive program? You can contact Macaluso at (631) 252-6291; or email at [email protected].
