Flagstop Car Care Center in Colonial Heights, VA is the newest of six Flagstop units, all in the Richmond-to-Petersburg area. The principles that guide operations at this sparkling new site are unchanged since the company began nearly 25 years ago.

The car wash and quick lube services at Colonial Heights give drivers quality, convenience and speed, as do many such combos. What boosts both customer satisfaction and company profit at every Flagstop is vehicular savvy and making sure customers know what their cars need while avoiding the hard sell.

"We want to get every honest dollar we can for the services our customers need," says company president Bob Schrum. In fact, if any Flagstop employee pushes services that aren't needed, he's out of a job.

Flagstop units combine tunnel ride-through washes with full-service option, self-serve wash bays, quick-lube centers, and detail shops, all operating side-by-side and cross-merchandised with high-volume gas stations and convenience stores.

At the newest sites - Colonial Heights and on Ironbridge Road in Chester - attractive vaulted lobbies and gift shop areas are accessorized and stocked with antiques, accented with the warmth (in appropriate months) of gas-burning fireplaces. Business centers at these stores provide customers with phone and fax services as well.

Both of these new stores are prototypes of what Flagstop intends in its future expansion. They include a Hanna-equipped wash tunnel, three or four quick-lube bays, a two-bay detail center, and five or six self-serve wash bays.

Schrum, a land developer and builder of single-family homes before getting into the car wash business in 1981, built his first store in his hometown of Chester, VA. The combination of gas station, convenience store, exterior wash and lube center was largely untested then, and some of his contemporaries thought he "was Looney Tunes to build an operation like that," he recalls. Many of his wash customers soon wanted their vehicle interiors cleaned, too, so Schrum offered it as an option.

The Ironbridge Road store in Chester, which opened in late 1999, achieves about half of its dollar volume in its conveyor wash. The CITGO-branded lube shop generates nearly a third of the total dollars. Detailing accounts for roughly 7 percent of the dollar total, and the self-serve wash bays bring in approximately 8 percent, a recent month's analysis shows. The gift shop, stocked with antiques as well as car care items, adds a little over 5 percent in sales while helping to provide a welcoming lobby ambiance.

An exterior wash at Flagstop can be purchased for as little as $6.99 - and for a lot less than that if that same car returns frequently. This wash includes prep work at the entrance and both machine and hand drying at the finish line. The most popular wash, however, is the $19.99 Super Works. At that level, drivers get a full-service wash, air freshener, tri-poly clear-coat conditioners, clear-coat protectant, and deluxe wheel cleaning with tire dressing. Customers with trucks pay an additional $1, while van, SUV and oversized vehicle drivers add $2.

Flagstop's lube-service menu begins with an 18-point full-service oil change for $29.99 plus a 96-cent environmental fee. If a vehicle is overdue for an oil change, Flagstop has a deluxe full-service change including an AMSOIL engine flush, for $39.95. While CITGO is the principal lubricant brand, Flagstop offers alternatives such as Pennzoil and Castrol.

AMSOIL synthetic oil now accounts for up to 15 percent of Flagstop lube shop volume. Schrum was won over to the company's products through personal experience. "Many years ago, we started putting AMSOIL gear oil in our Cat pumps. Now I've got some Cat pumps at our older store that have been in operation for 23 years, so I'm definitely a believer." All of his managers have chosen AMSOIL for their personal vehicles, he adds.

Customers are never pressured into purchasing services needed to keep their cars in tip-top operating condition, but carefully advised and educated by Flagstop managers on what may be needed and why.

Schrum says there's plenty of business to be had with such tactics, because most drivers neglect performing maintenance that vehicle manufacturers and others recommend. Frequent tire rotation, windshield wiper blade replacement, engine flushing, transmission service, power steering flush and fill, and radiator service are among these neglected areas.

When such a need is identified, Flagstop personnel will advise the driver and suggest that the service be performed on their next visit. That way, customers coming in for a routine oil change can spend what they had planned, and budget ahead for their next visit, Schrum explains.

At his first Flagstop location, Schrum not only had the car wash and other car care services, but also operated a convenience store and pumped gas. Now, he and his wife, Jeannie, concentrate on car care exclusively at their newer sites, with gas and convenience store operations handled by another operator, Wawa.

"We built at Ironbridge about a year before the arrival of Wawa, which is a big gas and c-store operation primarily operating in the mid-Atlantic states," Bob notes. In addition to the Wawa unit in Chester, there is now another at the Colonial Heights Flagstop.

In the beginning, Schrum realized the cross-merchandising potential of a gas and c-store operation
combined with car care services. But he and his wife realized they needed to concentrate on the latter to produce a package of quality car services. Operating a car care center plus a gas and convenience store would commit them to 18-hour days, they figured, instead of the 12-hour days they now regularly work managing just car care functions

At their newest sites, the Schrums have built their car care facility on the back part of the lot, leaving the prime spot for Wawa. Drivers do not only fuel their vehicles at Wawa, they also get a wide selection of food ranging from typical grocery needs to delicatessen staples to sandwiches prepared on the spot. Moreover, "We're very similar in our customer care philosophies, so it's a nice match," Bob Schrum observes.

Cross merchandising between Wawa and Flagstop makes business better for both. On the Wawa counters are dollar-off coupons on any car wash and $3 discount coupons on any full-service quick lube.

With his knowledge of the demographics, Schrum and Wawa's real estate specialist have become very close in picking future sites. Chesterfield County has grown tremendously over the past 20 years, Bob Schrum reports, and now has about 250,000 people in a county stretching between Petersburg and Richmond.

The Schrums have chosen carefully in building, equipping, branding, and staffing their car care operations. One factor that influenced their choice of CITGO as the brand for their quick lube center is that it enables Flagstop to accept any of more thantwo dozen credit and fleet cards. The detailing center features the Meguiar's product line.

The three newest Flagstops feature Hanna-equipped tunnels - a 110-foot tunnel and 130-foot conveyor at Ironbridge and a 100-foot tunnel and 120-foot conveyor at Colonial Heights. The Hanna equipment was acquired through Howco, Inc., Hanna's North Carolina-based distributor. Most of the self-serve equipment is from Carolina Pride out of Greensboro, NC.

Keeping that equipment working properly is partly the responsibility of each site manager, all trained "to fix the minor things that break in day-to-day operations," Schrum says. For other needs, Flagstop relies on its full-time maintenance specialist, John Bowman.

"John has been with us for many years and has helped us build new locations and has managed our lube shops. He's very knowledgeable in plumbing, electrical, and overall general repairs, and he knows the equipment we have," Schrum notes. "We always keep two or three of everything that can and will break - always after 5 on a Friday - at each location or else in John's van.

The entire 100-member Flagstop staff is outfitted with company shirts, sweatshirts, caps and even toboggan-type stocking caps, provided at nominal cost. All employees must wear khaki pants, which they purchase on their own.

Full-time employees (averaging 35 or more hours a week) can get hospitalization, dental, and some life insurance - the employee and Flagstop splitting the premium cost.

Some Flagstop employees are long-time veterans, particularly those who share a concern for customers and their cars. All full-time employees attend regular staff meetings covering everything from safety and quality control to customer care and marketing.

Perhaps the best example of employee longevity is Jamie Nester, who has been with the company for over 10 years and is now vice president of operations. Nester was hired "right out of high school" as a cashier/greeter. He quickly proved his love for the business and his understanding of the Schrums' philosophies of customer care, and his responsibilities grew as the company expanded.

Flagstop demonstrates its concern for communities in its market both in environmental practices and in supporting local causes. The company co-sponsors (at a cost of $7,500) the annual Chesterfield County/Colonial Heights Crime Solvers Golf Tournament, and gives four free car washes away to between three and five civic, youth, church and similar groups each week during the year.

Environmentally, "We recycle about 30 percent of our automatic wash water and we make sure that all of our wash water goes into the sanitary sewer and not the storm drain," Bob Schrum says. Used oil from the lube shops is wisely used, too, in waste-oil heaters that provide indoor comfort for employees during colder months.

Combining helpful, convenient car care and care for the community, Flagstop Car Care Centers are a welcome and bustling presence in the central Virginia area between Petersburg and Richmond. Competitors abound, but Flagstop believes its emphasis on quality will continue to win customers who want "The Ultimate in Car Care."

Jim and Elaine Norland are regular contributors to Auto Laundry News