Money The Price is Right The cost of owning a car wash system can vary, depending on land, number of bays, building structure and a few other factors. You may already own land, if not, purchasing or leasing property will be added to your cost of investment. Building structure, of course, will vary because of local building codes which may require you to use certain materials. You should consult with your equipment supplier regarding construction cost and what material you should use. In addition to the car wash bays themselves, you should always install the maximum number of income producing equipment the property will allow. With the best locations bringing a premium price you will want to get income from as many sources as possible. Keep an Eye on Competition The competition plays an important role in your marketing plans when operating a self-service car wash. Evaluate other car washes. What do you think attracts customers to the other sites? What do you think may turn away customers? Most importantly, what can you do to make your car wash better? Appearance is important. You may have the best equipment that the industry offers, but if you keep a dirty place and muddy floors, chances are that you could lose business. Good service, a well-maintained site, and quality equipment will keep customers coming to your car wash and quality equipment will keep cus tomers coming to your car wash rather than the competitors. Our suggestion is to test your competiton using all of their services. Then evaluate each of them by answering the following questions: • Is your vehicle clean and free of dirt? • Are the painted surfaces film-free? • Are your whitewalls white.....are tires clean? • Are your chrome and bumpers shining bright? • Was the vacuum’s suction strong enough to pick up all carpet dirt? • Was the site free of trash and mud? • Do they offer fragrance, shampooers and other value added services? Make Your Services the Best You must keep old customers as well as make new customers, so your physical appearance is very important. Keep your exterior signage maintained and keep your site trash-free. An attractive car wash will bring in customers. Your easy-to-read in-bay instructional signage will also help keep customers coming back. When the signage begins to fade, rust, chip or scratch, they become hard to read. The bay marketing meter, like the rest of the signs, should be clean and attractive. The decals on the bay meter should be colorful and easy to read. The countdown display timer is placed on the face of the bay meter indicating the amount of time remaining. These countdown timers are also accumulative timers allowing the customer to add coins during the cycle. It should include the price and time of the cycle and the services that are offered in regard to each cycle. Methods of Payment With electronic coin acceptors and bill acceptors at each bay, vacuum or vendor, customers can pay for time and services with different coin types or bills. Just as pay-at-the-pump is a must at convenience stores, credit card acceptance at self-service car washes is another added feature that can take your wash to the next level. Customers typically spend an additional 25% when paying with credit card. Whether you’re using a central credit card acceptor like JCC’s Swipe @ The Bay or the Swipe at the Bay system, you’ve now made it very easy for customers to spend more money at your site. The bay marketing meters appearance and ease of instruction should not be overlooked. It should be as it’s name implies marketing your services. Marketing Your Car Wash Marketing is an essential part of the success of your car wash. It distinguishes you from the next car wash. So, how do you create an image for your site? Just follow the “4 P’s:” product, promotion, price and place. PRODUCT: Know and define your product, which are vehicle washing services. By offering as many in-bay services as you can, you not only give the customer choices, you give them a compete car wash package. Specialty finishes like TripleShine Foaming Conditioner and Spot-Free Rinse give a customer the ultimate finish in car care. Don’t just put vacuums at your site, install combination vacuums and fragrance machines or carpet shampooers. Therefore, you can market your car wash with a wide selection of services. PROMOTION: A full time promotional program will allow you to continue the flow of new customers to your wash. Jim Coleman Company’s Swipe @ The Bay credit card acceptance system and Mail-A-Card or Promo Card programs are excellent programs for promoting grand openings, seasonal promotions and discounted wash incentives. The system will create a database of customers who have used your wash with a credit card, codes or a pre-paid account. Ask your JCC distributor about the dozens of ways to market your wash with Swipe @ The Bay. PRICE: In the car wash industry, prices are normally stable. However, you may have some competition on the price alone. If this is the case, visit your “lower price” competitor and see what their customers are getting for their money. It could be deceiving. Adjusting your time with the turn-on price can sometimes market your car wash in the right direction. PLACE: It cannot be said enough: the three most important factors in a car wash site are location, location, and location. Though you may not have to be located on “Main Street, ”a main street can be the key to success. You must be seen. What is a good location? • A location that can be seen by the motoring public. • Close to neighborhoods since people usually wash their vehicles close to their home. • Near apartments, town homes and condominiums because of multiple families. • High traffic areas such as shopping areas and restaurants. • Have good ingress and egress. These suggestions are all important when evaluating a car wash site. However, they are all not mandatory to ensure a successful business, especially in smaller communities. Your marketing strategy depends on your services and equipment, your competition, your location, and your community. Once you have analyzed these, it makes the marketing and promoting much easier. Sell More, Make More What must you offer to totally satisfy your customers’ demands? Today it takes more than soap and water. They are there to clean their vehicle, inside and out, and you are there to offer them the highest level of performance available in a self-service car wash. Call them accessories or call them necessities.... this is what the modern, high quality self-service car wash is offering today. Features such as: Water Softener Depending on water conditions in your area, some locations require a water softener. A water softening system will remove damaging minerals from the water, enhancing the cleaning ability of detergents and increasing the life of water heaters and pumps. Water Heaters Depending on local climate conditions, water heaters may be required. They provide hot water which greatly improves the performance of all detergents. Countdown Display Timers The timer shows the customer how much time he or she received at the point the equipment starts to operate. With one minute remaining, a horn sounds while the digital display flashes, thus allowing the customer to deposit additional coins before the time expires. Foaming Tire Cleaner Clean tires are just as important as clean cars. This cycle will clean tires with a foaming chemical that penetrates the tires to loosen up road grime. Foaming Engine Cleaner This speaks for itself. This especially designed emulsifying chemical is purely for cleaning the grease and grime that has accumulated on a vehicle’s engine. Bug Remover This cycle loosens bugs’ bodies and bird droppings. Without this, a car's’s paint can be seriously damaged from the acids that exist in decaying bugs. Pre-Soak Cycle Pre-soak is a concentrated detergent solution. It is used to loosen dirt and break down road film. It is the most important ingredient on the road to a clean vehicle. High Pressure Soap Present from the beginning of self serve car washing, high-pressure soap is still used at every self-service car wash. Even with the popularity of the foaming brush, high-pressure soap is used everywhere on the vehicle from tires to engines. High-pressure soap is widely used on trailers, boats and motorcycles. Foaming Brushes What an invention! The foaming brush is one of the greatest moneymakers in the self-serve car wash business. Customers love it because with very little soap, cold water and compressed air, we can create all the suds a customer needs to scrub their vehicle. The operators love it because it increases gross income, and it brings back more customers. The Triple-Color Foam Brush System for the self-service bays combines three bright and attractive colored detergents with a patented application device. Customers love the rainbow of colors created by the swirling of the brush. High Pressure Rinse This cycle is also a basic service. Whether a foaming brush or high-pressure soap is used, every customer will use high-pressure clean rinse. Because cold water is recommended, this will save energy. Foaming Conditioner The Foaming Conditioner cycle conditions the vehicle guarding against nature’s elements. It is delivered through a specially designed wand meant only for foaming conditioner. TripleShine® This foaming conditioner creates three bright colors of foam and the result is one deep, long lasting protective shine. This unique formula of conditioner helps in removing stubborn road grime and guards against UV rays. The 3 colors, red, blue and gold, put on a dazzling show that entertains all age customers while performing its designed use. Clear Coat Protectant This feature gives the vehicle a “coat” of protection sealing in the conditioner. It adds protective shine as well. High Pressure Wax Approximately one-fifth of the customers use high-pressure wax, increasing the average income per vehicle. Spot-Free Rinse Due to dissolved solids in the water, Spotting may occur after washing and rinsing. To eliminate spotting, spot free rinse can be applied. The spot free rinse uses pure water at low or medium pressure. The water in this cycle is put through a reverse osmosis water purification system, removing the dissolved solids, thus solving the problem of spotting. Vacuums Vacuums have proven to be a very profitable source of income and are widely used in today’s car wash. A powerful vacuum cleaner will clean the interior of a vehicle with ease. Fragrance Machines Fragrance machines are widely used in today’s car washes. Applying a fragrance in the car will make it smell as clean as it looks. Having these machines in your car wash will provide an excellent source of profit. Carpet Shampooers A modern car wash should not be without a carpet shampooer. The carpet shampooer machine dispenses a hot, thick shampoo from a brush to thoroughly clean carpets and car interiors. With the customer paying around two dollars to shampoo his car, the owner’s cost is about ten cents, making the shampooer one of the most profitable machines in a car wash. Trash can covers with mat clamps on them work great for customers shampooing their mats. Vacuum Combination Units - Earn Even More! To get the maximum return on vacuums, fragrance machine and shampooers you should use combination units. For example a vacuum/fragrance or vacuum/shampooer combination unit usually will return approximately 15-20% more revenue than when installed as separate pieces of equipment. This is due to more impulse buying by the customer when both services are available in one location. Vending Vending machines selling products such as fragrance, window cleaner, Armor All® and towels are another way to increase revenue in your self-service car wash. For the innovative owner, electronic vending islands offer the customer one point of payment for up to 10 different products. Through electronic vending, the customer can now pay with multiple types of coins, bills or use the Swipe @ The Bay to purchase vending items with a credit card. Bill Changer Bill changers are a must at any self serve car wash. Customers need change most of the time. Having a reliable bill changer will bring customers back and new customers in if they know they can easily obtain change for their bills. We suggest a bill changer dispensing quarters and dollar coins as well as a bill-to-bill changer. Bill to bill lets the customer exchange a 10 or 20-dollar bill to smaller denomination bills. Swipe @ The Bay® Credit Card Service Offering credit card at your car wash not only gives your customer a choice of payment, but also increases business. Credit card customers will buy more services and spend more on those services than typical cash customers.The credit card capability gives your car wash the image of innovation.