Dispensing Dollar Coins

[Officer]

At present, I'm set up to accept dollar coins, except for my air machine, which accepts CC. Our startup price for SS is $3.50 for 5 mins. We want to dispense dollar coins to avoid the hassle of the change machine, so frequently. I wonder if I should raise prices to $4.00 or lower them to $3.00 for less time. There have been no complaints with our price point, as our wash is one of the cleanest around, with air dryers, and CC (count up). I welcome other operator's thoughts on how to proceed.

Thanks,
B

 

[I.B. Washincars]

I started dispensing dollar coins when I was $1.50. People didn’t particularly care for being somewhat forced to put in $2. I learned later that my dual Hamilton changer could be easily converted to dispense a combination of dollars and quarters. I then started dispensing four quarters and the balance in dollars, regardless what bill was inserted. I’ve been at $2 for quite some time and a couple of years ago I stopped dispensing the four quarters and replaced them with a dollar token. I think you should be at a round dollar or dispense some quarters with the dollars.

 

[mjwalsh]

At present, I'm set up to accept dollar coins, except for my air machine, which accepts CC. Our startup price for SS is $3.50 for 5 mins. We want to dispense dollar coins to avoid the hassle of the change machine, so frequently. I wonder if I should raise prices to $4.00 or lower them to $3.00 for less time. There have been no complaints with our price point, as our wash is one of the cleanest around, with air dryers, and CC (count up). I welcome other operator's thoughts on how to proceed.

Thanks,
B

Officer,

Kudos to you ... just because some Swedes are doing just the opposite does not mean us Americans should: https://www.businessinsider.com/swe...rochips-under-skin-to-replace-id-cards-2018-5

The key is to make sure your customers can easily get the "easier to use" dollar coins when they come to your facility. You may want to talk with the higher ups at your local banks because some banks & credit unions are more dollar coin friendly than others for making them easily available to you ... without unfair & unrealistic impediments. Some try to create the illusion that the general public wants "100% Cashless" so they can get in on the "merchant fee gravy train" with some very authoritarian "control freak" career gov't people.

There are laundromat owners around the country based on the CLA Forum who are successfully both dispensing & accepting only dollar coins.

 

[OurTown]

Kudos to you ... just because some Swedes are doing just the opposite does not mean us Americans should: https://www.businessinsider.com/swed...d-cards-2018-5

That is very disturbing to me.

 

[Officer]

I’ve already established with our bank manager a means to get dollar coins by the thousand with a few days notice. Just stuck with my current start up price. Should I raise to $4 or lower to $3 and just lower the time.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

I’ve already established with our bank manager a means to get dollar coins by the thousand with a few days notice. Just stuck with my current start up price. Should I raise to $4 or lower to $3 and just lower the time.

That's a tough one. I'm less than an hour away from you and charge $2-4 minutes, which is pretty much the going rate around here. I've been contemplating $3 start, but am trying to sell out, so just might let the next guy do that (maybe you?).

 

[mjwalsh]

That's a tough one. I'm less than an hour away from you and charge $2-4 minutes, which is pretty much the going rate around here. I've been contemplating $3 start, but am trying to sell out, so just might let the next guy do that (maybe you?).

Officer,

Depending on your self service competition, I would still accept quarters even though you would not dispense them. Do you accept paper bills on your SS coin boxes? I am a believer in & have done it ... in a bonus format. Something to consider. On my vacuums ... I give an extra minute so my customers have a good feeling about using the dollar coin. On my coin op laundromat dryers I do something similar. If I lived in an area where the competition did "free vacuums" that could be a killer to my bonus vacuum.

I feel between the bonus approach & the less hassle for the customer handling fewer coins ... it is a winning way. Another good thing would be that then you would have the dollar coins or a $5 threshold being a clear gain for your customers over your CC (even with their rewards) & quarters. That would long term wise save on merchant fees & the quarters used by customers would gradually become less & less. It took some time but that is exactly what happened with our commercial dryers in our laundromat. We do not accept CC in the bays or laundromat (other than ATM) but we did put in bill acceptors in the 6 bays which has proven to be a higher maintenance item than our MicroCoin QL both dollar coin & quarters accepting coin acceptors.

For very good unacceptable public policy reasons, most customers are most likely to have quarters with them & will prefer to be able to get rid of them ... that is one of the reasons we also accept quarters. If you dispense no quarters & a bonus approach ... I believe will help buffer your proposed slight "rounded off to the dollar" price increase. Let them still use quarters & CC but have a bit of healthy tension so that they know that those two options are costing them even more. Dixmor Timers are pretty flexible on programming in bonuses so it seems like it would be do-able for a customer friendly approach. Not sure what kind of timers you are using though & not sure if you take the paper bill accepting in the wet bays either.

Mike at
www.kingkoin.com

 

[MEP001]

The general rule seems to be "never lower your price." Everyone I've ever talked to who raised their price has gotten no complaints. Maybe one, and it's usually the guy who is just there to make a mess with the least money spent possible. When you lower your price and time, all they'll notice is the shorter time. I've never lowered price and time, but when I plan a price increase I start lowering the time per coin by a couple seconds a month until I'm down to where I want it for the new startup, then I increase price. They notice that 2 seconds per coin.

IMO the ones who don't bring their own quarters probably won't mind an even dollar startup if you're only giving dollar coins. In fact I'll bet giving dollar coins as change will be your only complaint until they understand that they aren't tokens.

 

[chaz]

That's a tough one. I'm less than an hour away from you and charge $2-4 minutes, which is pretty much the going rate around here. I've been contemplating $3 start, but am trying to sell out, so just might let the next guy do that (maybe you?).

Go to the $3 start for 4 minutes. While you are at it...take the vacs to $2 for $6 minutes. Then you’ll be priced same as me and it’ll be simpler when you buy me out!

 

[Officer]

Switched to dollar coins. I've got some comic video of these clowns from the apartment complex down the street discovering my newly implemented coins. I think once word spreads I'll come out on the winning end.

 

[Jeff_L]

IMHO I wouldn’t reduce price along with reducing time per coin. Customers might think you’re just trying to pull a fast one on them. I would increase startup prices if you must, easy to justify “trying to keep the truck bed washers away, trying to keep bucket washers to change their way, etc.”. I tell them I want to keep the bays clean for customers like you, because you don’t want to pull into a muddy bay, or wait forever for a bucket washer if I’m not here to push them out.

I just took all coin away from one of my washes, cc only for 2019. Hope it goes well... ��

 

[OurTown]

I just took all coin away from one of my washes, cc only for 2019. Hope it goes well... ��

What percentage of cc usage were you before you switched?

 

[Jeff_L]

@OurTown, 42% of revenue for self serves has been cc payment and 84% of automatic revenue has been cc. Not much of a change for my automatics since the majority use cc's, but my self serve business will be interesting to see. I also increased the start value from $1 (been that way for over 10yrs) to $3. Not looking to get rich, but am looking to get into the black so I can get some much needed repairs and upgrades done to the property. Also looking forward to losing the undesirables.