Small town SS about to get a competitor!

[Waxman]

I have a 5 bay SS, 7 vacs, detail shop there and a store with our detail products.
I can walk to four tunnel car washes from my SS !!!!
Quick Quack just came in 1 mile from me, I see very few cars there …..
I have owned this car wash 3 years and I TOTALLY agree, SS customers and tunnel customers are two distinct markets.
We have an LED sign that says " no scratchy tunnel here"
I agree with all of the advice given so far.
#1 is clean facility,
#2 everything works
#3 tons of product !!! soap, cleaners, foam brush etc

We have free air and free wiper fluid, and a sign on the street saying this.
I would guess 40 or 50 cars a day come in for this....
The easiest and cheapest marketing in the world.
as they get air or wiper fluid they look around and see our clean bays, store and detail area, usually with exotic and collector cars there.

as for blowers, I put in Blasto-Dry air dryers in all 5 SS bays about a year ago.
cost about $2K each, great company, you will deal with Mike (he and his brother own the company)
First 6 months, minimal use.... then people woke up, they are used all of the time now.
I'm glad I put them in, well made and ROI maybe 1 to 1 1/2 years...


I think you will be fine, keep your focus on your car wash, ed

I think you're making a mistake by bashing the competitor. I would change the wording to tout your benefits without slamming the other guy.

Makes you look bad to accuse the competitor of scratching cars.

 

[docopp]

thanks for your comments
I agree about touting our benefits.
This benefit is a true one .....
Our detail shop stays busy paint correcting cars that got scratched up going thru a tunnel.
I don’t see them as competition for two reasons
#1 our only true competition is ourselves
#2 tunnels and SS/detail shop have two distinct segments of the market

 

[washnshine]

I own tunnels and self serves. A poorly run tunnel can cause some marring - operators fault for not running it properly or maintaining it as it should be.

But in my 30+ years in the industry I have seen significant damage done to automobile paint in self service washes too. Sure - even in my own. People who do not rinse out the foam brush, or people who wash with only soap and water and then dry off all film left with a chamois - this causes tons of paint marring. Even with great signs, soap, clean bays - it’s up to people to follow the instructions and no matter how well we train, we’ll never get them all to follow the right process. Even people who blow dry the car after a not- so -thorough wash in a self serve go to a vac island and smear what they left on their car with a towel.

I’ve also seen many detail shops mess up paint - inducing swirls or holograms, overcorrecting soft paint. Again - operators fault.

So I guess it isn’t necessarily the process that is causing the problem, but rather the person in charge of the process at any given time. Be it the tunnel operator, detailer or self serve customer on their own car.

 

[soonermajic]

I have a 5 bay SS, 7 vacs, detail shop there and a store with our detail products.
I can walk to four tunnel car washes from my SS !!!!
Quick Quack just came in 1 mile from me, I see very few cars there …..
I have owned this car wash 3 years and I TOTALLY agree, SS customers and tunnel customers are two distinct markets.
We have an LED sign that says " no scratchy tunnel here"
I agree with all of the advice given so far.
#1 is clean facility,
#2 everything works
#3 tons of product !!! soap, cleaners, foam brush etc

We have free air and free wiper fluid, and a sign on the street saying this.
I would guess 40 or 50 cars a day come in for this....
The easiest and cheapest marketing in the world.
as they get air or wiper fluid they look around and see our clean bays, store and detail area, usually with exotic and collector cars there.

as for blowers, I put in Blasto-Dry air dryers in all 5 SS bays about a year ago.
cost about $2K each, great company, you will deal with Mike (he and his brother own the company)
First 6 months, minimal use.... then people woke up, they are used all of the time now.
I'm glad I put them in, well made and ROI maybe 1 to 1 1/2 years...


I think you will be fine, keep your focus on your car wash, ed

40---50 cars DAILY because of free air & wiper fluid? That's unreal. Do most of em also spend money? Our SS bays are busy as can be already. But that is an interesting ploy...

 

[Bandit]

I have a 5 bay SS, 7 vacs, detail shop there and a store with our detail products.
I can walk to four tunnel car washes from my SS !!!!
Quick Quack just came in 1 mile from me, I see very few cars there …..
I have owned this car wash 3 years and I TOTALLY agree, SS customers and tunnel customers are two distinct markets.
We have an LED sign that says " no scratchy tunnel here"
I agree with all of the advice given so far.
#1 is clean facility,
#2 everything works
#3 tons of product !!! soap, cleaners, foam brush etc

We have free air and free wiper fluid, and a sign on the street saying this.
I would guess 40 or 50 cars a day come in for this....
The easiest and cheapest marketing in the world.
as they get air or wiper fluid they look around and see our clean bays, store and detail area, usually with exotic and collector cars there.

as for blowers, I put in Blasto-Dry air dryers in all 5 SS bays about a year ago.
cost about $2K each, great company, you will deal with Mike (he and his brother own the company)
First 6 months, minimal use.... then people woke up, they are used all of the time now.
I'm glad I put them in, well made and ROI maybe 1 to 1 1/2 years...


I think you will be fine, keep your focus on your car wash, ed

What dispenses the 'free wiper' fluid ?

 

[Randy]

99% of the windshield washer fluid you get at detail shops or at lube shops is pure Garbage and if it’s free you pretty much know its garbage. The best windshield washer fluid you can buy is made by 20/10 https://2010products.com/all-products/auto-care/ we’ve been using it forever.

 

[Waxman]

Which one Randy? There are a few on the link.....

 

[Randy]

Waxman, sorry we use the Windshield Cleaner Concentrate

https://2010products.com/shop/all-products/windshield-cleaner-concentrate/

My nephew worked for a short time at a detail/lube shop when he got out of the Marines. He quit because of the unscrupulous business practices. They mixed up they own windshield washer fluid, they’d mix 2 cups of Dawn dishing washing soap in a 30 gallon drum, add blue food coloring to it and charged the customers $2.00 to refill there windshield washer fluid tank in the there car. The jerk owner of the shop got what he had coming to him, he pissed off the wrong customer and got his a$$ handed to him.

 

[Strava]

I own tunnels and self serves. A poorly run tunnel can cause some marring - operators fault for not running it properly or maintaining it as it should be.

But in my 30+ years in the industry I have seen significant damage done to automobile paint in self service washes too. Sure - even in my own. People who do not rinse out the foam brush, or people who wash with only soap and water and then dry off all film left with a chamois - this causes tons of paint marring. Even with great signs, soap, clean bays - it’s up to people to follow the instructions and no matter how well we train, we’ll never get them all to follow the right process. Even people who blow dry the car after a not- so -thorough wash in a self serve go to a vac island and smear what they left on their car with a towel.

I’ve also seen many detail shops mess up paint - inducing swirls or holograms, overcorrecting soft paint. Again - operators fault.

So I guess it isn’t necessarily the process that is causing the problem, but rather the person in charge of the process at any given time. Be it the tunnel operator, detailer or self serve customer on their own car.

How do you dispense the fee air freshener and wiper fluid?

 

[washnshine]

How do you dispense the fee air freshener and wiper fluid?

I don’t.