Competing With Express Tunnel Wash

[carstawash]

Has anyone figured out a good way to compete with an express tunnel wash. We run 2 Petit in bay automatics in 2 different locations about 2 miles apart. They are planning on building a large car wash in between the 2 locations. We are considering adding monthly wash passes and loyalty programs on updated kiosks. Has anyone had any success doing this? Or am I just wasting my money?

 

[ShinePro]

Keys to successfully competing
1)Have your place looking good!
Signage looking nice - clean etc

2)Have equipment running great!
(Orange cones in front of a closed bay sucks)
Use good chemicals - dont care whose/ well sorta do but…
Make sure you are getting everything out of the chemicals you can!
Kick your rep in the butt and tell him what you want
“ You can put out a tunnel quality car in an IBA”

3)Rewards programs work!
“Can use rewards on multiple cars”

4) Promote the TOUCHLESS factor!!!!!

5) you have time to get this done long before they open
It takes them months to get one built once they start- one near me has been 7 months to build.

6) Dont panic when they first open!

 

[soonermajic]

ShinePro, tell us all about your Rewards progeam, & using it on multiple cars.
IE: what paystation, App, Swipe / Tap, RFD / LPR, unlimited or nah. etc...

 

[ShinePro]

Ok
I installed one of the first Hamilton Commander paystations
Chip card reader - tap - etc
With the DAN system and Hosted Solutions
The App - which is on the app store
People buy washes on the App
Scan the QR code at the paystation
You buy a $15 wash you get 1500 points
You get to 10,000 points
You get a free $15.00 wash
So my app customers are actually getting a $2.00 discount on the wash

they get a free wash on their birthday as well.
my app customers wash all their cars on one app
No tags in the car
Just need their phone.
they can buy washes for other people as gifts as well.
i have 2 sites - one app - works at either location.
my app customers are some of my most loyal folks.
they all say they love using it and the benefits.
drive up - scan the code - beep beep in you go! Easy smeasy

the Hosted Solutions is very nice to see who is using it and how often
And I can see all their purchases for the last 3 yrs.

 

[ShinePro]

Now the downside!

To be totally forthcoming.
I installed the Commander in July 2020
During the China virus

I did not push the app at first.
Even though I had spent the money for development and the monthly charge.
I just wanted to see how it went.

So we took off and had 400 subscribers by january.

In fall of 21 we started pushing it.
Especially since the tunnel craze was headed our way and we would soon be opening our second site
Now we have 1000
And 95% always get the top wash.
And we also added the Fleet card program to our menu as well.
Use that mostly for the Sheriff’s dept, some car dealers etc.

We jumped our wash counts by 45 % in two years.(at the one site) And holding that steady for now
I m going to wash 18,000 cars thru my busiest site this year. (1 Razor)
Less than 15% are app washes.

I do believe that there is a large segment of our society that has app fatigue.
Rewards fatigue.
I know I do
Everybody has some sort of rewards or app program now.
McDonalds - gas stations- grocery
Everybody!

You can see what it costs to do this.
Factor in that it might not be all that some folks preach it to be.

I m still glad I did it
I m really hopeful that soon I will be able to add it to my 7 self serve bays.
Might be making the trip up to Toledo soon just to check on the progress.

 

[jubalr]

My setup is similar to SP. But they don't have to scan a QR code. MY IDX Paystation takes every popular form of payment; CC including contactless swipe and chip, Google Pay, Apple Pay, fleet cards and wash codes. My T4W app is set up as a loyalty rewards program. When they download the app for the first time and signup, they get an $8 credit to their account and every wash is $1 cheaper than the drive up cost. The points system amounts to a free wash about every 10 washes. They can also pre-buy washes in bulk for even more savings. They simply pull up to the wash and select the wash on their phone and enter.

Even though we are in a small town with multiple washes and a new express tunnel, we have grown to almost 700 members on our app. We have 2 bays with a touchless and soft touch that give an incredible clean with no film or eyebrows. 4 combo vacs that I keep cleaned out and working as they should. I'm there at least twice a day to clean and talk to customers. I answer the phone and if anyone has ANY sort of issue, they're getting a free wash! If they have they app, I can credit to their account. If they don't have the app or are a cash customer, I can issue them a 5 digit code that works the same as cash.

And in my opinion, that's how you compete with anyone...

 

[carstawash]

Ok
I installed one of the first Hamilton Commander paystations
Chip card reader - tap - etc
With the DAN system and Hosted Solutions
The App - which is on the app store
People buy washes on the App
Scan the QR code at the paystation
You buy a $15 wash you get 1500 points
You get to 10,000 points
You get a free $15.00 wash
So my app customers are actually getting a $2.00 discount on the wash

they get a free wash on their birthday as well.
my app customers wash all their cars on one app
No tags in the car
Just need their phone.
they can buy washes for other people as gifts as well.
i have 2 sites - one app - works at either location.
my app customers are some of my most loyal folks.
they all say they love using it and the benefits.
drive up - scan the code - beep beep in you go! Easy smeasy

the Hosted Solutions is very nice to see who is using it and how often
And I can see all their purchases for the last 3 yrs.

Thank you for the great information.

We have a Goldline pay station at each location. Do you think it is necessary to install the commanders or would a scanner mounted on the Goldline with the app be sufficient for the loyalty program?

 

[ShinePro]

My second location has a Goldline
The scanner was added to it for app use.
No problem!

Below I have attached some screen shots of Customers usage.

One of the downsides to putting out a super clean shiny car using all these new chemical products is that folks dont need to wash as often.
Unless we have weather events ie
Winter snow/salt tree pollen etc
Cars keep there shine longer - a rain shower just cleans them back up again.


One Customer is a once a month always buys top wash
The other pic is from a family that has two cars and washes both with the one app.

 

[Overachiever]

@ShinePro I'd properly blur out or remove the personally identifiable info on those photos... next thing you know some of these bots on the forum will be calling these people up and pretending to be a representative of your car wash.

 

[ShinePro]

@ShinePro I'd properly blur out or remove the personally identifiable info on those photos... next thing you know some of these bots on the forum will be calling these people up and pretending to be a representative of your car wash.

Oh crap
Blocked out the name
Forgot about the other two lines
Thanks

 

[carstawash]

My second location has a Goldline
The scanner was added to it for app use.
No problem!

Below I have attached some screen shots of Customers usage.

One of the downsides to putting out a super clean shiny car using all these new chemical products is that folks dont need to wash as often.
Unless we have weather events ie
Winter snow/salt tree pollen etc
Cars keep there shine longer - a rain shower just cleans them back up again.


One Customer is a once a month always buys top wash
The other pic is from a family that has two cars and washes both with the one app.

Are you getting a lower credit card processing rate on the Commander compared to the Goldline?

 

[ShinePro]

Are you getting a lower credit card processing rate on the Commander compared to the Goldline?

No
Because the app works independently from the pay stations
Same app works either location
Actually - its a completely separate statement from World Pay
So all the basic fees are repeated.
the credit card readers are on a separeate statement
I thought that was bs!
When I acquired as to why-

its because one is “card present” vs “card not present”- so they have different programs or something

 

[carstawash]

No
Because the app works independently from the pay stations
Same app works either location
Actually - its a completely separate statement from World Pay
So all the basic fees are repeated.
the credit card readers are on a separeate statement
I thought that was bs!
When I acquired as to why-

its because one is “card present” vs “card not present”- so they have different programs or something

That is good to know.

I was reading that with the old credit card swipers that we have on the goldline are charged at a higher rate than the new tap/chip card readers on the commander. I have called Hamilton and WorldPay and can't see to get any answer. Nobody seems to know until you start setting things up. That's what I'm trying to figure out. Whether it's worth upgrading the auto cashier to the commander to save on the fee's. We do a lot of credit cards. A couple percentage points and the machine would pay for itself over time.

 

[ShinePro]

That is good to know.

I was reading that with the old credit card swipers that we have on the goldline are charged at a higher rate than the new tap/chip card readers on the commander. I have called Hamilton and WorldPay and can't see to get any answer. Nobody seems to know until you start setting things up. That's what I'm trying to figure out. Whether it's worth upgrading the auto cashier to the commander to save on the fee's. We do a lot of credit cards. A couple percentage points and the machine would pay for itself over time.

Ah
Fyi
The Goldline with the old credit card swiper
That part still processed thru TSYS
Its crazy

 

[carstawash]

Ah
Fyi
The Goldline with the old credit card swiper
That part still processed thru TSYS
Its crazy

Yes, I think if I could drop TSYS it would be worth the upgrade. Is that the case? Do you only need to process through WorldPay with the Commander?

 

[ShinePro]

Yes, I think if I could drop TSYS it would be worth the upgrade. Is that the case? Do you only need to process through WorldPay with the Commander?

Yes
If you have the Commander and the new Ingenico chip reader - everything goes thru Worldpay
But you will have 2 statements
1 for the app
1 for the card reader
And a new annual fee instituted last year of $190 or $200. For each account
World pay’s patent company’s stock has crashed
They needed a cash infusion ladt december

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

Here was my solution:

I installed 2 Petits along with Dencar playstations with monthly passes.

1. Window/All Purpose Cleaner
2. Microfiber Towels



My wash went from about 30k cars with my old setup ( Ryko Softgloss/ Radius ) to.... I'll wash 65k+ cars this year.

This is with from what I heard from some people inside the company, Take 5's "Golden Nugget" location. Washing 1300-1700 cpd on good days. Thats about 2 miles away.

 

[soonermajic]

carwashGuy, you wash 170cpd?/!!!! That is astounding!! Your pop, demographics, traffic count etc., must be the perfect scenarios! Also, add in "Take 5's" 1300cpd, & this is nearly unbelievable!!!

 

[carstawash]

Here was my solution:

I installed 2 Petits along with Dencar playstations with monthly passes.

1. Window/All Purpose Cleaner
2. Microfiber Towels



My wash went from about 30k cars with my old setup ( Ryko Softgloss/ Radius ) to.... I'll wash 65k+ cars this year.

This is with from what I heard from some people inside the company, Take 5's "Golden Nugget" location. Washing 1300-1700 cpd on good days. Thats about 2 miles away.

We looked into Dencar. How many times a month is your monthly subscriber washing their car.

 

[Axxlrod]

Here was my solution:

I installed 2 Petits along with Dencar playstations with monthly passes.

1. Window/All Purpose Cleaner
2. Microfiber Towels



My wash went from about 30k cars with my old setup ( Ryko Softgloss/ Radius ) to.... I'll wash 65k+ cars this year.

This is with from what I heard from some people inside the company, Take 5's "Golden Nugget" location. Washing 1300-1700 cpd on good days. Thats about 2 miles away.

Great numbers. What state are you in?