Red Baron
Active member
I'm beginning to wonder. lol
One of My Worst Days In The Car Wash Business
- Thread starter Red Baron
- Start date
cleaning up mud
Member
It is unbelievable to see people throw trash on the ground or find trash in the bays, just inches from the trash can! I assume people eat lunch in the bays and just throw the sacks right out on the ground and then the ketchup splatters all over and is hard to clean up. I have run one kid off for just throwing his trash out the window in the drying bay and will do so again If I ever catch them!!!
captain cw
Member
The real shame is that this sack of poop procreated. There should be qualifications and maybe a license required for parenting. Sorry, I know and love that this is a free country. I just wish we could ship morons like that to their own island and let them eat each other alive.
ProCarWashes
Member
Red, its your business and you have every right to run it any way you want! Having said that, I'm from the school of the customer is king. It's hard enough to get the customer in now days. Word of mouth of a bad encounter is not good relations. I have noticed that I too can get ticked off over things that disrespectful people do. But if you don't control it, this will change you. It will eat alive. It will consume you. This not good for you or your business. I hire people to do the things that set me off. I now feel much better about myself and the customers are still buttheads. Your not going to change trashy people. (undesirables) I have learn to cope with all my customers, good and bad.
The Customer is Not Always Right
I agree wholeheartedly with Herb Kelleher the Founder of Southwest Airlines "the Customer is NOT always right!" Society has been conditioned to believe that the customer is always right no matter what they do or how they treat you or your employees or your business, I say good riddance.
I agree wholeheartedly with Herb Kelleher the Founder of Southwest Airlines "the Customer is NOT always right!" Society has been conditioned to believe that the customer is always right no matter what they do or how they treat you or your employees or your business, I say good riddance.
pitzerwm
Active member
When I had my laundromats, one day a woman wouldn't control her kid, so I threw her out and told her not to come back. She left cussing me out and saying the same thing about telling everyone. The next week, I walk in and there she is again. I walk over and kill the power to her machine and remind her that she wasn't to come here again. She says "well, I went to the other place and its filthy and I don't want to use it". I said, "well, that's too bad because you burned your bridge here, get out or I'll have you arrested".
You need to run a good business for the right customers. Some you don't need or want.
You need to run a good business for the right customers. Some you don't need or want.
Earl Weiss
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One of my faves is when somneone pulls a bonehead move like being on the cell phone and having the car in drive going thru the tunnel and you start yelling fo them to stop or put it in neutral (lots of noise in the tunnel plus the windows are closed, radio on and they are on the cell) and they get upset because you are yelling at them.
MEP001
Well-known member
I used to get really angry with bed-washers and trash-thrower-on-the-grounders. I trained myself some time ago to just explain matter-of-factly that what the've done isn't allowed. Yeah, sometimes they say "This is a car wash!" and cop an attitude, I just continue to state everything as fact. "It's a private business, and we don't allow that." If they spout off that they'll tell all their friends I just tell them "That's your perogative." One guy said "F*** you" to that - I calmly explained "You wish."
It works well for me because I'm just stating facts and not making any emotional responses. If I were to hire someone to clean again, I'd teach them the same tactics because it would make their job less stressful.
It works well for me because I'm just stating facts and not making any emotional responses. If I were to hire someone to clean again, I'd teach them the same tactics because it would make their job less stressful.
I've taken the same attitude toward this. Is it allowed? Yes, so I don't get bothered by it at all. I've drawn a very distinct line as to what's allowed and what's not. Someone washing fallen leaves out of a bed doesn't bother me at all because the leaves could just as easily have fallen into an engine cowl. I don't tell customers they can't wash those out because it is a car wash, and that's part of what's expected. Washing nails out of the bed (My distinction is "Anything they put in the bed and should have swept out at home instead of washing out) is not.cfcw said:
A lot of trash
I'm sure we have all come to the wash to find a 40gal. trash bag full of household garbage. Rather than pi$$ and mone about how I have been disrepspected and abused, I have a little fun. Don the long rubber gloves, look for a name and adress, enter it into my GPS, drop the bag back on the front porch with a little kick to dispurse the contents, and laugh all the way back to the wash. If the world gives me lemons I make lemonaid
I'm sure we have all come to the wash to find a 40gal. trash bag full of household garbage. Rather than pi$$ and mone about how I have been disrepspected and abused, I have a little fun. Don the long rubber gloves, look for a name and adress, enter it into my GPS, drop the bag back on the front porch with a little kick to dispurse the contents, and laugh all the way back to the wash. If the world gives me lemons I make lemonaid
cleaning up mud
Member
I always wanted to do that but never have, I have sent nasty letters telling them not to use our dumpster. We dont have enough room for our own trash, much less theyers......
Red Baron
Active member
It's kind of fun playing the role of detective like that. I've never dumped trash on the owner's property, but I have called them up to tell them: I got your information from receipts you left in my trashcan - please be careful about leaving personal trash here because we have customers who go through that information and might find something you don't want them to know.
Jeff_L
Well-known member
I do the exact same thing, minus the kick, and plus a note on the trash explaining that leaving it at my wash is a theft of service and will not be tolerated. I do this at 3-4 in the morning when I'm checking the washes, I don't think I could do it during the day. Those types of people might be bigger than me!
Earl Weiss
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Jeff_L;37163plus a note on the trash explaining that leaving it at my wash is a theft of service and will not be tolerated. 
Washmee
Fullservice Tunnel
You Win.
Reds
Member
I put signs up by my trash cans stating that cans were for carwash customers only and for trash out of your vehicle only (cans, bottles, paper). And it says "NO HOUSEHOLD TRASH". Had a lady cited for "scattering rubbish", went to court and had her fined $200. There are people in my area who don't want to pay for trash pickup so they throw it wherever they can. I do not tolerate littering or dumping by anyone, anywhere. She snuck around the site making sure that no one was there and then grabbed the bags and threw them on the ground near the dumpster. Her boyfriend came to the hearing mad as a hornet, but I am not intimidated by dirt balls like them. No, I'm not a hard a$$ - just not tolerant of littering, dumping, or anyone trying to take advantage of me.
Red Baron
Active member
Ditto. It's very simple, if a person has no respect for me or my property, he/she gets no respect/slack from me.
Now, as soon as I catch the twerp in the yellow Jeep who's intent on driving over the curbs at my vacs to slog thru the mud, tearing up my grass...
Kevin James
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I think the point is most people don’t respect much of anything these days and there isn’t a whole lot you or I can to change there attitude. You can yell, scream, call the police, threaten them it doesn’t do much good, they are just plain stupid. Look at the type of customer that goes to a S/S car wash, they are not the cream of society. But then look at how the general public views the car wash industry as a whole. The car wash industry has a pretty poor reputation. Most of the people I know will NOT go to a S/S car wash or an inbay automatic if there life depended on it. Sure it’s your business and you can set all the rules you want. If you want your rules followed then hired yourself a attendant or a rule enforcer to enforce your rules. When your attendant, rule enforcer goes home for the day lock up the car wash and be done with for the day. There’s no need to get all worked up and bent out of shape, it’s not good for your health. My mother used to say “If you can’t stand the heat in the kitchen get out”
Reds
Member
It's not a matter of standing the heat, it's a matter of doing your best to keep the heat down. If you don't do whatever you can, within reason, to stop the mudders, dumpers, etc. your wash will go downhill. Whether you control it personally or thru an attendant, you still have to control it.
Red Baron
Active member
Agreed!
One of the first lessons my dad taught me about business 30 years ago was, unless you're going to be content with the unexciting results the others guys get, you have to differentiate...find a niche.
My first 2 car washes were ran just like eyeryone else's, and the results were less than exciting. In fact, I complained about that here, 12 years ago. This car wash I built (in 2005) to be different. The model was based on my theory that there are enough customers who appreciate an ALWAYS CLEAN car wash with the modern equipment usually only found in the bigger city, that I'd be able to do without the business of those who think their 6 quarters entitles them to do whatever they can imagine with the wand. I was right, this car wash far outperforms most like it by a very wide margin.
The part of that model that I've found more difficult to maintain is running off the mess-makers. There seems to be an endless supply of them.
