Meter Box timing

[wisheewashee]

Hey all. Need some thoughts. I have just upgraded to bill acceptor mxes with Ginsan Lumitouch. Very cool boxes and awesome digital timers. Anyway here is my question. How is your time set up for customers? I do not have competition for self serve bays so here is what I did with my old boxes.

$2.00 to start. That got you 5 minutes
Each additional quarter got 40 seconds of time.

I am hoping to set up a way to get people to put a $5.00 bill in instead of coins and $1.00 bills.

Right now my new box is $2.00 to start. That gets you 4:30 time. Plus each addition quater gets you 1 minute. If you put a $5.00 in you get 10 minutes. I have 9 functions and have all features including triple foam and spot free.

Tell me what is working for you on your self serve. I really appreciate it.
Love the CW forum!

 

[Earl Weiss]

I am hoping to set up a way to get people to put a $5.00 bill in instead of coins and $1.00 bills.

Right now my new box is $2.00 to start. That gets you 4:30 time. Plus each addition quater gets you 1 minute. If you put a $5.00 in you get 10 minutes. I have 9 functions and have all features including triple foam and spot free.

Tell me what is working for you on your self serve. I really appreciate it.
Love the CW forum!

Something seems out of wack. If $2.00 gets you 4:30 thats 270 seconds divided by 8 quarters is 33.75 seconds per quarter. Yet if you put in double the amouny ($4.00) you would at that rate get 9 minutes (4:30 x 2) and the extra buck gets you one more minute or only 15 seconds a quarter. They should get proportionately more time for a larger purchase. Set it up that way, but most importantly do what I do. A sign that says something like "BEST DEAL, XXX time for $5.00 and YYY time for $10.00"
At your base rate an extra $1.00 should get 2:15. So, the total for $5.00 at the same rate should be 11:15. You could give them 12:15 for $5.00 and avertise 1 extra minute free with $5.00

 

[wisheewashee]

Boxes

Thank you Earl. I am wide open for something different. I did have $2.00 for 5 minutes but when the tech installed them yesterday set it up for less. I was not sure what to tell him. Maybe I should lower the money to start?

I like your sign idea too

 

[Earl Weiss]

Heck, the sign is the most important part. Have a competitor that uses the "Bonus Time" setup. He advertises his time per startup cost and Bonus time for larger purchases.

I do not advertise the startup time which is slightly longer than the competitors, I only have a sign saying "Best Deal Around, XXX time for $5.00 and YYY time for $10.00." next to the bill acceptors. I know it works cause I had a guy ask me to change his quareters for bills so he could get the best deal. Explained it works either way.

 

[Mel(NC)]

I would decrease the start-up time and increase your bonus time if you want more people to choose the higher priced option. I am set up for $2.00/4 minutes to start or $5.00/25 minutes. 25 minutes sounds like a lot but the majority of people do not use the full 25 minutes and the timer resets itself when the vehicle leaves the bay. If you have a busy location you should probably go with less bonus time. I would guess that a third of my customers choose the $5 option.