Marketing ideas

[Washing Cars in NC]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum and i'm looking for marketing advice. I'm one of the owenrs of car wash with 5 self serve bays and one in bay automatic. We just purchased the in bay 6 or 7 months ago, it's an Autrec Soft cloth with a heater in the bay and doors so we can wash all winter long. We have owned the wash since 2007 and my business partner and I are at wits end trying to get some type of marketing to work. Nothing works..........and we do not know why???? we tried newpaper ads, we tried to get the local Churhes to try us with their fund rasing needs, no luck. We have banners out front promoting out new credit card readers in the self serve bays... no luck... I asked the local newspaper if they have any interest in doing an atricle on the wash and of course they said no, but they can help me with running ads in their paper for a cost...We have also handed out free washes, which people use, but most don't return for a paying wash.

Has anyone used Groupon or a similar site???

Does anybody have any creative ideas????????? can you tell me what marketing has worked for you.

Thanks, Dennis

 

[Indiana Wash]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum and i'm looking for marketing advice. I'm one of the owenrs of car wash with 5 self serve bays and one in bay automatic. We just purchased the in bay 6 or 7 months ago, it's an Autrec Soft cloth with a heater in the bay and doors so we can wash all winter long. We have owned the wash since 2007 and my business partner and I are at wits end trying to get some type of marketing to work. Nothing works..........and we do not know why???? we tried newpaper ads, we tried to get the local Churhes to try us with their fund rasing needs, no luck. We have banners out front promoting out new credit card readers in the self serve bays... no luck... I asked the local newspaper if they have any interest in doing an atricle on the wash and of course they said no, but they can help me with running ads in their paper for a cost...We have also handed out free washes, which people use, but most don't return for a paying wash.

Has anyone used Groupon or a similar site???

Does anybody have any creative ideas????????? can you tell me what marketing has worked for you.

Thanks, Dennis

Every industry study I have seen says that car washes are 95% location. You can advertise all you want but that will not change your location. My goal is to keep the customer who would use my location by taking care of problems quickly and offering the best was possible.

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

why did the things you tried fail?

 

[Washing Cars in NC]

I'm not sure why it failed???? we have 30,000 a day car count in front of our car wash, we have offered special's in the newspaper with very little luck, we are going to try facebook and we are designing website. We address all of our problems and make it our business to call people back and make it right.

 

[SuperClean]

The best thing that i use is to have free wash days the cost is small and the impact is big. Let the paper know that you are having a customer appreciation weekend with free washes Friday sat and sun or just sat and sun. They will do something for you. Let everyone know the word will get around. I added an automatic onto my bays and the first year was really slow 3500 cars so we dropped the price to $5 for the summer we stared doing 1000 cars a month after 3 months. 3 years later we are glowing slowly but that got it kick started.

 

[Indiana Wash]

I'm not sure why it failed???? we have 30,000 a day car count in front of our car wash, we have offered special's in the newspaper with very little luck, we are going to try facebook and we are designing website. We address all of our problems and make it our business to call people back and make it right.

It failed because only 5 in 100 people will go out of their way to use the car wash of choice. The other 95% are all about location. Advertising in the newpaper hits the wrong market.

I like the suggestion of free wash days. At least, that captures the market that passes the wash.

Lower price does make a difference too. The $5 wash is important. Just one bill. I have not done it, but I think I will next summer. I don't want to get into a price war though because I will lose. I would only lower to $5 with a wash that is less than my current starter wash which is $6. I am not actually willing to lower my prices, just offer less for a lower price.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Do you have a local chamber of commerce? See if they have a mailing list for members. Mine has one with 600 addresses. I stuffed 600 envelopes with a letter to have them pass out enclosed free wash coupons to their employees, customers, etc. With regular direct mail, they send 1 coupon to an address. That address may have 50 employees! They pass your place twice a day, to and from work.

Also visited local businesses and did the same. Post office, police station, fired department, library etc. I would not expect to turn more than 10% into regular customers, But if you get 10,000 to try you out, that';s 1000 regular customers. Now, if that many on't return, you have other issues such s price, quality, or convenience vis a vis the competition.

 

[rph9168]

Those are great ideas. On thing not mentioned is the quality of your wash. Is your automatic doing a good job? Is there a good show with your chemicals? Are your bays clean and in good order? Does all your self service equipment perform well? Is the property well maintained? What is the general appearance of the entire facility?

All the good marketing in the world cannot overcome poor wash performance.

 

[robert roman]

“.... owned wash since 2007 .... partner and I are at wits end trying to get some type of marketing to work. Nothing works"

Dennis,

Using tactics randomly to achieve some effect without first identifying cause is probably the reason why nothing works.

This practice is like trying to hit a moving target wearing a blindfold.

People that achieve good results start with strategy.

This means setting goals like increasing car counts or average revenue by some amount.

Before you can market to customers, you have to understand who they are and how many there may be (potential value of the market).

This means segmenting the market which allows the marketing program to focus on the subset of prospects that are "most likely" to purchase your products and services.

If done properly, this helps ensure the highest return on investment.

Don’t be persuaded to stick your head in the sand and believe most of your customers just happened to be driving by when they stopped.

In many markets today, a visit to the carwash is more likely just one of several trip purposes in a motorist’s planned route.

Another aspect is value proposition.

If your products (solutions) don’t solve customer’s problems adequately, they won’t visit you or come back because there are a lot of alternatives available.

If so, no amount of marketing or promotion will overcome this.

In terms of what to do, it starts by acknowledging customer loyalty is the foundation of the industry.

This is the notion that quality of products leads to customer satisfaction, which leads to customer loyalty, which leads to profitability.

Some owners try to do this by launching new services like adding an ice/water vending machine or a dog-wash.

Other stick with car-care like introducing VIP and pre-paid cards, bill acceptors, air/water dispenser, high-speed in-bay or even a detail shop.

There are also conversions; in-bay to mini-tunnel, switch to pay-one-price or tear-down to exterior express conveyor.

Some wash owners are getting better results by changing the marketing mix. For example, how many young people do you know who read the newspaper?

Most of the younger generation today use the www to shop. If you don’t have a website, you are missing out. If people can’t buy things on the site, you are missing out.

Above all, the market you are in determines your opportunity.

Therefore, if you know your market well, you will achieve better marketing results.

 

[Waxman]

One of my immediate goals is to sell pre-paid automatic washes as well as self-serve tokens on my website.

I agree that the younger population as well as many middle-aged and older who want a value and can run a computer may buy pre-paid or unlimited/rewards club washes.

Good idea to try and not a whole lot of expenditure.

At NRCC, the owners who spoke of unlimited wash sales online were VERY enthusiastic about the automatic, extra cash in their account on the day of the month that their washclub members' credit cards were debited.

 

[Jimmy Buffett]

Dennis,
Where do people wash, at a competitor?

 

[Kevin James]

Let’s face it gentlemen, the S/S inbay automatic business “Is what it is”, it’s strictly a low profit by gosh by golly business. The completion down the street from us has spent thousands of dollars promoting his car wash, everything you can think of, bonus bays, Wash 20 minutes for $5, half off during the weekday, free days etc. He’s at the car wash 8 to 10 hours a day helping the few customers that do come in. The last time I talked to him he told me that he was struggling, down almost 38% from last year and last year was down from the year before.
We don’t do any promotions. Just your basic car wash, no attendant. We have a cleanup crew that comes by in the morning to clean up and check every. They are there for maybe 45 minutes to an hour. We are down a little less than 30%. Like I’ve always said Car washing is one of the worse investments you can make, it’s a low profit business. The only value in owning a car wash is the land it sits on. We’ve bulldozed a number of car washes over the years because there are better uses for the land that will return a higher profit. I don’t think you can do a lot to market these S/S car washes. “It is what it is”


Ask your self this question "Would you go to your car wash if you were a customer"

 

[Indiana Wash]

Let’s face it gentlemen, the S/S inbay automatic business “Is what it is”, it’s strictly a low profit by gosh by golly business. The completion down the street from us has spent thousands of dollars promoting his car wash, everything you can think of, bonus bays, Wash 20 minutes for $5, half off during the weekday, free days etc. He’s at the car wash 8 to 10 hours a day helping the few customers that do come in. The last time I talked to him he told me that he was struggling, down almost 38% from last year and last year was down from the year before.
We don’t do any promotions. Just your basic car wash, no attendant. We have a cleanup crew that comes by in the morning to clean up and check every. They are there for maybe 45 minutes to an hour. We are down a little less than 30%. Like I’ve always said Car washing is one of the worse investments you can make, it’s a low profit business. The only value in owning a car wash is the land it sits on. We’ve bulldozed a number of car washes over the years because there are better uses for the land that will return a higher profit. I don’t think you can do a lot to market these S/S car washes. “It is what it is”


Ask your self this question "Would you go to your car wash if you were a customer"

Wow, remind me not to invest with you. Sounds like you have chosen some bad washes or paid too much for them, huh.

 

[Washing Cars in NC]

First thank you to all for the help, I like several of the ideas, we are now creating our first website that should be up and running this weekend, we started a facebook page and I like the idea of having a free wash day.

We will work to ID our customer base, we are already putting out the best wash we can, we purchased the new Autec soft cloth that is washing great, we have the show with good chemicals, nice colors and great scents. We painted the whole place a few months ago, looks great and we have great lighting. We have been told time and time again by customers they feel safe on the property and it is very clean. We have handed out many free washes and are trying to cross market with automotive businesses in our area.

I will keep you all updated on our success or lack of.......