$29/mo(for ex.) UNLIMITED?

[Waxman]

I am getting more and more interested in implementing an unlimited wash program for my In Bay Automatic.

Where do I begin? What did you do and why do you like or dislike it?

Does it work to generate extra revenue with the carwash?

WAXman

 

[chaz]

My biggest fear with offering unlimited on an automatic is during the busy times/days. If there was away to regulate these say before noon and after 7, I may consider. But quite frankly if a prepaid customer jams up the line, full paying customers may choose to wash elsewhere. With just one auto, and a max of 14 cars an hour and that with an attendant pushing cars in, I just don't think unlimited would be the best financial decision for us.

 

[BBE]

I agree with Chaz about the volume. The idea has been brought up a few times in the past here and every thread makes mention of the same issues. I spoke to quite a few guys at the chicago show about monthly unlimiteds and they all pretty much said the same thing, it's a numbers game. You have to do some number crunching and find out how many members you would have to sign up at the price point you are thinking about to make money. And then decide whether that number for your location and your wash, is a realistic goal. If you are a largely unattended operation, which most IBA's are, consider how much more difficult it is going to be to sell monthly unlimiteds to customers. You can get the word out with things like social media and signs, but unless someone is always physically present, I don't think it's convenient enough to be able to sign up the large volume of members you would need to make it successful. It would be like trying to buy a gym membership at a gym that isn't staffed. Planet Fitness has 10,000 plus members because they are cheap, and they are literally staffed 24 hours a day, not just open for members with a keycard 24 hours a day.

The first 100 members are all your current customers, to which you've just devalued your wash for them. One IBA, my personal opinion is no way, no how. Two IBA's, which is our current situation, I personally still wouldn't do it. But it is a very intriguing idea. I'm just waiting for someone to have the balls to do it and prove us all wrong by making out extremely good on the idea. It won't be me

 

[bigleo48]

WAxman,

I have implemented it and I have heard the arguments above. What can say is that it provides you with cash upfront and provides with a different way to offer your services. You can look at my old posts on the matter.

For me I wanted this for both my SS bays and IBA as separate subscriptions. I could do this with a lot of flexibility with my washpay server as a card based system and RFID if I chose to add it.

But before I implemented, I needed to figure out what my cost of delivery was so I could determine what to charge. I also made performance enhancing changes to speed up delivery (I'm at 18 cars max per hr, when I use to be 14 or 15). I also looked at what the big oil companies were charging for a similar service. For my SS bays I had have no competition in this area and 8 bays to offer it in with extremely low cost of delivery (powder soaps really helped there). For both plans, even if they are used to the max, I would still make a small profit.

Now after 6 months I can look at what real usage was and make some decisions. I have discovered that both the IBA and SS plans are somewhat overpriced. I could reduce the SS bay subscription by perhaps as much as 40% and still make money. Regardless, they have both been very profitable...perhaps too much so and thus limiting sales which have been a bit slower than I anticipated.

I would also consider offering it 'on-sale' for the 1st month to gauge things.

So my investment in the project was almost nil and I have learned a lot. If I still have the wash by winter, I will make some changes and likely sell more.

You can PM for my phone if you want to discuss it further.

 

[gearhead]

I really think throughput is the issue. If you implement unlimited and your not ready to service the upswing in traffic, regardless of whether they were your old customers or not, they will drive off and wash someplace that is. Even frugal people have patience thresholds.

 

[robert roman]

Pre-paid, no contract, monthly cell phone plans are popular because bandwidth is huge, ubiquitous and everyone in a firm or family can have their own cell phone to talk and text.

However, as Gearhead implied, a single in-bay automatic has no such advantage.

Do the math.

Many express washes sell unlimited for $19.95. Think about what this means for an in-bay that washes 12,000 cars per year, average $7 or $84,000 sales revenue.

12,000 CPY is equivalent of 3,000 customers each washes an average of four times a year.

12,000 CPY = average 39 CPD = average 3 CPH = peak 9 CPH

Peak 9 CPH means when wash is most busy, 40% of time there will be four cars in waiting line.

If you sell 100 unlimited plans and each customer washes “average” of five times a month, that’s 6,000 washes per year (100 * 5 * 12).

CPY = 6,000 + (2,900 * 4) = 17,600

Total sales revenue = (100 * $19.95 * 12) + (2,900 * $7 * 4) = $105,140

17,600 CPY = average 56 CPD = average 5 CPH = peak 15 CPH

Peak 15 CPH means when wash is very busy, length of waiting line and waiting time will be exceedingly long leading to balking and line abandonment.

If you sell 200 plans, total CPY = 23,600 and sales revenue = $129,080

23,600 CPY = average 76 CPD = average 6 CPH = peak 18 CPH

Peak 18 CPH implies even greater balking and line abandonment.

As the level of balking and line abandonment increases, the likelihood decreases of reaching the anticipated or projected annual sales volumes and revenues.

What would be a realistic anticipated or most likely outcome?

AO = (129,080 + 105,140 * 4 + 84,000) / 6

AO = $105,600

$105,600 - $84,000 = $21,600 gain

Estimate the “total cost” to design and implement unlimited at in-bay and you can calculate risk reward, sanity, viability, etc.

 

[mac]

Maybe it's just the devious way I think. I can imagine a family with four autos getting the plan, and then just move the RFID or whatever to the other cars.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

I remember reading once here that someone saw a car pull up so the RFID could be read and then pull aside to let another car go through.

 

[bigleo48]

Maybe it's just the devious way I think. I can imagine a family with four autos getting the plan, and then just move the RFID or whatever to the other cars.

With the card system I have, that's actually a selling point. The reality is that passing the card around is a pain. It's never in the car you need to wash and eventually gets lost (you sell them with "not responsible for lost or stolen cards"). So that rarely happens. The only example of that I've seen is if one person is responsible for washing all family cars.

BTW, my program has a 3 washes/week max in the IBA and 10min/day in the SS bays and I still make a profit if used to the max.

 

[washnshine]

In order to prevent a card or tag being passed from vehicle to vehicle, can you use some sort of decal or sticker that is to be placed on the rear driver side window? Scraping this off would destroy it, rendering it useless. The seller would be responsible for affixing it to the window - like when a state inspection is done, so it could not just be held by a person and passed around.