Convert my full service to an express wash? Market for full service washes?

[Manko76]

Id like to hear from anyone that has converted their full service car wash into an express? (was it worth it? regret? things youd change or do over?)

How is the current market for selling full service car washes? (i know there's a million variables, but in general. are people still looking to buy them or is it just chains and absentee owners)

Without giving too many specifics here's a little background of why I am asking these two questions...We have been open for 20 years and with the oversaturation of express washes our already solid full service business has really boomed in the last three to five years. I believe this trend will continue to grow as full services are becoming more and more rare. There is a large market of people who just do not want to vacuum their own cars or wash their own windows. The issue, like most full services is the labor. Finding help, and constantly being here takes its toll.

When I think about the future, and I am ready to slow down (too young to be able to retire still)...I think there's two routes. Convert my full service to an express to take some of the headaches away, or attempt to sell as a full service.

I know there are a lot of variables that will shape what I should do when I finally decide. I also know there are a lot of great car wash wash minds on here who may have faced this issue or know what I am going through and have been doing it for a lot longer than me. Thank you for any advice or opinions.

 

[washnshine]

Do you mean traditional full service as in, the car is vacuumed and mats are cleaned prior to going through the tunnel, glass door jambs and dash is cleaned while the car is being toweled at the exit and the customer exits the car for the entire process and watches the car go through the tunnel via a window and walkway?

That is a traditional full serve model that I have not seen in decades. It has been taken over by a more efficient flex serve model. I can’t imagine there is much of a market at all for a full serve wash. Extremely labor intensive and not the most efficient way in terms of production.

 

[Manko76]

Do you mean traditional full service as in, the car is vacuumed and mats are cleaned prior to going through the tunnel, glass door jambs and dash is cleaned while the car is being toweled at the exit and the customer exits the car for the entire process and watches the car go through the tunnel via a window and walkway?

That is a traditional full serve model that I have not seen in decades. It has been taken over by a more efficient flex serve model. I can’t imagine there is much of a market at all for a full serve wash. Extremely labor intensive and not the most efficient way in terms of production.

Exactly what you said. Old school Full service. We do everything, including loading your car on conveyor. We don't really have building or property set up for a true flex service. It fits much more along the design of an express. We have implemented different things to try and become a version of a flex that we are running as now.

 

[Earl Weiss]

1970's my family converted one, and 1990's another. Did not and do not use pay stations. Also have Self serve Pay Vacs since not enough room for free. when we first heard the term Express Exterior" we said "Oh, so that is what we do is called. " But later it seemed no pay stations and no free Vacs was not the EE Mold. Sure, a few people were not happy but labor headaches / expenseswere GREATLY reduced,

 

[Manko76]

1970's my family converted one, and 1990's another. Did not and do not use pay stations. Also have Self serve Pay Vacs since not enough room for free. when we first heard the term Express Exterior" we said "Oh, so that is what we do is called. " But later it seemed no pay stations and no free Vacs was not the EE Mold. Sure, a few people were not happy but labor headaches / expenseswere GREATLY reduced,

Yea we have talked about making the vacs pay for use if we did convert. I like that idea.

No pay stations? so do you use a cashier and a booth at tunnel entrance? about how many employees do you staff on an average day if you don't mind me asking?

 

[washnshine]

I’m with Earl - we don’t have the pay stations. Before pay stations became a thing, an exterior wash with no pay stations and no free vacs was just called and “exterior” wash. I think express exterior became the term with the addition of paystations, free vacs and the memberships.

 

[Earl Weiss]

We use what I call the Toll Booth system. I will post a link to a video. 1 to 2 employee's per shift. 1 is the cashier / loader and the other for everything else. On busy days the second person walks 6 or so cars down the line to take payments and marks the windshield for any extra services so the guy in the booth simply enters the wash in the keypad so the roller comes up as the wheel passes the roller up door.

 

[Manko76]

We use what I call the Toll Booth system. I will post a link to a video. 1 to 2 employee's per shift. 1 is the cashier / loader and the other for everything else. On busy days the second person walks 6 or so cars down the line to take payments and marks the windshield for any extra services so the guy in the booth simply enters the wash in the keypad so the roller comes up as the wheel passes the roller up door.

Is there a reason you dont use pay stations? are you against them? or do you just like this method better for your locations?

 

[Manko76]

I’m with Earl - we don’t have the pay stations. Before pay stations became a thing, an exterior wash with no pay stations and no free vacs was just called and “exterior” wash. I think express exterior became the term with the addition of paystations, free vacs and the memberships.

Same question I asked earl, is there a reason no pay stations? are you against them? or do you just prefer this method?

 

[washnshine]

Same question I asked earl, is there a reason no pay stations? are you against them? or do you just prefer this method?

A few reasons for me. The lot and layout is not conducive to multiple stations, and I wouldn’t want just one - that would slow us down with everyone funneling through one lane if there were any problems or hold ups. I also do not offer monthly memberships. I do get many upsells by having personal interaction with a greeter. The greeter also eyes each car and pre alerts preppers about any concerns. This allows the preppers to just prep. My tunnel competition is a combination of express exterior, flex serve and my more traditional model. I’m competing very well even though I don’t have the memberships. We put out a very clean car with a lot of attention to detail.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Is there a reason you dont use pay stations? are you against them? or do you just like this method better for your locations?

I don't have the room at some locations. I can only stack one car before it is on the conveyor. at others I never felt like making the investment.

 

[STXCW]

We went cold turkey on a location we acquired and pissed everyone off and business suffered. We figured with the new equipment and remodel, customers would see the difference and accept the change. Wrong, we figured out really quickly that most of the full service customers are all repeat customers. So we had to switch gears and went the flex route. Sudden change was not good for all the full service customers and now slowly but surely, they are accepting the express wash concept and we are down to 20-24% of our washes are full service after 16 months. But we did have room for pay stations so that helped, plus also found out that a lot of the old timers were pocketing money from the regulars by giving them extra services in exchange for money under the table.

 

[Rnkstrngr]

Do you mean traditional full service as in, the car is vacuumed and mats are cleaned prior to going through the tunnel, glass door jambs and dash is cleaned while the car is being toweled at the exit and the customer exits the car for the entire process and watches the car go through the tunnel via a window and walkway?

That is a traditional full serve model that I have not seen in decades. It has been taken over by a more efficient flex serve model. I can’t imagine there is much of a market at all for a full serve wash. Extremely labor intensive and not the most efficient way in terms of production.

I currently run one. It’s been here since 1983. If it wasn’t for the full service we would have been overtaken by all the expres washes popping up on every corner. We have 23-25 employees on a normal day. There are actually five or more traditional full serves in this town. We do double the volume than any of the others though. There is still a market for it. Many people can’t or won’t wash their own cars, interior and all. The slight majority of our customers have higher end cars.

 

[Manko76]

I currently run one. It’s been here since 1983. If it wasn’t for the full service we would have been overtaken by all the expres washes popping up on every corner. We have 23-25 employees on a normal day. There are actually five or more traditional full serves in this town. We do double the volume than any of the others though. There is still a market for it. Many people can’t or won’t wash their own cars, interior and all. The slight majority of our customers have higher end cars.

i agree there is a market for it, I even think the market is growing as it becomes more and more rare. We have been in business for 21 years, and we just came off four consecutive best years.

23-25 employees on a normal day? that's awesome. HOW are you doing that?. Since the pandemic, we have been struggling to find and keep anyone. It leads to me doing someone's job, that i shouldn't be doing, almost every day. What methods are you using to recruit?

Where are you located?

 

[Islandwash]

I converted from full service to flex express over 10 years ago. Today I have a chain Express wash 1/2 mile away, and our volume is down. Full service is a model that has an argument that works against the new Express washes. However, full serves are not fun or easy to run.

 

[Rnkstrngr]

i agree there is a market for it, I even think the market is growing as it becomes more and more rare. We have been in business for 21 years, and we just came off four consecutive best years.

23-25 employees on a normal day? that's awesome. HOW are you doing that?. Since the pandemic, we have been struggling to find and keep anyone. It leads to me doing someone's job, that i shouldn't be doing, almost every day. What methods are you using to recruit?

Where are you located?

We were at half capacity for a while after Covid, cars lined down the street (access road) all day. We slowly started getting more employees. Now we have more than since 15-20 years ago. I’m finally back to the point of being able to cull the lowest performers. I never thought I’d be in that position again. I get my employees by word of mouth only. Also we’re right on a busy street and this wash has been here since 1982. We have an Eight bay self serve on one side of us and a large detail shop on the other. Lexington KY btw.

It is a rough business management wise. Most days it’s one crises after another.

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

We were at half capacity for a while after Covid, cars lined down the street (access road) all day. We slowly started getting more employees. Now we have more than since 15-20 years ago. I’m finally back to the point of being able to cull the lowest performers. I never thought I’d be in that position again. I get my employees by word of mouth only. Also we’re right on a busy street and this wash has been here since 1982. We have an Eight bay self serve on one side of us and a large detail shop on the other. Lexington KY btw.

It is a rough business management wise. Most days it’s one crises after another.

Thanks for sharing. How often are you able to get away from the wash for say a week or so? I only ask because I'm considering adding at least interior packages to my express and am concerned about the labor logistics

 

[Islandwash]

The only defense against Express washes is Full Service or Flex. They are rough to run but that's the price of survival.

 

[Manko76]

We were at half capacity for a while after Covid, cars lined down the street (access road) all day. We slowly started getting more employees. Now we have more than since 15-20 years ago. I’m finally back to the point of being able to cull the lowest performers. I never thought I’d be in that position again. I get my employees by word of mouth only. Also we’re right on a busy street and this wash has been here since 1982. We have an Eight bay self serve on one side of us and a large detail shop on the other. Lexington KY btw.

It is a rough business management wise. Most days it’s one crises after another.

This sounds very similiar to us. We are in the chicago suburbs. We are still currently in that cars lined up all day, sometimes wrapping into street traffic because no matter how many guys we get, its never enough. In addition to our long time customers we get a lot of customers with memberships to express washes that come in to us once or twice a month when they want their inside done.

The help is never consistent either. Some days I will have as few as 5 employees. Some days I might get up to 15. And thats on top of crisis after crisis like you stated.

Thanks for sharing. How often are you able to get away from the wash for say a week or so? I only ask because I'm considering adding at least interior packages to my express and am concerned about the labor logistics

I cant speak for car wash guy, but for us....I haven't had a set day off since early 2020. for the first 17 years of the business my brother and I would split the week up, one of us always here. We took vacations or weeks off as we wanted as long as we worked it out with each other. Now we are almost always here together to cover whatever workers decided not to show or just to keep things running smoothly and quickly to meet the growing demand.

It is a underserved market but it takes a lot to run.

 

[Rnkstrngr]

Thanks for sharing. How often are you able to get away from the wash for say a week or so? I only ask because I'm considering adding at least interior packages to my express and am concerned about the labor logistics

I haven’t had a full weeks vacation in years. I don’t own the business. I just run it. The owner has another smaller full service car wash he and his family runs. I rarely see him and maybe text with him once a week or so. We are closed on Sundays though. If it wasn’t for that wouldn’t get a day off.