Customer Ebb and Flow

[Dick Nitro]

As a noob, I’m still getting my bearings, but I’m constantly perplexed by when I think we’re going to have a slow week because of heat/weather, local events, etc. that we wind up busy. When the weather is nice and not
Much seems to be going on, it’s crickets and dry bays during the day. Almost makes me feel like I did something wrong? We’re making a lot of positive changes, but it feels so odd that one week can be nice volumes and the next very slow…

I’m not complaining, I’m interested in anecdotal experience anyone has along these lines. When do people actually tend to was cars? Weather, local conditions, that sort of thing.

thanks!

 

[Wash4Life]

As someone who has been in the family car wash business since 2001, I have found that predicting what business performance is going to be is difficult. Before the pandemic, I could look at the forecast and know how business was going to go if the forecast held up. Nowadays? I cannot.

To me, the best indicator of business performance is not by week but by what today is doing. Today is probably going to tell you how tomorrow will do.

 

[Waxman]

The weekends are always the busiest days at the car wash. That's when people have the most free time to do things like wash the car. Mondays and Tuesdays are usually the slowest days historically. Nice weather days are always busier than rainy days but on the weekends people will still wash the car in the rain.

I think if you're going to worry about trends it's better to look at a bigger sample size. year over year makes more sense than one day at a time when you're analyzing your business. If you have an appealing site, everything works 100% of the time, and you offer a high quality experience with good chemicals and value, that's about all you can do. I don't really believe in advertising for a car wash. Your sign and your facility is your advertising. Others may disagree but that has worked for me and I've spent a lot of money on advertising in the past

 

[Randy]

I used to try and figure out the public's car wash habits but gave up 40 years ago.

 

[washnshine]

The only constant is inconsistency.

 

[ShinePro]

I agree with all the above comments!
I agree with watching seasonal avgs
Or quarterly etc.
I do keep a weather log to help gauge business trends.
(As a farmer I use it for other things as well)
For example - in Ohio
July was not real rainy - but the tv weather guru’s called for a chance of rain a lot of days.
July was my worst summer month ever! Ever!

Then August it started to dry up
August was a record month for an August.
September - its drier than an Arizona dessert. Has not rained since first week of August. Combines are rolling - dust is horrible.
12 days to go - if it stays like this
September might -I said might - be my best month I have EVER had.
You just never know!

 

[edredtop]

It's been nuts over here.
We've had 3 huge fires in our area that have dropped so much ash it's like an airplane is flying over and sprinkling money out of the window.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Everything is a factor bust especially weather. Dry sunny days but cars are clean or it's warm enough for home washing.. Rain predicted, Rain made cars clean, rain made cars dirty, Roads wet, roads dry, Rain predicted. Rain not predicted but sky is cloudy. Local team playing football, School vacation time and people are traveling. Bug . pollen, salt seasons etc.

 

[Eric H]

I’m just hoping for the early October snow storm to kick off the salt season. Winter of 2023/24 didn’t even start until mid January.
September is always slow. I was speaking with Waxman last week. We are both happy with our September car counts so far.

 

[Roz]

You can drive yourself nuts looking at the numbers in a daily basis. We compare each month to the same month the prior years to see a trend or how we are performing. That said weather is a huge factor and it cannot be generalized as to good weather or bad since mud, bugs, salt, and other weather related happens all contribute to the revenue. Just keep the faith and keep doing a great job. The rest will fall into place.

 

[ShinePro]

Thanks Mr Nitro
I jinxed myself responding to your ?

has not rained here since July
Now its raining with an f ing Hurricane headed up I-65 and 75
That “might” became a “not”

 

[Randy]

Nice here in the Pacific Northwest, 72 and not a cloud in the sky, supposed to be like this all week and though the weekend and into next week.