Full Service Menu Question

[Emerald in NJ]

I own and operate a full service conveyor wash in the Northeast. I like to visit other car washes all the time to get ideas, check pricing, etc. I recently visited a new construction, full service conveyor wash about 45 minute drive from my place. A mutual friend introduced me to the owner. He's a very nice guy and really built a beautiful wash from the ground up.
I found the menu to be a little odd and when I asked him about it he mentioned he decided on these options after hiring a consultant who helped him set the place up. He offers an exterior wash with wipe and then the next step up on the menu is basically a traditional full serve wash(wash, vacuum, windows) plus tire shine for a price that equal approximately what I would charge for full plus tires at my place. He does not offer a traditional full serve wash (wash, vacuum, windows) anywhere on the menu.
This basically puts the first wash with vacuum at about $10 above the cost of an exterior wash. I thought that was a pretty big jump up and also don't think every full serve customer wants the tire shine. I'm curious what you guys think of this strategy? Is it a new trend emerging to eliminate the full serve wash choice from menus? The plus side is obviously a higher average ticket but I think it might scare some customers away because it's a relatively high price.

 

[robert roman]

“Is it a new trend emerging to eliminate the full serve wash choice from menus?”

No, the trend isn’t new. It began in the mid-2000s with the advent of the flexible service and express exterior formats.

The incentive to dump full-serve service is the trade-off between average sales and labor burden.

If I owned a FS today, I would drop full-serve for express exterior format and express detail program.

This way I could offer interior cleaning, hand wax, etc. to those customers willing to pay a price that adequately covers the labor cost.

This would yield greater margins and require far less people to staff the operation.

 

[Earl Weiss]

There is a TV Show called "Brain Games" An episode (Might be available on line Highlighted a movie theater with Popcorn. A small was $4 and a large was $8 or something like that. It was difficult to upsell to the $8. Then they put in a mid price product and the upsell for "only a little more" became much easier.

So, Maybe the $10.00 increment is what he really needs to cover the extra labore and the TS adds a little cost but a lot of perceived value. . Bill Consolo who often contributed here only offered a top line wash, which included Tire Shine. I think he later offered an add on.

 

[buda]

There should be a major price gap between exterior car washes and full service washes for one simple reason: LABOR.

While labor at an exterior wash might be 15% to 20 % of gross sales (no wipe) full service labor could be at least 50% of the gross sales price.

This fact seems to be missed by operators who make the exterior price close to the full service price. Their intent was to force the motorist to purchase wash. Guess what? They don't buy the high priced exterior wash and they don't cone back to the wash until the interior is dirty. Or, they go elsewhere for an exterior wash.

If I owned a wash today it would be a lower priced exterior with an EXPRESS DETAIL operation what I call the EXPRESS PLUS WASH. All labor intensive services are detail services, not car wash services. Wrote an article on this concept in one of the trade journals. (Let me know if you want a copy).

In the exterior wash format 3 choices:

- Exterior Wash - $7.00
- Exterior Wash & POLISH 'n WAX - $10
- The Works - wash, undercarriage clean, POLISH 'n WAX,, Tire Shine $15

EXPRESS DETAIL services and pricing covered in the article

Bud Abraham

I own and operate a full service conveyor wash in the Northeast. I like to visit other car washes all the time to get ideas, check pricing, etc. I recently visited a new construction, full service conveyor wash about 45 minute drive from my place. A mutual friend introduced me to the owner. He's a very nice guy and really built a beautiful wash from the ground up.
I found the menu to be a little odd and when I asked him about it he mentioned he decided on these options after hiring a consultant who helped him set the place up. He offers an exterior wash with wipe and then the next step up on the menu is basically a traditional full serve wash(wash, vacuum, windows) plus tire shine for a price that equal approximately what I would charge for full plus tires at my place. He does not offer a traditional full serve wash (wash, vacuum, windows) anywhere on the menu.
This basically puts the first wash with vacuum at about $10 above the cost of an exterior wash. I thought that was a pretty big jump up and also don't think every full serve customer wants the tire shine. I'm curious what you guys think of this strategy? Is it a new trend emerging to eliminate the full serve wash choice from menus? The plus side is obviously a higher average ticket but I think it might scare some customers away because it's a relatively high price.