Has anyone tried selling an Super Duper Wash

[bigleo48]

All,

In the fall, I put away my toy sports car for the winter, but just before I did, I needed to clean it. To do so I created a wash in my touchless I do not offer to the public. It lasts over 8 minutes with long undercarriage spray, Acid and Alkaline soaps, long dwell times, very slow rinsing with front and back double passes, etc.....

So I was telling my other car pals about the wash I created and they liked it. So I was thinking of offering it to the public. Here's how I think I would do it,

First, you would need to get the attendant to buy it as it would not be on the menu (signage would say so).

He would take payment and load the super duper wash program into the IBA.
I think I would have him prep for bugs and wheels.
Run the car through
Hand blow dry if any spot free water left after the dry.
Dress the tires.

I was thinking of charging $25 for the wash.

What do you guys think?

Big Leo

 

[bigleo48]

Just to add a little more to this, I am the only attended wash in the area, so I'm the only one who can do this, without adding much labour. I figure it would add something that nobody else could offer and appeal to the higher end owners who look always want the best washes without having to drop it off to the detailer.

 

[Eric H]

There were a few guys in Vegas last year that were doing a similar concept. They had a top wash that was double passes of everything, except trifoam. I think they were charging $14 for it with the next wash being $10. They were claiming over 20% of customers were choosing the $14 wash and a high % (something like 50%+) choosing the $10 wash. Pretty good numbers if you ask me.

 

[pitzerwm]

Unless you are sleeping with the attendant, I don't think that I would "temp" them by requiring them to take the cash. Why not just put it on the menu, who knows, people might go for it more than you think.

 

[bigleo48]

Bill, Thanks for that!

I think that dealing with cash and attendants is a different issue. First, the machine logs the washes and so I can correlate sales to cash easily. I also have cameras everywhere (28 to be exact) and run almost 4 months deep.

I also know the customers I would focus on and they always pay with credit, so I anticipate cash sale would be minimal. I think I would also offer my attendants a bonus per wash to provide some incentive to sell the wash.

I'm sort of looking at this as a way to make better use of my attendant, make more money and perhaps eventually move towards a full service wash. Baby steps with minimal risks and investment for starters.


BigLeo

 

[pitzerwm]

I don't disagree with that. One thought, if a customer were to use a CC how would the attendant process this?

 

[bigleo48]

I have a Unitec WSII. So my attendants use a Unitec service card, swipe it in the CC acceptor, enter the amount and account number (can be any number, but I would use a specific one for this wash), swipe the customers CC card and the unit will process the transaction. So basicly, I use the Unitec machine as a CC processing terminal.

Big Leo

 

[Waxman]

Why not just skip the all the prepping and towelling, stay totally automated and touch free, and tweak out your top wash to the max!?! If you want to go nutso during attended hours, have attendant give

Double passes of everything, the longest dwell times allowable on your machine, and blowers. Charge a premium price; say $15. This way, you stay within your touch free concept and deliver a superior, yet touch free car wash. I like this idea! I'm set at max. dwell times on my machine (10 seconds per pre soak), but don't know if I can do double passes of stuff like HP rinse, wax, foam, etc. Or longer on the blowers for 1 package. I think my blower time is set for one=set for all packages. My IBA speed has 2 settings; slow and fas, and those apply to all packages. But you guys with G5's can twek to your hearts' content, right??? I say go for it!

 

[Waxman]

Oops, got lost mid sentence there in my first paragraph...."if you want to go totally nutso, give out armorall and window towels with the super duper and let them detail their own dash, tires, and windows, or offer a free magic tree."

 

[MEP001]

Waxman, you must have a very different client?le than we do. Our automatic customers use it for one very specific reason: so they don't have to get out or do any cleaning themselves.

Even before this post came up I had considered offering a "full-serve" type wash - instead of more passes (everything's pretty much maxed out on the top wash level already) I can add a super-long pause between certain passes and just jump in and scrub the car down, then let the machine finish the job.

Someone in Seguin, TX has been doing prepwork for years at a dual Laser and has had great success with it. They have a small crew and accept direct payment during "open" hours, and at night with no crew they operate like a normal IBA. Their charge varies based on what extras the customer wants.

 

[Waxman]

I just have a hard time with providing this type hands on service only some of the time. What about when there's no attendant? Does the autocashier still offer the super duper? If yes, then the customer gets stiffed out of their hand job portion.

I favor consistency delivering the service to the customer. My IBA washes the same way whether or not the attendant is present. All of them should, I think.