@prostock I'll give you an honest assessment on the
Hamilton solution that will hopefully help in your decision making (I work for them).
Rather than focusing solely on monthly plans, we designed the
app to offer a wide range of features to give the most flexibility to operators and customers. We have operators that are generating great revenue with the Monthly Wash Clubs, but also others who are very profitable with simple Wash Bundle packages. Considering the demand for recurring plans varies greatly depending on location, we didn't want to put all of our eggs in one basket by working on a single feature. We have a
Loyalty Program that awards users points for every in-
app purchase, with a free wash automatically provided when they reach their points threshold - this is a great alternative
loyalty plan for those who
do not want to enroll in a monthly program.
You can also offer deals within the
app - free washes,
transaction discounts, and item discounts. A lot of operators run these as periodic specials and send out push notifications about them to keep customer engagement up.
We recently launched a couple of new features too - Promo Codes and a Referral Program. With Promo Codes, you can create any type of deal but assign a code to it, so only users with that code can access it. This works great for targeted
marketing, cross
marketing etc. and it's a much more effective way of tracking engagement and redemption.
The Referral Program will award anyone who signs up with a friends code with a Deal after their first purchase (free wash,
transaction discount, or item discount). The person sending the referral also receives
loyalty points to help them earn a free wash faster.
One of the biggest benefits of our
app today with the COVID pandemic is its contactless ability - if users pre-purchase washes/wash bundles or are Wash Club members, they do not need to physically engage with the pay station at all. They simply scan their code and the wash is initiated.
All of the
app management and reporting is done through our cloud-based site management platform Hosted Solutions. It's very straight-forward and requires minimal weekly time investment.
With that said, I am not going to type this and say that the
app will sell itself to your customers. Like RFID, LPR, gift cards etc., you have to actively promote this product. The operators who have experienced the most success with our
app advertise it across their sites (with signage, pay station wraps/panels, touch screen messaging, small flyers at the pay station).
We've also seen operators send email communications to users (where they promote
app features, specials, events etc.), advertise the
app in local publications, run Google ad campaigns, and run radio ads.
In short - the
app is a really powerful tool, but it does require your engagement and promotion to be successful. We can consult with you and make suggestions/recommendations on effective
marketing strategies if you're not sure where to start. We also offer design services for signage and print materials.
Feel free to each out to me directly if you have any questions!
Joe
