Pricing changes

[Martins]

Hey all! hope all is well. its been a few since ive been able to get on here. LOTS going on at the wash right now im hoping to post some updates soon! Reason im posting tonight is i had a question i wanted to run by all of you and see your thoughts.

So as you know i recently installed my new coin boxes with crypto pay and i dropped my pricing the day they were installed. from $1.25 for 4 mins to $1.25 for 3 mins. (4min pricing has been there for who knows how long as the old timers didn't work so couldn't change prices.) of course i was unsure how the clients would take it however ive had 0 complaints thus far (over 3 months now). my crypto pay is set to count up of course, and has a $3 min and $15 max. also set at the same time interval. *now here is the question) I'm currently set at 36 secs per coin / cc. have any of you/do any of you charge differently cash vs cc. im thinking about leaving my coin time at 36 secs/coin and dropping cc to 30secs per .25. its a total loss of 1.2 min for the min charge on cc. putting it at 6 mins rather than 7.2. What i have seen is ALOT of min charges since in installed crypto. only a few max outs and handfuls of 3-10 usage. more or less im curious what your thoughts are on that as it will help cover cc fess and most prob wont even notice or care as most of the time they use less than 5 mins (years of conditioning of 1.25 hurry up.) also keep in mind i have comp down the road that charges $1 for 3mins same min cc charge and another that charges .75 to start but 1 for 3 mins as well. so i am already more expensive than they are however I'm very soap generous, smells great and everyone seems to love it. (or dropping it even more say 25 secs per .25 to make min only 5 mins? i donno kina curious what you think.)

Secondly i recently changed all my vacs too! they were .75 for 4 mins. but i changed all the motors and hoses this week and dropped it from 4 mins to 3.5 for .75. (again i have a newer wash down the road from me with free vacs however mine are usually always somewhat busy.)

anyway as always thanks for your thoughts i know its usually change it and dont look back but im curious what your thoughts are on it or maybe you've never thought to do it. either way lots of upgrades going on, building is to be painted next week! (fingers crossed) was supposed to be done first week of july however its rained for 2 weeks.

really really trying to get my IBA gutted and replaced somehow but one thing at a time i guess.

 

[Waxman]

I don't think it's legal to charge a different price, cash versus credit. I think a higher minimum spend is OK, but I would check the law.

For what it's worth, I think you could easily go to a two dollar start on the bays And increase the vac price too. Too many operators worry about these small increases. Whenever I've raised prices it has seemed like nothing to the customer but substantial to me in revenue increases considering time and volume.

 

[Martins]

I don't think it's legal to charge a different price, cash versus credit. I think a higher minimum spend is OK, but I would check the law.

For what it's worth, I think you could easily go to a two dollar start on the bays And increase the vac price too. Too many operators worry about these small increases. Whenever I've raised prices it has seemed like nothing to the customer but substantial to me in revenue increases considering time and volume.

i don't think thats true, Maybe in cali. but around here even all our (most) gas stations have it right on their signs this price cash or this price credit and its always significantly more for credit. But i will look in to it. More as pretty sure you just have to offer a cash discount to all customers. And in this case that would be true.

as for raising them that much, my primary concern is these other 3 washes are less than a mile from me. Ones a tunnel so w/e but the other 2 ones newer and ones a dump. Im in a smaller town i just dont want to price myself out. I would love to do like the wash next to my other business dose $1.50 for 2:30. But different town and the guy owns both the washes in that area so he can charge w/e haha. I did think after I paint it dropping 6 secs per coin to make it 2:30 for 1.25 but figured id wait. Kinda playing the price change with each new big upgrade. I also ordered some air shammies (which no one locally has) so that might give me the advantage on the price change vs the others.

 

[Randy]

I'm at $2.75 for 3.5 min. in the bay and $1.50 for 3.5 min. on the vac's. The car wash on the other end of town is .75 for min. when they work. This year has been the best year ever. How much are the other S/S car wash charging?

 

[MEP001]

I don't think it's legal to charge a different price, cash versus credit. I think a higher minimum spend is OK, but I would check the law.

That was the law for many years, but it got removed quite some time ago.

 

[MEP001]

Im in a smaller town i just dont want to price myself out.

With the higher price you'll attract the better customers. Just be the best in town and charge appropriately. But don't rip them off on time.

 

[Wash4Life]

i don't think thats true, Maybe in cali. but around here even all our (most) gas stations have it right on their signs this price cash or this price credit and its always significantly more for credit. But i will look in to it. More as pretty sure you just have to offer a cash discount to all customers. And in this case that would be true.

And also, you have contractors that will add a surcharge for credit/debit transactions vs. paying for a check.

 

[Randy]

I don't think the public really cares about what the price is if you have well run, clean fascility they will pay more. I'd raise my prices to what I think the public will pay in my area.

 

[Martins]

So i think what im asking here is getting lost. i absolutely want to increase my price (lower time per coin) however i have to be careful as the area im in i can price myself out rather quickly no matter how nice my wash is. mine is going to have all new paint, all of our soaps are think smell great and very foamy, im adding the air shammys. all the eq works etc.

I'm defiantly not at all trying to rip anyone off (never have never will) just trying to figure out the best way to keep profit margins decent in a small margin industry.

However what im asking is would it be a good idea to help off set cc fees. For instance in May i made $484.75 in cc sales on 86 transactions(avg $5.62 per trans). my fee was $60.28. internet to be able to accept cc is 90 per month bringing my total gross to $334.47 (avg $3.89 per trans) so it cost me $1.73 per trans to be able to run a cc. or 30% of total cc sales to run them.

so what would be the best way to offset this or just bite the bullet? reason im asking is alot of business offer "cash discounts" or additional "fees" when using cc and most customers are ok with it. hell i pay my water bill with a cc and they charge me a convivence fee plus a 2% surcharge and that's with the city. so my thought of the time value of each .25 being reduced by 30%ish (10-11secs per .25) would be a non issues as a convivence for using your cc. Dose that make more sense?

I'm still giving my customers the best experience i can but trying to make this thing make money with all the money I've dumped into it the last 8 months. currently my other business is flipping the bill for the upgrades but it is making an impact!

 

[Martins]

I'm at $2.75 for 3.5 min. in the bay and $1.50 for 3.5 min. on the vac's. The car wash on the other end of town is .75 for min. when they work. This year has been the best year ever. How much are the other S/S car wash charging?

Randy,

the one is a much newer wash owned by an oil company with a iba that works and they are at $1 for 3 mins (im at 1.25 currently) also free vacuum's (mine are .75)
the other is a run down hole and its .75 to start but 3 mins for a $1

i think my plan is to go $1.25 for 2.5 mins in the wash and keep the vacs as is this week as its supposed to be getting painted so people will see the face lift! i think at that time interval and price point im pushing it honestly. hell i had to drop my little tress from $1.25 to $1 just to get people to actually start buying them.

I get complements every time im there about how great its looking, how awesome the soaps are, people are really noticing the changes so im hoping in the next 6 months it will really start to turn some profit!

 

[MEP001]

So i think what im asking here is getting lost. i absolutely want to increase my price (lower time per coin) however i have to be careful as the area im in i can price myself out rather quickly no matter how nice my wash is. mine is going to have all new paint, all of our soaps are think smell great and very foamy, im adding the air shammys. all the eq works etc.

I understood what you were asking. I did "price myself out" at one point - I didn't want to be the most expensive wash because there are several within a few miles of me, one is the same time per coin but more to start, one is more expensive in the bays but has free vacs, one is a lot more than mine for everything but has a fresh (probably $500k remodel). I made the mistake of just lowering the time, and I got a lot of complaints. Since I went back to where it was, the worst review I've gotten was 3 stars with a two word review: "It's busy."

i think my plan is to go $1.25 for 2.5 mins in the wash and keep the vacs as is this week as its supposed to be getting painted so people will see the face lift! i think at that time interval and price point im pushing it honestly. hell i had to drop my little tress from $1.25 to $1 just to get people to actually start buying them.

I'd go up to $1.50 and keep the time per coin the same or just a little less than the $1 guy.

IMO if you aren't selling little trees at $1.25, either put something else in there or take the vendor down.

 

[Martins]

I'd go up to $1.50 and keep the time per coin the same or just a little less than the $1 guy.

IMO if you aren't selling little trees at $1.25, either put something else in there or take the vendor down.

I was thinking of that as well. there is another one about 3-4 miles that has a $2 start time. but no timer so unless i have some free time i wont know what his time is. i thought putting it at $1.50 would be my next step however its not really making more per sae unless i drop it by 1 sec per coin making it a round 3.5 mins for $1.50 rather than 3.6 mins.... hmm. decisions decisions right now im at 36 sec a coin.

And what are your thoughts on the cc thing. just keep it flat with coin price or adjust it?

 

[MEP001]

I don't currently have CC - the last wash I worked with was $1.25 cash and I set it up at $1.50 CC but same time as the $1.25 cash start. The extra quarter plus 50¢ increment really helped make up for the extremely high fees (Hamilton D.A.N. which at the time was 6¢ twice per swipe plus 35¢ transaction fee plus 3%). I plan on doing Cryptopay and I will most likely go with $2 to start card, bays or vacs, same time per quarter as cash. Cryptopay fees are nowhere near as bad as Hamilton/e-xact.

 

[Martins]

I don't currently have CC - the last wash I worked with was $1.25 cash and I set it up at $1.50 CC but same time as the $1.25 cash start. The extra quarter plus 50¢ increment really helped make up for the extremely high fees (Hamilton D.A.N. which at the time was 6¢ twice per swipe plus 35¢ transaction fee plus 3%). I plan on doing Cryptopay and I will most likely go with $2 to start card, bays or vacs, same time per quarter as cash. Cryptopay fees are nowhere near as bad as Hamilton/e-xact.

Yea that makes sense. my current cc is $3min to start at same time as cash. which tells me the price increase most likely wont bother most but thought about adjusting the time to offset the fee but again just not really sure. "convenience fee" but again with a 3 min might be fine. i donnno i fight with myself on stuff like this all the time haha.

 

[Waxman]

I really don't think The customers are that sensitive to price. I think they are more sensitive to having too little time Offered for the start up price. If you lower your time per coin but keep the price the same, the customer has to hurry like heck or add more money sooner. I think it's better Customerservice to give more time at a higher price rather than keep the price the same and lower the time. As far as offsetting credit card fees that's done with the price increase. If your wash is good; kept clean, no leaks, good pressure, Rich chemicals, etc Then it's OK to charge the customer for all these things.

 

[Bill Capron]

I’m .75 per minute. I use Cryptopay for CC and that is working beyond my expectations. My start price is $1 for cash and $3 for CC. I dispense $1 tokens only. Before adding Cryptopay I was $2 start.I switched to $1 tokens because by the time someone had put in 8 coins their perception was “this costs a lot”. An added bonus of tokens is that about 6% of them walk off and never return.