Quandry on Pay Stations and Credit Cards

[washregal]

I am in the process of upgrading my automatic - going to go with a Washworld Razor - I think I am fairly set here.

My location has (1) IBA and (6) Ss Bays

There are a ton of options for entry systems - Many are telling my the ICS Auto sentry is the way to go - I feel that I need to add a wash club monthly membership - just makes sense in todays environment - I am between two tunnels - one that offers free vacs - so I was thinking of dropping a token on my high wash for free vacs as well.

In addition I was hoping to tie in my SS bays with a credit card system - new meter boxes - the works.. Reviewing Wash Remote for this as well as Crypto Pay - Any thoughts?

In the wash pass or minthly memberships wash remote I believe might have a solution for this - I need to ask more questions - is it advisable to install an RFID system as well for the monthly wash pass? I dont want to be that guy to be sticking RFID tags on my customers cars on sat and sundays..

Any advice on paystations that work well with the razor would be appreciated - also CC system and monthly wash pass.

 

[pgrzes]

I am in the process of rehabbing a closed wash now. Installing a High Velocity, 4 ss bays and 12 combo vacs. I was going through the same questions and ended up buying a Unitec Portal. I like the ICS but could not justify the added expense.
Now I had a thought and wondered if this has ever been discussed or tried. How about a monthly wash pass for the whole facility? Automatic, bays or vacuums could be used for a flat monthly fee. I know the big issue is the cost of the rfid readers, but with them becoming more prevalent that cost should be coming down. Any thoughts on this? Randy??

 

[JamboWash]

I am in the process of rehabbing a closed wash now. Installing a High Velocity, 4 ss bays and 12 combo vacs. I was going through the same questions and ended up buying a Unitec Portal. I like the ICS but could not justify the added expense.
Now I had a thought and wondered if this has ever been discussed or tried. How about a monthly wash pass for the whole facility? Automatic, bays or vacuums could be used for a flat monthly fee. I know the big issue is the cost of the rfid readers, but with them becoming more prevalent that cost should be coming down. Any thoughts on this? Randy??

I did a small pilot test with cryptopay, i activated the fleet option charged the monthly fee at the 1st of the month if the credit card did not get thru i deactivate their fleet card , but i found it being misused the whole family would wash all their 4 cars on one fleet card , so decided not to continue with this option until i find something else

 

[BBE]

I still think washremote seems to be the best suited solution for you. Both now and in the future given the things you are thinking of doing. but Why offer unlimited right out of the gate like that? You can always give a better deal if you see the need for it, it's hard to take it away once you've started offering it. I think you need to get up and going with the new razor and a new paystation. Choose something that is capable of it down the road should you ever want to do it, but just get up and going for now. Start plugging away with some advertising, build some awareness of your wash and your new touchless. Push the touchless aspect of it being between two tunnels. Give people what they pay for. Good chemicals, good show. Make sure you are cleaning WELL. Add some extras like hot wax and 3x foam, start pushing those. Get your average per car up. Make sure you have great lighting so you can take advantage of being open 24/7, start pushing this as an advantage you have over the two tunnels. And maybe in a year re assess whether you think you need to start doing an unlimited wash. I personally don't think it will work with only one IBA, that will be a SERIOUS bottleneck. But you know what they say about opinions

 

[getnbusy]

HOw about a WSII ?? Not sure about the fleet/ monthly options or whatever but the WSII is a workhorse. If you're lookin a portal, I saw one on craigslist for $600.

 

[washregal]

BBE - Really good advice - Would be nice to get the cash flow going then be able to do more creative things.. I agree - Lighting and IBA are Key - Cleaning cars is even more key..I think if I can get wash remote - That system to do what I need it to do - I would make the investment - just very concerned that the technology in the CC world is changing so much.. I dont want to be left behind with this huge investment.

 

[Jeff_L]

BBE provided really good advice, so I won't reiterate the points.

On unlimited use, IMHO, I'm not sold that it's a good thing for self serve and IBA's. For a tunnel, they are constantly moving cars through, but for an IBA, customers are waiting to get serviced. What if you had 3 unlimited wash customers in line for your IBA, and the 4th car, who would pay $12 for your wash drives off because of the wait? Just not a risk I personally want to take. As for unlimited in a self serve bay, thought about this too. Unlimited wash pass, or a fixed fee to use the bay for as long as they want. I really think this goes against the model of the bay itself. We sell time, which includes use of the tools. I personally think revenue would decrease as unlimited people would tie up the bay. I wouldn't compete with tunnels at their game, change the playing field.

 

[washregal]

Thinking I should go the traditional route as all of you have suggested - but would be nice to design the wash / Entry system with the ability to go to a Membership type wash pass option if that makes sense. I dont want to NOT have the ability if I decide later on it makes sense. What I was thinking about is limiting the Wash pass - monthlys for the IBA - as you suggest it is a concern - backup and having monthly members - subjugate my daily members. perhaps if I limited the amount of monthly wash passes to my site to match my debt service - This would instill in the user - that the pass is a valued product and would continue to stay a member all the while not impinging on my daily customers. - Your thoughts? I was hoping a design of this might be programmed into the wash remote system.