Revenue Generators

[Bubbles Galore]

I have an 8 bay self serve with 4 vac/vending islands and 8 vacs total. I am looking at making some small upgrades seeing as how cash is a little tight. The three things I would like to do is:

1. Triple Foam System with (3) mosmatic z booms per bay

2. (2) Fragmatics Combo Vacuums

3. Etowah Valley Equipment Quick Pay System

Of those three, what do you think would increase revenue the most? I understand this would only be a best guess, but maybe you could tell me what worked best for your wash? Triple Foam and Quick Pay would be done most likely one bay at a time. The combo vacs would probably be on a lease program.

 

[lag]

Years ago at a location with 8 vacs ,we added 1 shampooer/vac ,and 1 fragrance/vac combo. A year later we replaced the other 6.

I have no experience with your other 2 options.

 

[soapy]

You are looking at roughly $1000 per bay to add credit cards and $4000 per combo vac unit. I think If I was looking to spend the $8000 I would start with one combo vac and 4 SS bay credit card readers.

 

[MEP001]

Credit card improvements aren't a huge revenue generator. It does bring in customers who don't like to carry cash, and they do spend more with CC than with cash, but your expenses increase with it in the form of merchant and batch fees. It's a long-term investment, not at all something to view as a short-term revenue booster in my opinion.

Fragrance/shampoo vacs are a much better revenue booster. We have three Doyle Fresh Impressions combo units in the front, 8 plain vacs in the rear, and the 3 front bring in as much as the 8 rear. Some of it is placement, some is because they each have three fragrances, shampoo/spot remover and vac, so I can't say for sure that a direct upgrade like that will increase your bottom line. I can say that others for whom I've replaced a standard vac with a fragrance or shampoo vac have ordered more combo units right away when they saw an immediate and significant increase in revenue.

Triple foam would be my first improvement if I were in your shoes. I wouldn't do the three booms after all the people who've complained to me about their customers leaving the hoses twisted together. It's hard to see a revenue boost from triple foam, but anything that costs so little to operate and gets the customer to spend an extra 3-5 minutes applying foam and rinsing will pay off quickly.

 

[rph9168]

I agree.

Triple foam would be the cheapest addition that would increase revenues and profitability the fastest. Credit card acceptance does help increase revenue but is an expensive upgrade and tough to justify as far as immediate ROI. Combo vacs are also good revenue producers but since you already have vacs the increase in revenue again would be tough to justify the expense.

If I were building a new wash I would have all three but if I had to choose among upgrades, trifoam would be my choice based on cost and ROI.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

So far the consensus seems to be the triple foam. Why don't you like the 3 Z booms? If I go with these booms then I will purchase the magnetic home placement to keep things from getting tangled up. I currently have the D/H spider boom whick works okay, but I have never been a big fan of wall booms, I think they look kind of hokey. The other reason I want to use them is because I would be able to add some form of in bay dryer to the z boom system.

 

[MEP001]

The Z-booms themselves work fine if they're installed properly - the problem is the idiots who "double-team" with the foam brush and high-pressure at the same time and leave the two hoses twisted together. They'll leave the hoses draped across their roof and drive out from underneath, then the bay looks like it's closed. One person removed his Z-booms because it was such a problem - that's $7,000 of booms.

Here's my setup:

The idea behind the brush hanger in the center of the wall was to have the triple foam gun at the front of the bay. The customer has to pass by it to get the brush, which is only a couple more steps from the front of the wall. The same fellow who took down his Z-booms also removed his foam wax gun, which he had at the farthest corner from the meter. He said no one could find it, that customers would select the feature and when it wouldn't come out of the high-pressure gun would go to high-pressure wax. My trifoam makes a lot of noise, and when they select it they hear it and go right to it.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

MEP001: I understand what you mean about the booms possibly getting all braided up. My other motivation for the z booms is that I will be able to raise my access awning about 6-10 inches with these booms. I have several campgrounds by me and people are constantly trying to get their campers in there to rinse down, but they usually can't because of just a few inches. I also lost the local cable company to another wash because they got new boom trucks. What do you think?

Does anyone have any details on how the fragramatics lease program works?

 

[MEP001]

You could always try them in one bay, or even raise the roof on one to make clearance for campers, but then you'll have to police for dump truck drivers and the like. I'm seriously considering lowering the entrance from 12'6" down to 10' to stop them - we don't get many, but they always leave the bay unusable for anyone else.

I would rather get a loan for a vac than lease one, unless the lease would work out as less money and would still end with you owning the equipment.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

I know what you mean. There was mud bogging last Sunday out by me. They left 5 of the 8 bays completely screwed. What a mess!

I am just checking on the combo vacs, the lease would definitely have to be a comparable deal to basically buying them outright. Is fragramatics a good one to go with?