James
10 Year Member
Hello everyone,
I haven't visited here in a couple of years so I'm out of the loop on the current industry issues. My wife and I closed down our 10 bay self-serve one week ago yesterday. I won't boor you with all the details that led up to this but I will give you some perspective I have gained since.
My truck was filthy (20 days of rain in October) so I went in search of a self-serve Carwash to clean it up. I visited 5 washes within a 1 mile radius and I found the following:
Brand new wash: Tire cleaner,pre-soak,engine cleaner don't work. Soap and pressure are pitiful.
The rest of the older washes were filthy, had many broken functions, and did not offer common services, ie. Spot Free.
The last one I tried had two competing ex cons trying to strong arm me into letting them wash for me.
I finally went to the new Express Wash down the street (I resisted, really) and for five dollars I got an excellent wash and my wheels were even clean.
I had to do a little detail work and they provided free vacs but I chose to shop-vac at home.
I went home and told my wife that I could see why people continued to use our wash even when things got bad towards the end.
On my worst day in the business I never let my wash fall to the level that I experienced.
All you have to do is make it right by the customer and you will be ahead of 95% of your competition. That might get you by until things turn around.
If not, then that express wash down the street will pick up the slack.
I haven't visited here in a couple of years so I'm out of the loop on the current industry issues. My wife and I closed down our 10 bay self-serve one week ago yesterday. I won't boor you with all the details that led up to this but I will give you some perspective I have gained since.
My truck was filthy (20 days of rain in October) so I went in search of a self-serve Carwash to clean it up. I visited 5 washes within a 1 mile radius and I found the following:
Brand new wash: Tire cleaner,pre-soak,engine cleaner don't work. Soap and pressure are pitiful.
The rest of the older washes were filthy, had many broken functions, and did not offer common services, ie. Spot Free.
The last one I tried had two competing ex cons trying to strong arm me into letting them wash for me.
I finally went to the new Express Wash down the street (I resisted, really) and for five dollars I got an excellent wash and my wheels were even clean.
I had to do a little detail work and they provided free vacs but I chose to shop-vac at home.
I went home and told my wife that I could see why people continued to use our wash even when things got bad towards the end.
On my worst day in the business I never let my wash fall to the level that I experienced.
All you have to do is make it right by the customer and you will be ahead of 95% of your competition. That might get you by until things turn around.
If not, then that express wash down the street will pick up the slack.
