I recently refurbished a 6 bay SS wash. I have been open about 10 months and currently charge $3 for 5 min on my SS with $1/min after that. A competitor has refurbished his wash (similar quality to mine and about 1 mile away) and re-opened about 2 months ago and is charging $2/4 min and $1/min after that. I have definitely seen a decrease in business since they have opened. Not sure if that is just because of there being 2 similar options in town or that they are cheaper (probably both). I have certainly seen a decrease in the mud-bombs and construction clean outs but hate to loose any business. With the cost of the rebuild and the price of chemicals I feel my price was more than fair and honestly wanted to go to $3/4 min before the other place opened. Should I match their price or stay the course? Thanks for your input.
SS Pricing vs Competition
- Thread starter GreatWash
- Start date
Our Town, Sorry I was incorrect on the rate after start up. It follows the start up rate for additional money added in both instances.
Roz
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I have a custom designed card. We hand them out to customers preloaded by me with $5 to try the card. It is like the Starbucks card. I offer customers a 20% bonus whenever they load money on the card and a 10% price discount when they use the card so a 30% savings. You can control the amounts and How your card works for customers. Most add a cc to their online account. The card holder has all the instructions and benefits listed for the card. I also make them available for purchase $2 via my mega vendor.
Roz
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One additional idea I have seen at a wash I visited. Of their 12 functions one offered washer fluid and one offered tire air. They had separate coil hoses for each and the timer was able to do variable pricing via the time rate settings. I do not recall how they implemented those functions but remember that the solution was fairly easy.
OurTown
Well-known member
I'm adding to what Roz said about the cards. They are purchased through Worldpay and are called "store cards" but go through their gift card program. They were a complete nightmare when they rolled them out three years ago and took us months to get them to work right. Since then twice now the cards would not get the correct rewards put on them and had to spend a lot of time with Worldpay's support. Our cards arrived already "issued" with zero balances. We always sell (or give) our cards already loaded with whatever balance needed. We found the fastest way to load or increase value on them is with a Verifone VX520 point of sale machine. It's crazy fast compared to trying to use the website. You have to purchase it through Worldpay because it needs to have their programming. You could just give them to customers and have them create an account to load them for themselves.
Kimberly Berg
Well-known member
Time will tell. Is your competitor new to the CW industry? Is there an attendant on-site? I've seen many car washes turn-over around me. New owners excitedly fix them up, install new equipment, hoses, signage, etc, and have lower prices. Place looks good for the first 12-18 months, but they don't stay up on the cleaning & maintenance. No phone # posted when there's a problem. Talk to your customers & find out what they need, and then deliver. Focus consistently on cleanliness, quality & customer service.
Kimberly Berg
Well-known member
My wash prices are $3/for 5 minutes. The SS car wash 1/2 mile from me is cheaper ($2/4 minutes), but he also uses cheaper nylon brushes & cheaper soap. Maintenance & repairs are slow. Vacuums are unreliable and no phone # to call. Customers are now realizing you get what you pay for, and come back to my wash.
JMMUSTANG
car wash owner
I’m $2.50 to start but I offer 3 Free minutes when they put in $5.00 (cash only).
Kids love it. They usually use at least $10. They like to take there time.
Customers love it and use it a lot.
I do not offer it with credit cards.
Kids love it. They usually use at least $10. They like to take there time.
Customers love it and use it a lot.
I do not offer it with credit cards.
Southwest MI Carwash
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Do a count up versus a count down.
Hydro-Spray(and maybe some other companies) offer an undercarriage wand to get the undercarriage area, which is an area that doesn’t get addressed much at SS bays.
PaulLovesJamie
rural 5 bay SS
Yeah, your initial post was confusing to me too.
So you are charging 60 cents/minute, whereas your competitor is charging 50 cents/min.
In my experience/opinion, although most customers wont/cant do that math, they will see that $3 vs $2 startup minimum and *think* your price is higher.
So if it were me and I wanted to match him, I'd match his startup minimum of $2 but not lower the rate of 60 cents.
But I have to add that given todays economy and rampant inflation, no frigging way I'd be lowering my prices in any way whatsoever.
