towel exchange program or free towels?

[Lesgoldstein]

Hello everyone! I am a brand-new car wash owner just learning the ropes. Our wash is a 120 foot tunnel with 2 detail bays and free vacuums. I would like to set up a towel exchange program for our Club members. How can I do this and not lose money if the towel inventory "disappears" over time? I would love to hear best practices! Thank you all. Les Goldstein

 

[JMMUSTANG]

Have a towel exchange program.
Before the customer enters your wash have signage promoting a Towel Exchange Program 2 micro fiber hand towels for 2$ and exchange them free every time they come in.

 

[Roz]

I know one person who just uses branded towels from KR and bakes the cost of towel replacement into their prices. Towels only last a short defined period of time so use them as advertising and to differentiate yourself from competition (for now).

 

[DavidM]

We do a towel exchange. $5 to join and get your towel. Exchange it for a clean one anytime. No one gets a towel without either paying or trading one in. The only inventory loss is damaged towels which has not been an issue.

We use a higher quality microfiber rather than the ultra cheap thin ones that are used when it is a free towel program.


The downside is that it requires a person to do the exchange. Customers really like it. They can wipe up the drips around the mirrors or clean the interior. Some have even purchased two or three. We already had a washer and dryer so there wasn't any new expense for the laundry

 

[patkelly1336]

We have free towels and glass cleaner and APC for customers to use and from what I have seen over the years, there really isn't a way to combat theft of supplies. We used to offer spray bottles of multi-purpose armor all but we actually cut that out a year ago due to high theft and rising costs. We make customers enter a doorway and get supplies off a rack that is on camera, but it doesn't really prevent theft at the vacuum stalls.