Unlimited washing for self serve?

[chaz]

This would be a minor problem as well. But really, how many days is your self serve that busy that you have to police the customers, 10 a year and maybe for an hour here or there a few more times? just bc they have the privilege of being a member, doesnt mean they still don't have to abide by all of your rules for tying up a bay.

Members do self level themselves in a tunnel. They will not wait on a busy saturday but come another day like tuesday when it's slower. Which is another nice win-win of having a membership that consultants rarely speak of. I don't know if the self serve market would also switch days to a slower weekday but I would guess yes as i never ever go to Costco on a saturday(prolly bc I'm always working

....well obviously I have a busier s/s than you. One in bay and one waiting (hopefully vacuuming) is something I see with some regularity. And yes...I’d expect those with “the privilege” of membership to follow the rules....problem is...as “members” with unlimited usage, I’d assume they have a separate set of rules?!

Good luck and let us know how it works out!

 

[Jerry]

Interesting thread. Seems that the only way to figure this out is to give it a try and tweak it from there. You don't know until you try it. You might consider coming up with an agreement that will allow you to revoke the unlimited plan for certain people/circumstances. Some examples that come to mind....customers using it for multiple cars, landscapers using it every day to clean up their equipment and leave you a mess, contractors cleaning up equipment and truck beds, teenagers with four wheel drive vehicles.....dirt bikes....atv.

A personal thought is that I don't like the unlimited plans that exist or most any service that automatically charges my card/a card. I think that all of these are designed for the benefit of the business. I think it was mentioned that unlimited wash plans are predicated on signing up a large number of customers to make a lot of money. I'm in business to make money, but I want to do it while giving each and every customer what they pay for. Unlimited wash seems designed to make a lot of money by giving some customers what they pay for and many customers less than they pay for (planet fitness $10 per month for customers that never walk through the door). Some customers will make a point of getting more than they paid for even if they have to go out of their way to do it. In the end, seems that the only way to make a lot of money off of unlimited wash is maximize the group that gets less than they pay for while minimizing those that get what they pay for and more than they pay for.

You don't have to personally like the subscription model but it is very beneficial to the consumer, which in terms means it's very beneficial to the business owner. I began selling memberships thru my tunnel 4.5 years ago with the same mindset as you have right now. I didn't want to 'overcharge" a customer who didn't use it and I didn't want anyone to take advantage of me either. But then I thought about how other industries run their membership clubs and came to the conclusion that the customer wants this and if you're not offering it, you may be losing business to the wash down the street who is offering it. So if I'm going to offer it, I might as well embrace it and maximize the amount of revenue I can take in.

Do you feel slighted by Amazon Prime($99/year) when you don't order enough products from them? How about Costco's yearly fee?
DO you feel slighted by your cable company when you take a summer vacation for 14 days and can't watch tv but have to pay the monthly fee?
Do you feel slighted when you only make 4 cell phone calls a month and have a $100 monthly charge from Verizon?

There are many more examples of the customer not really getting burned here. It's really just the way of life now.

on top of it, if you felt bad for charging a customer when they didn't get any use out of it, you can always refund them!

Not only are people paying for the great value of a 1 time monthly charge, they are also paying for the convenience of not having to bring cash with them each month.

I don't really wanna hijack this thread about why membership is perfect for our industry and if you're not doing it, you'll probably regret it later. I just wanted to see if anyone was already doing the self serve membership model and it looks like no one really is. I'm more than happy to discuss a successful membership model and tips and tricks to really capture more than your fair share of the market, but I'd rather do it over a PM. Feel free to reach out if you need some help or ideas.

 

[Jerry]

....well obviously I have a busier s/s than you. One in bay and one waiting (hopefully vacuuming) is something I see with some regularity. And yes...I’d expect those with “the privilege” of membership to follow the rules....problem is...as “members” with unlimited usage, I’d assume they have a separate set of rules?!

Good luck and let us know how it works out!

I have 7 bays at my wash and 16 free vac stations. We get relatively busy here as well but we are nowhere near capacity and I'm just trying to come up with a way to make my s/s more profitable. Will there be setbacks? probably. But nothing thsat's been proposed so far is a death to this idea. The customer might think they have some sort of membership privileges that trump a regular customer, but you make the rules and if they don't like it, they can kick rocks.

Will def report back when I get this idea off the ground!

 

[loewem]

You don't have to personally like the subscription model but it is very beneficial to the consumer, which in terms means it's very beneficial to the business owner. I began selling memberships thru my tunnel 4.5 years ago with the same mindset as you have right now. I didn't want to 'overcharge" a customer who didn't use it and I didn't want anyone to take advantage of me either. But then I thought about how other industries run their membership clubs and came to the conclusion that the customer wants this and if you're not offering it, you may be losing business to the wash down the street who is offering it. So if I'm going to offer it, I might as well embrace it and maximize the amount of revenue I can take in.

Do you feel slighted by Amazon Prime($99/year) when you don't order enough products from them? How about Costco's yearly fee?
DO you feel slighted by your cable company when you take a summer vacation for 14 days and can't watch tv but have to pay the monthly fee?
Do you feel slighted when you only make 4 cell phone calls a month and have a $100 monthly charge from Verizon?

There are many more examples of the customer not really getting burned here. It's really just the way of life now.

on top of it, if you felt bad for charging a customer when they didn't get any use out of it, you can always refund them!

Not only are people paying for the great value of a 1 time monthly charge, they are also paying for the convenience of not having to bring cash with them each month.

I don't really wanna hijack this thread about why membership is perfect for our industry and if you're not doing it, you'll probably regret it later. I just wanted to see if anyone was already doing the self serve membership model and it looks like no one really is. I'm more than happy to discuss a successful membership model and tips and tricks to really capture more than your fair share of the market, but I'd rather do it over a PM. Feel free to reach out if you need some help or ideas.

I'm with you on doing what is necessary to offer the customer what they want and to be competitive with other washes. I said, "personally" because I assume that I think differently than the typical consumer. I'm hesitant to take part in any offer that is a recurring charge to my account. My answer is yes to all of the questions that you asked. Won't do Amazon Prime, cut the Cable TV, won't do the costco club. I do have unlimited cell phone plan (a rip off, but necessary). My feelings probably go back to when I was a kid and signed up for a music club. Get x number of cassettes per month for x cost, cancel at anytime. The cassettes lasted two weeks and canceling was a nightmare. Same experience with coin collecting membership club. I know that I would be irritated by customers that go overboard and wash three or four times a week or try to get over some other way like bringing a different car. I'd also be concerned about any customer feeling like they didn't get what they paid for. I know that as a business owner I shouldn't worry about that, but making and keeping customers happy is important to me.

I will PM you as I have some questions. Thanks

 

[JMMUSTANG]

How would the unlimited customer get the RFID tag if there is not someone on the premise to hand them out or put on the inside of the windshield?
Basically I think you could only offer one price point for unlimited self serve washes. How could self serve offer multiple price points?
The fact that tunnels offer multiple price options makes this a profitable venture, not just one unlimited price point. This is what brings the averages up.
I have a large amount of landscapers/snow plowers that would LOVE the unlimited plan.
It’s taken me a long time in getting most of them to either wash or blow down the bay when their done.
The issue is that I would get the ones I told not to come back because they wouldn’t follow the rules. Those guys would take a lot more time cleaning their trucks and leave all the bays a mess.
How about all the mudders, what a nightmare.
Tom Hoffman was working on this concept with Micrologic a few years ago but I believe he was thinking of connecting it to his tunnel unlimited customers giving them the option to wash at any of his washes. If anyone could figure it out it would be him. Not sure if it worked out thou.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Paying for stuff you don't need or probably won't get your money's worth has become an accepted way of life now. Look how many people fall for extended warranties and service plans. Recently, I bought a 50' speaker cable and was offered a "service plan".

 

[Earl Weiss]

How would the unlimited customer get the RFID tag if there is not someone on the premise to hand them out or put on the inside of the windshield?

I think you are correct. There must be a way to put the RFID on the vehicle. This would also solve the issue that tunnels solve with not having commercial drivers on monthly plans. I was told by one chain they do not sell them to Lyft and Uber drivers. Don't know how they monitor that since those cars, unlike Taxi's can simply remove the sign from the window.

 

[Jerry]

I think you are correct. There must be a way to put the RFID on the vehicle. This would also solve the issue that tunnels solve with not having commercial drivers on monthly plans. I was told by one chain they do not sell them to Lyft and Uber drivers. Don't know how they monitor that since those cars, unlike Taxi's can simply remove the sign from the window.

This type of thinking is exactly what's holding our industry back. "Lets take people who drive for a living and get rated on how clean their vehicles are and stop them from washing at our car wash bc they wash too often".

Uber and Lyft drivers are my best customers. They are my best advocates. You know what happens when a professional driver washes their car? They never cancel their membership for under utilizing it. And with all the "abuse" from professional drivers that the industry is worried about, my average monthly usage rate per all members is still just under 3x a month.

Wear and tear on equipment is so negligible from these "abusers" and is really a bad argument for denying service to 100's of customers, especially when trying to police them is such an arbitrary and futile process.

If only our industry focused more on the positives(more customers, more revenues, more referrals, more profits) to a "problem" then all the ways 6 customers might scam you, we'd all be better off.

 

[loewem]

Paying for stuff you don't need or probably won't get your money's worth has become an accepted way of life now. Look how many people fall for extended warranties and service plans. Recently, I bought a 50' speaker cable and was offered a "service plan".

What a joke. I think that it is a bigger problem than anyone realizes. I get my monies worth at any checkout that offers me a warranty/replacement plan...... "If this thing dies within a year some employee at this store is going to look awfully funny with this thing hanging out of their butt".

It is hard to teach children about this and how not to give your money away. I gave my 20 year old daughter $20 worth of grief a couple of weeks ago. Back to back days she signed up for a Khol's charge card to get a 20% discount on her purchase and then she registered for Amazon Prime with my wife's card. They want it all and they want it now...calgon take me away.

 

[DiamondWash]

We just had a Mister Car Wash Express open near us in the past two weeks and I bought the "platinum express" unlimited plan for $32 a month for the $18 wash package, just to see how customers could use/abuse it. So far I have racked up in just 1 week $224 of washes. I stop by in the morning and before I head home, my customers keep asking me about a program like this at my wash I really don't see it being a good thing for me. I'm still researching it though.

 

[robert roman]

Consider real estate agent with a really nice Mercedes that washes it several times a week to maintain high professional standard.

So, should this person’s frequency be viewed as abuse of unlimited or simply demand for the product?

Conversely, I don’t buy unlimited because it’s not necessary. Where I live it’s really clean and I use good wax. So, car stays clean a very long time.

“I stop by in the morning and before I head home….”

How long do you believe most people would be willing to keep this up?

 

[Jerry]

We just had a Mister Car Wash Express open near us in the past two weeks and I bought the "platinum express" unlimited plan for $32 a month for the $18 wash package, just to see how customers could use/abuse it. So far I have racked up in just 1 week $224 of washes. I stop by in the morning and before I head home, my customers keep asking me about a program like this at my wash I really don't see it being a good thing for me. I'm still researching it though.

you're looking at it the wrong way. You didn't "rack up $224 of washes." You would never wash 12+ times at full price if it wasn't for the club. While you search for ways to abuse his program, your loyal customers will slowly leave you and become a customer of his bc he's providing exceptional value for them. Once your customers start asking you about something, they obviously want it. They won't have to go to far to find someone providing it for them. You might be the better car wash, but that won't stop a customer becoming loyal to someone new. Once Mr. Car Wash gets a nice base of unlimited customers, you'll have virtually no chance of getting those customers to switch back to your wash. People don't buy memberships at Costco and Sam's Club.

If you want one more way to think about it:
you just spent $32 at his wash. If your customer did that at Mr Car Wash, you get $0.00 and he gets $384 a year. Get yourself only 500 unlimited customers and you'll bring in about 200k for the year at those prices.

PM for any questions, hope your research goes well.

 

[Greg Pack]

We just had a Mister Car Wash Express open near us in the past two weeks and I bought the "platinum express" unlimited plan for $32 a month for the $18 wash package, just to see how customers could use/abuse it. So far I have racked up in just 1 week $224 of washes. I stop by in the morning and before I head home, my customers keep asking me about a program like this at my wash I really don't see it being a good thing for me. I'm still researching it though.

As mentioned by Jerry, after the new wears off the club membership customers usually average 3x a month. If you own a buffet with a 9.95 price you can't obsess about the guy that comes in with a hollow leg and eats $15 worth of food. Its the average customer consumption you have to worry about.

I still think this would be difficult to pull off on a wash open to retail customers, hopefully Jerry will keep us updated if he implements it.

 

[Jerry]

^ absolutely Greg!
I hope to be testing the technology at my self serve by the summer. Will def report back, success or failure.

 

[mmurra]

We operate a WAUW 6+2 in a small Midwest city, charging $8 for any and/or all services (autos, bays, vacs, air freshener, terry towels). We looked at the unlimited concept and decided against it. We do a significant volume in a small percentage of days so we will stay with the "pay as you go" model for the time being. If I could differentiate time of day / week pricing I might change my mind, ie: $18 for after 6pm use, $26 for weed day use and $38 for any time use.

 

[Jerry]

Mmurra, Did you decide against it bc of functionality or bc you didn’t think the concept(revenues and profit) would work in the self serve vs your current wash all you want model?

 

[mmurra]

Jerry - I am in the indoor tanning business and have been in the "unlimited tanning" segment for 18 years now, fitness club with memberships for five years now. Our programs start at unlimited for $9.99 up to 39.99/mo. With most all membership programs, the unique nature of the low perceived price drives sales for a period of time but eventually the level of memberships drop. In larger markets you can replace the dropouts at a sufficient rate to make the system work. In general the dropout rate is high and requires administrative and sales effort. In small markets it most likely will not generate enough additional business to support the system, IMO and experience. Therefore, knowing how the membership curve drops over time, I elect to KISS and make a profit on one customer at a time. I may change my mind if new data presents itself over time.

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

We operate a WAUW 6+2 in a small Midwest city, charging $8 for any and/or all services (autos, bays, vacs, air freshener, terry towels). We looked at the unlimited concept and decided against it. We do a significant volume in a small percentage of days so we will stay with the "pay as you go" model for the time being. If I could differentiate time of day / week pricing I might change my mind, ie: $18 for after 6pm use, $26 for weed day use and $38 for any time use.

Interesting and thanks for offering your experience. I have two questions..

1. What's you nearest competitor offering similar products/services?
2. How do you have the pay "$8 for any and/or all services (autos, bays, vacs, air freshener, terry towels)." Is the place gated with an entry system? Controlled by an employee?

Thanks

 

[Sparkleclean]

I'm thinking about doing this by utilizing the cryptopay swipers. I figure there is a couple of ways to do it with one being available now but expensive, and the other not yet ready but much cheaper.

cryptopay currently has a fleet program where you can get cards from them and give them to fleet customers and cryptopay creates the invoice for your customer monthly and you actually do the billing and collecting of money. this is the expensive way, there are fees associated with it starting with a $250 setup fee and a $30 per month (or a prepaid $300 per year) fee. then there is the cost of getting the cards (ranging from 3.05 each to .58 depending on how many you buy) THEN a .06 cent per swipe fee (consolidated daily) AND 1.25% of sales monthly...... so after the initial setup and monthly fee ($550 first year) if you had 100 transaction per month at an average of $5 per transaction you would owe cryptopay an additional $12 and change for the per swipe fee and 1.25% fee.

my thought is this, we set up the fleet account and set up our customers with the cards but instead of billing them monthly we charge them a flat per month fee on an automatic recurring monthly charge like a gym membership. cryptopay will still bill us for all the fees from the individual swipes but we will never bill the customers. instead we charge their cards for the monthly fee (say $25 per month) and I tell them it is wash all you want AND vac all you want for $25 per month. I will only set up true "fleet" customers (plumbers, electricians, any trucks that don't go through autos or tunnels, ) so I don't cannibalize my cash paying customers and I require they setup 1 per fleet vehicle in their fleet in order to be eligible for the monthly fee. if they balk I can still set them up with 1 card for their entire fleet but bill them for all times used monthly using cryptopays invoice.

I think most fleet managers will not be interested in a monthly bill that will fluctuate based on how many times an employee actually comes to wash the vehicle just in case it is abused leaving them on the hook. instead I can guarantee them that for $25 per fleet vehicle per month the vehicle will be washed and vacuumed and maintained without fear of fluctuating cost. the downside is the cryptopay fees needing to be paid no matter what and fees that are rising the more the cards are used, but an upside would be the ability to do either a monthly fee or invoice for all time used.

the second option is cryptopay is in the process of creating gift cards right now. hopefully they will be done in the next few months. not sure of what the costs will be yet, but assume a per card cost, and then nothing after that. you sell the cards by preloading them using the still to be built cryptopay interface online like any other gift card. except instead of loading them with only a few dollars every month my fleet customers credit card goes through I just load their gift card using the interface back up to say 2-300 dollars so they can keep using it all month without it running out, then next month when I bill their credit card I refill the gift card back up. their credit card doesn't go through, I shut it off.

downside is cryptopay hasn't finished creating their gift cards yet but I was told today they are one of the top 3 items on the engineering teams agenda and should be only several months out at most..... upside is no monthly transaction fees like the fleet card.



I would be willing to pay cryptopay 10-20 dollars per attendant card if I could buy unlimited amounts of them to use this way but they wont let you. I am considering ordering a couple of the attendant cards now to use as a test with 1 or 2 possible fleet customers to see how they will be used in a real world scenario before deciding on setting up a fleet account or not.

anyone have any feedback for me?

 

[Sparkleclean]

there is a third option that is actually already created also, but cryptopay wont let you do it. the have created an attendant card for attendants to use to turn on cryptopay connected equipment. no bills involved and the cards only cost $5 each and are sold in packs of 5. however, because cryptopay doesn't make money off of them on a recurring basis they will not allow you to buy more then 3- 5 packs. or 15 cards per site. these cards can easily be used to set up fleet customers on a recurring monthly wash and vac all you want club for the self serve, it would have to allow the customer to use ANYTHING cryptopay connected hence my wash AND vac club because my vacs and self serve bays all have swipers and you couldn't restrict the use of the cards by equipment only by site location......

I would be willing to pay cryptopay 10-20 dollars per attendant card if I could buy unlimited amounts of them to use this way but they wont let you. I am considering ordering a couple of the attendant cards now to use as a test with 1 or 2 possible fleet customers to see how they will be used in a real world scenario before deciding on setting up a fleet account or not.

anyone have any feedback for me?