Why is no one excited about floor mat cleaners

[Dcalhoun]

About every year/18 months I see someone asking about floor mat cleaners. Each time, there are a few responses but no one seems to be excited about owning them except the testimonies from the manufacturers websites. Why is that? They seem like a good fit for our industry and might cut down on people beating their mats against our equipment/property to clean them. We have people wash them in the ss bays, vacuum them and beat them against anything except their own car to get them clean.

Are they just not reliable, take too much time to maintain and care for or what? I admit, the idea of an additional way to make a buck by adding mat cleaners crosses my mind frequently. But I always stop short because of 2 things: 1) no one seems excited about having them, and 2) few manufacturers of mat cleaners indicate there isn't much demand.

What say you car washers? Have you had them and later removed them? Would you replace them if they crapped out? Why aren't you interested in this product? Just curious.

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

I have an Air Mat machine at my wash. I've owned the wash since July and have been open since mid August. It appears real simple. I can count on one hand the amount of people that have used it. Actually I helped some old lady use it today and was surprised at how well it cleaned them. I guess part of my issue is it's not in the most visible place.

I've decided to offer free vacs and mat cleaning to my loyalty car customers who use the Autos in an attempt to win some old customer back that have went to the EE.

 

[Eric H]

I have one but like Car_Wash_Guy said it simply does not get used. However, the people that do use it really love it and I have heard more than once that the reason that they come to my wash is because we have the only rugbeater in town. I'd be surprised if I get $25/month out of it.
I think the biggest problem is that people do not know what a rugbeater is so they just beat their mats all over everything else on the property.

 

[Jeff_L]

I don't have one as I would rather them continue to use the bay wands to wash them off. Takes some time to do it right, and no one can complain about a machine that didn't clean well.

 

[Turbo]

I bought a used one, repaired it and let people use it for free.

I put it by the change machines. It had signs on all sides that said "FREE MAT CLEANER"

My wash was slow and I wanted to make my wash a better value and give people a reason to return

People used it and liked it

(Since then I have converted my 3 self serv bays to mechanical bays for my adjacent quick lube and auto repair shop so I don't use it. The mat cleaner is for sale if anyone is interested)

 

[robert roman]

I’ve had mat cleaners (dry cleaning) at conveyors. I like them and recommend to every client that is building or buying an exterior express.

At full-serve or flex-serve, they are a great time saver for staff that has to bend over all day vacuuming interiors.

I never had “wet” style because we charged $1.00 a piece to clean floor mats with a soil extractor. $4 price, maybe $1 cost.

We averaged 250 cars a day and 25 percent of customers would gobble up mat cleaning. 250 X 0.25 X $4 = $250 or net $200 just to clean floor mats.

Is that something to get excited about?

Most self-serve locations do not have enough volume to make any real money with mat cleaner at $1.00 a pop.

If low budget site, like industrial vacuums, drop shelf vendors, no in-bay, I wouldn’t bother.

Likewise for higher crime areas, some dimwit might try to steal it.

 

[gearhead]

I've been trying to decide whether or not to buy a Rhino Mat cleaner myself for a couple of years now. I've been to their booth at the ICA show and asked the owners standing around for feedback. Most all of them were Tunnel owners or dealerships that didn't charge for the service or it was used by their detailers. Hard to find feedback from people who owned one that charged for it. I'm still undecided. I think it would be a nice add but still trying to wrap my head around the cost.

 

[Stuart]

I don't have one but I have a great struggle with the price of the units. I also do not think enough of my customers would use it for a reasonable payback - if there is one. I'm not willing to risk the purchase to find out. I have ss washes.

 

[Greg Pack]

Mine is at my IBA/SS for free. My guess is probably 20% of vacuum customers use it. Some people love it and say it's one on the reasons they come to my wash. It's another free service that is relatively easy to provide with no great cost to me. Maintenance hasn't been bad. At about five years of age I had to replace the rollers which cost several hundred dollars. I would suggest to the others making nearly nothing off the machine to maybe offer it as a free service- It's much easier than offering free drying towels.

 

[Dcalhoun]

I appreciate the conversation from everyone. However, i just cannot get on the "give everything away free" band wagon. There is no place I shop that gives away their products or services. Aside from a special promotion, when was the last time you walked into McDonald's and they gave you a free lunch? Or Walmart, Starbucks, Kohls, Menards you name it. It seems we are just shooting ourselves in the foot with free vacuums, mat cleaners, towels and so on. It is getting harder and harder to get a free cup of water and we car washers are gladly giving away the services we offer. In my opinion, we are hurting ourselves creating customer expectations of free stuff that are becoming insatiable.

Not wanting to stop the conversation, but I am getting the opinion there really isn't a market for mat cleaners for profit.

 

[Turbo]

I respectfully disagree that FREE is not profitable; however I own a quick lube with an IBA attached.

I give away a free Carwash, free popcorn, free wifi and a free air freshener with ANY service.

Direct cost of Carwash is 50 cents, popcorn might cost a nickel, wifi has no cost and the air freshener (which is branded with my location and hangs from a lot of customers rear view mirrors) costs 30 cents. So call it a dollar all in plus the hassle of managing.

I think these things contribute to tripling revenue in 8 years (and still growing nicely)

Are they critical? Maybe not but they differentiate my location and I don't plan on taking them away.

 

[rph9168]

Not sure I agree with your analogy. While I am not a big fan of giving away services I think that keeping up with the competition is the driving force. Yes those you mentioned don't have giveaways but most, even McD's, have BOGO's and many other coupon deals that reduce the cost of menu items. This is done because the competition offers coupons and other specials. I think offering free vacs depends on your competition. Unless your wash is so superior to the competition that customers will come to your wash without offering free vacs I think if the competition is offering free vacs it has to be a consideration.

I tend to agree on mat washers. Only if the competition offers free mat wash would I consider an investment and in rare locations maybe offer them on a pay basis. I just don't think the cost justifies the expense unless you are convinced your customers will use it on a frequent basis.

 

[Dcalhoun]

The key difference for me is that Turbo describes a very different scenario. I note you give away items with a purchase. Same is true of BOGO - BUY one GET one. Free vacs and free mat cleaners are available to anyone who steps foot on the property whether they buy or not. Sure, we can put procedures in place with tokens or what not to ensure a purchase but the additional hassle is a point of complaint. I would prefer my competitors not give away our products and we compete on price and quality of the service etc. I have no beef with promotions or rewards when a purchase is made. We can all hope that all of the users of our free services will actually buy something but we also know enough to realize that is wishful thinking. Again, MCD's does not give everyone who walks into the place a free cheeseburger.

 

[MudMoney]

I've had a Rugbeater at my SS for 11 years now.I can't even guess how many free demo's I've given to customers during that time,my wash is attented by myself so I go the extra mile in service.I only average $ 22 a month on this unit and if it ever suffers a major breakdown it won't be replaced.So far there has never been an issue with maintence, customers that use it love it just isn't a demand for it.

 

[mrfixit]

I have a Jim colman mat brusher. It does work well on carpeted mats, the usage is not very high at all, but it works.. the bearings have gone out once but maintenance isn't too bad, grease some bearings a few times a year.

It makes a fraction of what a vacuum makes for me.
. more of just a thing to have for some people rather than a money maker.

 

[Earl Weiss]

I respectfully disagree that FREE is not profitable; however I own a quick lube with an IBA attached.


Direct cost of Carwash is 50 cents, .

Seems very low for
Cleaning Solutions
Gas
Water
Electric
Annual Maintenance / # cars

I always thought IBA direct cost was more than tunnel and my Tunnels typicaly run $1.00 per car or more for above items.

 

[thersonly1]

I have a BB-X which is set up as a free to use at my express tunnel. I had it put in to hurry people so they would spend less time vacuuming or even better wash car and use floor mat cleaner then leave. I simply have more customers then free vacuums and this was "going to help".
It turns out that this machine was in use practically all day and mostly by children. Can't keep it clean because of over use and it needs constant repair because of the stuff other then mats that gets out in it.
Two weeks ago I took the "free" away and put a crypto pay reader on it and charged $1 for 2min. And since I did this haven't even made $10. I am thinking about just ripping it out.

 

[JMMUSTANG]

Why don't you offer the mat cleaning as part of your top two washes tiers.
It's gives your customers one more reason to purchase the top end packages.
If they buy the package give them a token to turn on the machine.
You will have more customers using the mat machine then thereby possibly drawing more paying customers too.

 

[Greg Pack]

How about just offering the service for .25? It's not a money maker now. .25 is cheap enough to be practically free and will make the existing users happy. It might entice a few new users. The .25 should pay for it's own upkeep and utilities, and will keep kids from playing with it.