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Your customers are your business. Before building your car wash you studied them within geographic distances – you knew their per capita income, driving patterns – but did you ask them how they liked to wash their car and what type of car wash they prefer? What would it cost to find out – do they know – does it matter – is it common sense?
The fact is that it changes from state to state, neighborhood to neighborhood, and even person to person within the same household. What does not change is the desire for fast, consistent, easy, predictable value. It is the reason companies like McDonalds and Dominos succeed in nearly every country, culture, and socioeconomic environment and it is the foundation of the Express Exterior car wash design. Many new investors are capitalizing on this newly improved car wash business model that is sweeping the industry and being incorporated by some of the country’s most successful car wash operators.
Exterior car washing is not new. The innovations in equipment, chemicals, cleaning media and philosophy are new and greatly improved. Express Exterior washing is a well-planned and engineered program proven to give extreme customer satisfaction, maximum wash volume, and easier owner operation. Designed as a freestanding operation, Express Exterior washing can be incorporated into a full serve site. Stop, it is not as easy as putting out a sign with a low price and short time commitment. The philosophy of full serve and exterior is very different. The full service car wash is finished when all the employees finish touching it up at the exit end. The Express wash is finished at the end of the tunnel by equipment and the objective is for the express wash to be as good as a full serve wash.
THE POWER OF FREE
Many of the innovations for Express Exterior are based on technological advancements in equipment, chemicals, and affordable computing power – one of them is not – FREE vacuums. To some it seems insignificant – to others a loss in revenue. Well it is about as insignificant to increasing volume and profit in your car wash as “Super Size” or self serve fountain drinks were in fast food.
Why free vacuums? Simple – it is less intrusive and gives total control to the customer. Although equipment packages can wash, wax, seal, tire shine, and dry upwards of 150 cars per hour, an Express exterior site isn’t designed by cars per hour, it’s engineered to ensure a customer wait time of 5 minutes or less – regardless if there are 5 or 20 customers in line. If land permits, initial site design and traffic flow are designed for future scalability with additional entrance lanes, vacuum spaces, and even tunnels to meet any anticipated volume requirement.
The ruling principle is to reduce a customers’ initial investment to get a quality car wash while giving the customer easy options to spend more time or money at your facility to get a better level of service. Customers in a car filled with sales literature or a sleeping baby may opt for an Express Exterior wash or increase service with an equipment delivered tire shine, triple foam, or chamois dry offered by the automated attendant. From there they can choose to vacuum the car themselves at free stations or exit to an express detailing bay for interior cleaning, hand wax, leather treatment or other value added services.
The phenomenon being witnessed is that customers are increasing the frequency of car washes, more evenly distributed throughout the week, and no longer waiting for a perfect weather day to maximize their “investment” in a car wash.
BEST IMPRESSION FIRST
The old adage “You never get a second chance to make a first impression” is even more critical with Express Exterior design. Elimination of labor through automated computer controlled equipment means if the car comes out of the tunnel anything less than clean dry and shiny – there is no person to touch it up.
Although exterior only washing has been around for decades, it is only recently that equipment, chemicals and computing technology have advanced to do it with no labor. Here is a short list of some of the technological advancements that let today’s Express Exterior car wash exceed a customers cleaning expectations and safety requirements while lowering operating expense and increasing volume.
Automated Attendants:
Two or more entrance lanes into multiple tunnels equate to unbelievable throughput but many operators envision difficulties controlling which customer receives which add on services. Today’s automated attendants easily handle that and more. Customers, greeted by a video “greeter”, can easily choose additional services or volume discounts, before entering the wash to receive exactly the car wash they paid for. For the operator, analytical reporting provides the control to modify good – better – best offerings and price points based on customer behavior and even develop discount programs based on volume. Imagine being able to negotiate fleet wash agreements where fleet customers receive discounted prices for washing between hours when you are normally slow.
Hybrid Technology:
Customers stay in the vehicle meaning a perfectly clean car must be delivered without the use strong chemicals. Friction combined with major advancements in high pressure zero degree nozzle design deliver the hybrid technology necessary to accomplish this on wheels, mirrors, grills, license plates, grooves, and other hard to reach areas with no acid based cleaners.
New Wash Materials:
With the customer inside the car, materials must not only clean well enough to remove all dirt, they have to do it quietly so that a customer feels confident in the safety of the wash. New materials on the market accomplish this as well as providing better reach into hard to clean areas without any harsh slapping noises.
Online Tire Shining:
This technology is not new but advancements in non-solvent tire dressing have improved performance dramatically. With new equipment and dressing combinations currently available, it is possible to dress oversized tires and low profile tires perfectly, regardless of your volume.
New Foaming Technology:
Getting a clean car at high volumes is like conducting an orchestra of how long a chemical has to dwell and act with gravity before being agitated or removed. Express Exterior has been designed in conjunction with chemical manufacturers so that you do not only have better chemicals; they are better applied and removed.
New Ozone Technology:
Water reclaim is fundamental in reducing utility costs and meeting environmental concerns, but nothing can turn a customer away faster than unpleasant tunnel odor. Compounded by the fact that a customer remains in the vehicle, odor control is of critical importance. Whereas ozone has been used for this purpose for years, the technology to produce enough of it to be effective in a car wash has been greatly improved. Today’s reclaim units are available in configurations that not only work well, but with little maintenance.
Online Chamois Drying:
Air dryers configured to move water off the top surfaces to the sides rather than from the front to the back deliver a dryer car. For customers desiring a hand dried finish, online retractable drying curtains are now available in smaller footprints and provide a hand quality finishing touch without labor.
FROM THE GROUND UP
When building a new Express Exterior site, think about space, the more the better. Ideally, you will have room to stack cars at multiple automated attendants with about 4 to 6 car lengths between the auto attendant and the conveyor entrance. If you have the land option, traffic flow and turning radius should be designed to easily expand to multiple greeter lanes, additional vacuum bays, and even additional tunnels if market demand warrants. Mirrored entrance signs combined with a downhill tunnel approach work to make customer loading safe and easy.
From a labor perspective, Express Exterior approaches the same requirements needed for a self serve or in-bay automatic facility. Live surveillance cameras permit one manager to monitor multiple sites with the reduced staff scheduling requirement giving a foundation to stay open 24/7 365 days a year.
EXISTING SITE - NEW PROFITS
For many full service car washes, labor is exceeding 40% of the cost of operation, draining more than just profits; it is taking the fun out of full serve car washing. You do not need to build a new site to capitalize on the increased volume, labor reductions, and cost per car savings afforded by Express Exterior design and equipment. Incorporating any of the equipment advancements such as automated attendants, online wheel cleaning, tire shining, or bug removal can equate to huge reductions in labor and wasted chemical costs. Additionally the ability to add an express lane to an existing full serve car wash is a proven profit generator. With new franchises opening every day, Express Exterior, a new twist on an old idea, seems certain to grow both profits and fun for car wash operators across the country.
Anthony Analetto has over 26 years experience in the car wash business and is the President of SONNY'S The Car Wash Factory's Equipment Division. Before coming to SONNY'S Anthony was the director of operations for a 74 location national car wash chain. Anthony can be reached at 800-327-8723 x 104 or at aanaletto@sonnysdirect.com
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