Success Requires Investment and Ingenuity

by Stuart Levy

It’s almost as if the seven plagues have come down on us all at once. For the past few years the car wash industry has been in a real funk. I have been doing this for almost fifty years and never have I seen the industry suffer like it is suffering now.

Fires pop up everywhere. Put one out and another starts. First it was the economy that kept people away then it was horrendous weather patterns. Snow, rain, heat, cold. It didn’t seem to matter. No one had enough fingers to stick into the dyke to stop the flow. Money became tight. New equipment couldn’t be purchased; operators were and still are having trouble paying their bills. Some didn’t and couldn’t survive.

Of course there are sharp operators who knew how to survive and still make money even in the toughest of times. They didn’t let the economy or the weather beat them down. There wasn’t anything they could do about it anyway. So, these sharpies figured out what they could control and figured out that by either cutting expenses or developing programs that would increase their income per car, they would still be able to survive quite nicely.

Ingenuity & Investment

It’s not a big secret, but certainly it takes some courage, ingenuity and investment to make it all come together. The smart guys figured out that one of the first avenues to being successful was to develop a customer loyalty program. A program that allowed customers to purchase unlimited washes per month for a set fee and consistently bring them back to the car wash. The customer’s credit card was automatically charged every month for the service. This guaranteed that the car wash would have a set amount of revenue coming in every month, rain or shine. I call it the health club system. I belong to a health club and my credit card is charged every month regardless of how often I use the club. When I am not using the club, the club still collects my money. What a deal.

Reduce Expenses

There was something else the smart guys figured out. If they could find a way to reduce expenses, their bottom line would increase as well. How is this done? One way is by making your car wash more energy efficient. Putting in solar panels to heat or keep your car wash cool may seem like a major investment, but most cities or states offer a tax rebate for any business willing to invest in energy saving methods. In addition, this may be considered a capital investment and the cost can be amortized on your business tax return.

Investing in a good water reclaim system allowing you to reuse your wash water is another great way to reduce your overall water costs. Also, there are now new types of solution metering systems that not only will help you reduce your chemical costs but allow you to remove all of the hydrominder and direct feed pumps that are on your equipment room wall. Let’s be honest. Many older car washes have small equipment rooms. They weren’t designed to handle all of today’s different solutions. Did you know that there can be as many as 13 different car wash solutions used in your equipment room? That’s a lot of pumps and direct feed systems.

How often do you have to fix those pumps? How many hydrominder tanks have you stacked on top of one another because you began to run out of room on your wall? What about the labor you had to use every time you had to fix one of these pumps, wanted to change product or had to clean out a tank because of a bad check valve or a contaminated tank? The last time I heard, labor wasn’t free. So, if you reduce labor you reduce cost. A dollar here, a dollar there, it all adds up. Better in your pocket than in someone else’s.

Increase Revenue

Not too long ago I attended a round table discussion on how to increase your income or ticket average per car. I was astounded when the table leader said his average ticket was $34 per car. That’s not too shabby. Okay, this is a full-service car wash that offers a wide variety of detail or vehicle reconditioning service. There are many of you who wouldn’t go near a full-service car wash because of the labor. But, you aren’t averaging $34 a car either. My point is that in today’s environment you must develop new revenue opportunities. Maybe express model car washes need to consider changing their model to a flex-serve format that would allow them to offer additional services on the property. If you have vacant space that is not generating any form of revenue you are not only wasting the space but you are paying taxes on it as well. I had the opportunity to visit this individual’s car wash and was amazed at what was happening on his lot. Every additional service option was being utilized. I now understood why the location generated a $34 ticket average.

Revenue Ideas

There is something else I just became aware of that can help to increase your average income-per-car. It’s a bacteria/germ killing process for the vehicles interior. Everyone today is germ phobic. I can’t remember the last time I went to a store and didn’t find one of those hand sanitizer application containers on the counter. It turns out the interior of the vehicle is one the places bacteria loves to grow. The steering wheel and dashboard area is the most common place for germs and bacteria to grow. If you could offer a service that solved this problem to your customers there is a good possibility they will purchase the service. I also found a similar treatment that could be applied off line. The application cost is about fifty cents. The additional cost to the customer is between $5 to $7. The application could be sold separately or included in one of the menu packages, or with upholstery cleaning. Marketed properly this application could easily generate as much additional revenue as your tire dressing application, polish wax or Rain-X.

All I’m suggesting is that it is now incumbent upon car wash operators to take advantage of every extra income or money saving opportunity that comes along. The worst that can happen is that it doesn’t work for you, but until you try you will never know. I have had operator’s tell me that a particular program won’t work because their customers won’t pay for it.

If you don’t ask them or let them know that you have a new service how will you know? You won’t. If you’re not willing to make the investment changes in either energy reducing or chemical saving equipment or better marketing programs that alert your customers to new services you could easily wind up being one those operators who is no longer in business. Sure marketing can be expensive, but how else are you supposed to get your message across to your customers.

Many of you wait for other operators to go first when something new comes out. Let someone else take the chance. Why should you be the guinea pig? Because, while you’re waiting, money is flying out the door.

Stuart Levy is the president of Clean Car Consulting. The company represents a variety of OEM car wash manufacturer’s products as well as providing car wash consulting services.

For more information visit www.cleancarconsulting.com..

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