Lawn mowers and grass clippings

[bigleo48]

On occasion I will follow guys I run off right to the competitor. They make a mess and leave. Since they are unattended and have fewer bays, that essentially takes the bay out of service until cleaned.

I too have seen the numbers of incidents go down as I run these people off.

BigLeo

 

[Tom Thumb]

This brings up another subject I have been wondering about, for the owners that have air shamee do you have a problem with people using the air shamee to blow out the trash in their truck beds?

 

[Red Baron]

This brings up another subject I have been wondering about, for the owners that have air shamee do you have a problem with people using the air shamee to blow out the trash in their truck beds?

No, the problem with my Air Shammee is that nobody uses it for any reason. I've had it for over 2 years and it has probably made $20. Well, it may have made more than that, I haven't checked the coin box in about 6 months.

 

[Washmechanic]

When it costs you more in clean-up time and lost business than they spend, in my opinion. Like Red, I have at least ten people who compliment me on the wash to every one who doesn't like that I won't let them wash their lawn mowers, back hoes, drywall pump trailers, barbecue pits, etc. I've been a hard-ass about quite a few things for years, and every year our numbers are better, and the amount of severe messes and people playing excessively loud music is less. It depends on the wash you want to run.

I agree completely. Have had the same experiences. People compliment us because the washes are always clean and they aren't being blasted by someones radio. I try to be as polite and diplomatic as possible, but there is a limit and if you don't establish it, they will for you. After having a customer turn his radio down, I've had other customers thanak me, because it was driving them crazy.

 

[Red Baron]

I try to be as polite and diplomatic as possible, but there is a limit and if you don't establish it, they will for you. After having a customer turn his radio down, I've had other customers thank me, because it was driving them crazy.

Yep! Your good customers DO notice, and they appreciate your efforts. As important as it is to achieve some degree of differentiation in a business where it's pretty hard to do, one way to do it is to be obsessive about keeping things operating properly and the place clean. I want to attract the guy who enjoys coming to the wash on his day off and spending a few hours there using every profit center on the property. If I have to run off a roofer or landscaper or two to achieve that, I feel like I need to.

 

[JMMUSTANG]

At one of my washes I posted a fold out sign stating that the first 2 bays are for muddy/dirt vehicles only.
That has eliminated (most of the time) all my bays getting messy.
You can't police your site 24/7. If they want to do it they'll come in late at night.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

^Found that out last night. I got up to the wash last night and found a bay literally covered in grass clippings. I was at the wash last night until 8 p.m. and back at 5 a.m. Sheesh!

 

[bigleo48]

This brings up another subject I have been wondering about, for the owners that have air shamee do you have a problem with people using the air shamee to blow out the trash in their truck beds?

70 cents a minute for air...not a problem. However I have never seen anyone using it for that purpose. However if we are on site, at times we will lend the customer a broom and pan to clean out the back of the truck before they wash.

Some of my customers are well trained and they clean up after themselves. I always love to see that and will pop in a token to show my appreciation. Many are just happy to have somewhere to wash their off-road toys and don't car how much it costs.

BigLeo

 

[Red Baron]

^Found that out last night. I got up to the wash last night and found a bay literally covered in grass clippings. I was at the wash last night until 8 p.m. and back at 5 a.m. Sheesh!

Our lights go off at 10pm and back on at 5am (at 1 location). I was worried about that at first but I guess most of the messa makers don't want to do it in the dark.

 

[Tom Lee]

Seems that most of you are way too worried about a mess which is going to create a little work. I'll bet that you don't **** and moan when a customer's car is just dusty. Take the good with the bad. It's part of doing business.

 

[Red Baron]

Seems that most of you are way too worried about a mess which is going to create a little work. I'll bet that you don't **** and moan when a customer's car is just dusty. Take the good with the bad. It's part of doing business.

Nope, that ain't it. I work 80-96 hours a week as it is. "Business" is also about making the best use of your time, and the best use of my time isn't spending an extra 14 hours a week cleaning up mud/grease/clippings that might gross me another $50.

I think the equasion is a lot more complicated than some think. I'd guess that for every habitual messmaker you run off, you get at least 1 customer who appreciates that you keep a nice wash. I'll trade the messmaker for the good customer every time.

 

[pitzerwm]

IMO when they mess up the bay so no one wants to use it until you get there to clean it up, you don't need them.

 

[MEP001]

IMO when they mess up the bay so no one wants to use it until you get there to clean it up, you don't need them.

That's been my point all along.

I'll bet that you don't **** and moan when a customer's car is just dusty.

I don't **** and moan when someone brings in a muddy truck either, because that is part of the business. They also have to spend a good amount of money to wash a muddy truck - we have some regular customers that will spend $50 washing a truck, and that makes a messy bay much more worthwhile. We're talking primarily about people spending only the minimum amount of money to blast as much crap off their commercial equipment as they can and leaving the bay unusable, when their employer should be providing the facility for equipment maintenance.

I'm also betting you aren't the one cleaning up the mess, and you just repeated here what you've said to your employee(s).

 

[Keith Baker]

I'm also betting you aren't the one cleaning up the mess, and you just repeated here what you've said to your employee(s).[/QUOTE]


I'll take that bet.

Keith Baker
Omaha< NE.

 

[MEP001]

I'll take that bet.

My comment was directed at Tom Lee.

 

[Red Baron]

IMO when they mess up the bay so no one wants to use it until you get there to clean it up, you don't need them.

I learned the lesson long ago in our roof equipment manufacturing business that we don't want all the business we can have. There are some customers that are just more pain in the butt than they're worth. Like the guy who washed his Lincoln in Bay 1 the other day then got back in his car, drove a few feet forward, stopped and opened his door, and threw out a McDonalds bag of trash - when I find him I'll tell him to not come back. And I realize I'm swimming upstream on this but I'm really not interested in tolerating a farmer's excessive mud so that I can wash his wife's Cadillac. If Mr. farmer thinks it's ok to use his shovel to scoop off enough mud to fill 2 wheelbarrows then spend a buck fifty to rinse off his boots and shovel, I don't want his business and I'll give up his wife's business too if I have to.


I'm running car washes, not a maid service.

 

[Red Baron]

This is pretty funny...at least to me. On my website www.redbaroncarwash.com you'll see a small pic on the left side of a kid using my foamy brush to paint a 6' long penis on my bay wall in mud. He and his 2 buddies also shoved mud in the coin acceptor and made the hugest muddy mess while washing their 4-wheeler and pickup, etc. I located the pickup in the parking lot of a nearby high school and ran the tag number on publicdata.com. My hunch was confirmed, it belongs to the same family of 5 I had a run in with last year at my Idalou location where they were drunk and threatened to whip me. Evidently when they learned we own the Lubbock wash now, which is near their home, they would seek revenge since I had the Idalou PD ban them from my Idalou property.

I filed a report with the PD Friday and will be pressing charges. Those cameras are worth their weight in gold!

 

[jloebker]

Gee Red, I wonder, was the kid drawing the 6' PR#% responding to one of your customers comments "the owner is a real PR#%. Could there be some sort of revenge at play here? I pay attendents to clean up the mess. Cash Flow cures all my ills.

 

[Red Baron]

Gee Red, I wonder, was the kid drawing the 6' PR#% responding to one of your customers comments "the owner is a real PR#%. Could there be some sort of revenge at play here? I pay attendents to clean up the mess. Cash Flow cures all my ills.

No, in all likelihood he was seeking revenge for me embarassing his daddy when he confronted me last year. But you make the point I've been trying to make - thanks. The point being that if you tolerate jerks at your wash just because your attendants have to clean up their messes rather than you, good for you. I won't. My other customers appreciate that I won't tolerate them.

When Joebob is thinking about taking those 5 greasy trannys to a car wash to clean off, maybe he'll remember that I'm a jerk and you're not, and he'll go to your car wash. That's what I want, that's what you want - everybody wins.

 

[MEP001]

I'd rather be known as the PR#% that runs the nicest and best wash around than be known as the one where people are afraid to get out of their car lest they get covered with grease or mud.

Funny thing about all this is that a lot of the people I've run off for intolerable things keep coming back when I'm not there, and not to tear things up or wreck a bay, but to wash something expected to be in a car wash. There are other car washes nearby, so why do they come back? Surely it's not because I'm a PR#%.