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Anyone have the customer apply product before going in to IBA?

Strava

Active member
I'm almost a year into owning my small town wash and I'm loving it. Every night I spend about an hour or so looking at other washes FB pages to get ideas and learn. Tonight I came across this wash in Austin. I saw the picture below & it' looks like the customers apply the bug blaster on their own before they enter the IBA. This is the first I've ever seen something like this and I thought it was interesting. Do any other washes do this?

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I have some customers that pull into a ss bay and cover their car with presoak or foam brush suds, then use the auto.
Even though this actually cuts the effectiveness of the auto, as long as they are spending $ and happy. I don't really care.
 
I'm almost a year into owning my small town wash and I'm loving it. Every night I spend about an hour or so looking at other washes FB pages to get ideas and learn. Tonight I came across this wash in Austin. I saw the picture below & it' looks like the customers apply the bug blaster on their own before they enter the IBA. This is the first I've ever seen something like this and I thought it was interesting. Do any other washes do this?

View attachment 5638


I'm not sure why a customer would need this for a friction unit.
 
I've got a customer self prep station with bug spray and brushes in front of autos at one site. It's popular. At another site I was afraid it would get abused by the SS customers so I didn't do it at that one. The brushes do slow down some throughput. Sometimes a customer pulls up and the site is empty. They start prepping and taking their time, and two cars pull up behind them. Most are considerate and speed up the process but some seem oblivious to the line forming behind them. However, ironically when its busy there is less trouble than you would think because every customer has time to prep while the one in front of them is washing.

Just a bug applicator might be a good compromise, not taking too much time but allowing the bugs to get softened up a bit by the customer prior to entry.

Soapy does or did have a prep station too.

Even a friction automatic can benefit from a little prep. Many friction tunnels prep in some form.
 
i always hop out and take off the antenna and spray my wheels with mothers just before i enter. never seen a customer app center. And yes , it is amazing how much better people behave in large group setting vs. small group. That's the best reason to keep prices at the middle upper range. you need group think.
 
My awesome manager quit 2 mos ago. Replacing him has been impossible. May have to go to something like this. There's a town w/ a touchless 8 miles away, & owner is a MEGA MULTI MILLIONAIRE, who took my business model of preppers. He has a line all day long ,& is an astounding $6,$7,$8!!! It's a 25 yr old DynaWash. Looks like a Coleman WW.
I gotta figure something out ASAP.
 
So you guys are saying if I buy a gigantic fiberglass dinosaur statue and let people pre prep their car for my D&S 5000 I can be a mega multi-millionaire too!
 
I have used self prep stations for all my locations for over 25 years. Good for windows and tires and wheels and my signs say not to use on paint just to cover me. 30 gallon converted chemical barrels with small wheel wizard brushes.
 
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I have used self prep stations for all my locations for over 25 years. Good for windows and tires and wheels and my signs say not to use on paint just to cover me. 30 gallon converted chemical barrels with small wheel wizard brushes.
This would be great for my touchless but the car wash seems to double as a bus stop. Kids punching the buttons on the pay station while waiting on the bus. It makes me wonder about the liability issue if a kid would fall in the drum.
 
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