Cheap recurring Billing System?

[tw1012]

I own several hand car washes and want to try the unlimited monthly wash structure. I am not willing to put in the expensive pay stations and I am looking for a desktop POS System that will work.

Square has recurring billing but the problem I am running into is finding a way to look up the customer and see if their payment is current. Ideally I would have a QR code or bar-code sticker on the windshield, scan it with a handheld scanner and have it pull up their account information.

Anyone have any luck with this?

 

[BBE]

IMO, if you don't have the means to do the monthly unlimited system properly, it's best to not try and implement it. You really have to be all or nothing with it. I took over a wash that was doing something similar, and trying to do the unlimited wash without the means to do it properly, and it was an absolute disaster.

I'd look into Egenuity's Ezwash software. You could be up and going with an actual proper system for 10k.

 

[cwguy.com]

TW1012 has a hand wash.... my Dad ran an express manually by checking a computer when a car had a numbered sticker on the windshield. It just depends what you feel is an "absolute disaster"?

I believe you are talking about not knowing about an industry. When I was a computer programmer full time.... I thought working on car wash equipment was hard and I should "not try and implement" anything. Sure programming might be an exception for some? I did go to school for programing.... but things have also changed over time.

I have previously created a web based recurring billing system.... They are mostly service based. (Which means the recurring billing system is an outsourced service.... there was never an issue over the 2-3 year period.) You would never want to write the recurring billing system yourself.... my guess is no one does with the regulations..... you write the pretty user interface for it. I also had an application that created and scanned barcodes..... back in the day.

Combining both projects might be impossible for some I guess.... but not 10k impossible I would think? I know I have done both of these projects for free.... but there are hard expenses. Plus I am not a volunteer programmer anymore. LOL

 

[BBE]

Oh I'm sure it can be done, but running a successful unlimited program myself, and also having owned a gym, which is basically entirely membership based...unless you have software that is capable enough, and designed/tailored towards exactly what you are doing, with the ability to handle and automate a large enough number to allow you to also grow, I think you are going to end up falling into one of the following categories: either you are going to be micromanaging a small handful of loyal customers who signed up (like 100-300) which were your best customers anyways, and the program isn't going to end up generating you more revenue. Or you are going to end up signing up A LOT of members (600-1000 or more) and the software is not going to be flexible/capable enough to allow you to manage all of those members properly and things will end up getting messy and you will be pulling your hair out trying to keep up with everybody.

But, I could be wrong, I run an EE, not a hand wash. And the metrics for operating a successful unlimited program at an EE could be completely different from the price that you are able to charge and the amount of members it would take to be successful with a hand wash.

 

[cwguy.com]

This is just from my experience.... It was for a car wash membership with a manual search or list. I have actually setup 3 sites.... 1 was a mock proposal for an association though. The websites allowed customers to maintain and manage their own membership online. But I have also never put the 2 pieces together. (Using QR codes.... would be the easiest way though.) I never got any constructive feedback. But users would constantly lose or forget their passwords. So maybe the system needs to be just for the car wash owners? If I did have more feedback I would have a product to sell now.

I would also hope for >10k members a month! But this is hosted by a huge company and really not the developer's problem. The host is hosting millions already.... They can scale.

 

[loewem]

Have you checked out any of the customer loyalty services that exist? http://www.capterra.com/customer-loyalty-software/ lists some of the different providers that exist. The same site lists some open source software on their blog page http://blog.capterra.com/best-free-customer-loyalty-software/. Not sure if any of these would meet your needs, but might be worth checking into. I spent some time looking into a couple of these services, but never with the thought of unlimited monthly plans.

I also looked into https://ecardsystems.com/home.php.