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Coupons for a grand opening handout

J

JMMUSTANG

car wash owner
I'm opening up an exterior express next month and am trying to come up with some coupons that I can hand out at the wash.
I've had 4-5 other stores in the area that want to hand out our coupons.
So if anyone has some good coupons that worked for them I would really appreciate seeing them.
I'll have two price points. Basic wash $5 and the works for $10, both will have free vacs.
 
Too much difference in your price points. $5 is far too little and doesn't offer you the opportunity to sell wash books which lock customers in to your wash. With these prices, 70% of the cars you wash will be the $5.00 washes and your average will be lucky to hit $6.50 or $7

Initially, offer the Works for half price. Don't forget to invlove the community in some way too (schools, churches or other charities). Wash Books are especially effective. They represent some 20-25% of our annual gross revenues. But only on the Works wash. Don't go below the $5 price. If you do, make it just for a month at most to make it too good a deal for people to pass up. One caveat. The volume you will generate that first month or so with discoutns like these are a great introduction - just make sure you give an equally great car wash or all your efforts will be for nothing.
 
I thought coupons are intended to draw people to your wash, and if they are already there, why give them a coupon. I see a lot of operators who are now stuck in the "pizza" mentality because they have so many sources of coupons. Give them to others to hand out. Color code them or something so you can track their return.
 
In order to hit the grounfd running I gave out 18000 coupons for a free wash. Used the chamber of commerce mailing list. Enclosed a letter to all businesses with a bunch of coupons asking that they share them with their employees and customers. Also gve them to the Post office employees, and schools for the teachers. They were good for 60 days. The normly slow Oct - Nov. Time or us. 3000 were redeeemed. I hoped that out of that, at least 300 would be repeat customers washing at least ten times a year. IMNSHO the cost of the 3000 free washes plus printing and distributing coupons was well worth it, if it generated an initial 300 regular customers, plus any word of mouth from them.
 
At our grand opening for our in bay and self service wash, we gave free car washes for most of the day. We had crowds and lines all day. I think FREE will attract a lot of customers. Give them a second FREE wash coupon while they are there and you'll get them back next time. After the second time, your wash has become a habit for them when they think of car washing.

JPRB
 
heres an idea
for the first week of operation offer the best wash to everyone for $1.00,then donate that dollar to a local organization like the local humane society.Contact the papers, news everyone you can think of to help promote it for free.Take out a full page ad in the local paper a few days before your grand opening to stir excitement and awareness.In my opinion this is the most crucial time to promote your wash, be agressive!!! put out signs and banners promoting it
 
I have done both of jprb and scotts ideas in the past and they work great. We put a sign out by the street at closing of the day before the free wash day. They were lined up 30 minutes before we opened, and it never stopped for 14 hours. The news crew showed up on its on. It was a blast.

The police tried to shut us down when we did the $1 donation promotion because the line was about 50 cars long and down the street in both directions. They backed off fairly quickly when they realized what was going on and stayed to help direct traffic. It also looked cool when the news crew showed up again.

Earl's marketing to direct groups of people is a great way to encourage those people to share their experience with each other and create a "buzz" that will spread thru "word of mouth" which is cheap. It was also a great return in numbers of redeemed coupons.
 
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