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Is this normal?

I don't think you should go too crazy right off the bat trying to do several things that are expensive to increase your awareness of the car wash. The best thing to do is to try to build it up slowly by being on site, giving away free car washes, visiting local police and fire and giving away car washes etc. Maybe you could run a promotion with some local dealerships where they give a few free car washes away with each new car they sell.If you do those things and you also create a solid and steady social media presence I'm sure you will see the numbers slowly increase
 
Adding an IBA with poor street visibility to a long term SS car wash is going to take a lot of work to get momentum going.

Does your paystation allow any sort of free wash code? We used to sell heavily discounted coupons to the neighboring oil change. They would give a free car wash with oil change. We would bill them $2 for every coupon redeemed for the basic wash which I think was $7 at the time. To get some momentum going I'd be willing to do free for 90 days or so. Also give away coupons in local malls if any (within five minutes). Don't bother giving them to people that drive nasty cars. Give them to people that drive clean cars. The cleaner the car the greater potential they have to be a frequent customer.
 
Cool Wash said:
Hello IBA owner,

I installed about a month ago AquaJet touch free in my 7 bay SS wash. My wash has been there for over 20 years with SS only.. This is the first time it has an IBA. I have 2 tunnel within a mile radius but no touch free with 3 miles. I have 28000 CPD on the street.
After opening, I had big street sign and banner, 50% of grand opening discounts, I am running Google add, I did 4000 mails.

I am still averaging about 5 cars a day? Is this normal for new IBA in SS?

Thank you
Click to expand...
Run free washes as a "grand opening" for the new wash bay. you have a great looking site. Should be able to averaging 100 washes daily once you get people coming there
 
It will take time and not happen over night. 5CPD is really low though. Did you end up changing anything to make it more visible from the street? You could always change your road sign to include TOUCHLESS CAR WASH OPEN 24/7 somewhere on it. Id also put signs in each of your SS bays near the meter boxes or mat clamps if you have not already. Signs on the vacuum canopy posts too. Maybe even change your name on google to "wash name self serve and touchless car wash" so whenever anyone in your area searches touchless you come up. If your dryers are visible from the street a nice tunnel entrance arch with lights would attract some people driving by and your SS that probably are oblivious theres a new wash in the last bay.

What is your pricing on the touchless? Are you doing bundles? How are your cars coming out through the auto? You want them perfect because if someone tries it and it not good they wont be back obviously. Good luck! Keep us updated.

If you care to share address id be interested in looking at google street view to see how its all set up.
 
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On your Google page make sure you have photos of the new auto. I know it's been brought up before but make sure it's cleaning really well. If it isn't, all you will get is new people that stumble upon it, won't come back and won't tell others.
 
I’m not going to go back and read all of the suggestions. I did see you mentioned you were running Google Ads. Have you tried Facebook advertising? Probably the most bang for your buck! You do need to set the market area correctly. I often see ads for businesses that are far (several states away) out of my area.
I’m not a pro on FB advertising by any means. Trying to do more of it for this coming year.
 
try to target businesses or organizations that have multiple vehicles and give them some freebies. Police, fire department, funeral homes, taxi companies, etc. Not only do these places have a lot of vehicles but they encounter many people and if they have a good experience they are likely to spread the word for you. It takes A while to build up a good reputation and some momentum with the touch free. Sometimes even in my own place after 20 years it feels like people are just starting to get the hang of it and come on a regular basis. Sometimes the gains you make slowly are the ones that last so don't get too discouraged.
 
Another thing you can do is hook up with a 5k race/walk or some similar event. They all charge $25 or so to cover organizing the events and also give to charity. See if you can talk to the race director and include a flyer with your wash in the race bag. Registrants are usually given a bag with a t shirt and also coupons and advertisements to local businesses. Depending on what race you catch, you can easily get your flyer in the hands of several hundred people or even upwards of 1000 if it’s the right race/event.
 
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Patience. I purchased my first rundown place 9 years ago that had existed since 1990 with barely any revenue. After a total renovation it took 3-6 months for us to gain traction. That said we can compare revenue from month to month (we compare the same month year to year since car washing is like sin wave by month). Each month for the last nine years are been better than the previous similar month. Just be patient as you seem to be doing the right moves. Keep up the promotions to see what resonates with customers. See if you can promote the wash with some discount codes at local shops and restaurants. We did as that allowed them to provide their customers with an added benefit (ie made them look good). We tracked the places that drove the most traffic and gave the owners and staff some free wash codes as a thank you which they appreciated.
 
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