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light show

I had to laugh when I read on their site where it's designed to "reduce customer anxiety". When I first installed the LED lightbar on my lava arch I set it to strobe very quickly. I had complaints from customers that it was making them feel disoriented. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.
 
It reminds me of a story I heard a long time ago when a family went through their first friction in bay. The slapping made so much noise the guy said his wife started screaming, his kid started crying and the dog $hit in the back seat.
 
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rph9168 said:
It reminds me of a story I heard a long time ago when a family went through their first friction in bay. The slapping made so much noise the guy said his wife started screaming, his kid started crying and the dog $hit in the back seat.
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I see more lights than I see soap. Am I the only to notice this?
 
TEEBOX said:
I see more lights than I see soap. Am I the only to notice this?
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No - I thought so too - it is not a thick application at all.

The problem I see with a lot of the colored light arches etc., is that they allow for the operator to use white foaming products rather than colored products because the foam takes on the color of the lights. While this is fine at the point of application, once the car is beyond the color bar, the product no longer has its colored look. I think vibrant colored soaps applied in a thick blanket of foam still leave a lasting impression on the customer - especially if the tunnel or bay is brightly lit, the colored foam can be seen very well.
 
rph9168 said:
It reminds me of a story I heard a long time ago when a family went through their first friction in bay. The slapping made so much noise the guy said his wife started screaming, his kid started crying and the dog $hit in the back seat.
Click to expand...

Brilliant - so he could capitalize on his dog wash and interior shampoo service!
 
Years ago we did a haunted car wash. The tunnel was dark with strobe lights, black lights etc. One year I took those glow sticks that you break to make glow, (they were the long necklace ones) and slid them in the empty c channel of my cloth hubs. Not as bright, and only lasted a couple hours but...

I want royalties!!!!!
 
I think that somewhere along the line some people are beginning to forget about getting a clean, dry vehicle and thinking more about providing entertainment. I can remember long ago when you could have any color foam as long as it was white and any fragrance as long as it smelled like soap. I think usage of colors and fragrances were great advances but I am beginning to think that some are going overboard with light shows. I would hope more would concentrate on how to make better equipment and products to improve wash performance rather than provide more entertainment.
 
“I would hope more would concentrate on how to make better equipment and products to improve wash performance rather than provide more entertainment.”

New tunnels today look and perform like a space ship compared to state-of-the-art systems in 1990’s.

Self-pay station, cleaning material that shines as it cleans, fully-articulating wraps, better soap, super-hydrophobic protectant, quieter equipment, less vehicle damage, more efficient dryers, buffing unit, tire shiner, rain arches, mirror flush, VFD, etc.

When there is nothing else left to sell, companies tend to sell sizzle.

However, lava bath, wall of foam, LED lights, etc. don’t impart qualities like wax does.
 
Those are all improvements but I can't agree that more can't be done before we offer light shows and other forms of entertainment as part of the wash. Most of what you list are not relatively recent developments. There is a need for more energy efficient equipment as well as more reasonable cost effective methods of reclaiming water and chemicals. There have been several attempts at improving conveyors but none have taken hold due to cost and efficiency. There is still room for better cleaning and drying and producing consistent results on all types of vehicles and soils that we come across. I just don't think the industry should work harder to sell the sizzle than to continue to make improvements in the quality and efficiency of the wash.
 
Carwash equipment manufacturing isn’t cottage industry size but it also isn’t a very large sector. In 2004, equipment spending was about $580 million. Today, spending is less than 1/2 this amount. So, R & D budget of 5.0 percent would equal roughly $12.5 million.

Next, divide this $12.5 million by the number of OEM’s according to their market share and also consider that since recession most of the largest OEM’s have gotten even larger as other have gotten smaller or disappeared.

So, not only is there is less money available for R & D there are fewer companies that have the money to do so.

If a new fangled conveyor system was commercially viable, someone would design it, manufacturer it and sell it. Otherwise, it’s a nice to have.
 
Like my dad says when h buys a fishing lure: "I don't know if it will catch fish, but it caught me" . Since my point is somewhat obtuse you simply substitute the wash operator for the Fisherman and the customer for the fish.

It is difficult for operators / fisherman to think like the customer / fish.

Another example - lesson learned years ago. Customer says "I did not get any soap on the car." I said "Is the Car clean?" Customer says "What difference does that make".
This was an epiphany for me. It didn't matter how clean the car was if the bubbles were not there. So, of course the car needs to be clean and dry. But the sizzle should be there as well.

The customer does not care much about how that happens. (Notwithstanding negative advertisement over the years how prior materials we used weren't good but th new stuff is great. (Filament - Cloth - foam - lambswool -- next item)
 
The sizzle is all part of the package for a modern car wash today. Without the sizzle, you could be losing out to competitors that have incorporated the lights/sizzle into their wash tunnel. I will say from experience, we recently installed 3 LED light bars from TSS Signs in our wash tunnel the Lava chemicals, that customers do seem to notice and like the addition.
 
Etowah
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