Touchless w/ Free Vacs & no memberships.???

[soonermajic]

Got a friend wants to do a fast Touchless (Typhoon or Petit) in Metroplex area suburb.
There's 1 real busy Old D&S 5000w/ a prepper. Offers basic wax (no Cerwmic Graphene etc). 1 busy tunnel wash & 1 not busy Full Service.
He thinks Touchless people will upgrade, as soon as he enters. So, he got a STEAL on a 6 drop Central Vac (like brand new) from a tunnel takeover. He's being proactive. Prolly just do a GoldLine w/ tap, cause no memberships.

What do you guys think? I told him to shut the Central Vac off nightly. Wasn't sure what else to tell em... ya know, besides chems, make it look modern, etc.

 

[washnshine]

If his touchless competition upgrades their D&S 5000, they might still prep, so he’ll be competing against that still. The vacs will be a perk for him- I hate to see vacs given away for free, but if his competition preps and he doesn’t he might feel like he needs something to draw people in.

 

[Eric H]

if he’s already purchased the equipment I doubt he can be swayed away from “free vacs”. I don’t think I need to remind anyone here that there is still a business expense for anything “free”.
I’d advise him to find a way to determine the cost to run the vacs, clean the accumulator clean (labor), and replacement costs when the motor/motor coupling break. The allure of “free” may lose its luster as he realizes the real cost.

When you give something away the “free” thing still has to preform correctly in order for the customer to find value in that free item. Free vacs that don’t preform well won’t attract or retain customers

In my area people LOVE the free vacs at the 2 sites that have them. But, they use the vacs and leave.

All of the above doesn’t even begin to address issues with trash! Please refer your friend to this thread for yesterday https://www.carwashforum.com/threads/trash-problem.26540/

My customers don’t ask for free vacs and certainly don’t complain about my $2 for 6 minutes pricing. I may be dropping the time to 5 minutes very soon.

 

[Greg Pack]

Free vacs open to the public on an unattended site? Nope. The free people and people vacuuming extended times will clog up his site on busy days.

For 2K he can drop a vacuum token out of his paystation. I do that at my sites and less than 50% of the people bother to get them.

He can do a membership such as touch 4 wash or coinless and offer free vacs that way.

 

[OurTown]

If building from scratch and wanting to offer free vacs, I would gate them off in a way that only the customers exiting the wash bay can get to them. Dencar can start a vac (or self serve bay, air machine etc..) for members. You could even install those central vacs and put a motorized valve on each drop and control it with a payment system or Dencar (with a timer).

 

[Keno]

Having free vacs at an unattended site is a recipe for disaster, as Greg said, the freeloaders will drive away actual paying customers. Not to mention all the trash and generally dirtier the lot will be constantly

 

[whistles006]

We do free vacuum here in anchorage alaska and yes i do get the free loaders but we also get a lot of people that get washes here because they feel like they are getting a deal by getting the wash and then being able to vacuum for free. We have attendance here that put the hoses out in the mornings and then take them in at the end of the late shift. So we have someone that comes from 8 to 4:30pm and then a second guy from 11:30 to 8pm……..i know it sounds like you would get more people just coming to vacuum for free and not wash but it seems that it is actually more customers then free loaders………….we play music at the vacuums and a lot of people come as a little group and wash then detail their cars. I dont have the exact amount that the vacuum cost but i know that they are not much work and easy to clean out at the end of the night.

 

[washnshine]

If building from scratch and wanting to offer free vacs, I would gate them off in a way that only the customers exiting the wash bay can get to them. Dencar can start a vac (or self serve bay, air machine etc..) for members. You could even install those central vacs and put a motorized valve on each drop and control it with a payment system or Dencar (with a timer).

This guys wash is a few towns away from me. He has two Petit machines and has the lot gated so that you cannot enter the free vac area unless you went through the wash. Hard to see the gate in this pic, bit he did a good job getting good traffic flow and preventing non-washers from using the vacs.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipNVAOHZfbO2Q-1li7ohwQ3imt79LUeiCGWbqQxm=w568-h568-n-k-rw-no-v1

 

[Waxman]

theres a new tunnel near where i live. i went by twice today , about 3 hours apart. beautiful sunny day. free vacs were full both times and not a single car going thru the tunnel. this is, of course, a quick snapshot of the business and is by no means a meaningful metric. But it does make me wonder about overall sales and the logic behind "FREE VACS".

 

[washnshine]

I think the places that do the free vacs just factor it into the cost of doing business and keeping the lights on. It’s not my mindset and I’d want to make money off of them, but it’s probably the only to justify all of the potential abuse.

I’m surprised they haven’t found a way to use RFID and/or LPR at the vacs to keep only the membership customers using them.

 

[soonermajic]

jus told em the free Vacs may not be a good idea. He said he actually got the new Central Vac for FREE, by just uninstalling them (paid a 2 man crew $1500)! SO, he's prety committed o them. I told him a Gateed system may be an ideal thing to try...

 

[soonermajic]

does anyone have a clue (ROUGH ballpark figure) how much it'd co$t to run a 25hp Central vac 14 hrs/day?

 

[Greg Pack]

Ask yourself "when is Free not a good deal?" Is that motor even the right voltage? A lot of tunnel equipment is 480

Look at the nameplate on the motor, convert amps and proper voltage to watts, and multiply by 14. Look at your power bill and get an KWH estimate. Demand fees will not be included. AI says about 9 cents per Kilowatt hour in Tx. so probably $20/day or so.

Cannister vacs with a pushbutton would probably cost $5/day, and when one goes down the others will work just fine.

 

[liftheavy]

trend-wise i believe it will become normal for even self-serves to offer free vacuum. once someone does it, others follow suite and all the sudden you're the only wash not offering one.

this is how it was for the microfiber towels, spray bottles, dash wipes, air fresheners, mat cleaning machine, etc for express car washes.

 

[whistles006]

A wash up here in Alaska just got indoor vacuums and I think that it is going to really hurt business during the winter months and i think like leifthevy said it could become a norm wants people start catching on to it and realizing that they dont have to freeze there ass off in the winter to vascuum their car………going to get expensive but I can tell you it would make a difference if your first to do it.