Worst Customers
- Thread starter DAWGWASH
- Start date
Eric H
Well-known member
Yup
traveler17
Well-known member
And complain
My worst nightmare. In the process of installing new vacuums to offer them free to paying customers. I will be deputized into the vac police forthwith. All I can see now is people pulling into my pay vac area, dumping their trash and maybe deign to put a whole dollar in the vacuum. Soon they'll all be pushbutton for free. I don't want them entering the vac & garbage area first. What signage has been effective to keep this to a minimum? I know I'll still have to enforce it but it would be nice to have something to show the rules to the offending parties.
DiamondWash
Well-known member
I would NEVER offer free vacs it brings in the worst people not customers, a local wash did the same push button to start free vacs and changed that to $2 to start within 6 months because of the abuse.
traveler17
Well-known member
I’ve been fighting offering free vacs w any auto wash. I’ve decided not to, I’m going to offer what I offer and not try to compete w a tunnel.
I just put in free vac with auto wash and has seemed to help. Have not had any issues yet. I went from a 2 vac setup to a 4 vac setup with the booms similar to the tunnel bays and has helped auto business and the vac business not to mention the trash business ( ha ha) but it all comes with the territory
edredtop
Active member
I think this is a Chinese proverb.... if it's not, it should be.
edredtop
Active member
$2 for 5 min with tons of competition around us.
traveler17
Well-known member
So do you give free vacs? I’m $2 for 5 minutes and only 1 competitor who has a beater wash. Tunnel supposed to be coming 2 miles down behind me on another road in a year or so
Give free vacs with auto wash using bonus token dispenser. All other customers pay
Actually the vac revenue has increased but I did add two additional vacs with a all over better visual presentation
edredtop
Active member
Sorry, should've been clearer.
Those were my prices, $2 for 5 min and the vacs stay busy.
There is no way we're cleaning up after somebody for free (in our type of market. [rough]).
We provide a valuable, quality service and we charge for it.
There are some car washes near us that are "free vacuums" and the transients "man" them and offer to vacuum for a dollar or two.
If the two bucks is between me and the vagrant for a vacuum at my place, I'm taking the $2.
After all, I'm the one paying the electric bill and property tax.
I failed to mention that I'm an express tunnel and the free vacs are being brought in to increase volume and visibility. It would only take 15 additional unlimited accounts to make up the income lost and I'm hoping the new 50 item vending machine could replace it completely. The area will be manned anyway most of the time when the wash is open and the power off to the vacs when closed. If anyone is doing this now, I'd like to know what they are doing.
traveler17
Well-known member
“I failed to mention that I'm an express tunnel”
Lol well no wonder you have free vacs
patkelly1336
New member
We put cones up to block our vacuum areas to non-wash customers. I have noticed the people that free-load are the biggest thieves and leave the biggest messes. In addition, the customers that lie and say they put money in our XPT and really didn't have to be the worst. The terminal has a camera watching them not put money in it. My favorite is people who don't know how to put their vehicle in neutral.
DiamondWash
Well-known member
Well, I have the opposite with my customers now that we have soooo many tunnels in literally a 1/16 mile radius of each other is that they put their vehicles in Neutral now instead of Park because they have been mentally reprogrammed, it's especially bad in my Ryko Soft Gloss.
Wash Sire
Banned
- Joined
- May 28, 2022
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 12
- Points
- 3
Hi,
You give an inch they take a mile. The tunnels are destroying each other and the ol mom and pop washes. Each one takes a little piece of the pie. Usually the good customers who wash and don't leave a mess. Free vacs attract the worst of the worse. They then tell their like minded friends, then you have a following of garbage dumpers. No reason what so ever for them to be dumping garbage. They like most people either have a dumpster where they rent,l or a mini dumpster can at their house that is 1 yard. Nothing is free and not everyone is a fan of the wal mart tactic, go in low, run competition out, raise price. I run them out of the wash just as fast as they showed up. Then they tell the friends of the crazy car wash guy, then problem solved. Key to profitable vacs are Clean Clean Clean and Working Working Working. Most have no problem paying 2 bucks for the proper tools to do a job. The wash industry is shifting, the automatics used to allow the operation to take the Good with the Bad. Now more then ever, where can you go unattended and spend less then 5 bucks? My point is if they are not their to benefit you then they need to go. A google 1 star is pretty much a joke and or a badge of honor. The yelper days are over. South Park hit the nail on the head with the episode making fun of yelpers. The 24/7 model is also antiquated. 8 out of 10 after 10pm are up to no good. The wash market is ever evolving, your good regular customers appreciate you running off the riff raff, providing a safe and welcoming wash. This day and age the average wash, an IBA/ Self Serve location needs to be $10 per car. You are renting tools to do a job, not molly maid to clean up after grown people. The $3 self serve average is out of date with reality. I have also noticed the only ones who are making money are the Wash Manufactures, and Parts\ Aftermarket products. By the time the operator pays out all of the inflated expenses there is little left. The tunnel market is crazy, $40,000,000.00 in new tunnel washes within a 10 mile radius, and I think about $75,000,000.00 in a 30 mile radius. One was built down the road for around $6mil, it just hit the 2 year old mark and is for sale for 11 million. How long would it take to make 5 million profit in the Self Serve industry? I am not sure what to think. I bet the person who started Block buster Video thought they had it made. Prolly the laser disc guy too, now a thing of the past. Thanks
You give an inch they take a mile. The tunnels are destroying each other and the ol mom and pop washes. Each one takes a little piece of the pie. Usually the good customers who wash and don't leave a mess. Free vacs attract the worst of the worse. They then tell their like minded friends, then you have a following of garbage dumpers. No reason what so ever for them to be dumping garbage. They like most people either have a dumpster where they rent,l or a mini dumpster can at their house that is 1 yard. Nothing is free and not everyone is a fan of the wal mart tactic, go in low, run competition out, raise price. I run them out of the wash just as fast as they showed up. Then they tell the friends of the crazy car wash guy, then problem solved. Key to profitable vacs are Clean Clean Clean and Working Working Working. Most have no problem paying 2 bucks for the proper tools to do a job. The wash industry is shifting, the automatics used to allow the operation to take the Good with the Bad. Now more then ever, where can you go unattended and spend less then 5 bucks? My point is if they are not their to benefit you then they need to go. A google 1 star is pretty much a joke and or a badge of honor. The yelper days are over. South Park hit the nail on the head with the episode making fun of yelpers. The 24/7 model is also antiquated. 8 out of 10 after 10pm are up to no good. The wash market is ever evolving, your good regular customers appreciate you running off the riff raff, providing a safe and welcoming wash. This day and age the average wash, an IBA/ Self Serve location needs to be $10 per car. You are renting tools to do a job, not molly maid to clean up after grown people. The $3 self serve average is out of date with reality. I have also noticed the only ones who are making money are the Wash Manufactures, and Parts\ Aftermarket products. By the time the operator pays out all of the inflated expenses there is little left. The tunnel market is crazy, $40,000,000.00 in new tunnel washes within a 10 mile radius, and I think about $75,000,000.00 in a 30 mile radius. One was built down the road for around $6mil, it just hit the 2 year old mark and is for sale for 11 million. How long would it take to make 5 million profit in the Self Serve industry? I am not sure what to think. I bet the person who started Block buster Video thought they had it made. Prolly the laser disc guy too, now a thing of the past. Thanks
sjb
Active member
I’m guessing that you did NOT get the memo on “entitlements”…?!!
I think vacuums should be a profit center, not a lost leader…. (As we are one of the last SS in metro Atlanta…)
I also think there will be an awakening on the express models as they are being built on top of each other in the Atlanta market.
Happy Father’s Day!
I think vacuums should be a profit center, not a lost leader…. (As we are one of the last SS in metro Atlanta…)
I also think there will be an awakening on the express models as they are being built on top of each other in the Atlanta market.
Happy Father’s Day!
