Car Wash Retrofit Case Study

In this car wash retrofit case study we cover how one regional car wash was able to retrofit to a PDQ Vehicle Wash LaserWash 360 Plus for immediate growth.

Originally installed was an aging Water Wizard, in bay automatic, that was not producing a quality clean. It was clear this site was not fulfilling it’s potential with the current equipment. It was retrofitted with a LaserWash 360 Plus with dryers, high side blasters & OverGlow. In addition, the substandard chemical that was previously used was replaced for the far superior Blendco soaps (which we recommend to all of our customers). This vastly improved the clean, the customer experience & the perception within the local community.

As part of this car wash retrofit, adjustments were also made to the wash packages, menu-board signage, self serve bays & pump room which are detailed below.

Work Undertaken

• Retrofitted Water Wizard to a LaserWash 360 Plus (inclusions dryer, high side blasters & OverGlow).
• Entry system changed to a Hamilton – meaning the site can use RFID & wash club packages.
• Increased the price of the wash packages & reduced it down to only 3 choices from 4.
• New signage for the wash packages with the top wash taking up the majority of the space on the board & highlighted in yellow. Consequently the percentage of sales of the top wash is now a huge 84% after these changes.
• In both the automatic & self serve bays introduced Blendco chemicals replacing the cheaper generic brand. Creating a far superior wash result & over time actually reducing cost per wash.
• Added Splatterwax with Carnauba to the self serve bays & a general upgrade of equipment.
• The addition of tap & go payments to self serve bays.
• Major fine tune of faulty pumps & plant equipment which was compromising the integrity of the wash finish & increasing overheads.
• Improved lighting & security for after hours cleaning.

The Results

• Increase of 100%+ on numbers of cars through the automatic wash. Increase on ROI with the introduction of dryers, OverGlow & high side blasters adding both an actual dollar & consumer perceived value to the wash package.
• Average dollar in the self serve bays increased from $5 to $7 on average per car. (Amendment – since going to print, self serve is now $8)
• Blendco chemicals providing a much more thorough & consistent wash result & reduced the amount of chemicals required to clean a vehicle leading to lower cost per wash.
• Positive user feedback was received as opposed to complaints. The wash acquired many new regular customers as well as gaining back some previously unhappy customers.
• Maintenance overheads were lowered significantly by replacing an ageing machine.

Is it time for a car wash retrofit for your business?

Is not spending money on upgrading costing you customers? This is question you’ll need to ask. Sooner or later there will come a time where you need to  assess if your car wash is living up to its revenue potential based on offer, catchment, demographics etc. As shown above, making an investment into your car washing equipment can help grow your business and lessen some of the stress that unreliable equipment puts on operators.

If you’d like to talk about how to achieve these sorts of results at your own car wash follow this link: www.carwashworld.com.au/help