BY NICK FORTUNA
When the late John Denver sang, “You fill up my senses,” in “Annie’s Song,” he obviously wasn’t talking about a trip through a car wash tunnel. But with increasing usage of LED lighting and scent additives, today’s car washes have customers echoing Denver’s sentiments from 1974.
To win the battle for repeat business, retailers of all kinds are focusing on enhancing the customer experience, recognizing that it’s not just the quality of the product that counts, it’s how that product is delivered. The car wash industry is no exception, so savvy operators have been embracing new products and technology aimed at boosting customer satisfaction.
Chief among those upgrades are LED lights, which have come down in cost in recent years and allow car wash operators to enliven their tunnels at little expense, according to Russell Coleman, President of Houston-based Coleman Hanna Carwash Systems LLC. Since LED lights typically last a long time and are highly energy efficient, car wash operators have been installing them by the bunch, he said.
“It used to be that you’d have an LED light come on when a particular product was being dispensed, but now we’re seeing a lot of LED lights throughout the whole tunnel,” Coleman said. “It makes it fun for the kids. Whereas customers used to see two or three LED lights going into the tunnel, now we’re seeing up to 20 LED lights, with different colors and different flashes, to make driving through the tunnel more interesting and more fun.”
“ LED lighting has just blown up in the industry”
In addition, Coleman said, “The LED lights pull so little electricity that it doesn’t drive up the cost at all. It’s something inexpensive to add to your tunnel. A lot of operators say, ‘I don’t have much room. What can I add that doesn’t cost a lot of money?’ ”
Ryan Molinelli, Account Manager for Akron, Ohio-based Qual Chem LLC, said that by drawing attention to the different stages of the car wash, LED lights help to showcase the different products in use.
“LED lighting has just blown up in the industry,” Molinelli said. “The LED lights and the colors, they’re all over the place – the signage and at all the activation points in the tunnel. They’ve skyrocketed in the past five to 10 years, and it’s actually helped us out as chemical suppliers because now the customer can differentiate what package they bought even better.”
LED lights can provide quite a sight, and customers can hear the water hit the car and the tunnel’s machinery at work. That’s two senses being engaged. But customers obviously don’t want to feel the water as their cars are washed, and no one wants to taste soapy water, so those two senses can’t be engaged. What’s left?
The sense of smell. Molinelli said car wash operators are embracing scent additives, introducing smells such as fresh laundry, lemon, orange creamsicle, grape, bubble gum and others into their tunnels. Independent scent applicators can squirt the scented chemicals down onto the hood of the car near the vent, or scents can be added to the presoak, drying agent or another application, Molinelli said.
Some car wash operators may opt to use the same scent additive for every wash to establish that scent as part of their brand, such as Mercedes-Benz did after consulting with a senior perfumer at Symrise who helped them come up with four distinct scents to use inside their new cars. Other car washes will offer a different scent each month, or a different scent for each level of wash package. Molinelli said one of Qual Chem’s clients offers the fresh-laundry scent as part of its “Fresh” package, the highest-priced service package offered.
“Changing the experience, trying to keep the car wash up to date and give the customer a different experience, I think that’s important as well.”
“There is a strong connection between memory and olfaction,” according to neurobiologists at the University of Tacomo who shared their findings in Science News following extensive research. Another study by well-known author Martin Lindstrom indicated that scents trigger up to 75% of human emotions related to memory. Molinelli has seen it first-hand as well. “If you add a nice, strong scent to the package, that’s adding value to the customer experience. That scent becomes part of the customer’s memory, so the customer is more amped to buy that top package the next time they come through. It helps you to raise the price of that top package and make it an ultra-premium package. “Changing the experience, trying to keep the car wash up to date and give the customer a different experience, I think that’s important as well.”
Adding products and services to the top-tier package justifies a price increase, enabling car wash operators to drive revenue. Jason Baumgartner, President of Meridian, Idaho-based Suds Creative, said car wash operators should use unequal pricing distribution to create a higher perceived value for top-tier packages.
For example, if a car wash offers three packages, have the second option closer in cost to the third (premium) option instead of closer to the first (economy) option. That makes the premium package seem like a greater value, said Baumgartner, whose marketing firm serves car washes exclusively and is part of Akron-based DRB Systems.
“Most operators will equally distribute pricing, whereas we recommend using unequal pricing distribution to help influence customer behavior,” he said. “Any increase in average ticket goes straight to the bottom line.”
One service that is gaining popularity as an online application is ceramic wax coating, according to Myrick Morriss, National Car Wash Specialist for Houston-based Stinger Chemical.
He said ceramic wax coatings last longer and provide better hydrophobic and paint-protection properties than traditional wax. The coatings also protect against damage from UV rays, bird droppings, tree sap and hard degreasers, and they make it more difficult for dirt and grime to adhere to the car, Morriss said.
“Everybody’s getting in the game,” Morriss said. “This year, everybody will have an online ceramic coating application. The hydrophobicity on the paint surface lasts a little bit longer, it’s got the latest and greatest technology for paint protection, and it does enhance the shine. After it’s applied, it will be easier to clean your car the next time.”
Online detailing services are another way car wash operators can add to their premium wash packages. Coleman said his company has begun offering a drying and buffing system situated after the blowers in a conveyor wash system. Two side brushes and a top brush remove small water droplets left on the windshield and windows and polish the car.
Similarly, automatic wash-and-dry systems that clean floor mats in just 30 seconds can be included in a premium package or made available to customers at pay stations outside the car wash, according to Allen Choi, Chief Executive of Valencia, Calif.-based Clean World Distribution Inc.
Choi said that with car wash technology steadily advancing, operators need to do their research to keep up with the latest product offerings.
“Operators definitely have to get out there and see what’s available so they can differentiate themselves from their competitors,” he said.
