BY TOM GRESHAM

As increasingly sophisticated technology transforms the daily operation of car washes, the customer experience is also changing. Car washes increasingly are adopting technological tools that enhance the customer experience from the moment they arrive on the lot until the time they drive away.

New tech is demonstrating the capabilities to give customers more autonomy and to better align a customer’s wash experience with their personal preferences — all while giving car washes valuable opportunities to strengthen bonds with customers and tailor their messaging to best connect and sell to them.

Here are some of the ways experts say tech is changing the customer experience for the better.

ATMOSPHERE

Technology is playing a growing role in the atmosphere at many car washes. For instance, Mark Bennett, CEO and Founder of Microgigantic, said car washes and other similar operations are seeing “huge growth” in the use of digital signage. Digital signs, which today are cloud-based and wireless, can reduce perceived wait times for customers while providing education, entertainment and promotion.

Bennett said content strategy is crucial to effective digital signage because of those range of uses. An effective strategy begins with understanding your customers and meeting them where they are with your signs.

“It’s really important to start with a strategy that defines what experience you want for your customers,” Bennett said. “So if you want to get more monthly customers signed up for an RFID chip monthly carwash, you can promote those specials through digital signage. If it’s about upselling, you can create screens that tout all the benefits of picking a more expensive wash.”

A sometimes-overlooked component of the customer experience is lighting. Shane Groff, General Manager for innovateIT Carwash Equipment, said the lighting industry has “exploded” with new options for car washes to create a pleasant experience for customers.

Jerry Canfield, Chief Innovation Officer for D&S Car Wash Equipment Co., said some car washes are using tech-enhanced lights and audio to build a festive atmosphere.

“They’re installing lights that may go along with the car wash and different parts of the washing process will have different kinds of lights coming on or playing different kinds of music in the background,” Canfield said. “So they’re creating an overall experience to make people want to come back.”

APPS AND CASH-FREE PAYMENTS

The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of cash-free transactions at car washes, said Canfield. Cash-free technology not only limits human interactions for customers but also improves convenience, particularly for younger customers, Canfield said. Cash, he said, is going away in favor of cards and smartphone apps among the young.

“We’re seeing a big move forward with these apps,” Canfield said. “They allow me to drive up to a car wash, open my app and say I want the premium wash in bay two and hit go. I don’t have to roll down my windows or anything. The next thing you know, the wash triggers and I’m driving in. For that newer generation, this is exactly the way they want to live their life.”

Canfield said apps build a link between owner and customer.

“It creates a bond with them because now I can market directly to them,” Canfield said. “I can push notifications to them. I can track what their wash history is. I can remind them when it’s time to wash. I can give them specials or free upgrades. … A connection is really created. If I’m going to wash my car, I’m going to go to the place where my app’s hooked up and they know me.”

David Melhorn, General Manager of Kleen Mist Car Wash, agreed that new payment technologies can simplify the payment process and build loyalty, but they must be implemented and managed well or risk becoming an impediment for customers. Apps and other related tools should simplify the process, not complicate it.

“When applied incorrectly, they can drive customers away,” Melhorn said.

A TAILORED EXPERIENCE

New capabilities to capture, store and analyze data create an array of ways to boost an operation’s sales operation by tailoring messaging to each customer, while also personalizing their experiences.

“For our unlimited wash customers, we can see what upgrades they opt for and how frequently they visit,” said Travis Roddy, Maintenance Director for Benny’s Car Wash. They also are able to personalize upgrades by group or by individual. “We address them by name and confirm the service they are about to receive on our entrance management sign and thank them personally on our exit sign,” said Roddy.

Recently, Benny’s has started to use technology to help personalize the renewal process, as well. They are sending texts to let them know when their payment is about to expire or has been declined.

They hope to soon bring it all together and have their unlimited customers recognized when they arrive in an oil bay or at a gas pump. “We want to shift from just ‘unlimited wash members’ to simply ‘Benny’s members.’ We want seamless recognition, convenience and benefit across all profit centers,” said Roddy.

As artificial intelligence becomes more prevalent, Canfield said it will be easier for car wash operators to tailor the wash experience to a customer’s preferences and vehicle specifications based on captured data as soon as they arrive. Apps will allow customers to seamlessly make requests for specific washing needs. The climate will even be attuned to customer preferences, such as playing their type of music in the bay.

“As this trend continues, I think there’s an opportunity of making sure the customer gets the exact experience that they’re looking for and need every time,” Canfield said.

The potential to tailor messages to individual customers based on the data an operation stores about them should be weighed carefully as businesses consider the privacy and convenience of customers, said Bennett, who said one person’s creepy is another person’s fantastic.

Bennett pointed out that social media is full of ads targeting individuals based on their online footprint, but he recommends car washes take a conservative approach and make sure customers are comfortable as communications, such as via digital signage, become more targeted to them.

“You don’t want to fall on that creepy end and end up risking your relationship with your customers and hurting your brand,” Bennett said.

WASH PROCESS

Groff said tech’s improvement of the customer experience includes the intricacies of the actual washing of vehicles. For instance, equipment is not as aggressive and scary to customers as it once was, Groff said, and chemists are coming up with new products every week to enhance the customer experience through the look, smell and feel of the car.

Roddy said the most important tech-based tools are unseen to the customer and designed to make the operation more autonomous so that our frontline associates and managers can better serve the customer. In that vein, Melhorn points to tunnel controllers as the behind-the-scenes heroes of our wash.

“They allow us to control our wraparounds to wash the front and back end of vehicles very thoroughly while remaining gentle around mirrors, hitches and racks,” he said. “The controller allows us to modify multiple steps in the wash process based on aspects of the vehicle that can potentially be problematic, such as pick-up trucks. We are also able to build in a variety of retracts so we can wash vehicles safely.”

Sensors and related intelligence tools can guide and monitor the wash. For instance, D&S Car Wash Equipment Company’s IQ system gives drivers audible and visual cues to direct them through the wash process. Sensors then scan the vehicle to map its details and dimensions and ensure the wash deftly matches the vehicle and customers experience a smooth, low-stress washing process, Canfield said. Scans can be captured and stored for future washes.

Melhorn said technology makes for a more glitch-free washing process that customers appreciate at his operation.

“In the in-bay automatic locations, current tech is allowing us to monitor our washes remotely, activate rewashes for customers and reset the machine,” Melhorn said. “On many occasions, our automatic washes are resetting themselves and continuing to wash cars without any intervention from a technician. This has dramatically decreased downtime and frustrated customers.”

ADOPTION

As car washes increasingly rely on technology, Roddy said the customer experience will suffer at car washes that don’t emphasize training, education and protocols for system failures.

“A tremendous amount of thought should go into an idea before integration,” said Roddy, including considering potential problems and shortcomings from a range of perspectives, such as your team, colleagues, customers and industry friends. Melhorn agreed that is essential to view new processes and tools from the customers’ perspective and consider whether new technology actually improves their experience.

“I like the quote from Jurassic Park: ‘You were so preoccupied with whether or not you could, you never stopped to think if you should,’” Melhorn said. “Sometimes we do that with technology.”

Groff said car wash operators have demonstrated an encouraging generosity with each other as they navigate swift technological advances — showing promise that technology will continue to enhance the customer experience in the industry rather than detract from it.

“Nowadays, everybody shares,” Groff said. “Everybody wants the industry to grow. And I really attribute the vast majority of the growth explosion in our industry to everybody working together to figure out how we are going to do this, because we all are going to face the same problems somewhere down the road. Everybody working together and collaborating together — it pays huge dividends.”