BY ALAN NAWOJ

Alan Nawoj, CEO of Beacon Mobile, provides some insight on new contact-free car wash experiences, including voice-operated options such as the one Beacon Mobile just released called VoiceWash, which offers voice payments and voice activation through Amazon Alexa.

Now more than ever, car wash operators need to think outside the box in order to not only stay afloat but thrive in the wake of the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic. While the short-term economic impact of this crisis will be significant, the car wash community now needs to think about the long-term impact on consumer behavior and buying habits. Since this virus and others can survive on some surfaces for multiple days, many consumers will now hesitate and feel more anxious about handling cash or even touching the buttons and screens on a car wash pay station.

Fortunately, long before the coronavirus pandemic was a reality, companies were working on revolutionary new ways to enhance the car wash customer experience – such as completely contact-free car wash experiences for most types of washes. This means that the customer can purchase and activate the wash without touching any equipment onsite, and it will work at tunnels, IBAs, self-serve, and even on paid vacuums and dog washes, depending on the hardware available.

These contact-free car wash experiences equate to not only voice payment, but also car wash activation platforms. For example, customers could order and pay for a car wash by voice through Amazon Alexa and then activate the car wash itself through a mobile app platform. Voice payments and voice activation are a new frontier in the retail industry, but the massive adoption of Amazon Alexa devices to date has already laid a solid foundation for this technology.

In fact, did you know that most car manufacturers are now embedding Amazon Alexa in their cars as a built-in feature? Or, if you don’t have a vehicle with Amazon Alexa built-in, you can simply install the free Amazon Alexa mobile app on your smartphone and interact with Alexa anywhere? As of January 2019, over a year ago, Amazon had already sold over 100 million Alexa devices, and this number continues to skyrocket as they are now incorporating this voice assistant technology into a growing list of vehicles.

Imagine a situation where the following “conversation” happens between your customer and their vehicle when they pull into your car wash.

Car Wash Customer: “Alexa, open Volcano Wash.”

Amazon Alexa: “Welcome back! It looks like you are at our Main Street location. What wash would you like today?”

Car Wash Customer: “The Ultimate Wash.”

Amazon Alexa: “Great! Your card on file has been charged 15 dollars and your Ultimate Wash will start momentarily.
Thank you for visiting Volcano Wash and we hope to see you again soon!”

Short, sweet and to the point. Voice is natural, and voice is fast. It is also easy for people of all age groups to understand and use. These powerful new voice features are a great, forward-thinking way of improving the car wash customer experience.

everything possible/shutterstock.com
iStock.com/Prykhodov