In the bayside suburb of Aspendale Gardens, outside of Melbourne, Australia, Leon Buchanan makes it easy for locals to keep their cars clean and their dogs happy at RapidWash Express, 24 hours a day. Not only can customers give their cars a showroom finish with an eco-friendly three-minute, scratch- and streak-free wash, they can treat their pups to a soft, warm-water wash, complete with a nice blow dry.

Buchanan’s passion for the car wash industry is obvious in his description of it. “It’s a feel-good business,” he said. “Customers are caring for a prized asset, and they value the service.”

It doesn’t hurt, he said, that there is also lots of upside if you get the car wash offer right.

Having owned and operated most car wash models over the past 30 years, Buchanan is a leader in bringing express car washing to the Australian market. With this experience, and seeing the impact of labor on the full-service model in terms of cost and management, he found that the express exterior model offered compelling attractions to consumers who seek speed of service, wash quality and great value at the same time.

For Buchanan, the idea of a wash club also brings appeal in his market. “The introduction of a fairly priced wash club has lifted this model to another plateau in my opinion,” he said.

Along with his business partner, Richard Davison, Buchanan has spent the last two years tweaking what was once an underperforming location. The pair transformed a tunnel site with three self-serve bays and an in-bay automatic with paid cylinder vacuums into an Exterior Express with free boom vacuums and created a wash club membership offering.

The revamped car wash includes a tunnel that can handle up to 80 cars per hour, so waiting time is kept to a minimum. The site also includes self-serve wash bays, with a “super bay” that caters to larger vehicles and trailers and provides a marine engine flush suitable for the boats and jet skis that are popular in the beach community. “It’s been a lot of fun,” Buchanan said. “Each month, we are reaching new highs with lots of blue sky to come (we hope).”

RapidWash Express features two dog-wash bays that are enclosed by modern pool fencing. The “soft wash” gun delivers shampoo, flea rinse, disinfectant and conditioner, and the temperature is adjusted to suit the season for maximum comfort. Buchanan said that they have plans to install two additional dog washes to meet peak demands. “In terms of investment per square foot, they perform extremely well,” he said.

With three decades of experience under his belt, Buchanan has faced his share of challenges. Planning issues with site selection are common, along with the obvious cost of land and total investment returns. He has found that the best way to overcome most issues is with a well-trained, efficient and happy staff.

While excellent personnel are essential to a successful site, so is giving the customer more control. “Taking the hassle out of the transaction, as with Uber and Netflix, is a vital key as well,” Buchanan said.

For example, when setting up the wash club membership offering, making it easy was important. So, customers can sign up for wash club memberships just once on a credit card with monthly recurring billing and show up to the wash and be recognized with RFID to get the correct wash type without needing to take any extra steps.

“Apple Pay and PayWave technology is now available in the Aussie marketplace and is being well-received,” Buchanan said. “As consumers ourselves, I think we all respond to ‘easy transactions’ and we are more inclined to use a service more frequently, if so.”

But where does Buchanan go to learn? He said he finds great value in the people he meets at the International Carwash Association events he attends. “I have been so fortunate to meet great people through ICA,” he said. “It’s had enormous impact on my approach to washing in Australia.”

At one of The Car Wash Show events in Chicago, Buchanan met Mark Curtis, of Splash car wash in Connecticut. The next day, Buchanan flew to Connecticut for a 24-hour visit at Splash. “And so began a greatly valued and long-standing friendship,” he said.

The two car wash professionals agreed that Splash would run a competition for site managers over a few months to lift site performance and reward the best performing Splash site and manager with a trip to Australia to work at RapidWash for a week and tour the area.

“Having an experienced and well-trained Splash manager work in and on our business for a week, alongside our staff, gave us great results,” Buchanan said. “For example, we discovered and introduced express detailing to our sites for the first time after one visit. It has become a big profit center and popular service for our customers ever since.”

And the relationship is reciprocal. Buchanan sends his staff members to Splash to work and learn as well. “We also sent our Aussie staff to Splash in Connecticut to work under the guidance of the wash guru, Dan Petrelle,” he said.

A wise strategy, given Buchanan’s thoughts on the future of the industry in Australia. “I think the Australian market will develop eventually like the U.S., with more express exterior sites built as Australian consumers discover the speed, quality and value this wash model has to offer,” he said.

“There is also room for consolidation or a chain to emerge, offering this relatively new service in our market, which is made up of mostly individually owned sites.”

RapidWash Express features two dog-wash bays that are enclosed by modern pool fencing. The “soft wash” gun delivers shampoo, flea rinse, disinfectant and conditioner, and the temperature is adjusted to suit the season for maximum comfort. “In terms of investment per square foot, they perform extremely well,” Buchanan said.