Starting an automatic car wash business (or any small business) can be a daunting task. The sheer amount of planning and preparation required is mind-boggling, and even if everything falls into place perfectly, it may take time before your facility’s customer base and profitability reach a level where long-term success becomes feasible.
There are numerous factors you’ll need to consider to be successful. Below, we’ll outline some of the key elements you should research and understand when embarking on your journey to start your first automatic car wash business.
1.) Location Analysis
2.) Car Wash Equipment Selection
3.) Site Layout
4.) Building Your Car Wash Business Brand
5.) Recruiting a Top-Notch Team
6.) Grand Opening and Marketing Strategies
Location Analysis It’s often said in real estate and retail businesses like car washes: location, Location, LOCATION! Even the most state-of-the-art car wash with a brilliant marketing strategy will struggle if you don’t secure a prime location.
Location Analysis
Traffic Volume: In most cases, using an automatic car wash is often an impulse decision or a quick stop for those with monthly memberships. Given this, exposing your wash to the highest possible volume of passing traffic is crucial when selecting an ideal location. Generally, busier roads are more desirable due to high traffic counts, but you should also consider factors like speed limits, road types, and traffic patterns.
Population Demographics: Typically, a middle to upper-middle-class area provides better access to customers with disposable income to spend on car washes. Additionally, you’ll want to examine the driving-age demographic within 1, 3, and 5-mile radii of your potential location to ensure a dense local population, as this provides a larger customer base than a sparsely populated area.
Nearby Businesses and Attractions: When scouting for an excellent car wash site, it’s vital to understand your potential neighbors and their businesses. Different areas tend to experience fluctuations in popularity and profitability, and it’s crucial to anticipate these changes before they occur. A solid strategy is to choose a location near major retail presences like shopping centers, grocery stores, or town centers. Ask yourself: if a major chain like Starbucks wouldn’t build here, should I?
Car Wash Equipment Selection
Just as a great car wash starts with a prime location, the equipment you choose can make or break your long-term success. This is why proper research and selection of car wash equipment are some of the most critical and strategically demanding steps early in the development process. Your customers want two things:
1.) A spotless car
2.) An exceptional experience!
If your equipment doesn’t deliver on both fronts, even the best piece of property in town can lead to a subpar experience, driving your customers away from using your wash again.
The most common mistakes made during the equipment selection phase often stem from budget constraints or lack of research. Frequently, issues arise from choosing cheaper, less reliable equipment to cut costs, which can lead to frequent breakdowns and unsatisfied customers. This, in turn, can sometimes cause problems with wait times, inconsistent wash quality, and ultimately, a poor reputation in the community.
Before you commit to any equipment, make sure you thoroughly research different manufacturers, read reviews from other car wash owners, and if possible, visit other successful car washes to see the equipment in action. We’ve found more and more that the most successful washes invest in top-of-the-line equipment that delivers consistent results and requires less maintenance over time.
Site Layout
Just as much as a great car wash starts with a great site, the site layout of a new car wash can make or break its long-term success. This is why proper design and site selection are some of the most critical and strategically demanding steps early in the development process. The customers who use your car wash want two things 1.) A clean car 2.) a great guest experience! If your site does not flow well, even the best piece of property in a town can lead to a bad experience driving your customers away from using your wash again.
The most common mistakes made during the site layout phase is due to the lot size or shape. Often, issues arise from forcing a car wash layout onto a piece of land that is too small or not the right shape. This, in turn, can sometimes cause problems in turn stacks while entering a wash with not enough room to turn their car to enter the tunnel or safely exiting the wash at the end.
Before you buy a piece of land, make sure you talk with our city officials to find out if there are any standards that they have for building at that location. We’ve found more and more throughout the approval process that many cities have strict standards that can compromise our own internal standards.
Building Your Car Wash Business Brand
One of the most significant things many small companies overlook when starting a business is defining their “Why” for being in the car wash industry. Passion doesn’t begin with WHAT or HOW you wash cars; it’s WHY you wash cars that matters. If your employees or team members are disengaged or uninterested in your why, it will affect every aspect of your operations, and most importantly, your customer experience will suffer. Be intentional with your why. You have a unique opportunity, regardless of the size or location of your wash; you and your team have the chance to serve others and act as a positive force in your customers’ day. Having a team that’s bought into your why helps them move in the same direction and strive to be the best.
Always take the time to define what excellence looks like for your team. Put in writing what excellence means in your employees’ day-to-day activities. Then ensure those expectations are clear during employee training, reviews, and routine checklists. Every team member should know what is expected of them and be hired, fired, and promoted based on your standards of excellence.
In today’s work environment, sometimes even simple praise and recognition for a team member goes a long way in fostering their happiness and loyalty. When an employee exceeds expectations and does an outstanding job, make sure you acknowledge their efforts and let them know you see the hard work they’re putting in. Even when providing feedback or correction to a team member, make sure to highlight the areas where they’re excelling before addressing areas that need improvement.
Grand Opening and Marketing Strategies So, your automatic car wash is nearly ready to roll! The final touches on the facility are complete, the equipment has been installed, you’re fine-tuning your wash programs, and running test cars. The question now looming in your mind is, will there be any customers at my wash?
Remember, prior planning prevents poor performance. Early success and development of your customer base don’t happen overnight. It stems from meticulous planning, smart strategy, and relentless energy, especially when it comes to marketing. You can’t simply improvise elements like your logo, color scheme, style, and brand voice. In 2024, your digital presence and brand identity go a long way in developing trust with your potential customers.
Between digital and traditional advertising, car wash operators have a plethora of marketing options to choose from. Over time, you’ll have the opportunity to evaluate different messaging and formats to see what type of marketing gives you the best return on investment.
But before your grand opening, you won’t have this luxury, so commit to launching your campaign with the necessary investment across a wide range of channels to reach the best possible cross-section of potential customers in your area.
Recruiting a Top-Notch Team
When you build your wash, you become a part of and invested in your community. Sometimes the most effective marketing happens when your team gets out in the community and starts building relationships with other business owners, non-profit organizations, and regular customers.
One of the first steps you will have to decide is if you will be are going to be present at your wash as an owner/operator or if you are just going to be the owner. If you will be the owner/operator, you will want to find a wash manager to balance your skill sets and passions. For instance, if you are more hands-on with the mechanical part of the wash and that is what makes you the happiest, you will want to make sure your wash manager is much more hands-on with guests working the windows, training the team, etc. If you are not great with the mechanical side of things or don’t have a passion for it, you are going to want to hire a wash manager that is more mechanically minded and enjoys that part of the business.
There are some things many great car wash managers should know and do to help your wash be successful. When hiring a manager, look for the intangibles, see how they react to adversity/ tough questions, how they enter and exit the interview, body language, etc. These things help play a part in the manager you are looking for. If they enter the room without a smile and lousy body language, what will that say to your future customers and team members? If they come in smiling, are engaging in the interview, are friendly, and take the time to listen during an interview, it is a better chance that’s how they will interact with everyone on your site.
Grand Opening and Marketing Strategies
So, your wash is nearly finished! The final touch-ups on paint are drying; the equipment has been installed, you’re dialing in your chemistry and running test cars. The question you now have in your head is, will there be any customers at my wash?
Remember, prior planning prevents poor performance. Early success and development of your customer base don’t just happen overnight. It stems from planning, strategy, and energy, especially when it comes to marketing. You cannot merely make things up as you go, such as your logo, colors, style, and brand voice. This is 2020, and your digital presence and brand identity go a long way in developing trust with your potential customers.
Between digital and traditional advertising, wash operators have plenty of marketing options to choose from, and over time you’ll have the opportunity to evaluate different messaging and formats and see what type of marketing gives you the best return on investment.
But before your grand opening, you won’t have this luxury, so commit to launching your campaign with the necessary investment across a wide range of channels to hit the best possible cross-section of potential customers in your area.
When you build your wash, you become a part of/invested in your community. Sometimes the best marketing happens when your team gets out in the community and starts building relationships with other business owners, non-profit organizations, and regular customers.
To round this all out, good car washes are in demand, and if you can nail the basics, you have a much better than even chance of being successful.
So relax, have fun, and don’t be afraid to engage your customers as they visit and really get involved in fielding excellent and bad reviews, answering questions, and engaging your customers directly with contests, challenges, and incentives.
Get in Touch
If you have any questions about setting up a car wash facility, don’t hesitate to contact our team for advice. We’re here to help.
Mattias – Car Wash Machines is a subsidiary of Balance Group. which is a high-tech enterprise specializing in the research and development and production of fully automatic car washing machine equipment. The company is located in Shanghai, China. The main automatic car washing machines mainly include: self service car wash machine, conveyor car wash equipment(Tunnel Car Wash Machine), fully automatic gantry car washing machines(Inbay Automatic Car Wash Machines), touchless car washing machines(Contactless Car Wash Machine), and bus truck washing machines. No need for manual duty, computer intelligent control, the car washing machine is divided into brush car wash machine and brushless car washing machine to meet different car washing needs such as gas stations and auto beauty shops.
