According to a 2016 poll by Carwashing and Detailing Magazine, 83% of participants agreed that car wash branding is crucial to success in the professional car washing and detailing industry. So, how do you develop successful car wash branding?
Two words. Customer experience.
Customer Experience and Branding
Last month in this blog, we took a look at customer experience and its important role in maximizing your wash’s sales. Customer experience is also crucial to the cultivation of effective car wash branding.
To expand upon the concept of customer experience further, let’s take a look at five simple, actionable ways that you can promote your car wash’s brand based on the principles of excellence, professionalism, consistency, proactivity, and efficiency.
Make Excellence Your Standard
The car wash industry continues to grow, creating more and more competition for your wash. So, how do you guarantee that your facility stands apart from the crowd? First, your car wash brand should distinguish itself by always delivering an excellent product. This means creating customer experience through effective employee training that emphasizes wash quality and customer service.
Professionalism Goes the Distance
Second, each employee working at your car wash must clearly understand that he/she is tasked with the same goal: delivering a superior customer experience. Training and operational processes should support employees in cultivating the brand your customers want through exceptional experiences. This requires professionalism and a strong awareness of how customer experience is directly tied to your wash’s success.
Emphasize Consistency
Third, consistency is crucial to brand reputation. No matter how many good experiences your customers may have, it only takes one bad circumstance to make them hesitant to drive through your bay doors. How do you remedy this? Put into place a system for consistently delivering a superior customer experience. One of the easiest ways to do this, along with employee training, is by developing checklists to remind your employees of the steps essential to delivering the best, most consistent customer experience. By creating tasks such as opening and closing checklists and maintenance and employee training schedules, you’ll ensure that your employees have the tools that they need to consistently earn repeat business.
Remain Proactive
Fourth, being proactive takes on new meaning when it comes to the car wash industry. You, your employees, and anyone else associated with your wash all need to stay on top of rapidly developing problems at your wash. Emphasize the necessity of each team member staying vigilant about spotting items that might require attention. Problem spotting shouldn’t fall on the shoulders of the hyper-aware few. All of your employees need to participate in preventative trouble shooting every single day.
Strive for Efficiency
Finally, when team members find problems, whether with equipment, fellow employees, or other aspects of creating the customer experience, it is crucial that you make it quick, easy, and efficient for them to report these problems. Not only will this ensure that your wash continues to run smoothly, but it will guarantee that routine maintenance, employee problems, and various other factors don’t evolve into costly, major problems.
Experiential Branding
As with any small business, there’s much more to a car wash’s branding than a name, logo, catchy phrase, or tune. Ultimately, your car wash’s brand is what customers associate with your business’s name, logo, and facility. These association are founded in your customers’ experiences with your wash. Ultimately, your wash should aim at converting first time clients into loyal, repeat customers.
Earn Repeat Customers
Why are repeat customers so important? Besides the obvious base of repeat business that they form, research demonstrates that repeat customers spend approximately 67 percent more during each visit than first-time customers.
So, it’s definitely worth the added time and effort to secure this kind of loyalty! Follow these five tips for branding through customer experience and watch your wash customer base grow.
How does your wash approach branding and customer experience? Which strategies have proven successful for your wash? Which areas could use some work? Have you used any of the tips mentioned above? Let us know in the comments below.