Get in Touch With Your Feminine Side
Remember, half your customers are from Venus

By Lisa Arnseth

Using color and warm touches such as wood trim or oil paintings, the walls of any carwash hallway can be dressed up accordingly.

There is a general perception that males are more pre-occupied with their cars than women. Carwash owners should know that whatever truth there is to that thinking, the fact is that more than half the drivers on the road today are women. Many operators are still not doing all they can to market to this group of potential customers.

The Austin-Nevada Carwash in Colorado Springs, CO has a customer base that is made up of about 50 percent women, and general partner and owner Chuck Cawiezell knows how to keep them. "You have to just keep doing everything up to a high standard, and I think once you meet those standards you can satisfy most women customers," he says.

Understanding what factors influence women's purchasing decisions can be as simple as heading to a local shopping mall and observing what the Nordstrom's offers its customers as opposed to, say, a flea market. Women are not all that different than men when it comes to several basic needs that must be met in order to sway purchasing decisions. It's the specific manner in which these important needs are addressed that determines whether a facility is "female-friendly" or not.

Don't be a slob

A basic rule of thumb for any business is that if you make it look nice, they will come. Any location with run-down exteriors, drab colors or decades-old signage runs the risk of being passed over in favor of something nicer down the street. If the location isn't cleaned regularly or is poorly maintained in any manner it will probably find itself out of business before you can say "Mr. Clean."

Stores that cater exclusively to women have a certain feminine feel. Department stores regularly feature soft lighting and aesthetically pleasing layouts. Many times, plants and flowers are implemented in the decorating scheme, and this is one area that a carwash can pull off easily.

Mark Busse, owner of Busse Car Wash in Mount Prospect, IL plants bushels of flowers around the grounds of his full serve and has heard the compliments roll in. He spends between $800 to $1,000 a year on planting new flowers, mostly tulips. Busse says he has noticed that some flower patterns make a stronger impression: "We try to stick to solid color combinations of flowers because it's more striking than a mixture of different stuff."

Friendly employees make a difference behind the counter.

Cawiezell also spends a portion of his budget on planting and maintaining the grounds. With trees and grass, the carwash has a friendly, open atmosphere. He also acknowledges the importance of color, even inside the facility. Cawiezell has integrated carpeting into his customer waiting areas, and replaces it periodically to keep it looking fresh and clean. "Color is important to interior decorating. It has to have a professional appeal to it as well as a friendly appeal," he says.

The hallways of the Busse Car Wash are painted in a soft green pattern and accented with ceramic tile and oak trim for a homey, comfortable feel. Recessed lighting highlights paintings of lighthouses along the walls.

Having a female's perspective on how a facility should look can prove invaluable. Busse credits his wife Sue in helping to create such an inviting atmosphere. She regularly decorates the carwash for holidays and offers her input in color and decorating choices.

A highly important spot that cannot be overlooked is the restroom. Both Cawiezell and Busse stress that having a clean restroom is crucial. Cawiezell recommends looking at what you can do wrong with a restroom to get an idea where to begin doing it correctly. "When was the last time you were on the road travelling and you went into one of those roadside gas station restrooms and thought, 'I wish I didn't have to go in there'?"

The ladies' restroom at the Busse Car Wash is kept spotlessly clean. Wooden cabinets and dried-flower wall hangings dress it up and make it look a little nicer than the average carwash restroom. Busse says, "It's not just a washroom with four walls but it's something to look at. It's like something you'd see in your house." Dressing up the restroom need not cost a lot of money. Busse says his wife found the wall hangings at an area arts and crafts show.

Pay attention to the factors that make the wait easier, such as heating and air conditioning. Seating is also a main concern. Anyone wearing uncomfortable shoes such as high heels is always appreciative of a chair. Cawiezell has a patio seating area and Busse has chairs inside as well as park benches outside.

Magazines help pass the time, and although Modern Car Care makes a great read for the owner of the wash, women customers may be a little more likely to pick up Better Homes and Gardens. There's no need to stock titles as gender-specific as Cosmopolitan, but by having a variety of magazines instead of just a stack of all-auto titles, you can appeal to more people and not turn anyone away. Some of the best choices are news magazines and general interest titles.

There's no place like home...or the ladies' room at the Busse Car Wash.

Be parent-friendly

Making the carwash child-friendly can draw mothers to your wash and keep them coming back.

Cawiezell wonders how mothers with young babies managed to change diapers in restrooms before baby changing stations began to become popular. "It's almost a necessity nowadays. I can't imagine having a business without it," he says.

The women's restroom at his carwash is equipped with a baby changing station that he keeps readily supplied with fresh liners. He realizes that most restrooms do not have adequate space to change a baby, and he recommends other carwashes install the units. "It's very popular and makes their lives easier," Cawiezell says.

Having the resources to keep young children occupied while they wait is also a business plus. Cawiezell purchased a brightly colored bead and wire game for his waiting area and says that it attracts children almost immediately. Kids as young as two years of age can play with the toy, as well as older children. The game doesn't take up much space--about two and a half square feet--and yet it keeps them busy.

In self-serve locations, women appreciate a secure facility. Keeping a location well-lit is paramount to making a woman feel at ease. The presence of attendants helps dramatically as well. In the same vein, a full serve wash should also have as open a facility as possible, with excellent lighting in hallways and around the parking lots and walkways.

Flooring and pavement should be well maintained. Not only can the heel of a shoe get caught in a crack in the concrete, but mothers with young children are always extra concerned with safety. Make sure "tripping hazards" are kept to a minimum, and keep the floors and lot swept free of debris and rocks.

Employee-customer interaction

How women react to your employees is a critical part of the equation. Are they neatly dressed? Polite and respectful? Friendly and helpful? Busse has instituted a "10-foot rule," which means that whenever an employee is within 10 feet of a customer they should greet the customer warmly. He also tries to get a lot of feedback from his customers and has done focus groups to be sure that women--and all customers--are having their needs met at his wash.

Cawiezell makes an effort to always have managers and assistant managers available to provide needed services. At his wash employees pump gas for the customers, a service he says is much appreciated by women.

A carwash will benefit from a friendly, personable face behind the cash register. Shirley Miranda, the cashier at Busse's wash, is a good example.

"Shirley just engages everyone in conversation. She's very friendly and outgoing," says Busse. Having worked at the carwash for several years, Shirley has gotten to know many customer's names, and Busse says she remembers details about husbands and children. He has heard customers chatting with Shirley long after their car has been dried. He says people can readily pick up on his cashier's warm, caring attitude. "People just feel that and we get a lot of great compliments about her. That's really hard to find."

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