Unforgettable

Before hearing Tana Goertz speak at the Heartland Carwash Association show, I had never heard someone talk about making businesses “unforgettable.” The former finalist from The Apprentice recalled one of her speeches about thinking outside of the box in which she was having trouble getting through to one particular member of the audience. He would not clap, would not smile, and did not participate in the discussions.

Near the end of the event, she walked into the crowd and singled out the man by asking him what his issue was. He stated that he didn’t think there was anything he could do to make his business stand out. He owned a local drive-through pharmacy and was losing business trying to compete against big chain stores.

She snapped her fingers and said, “OK, what you need to do is get labels printed up with the name of your company on them and stick them on the outside of little bottled waters. The one thing that bothers me is that when I use a drive-through pharmacy, I usually have a medication that I need to take, and I drive to the nearest gas station to buy a bottled water, which is annoying. This is exactly what you need to make your business unforgettable in your community.”

The pharmacy owner contacted Goertz months later to tell her that he took her advice and started giving away small, labeled water bottles with all prescription refills. His business has grown and people always comment on how they love the convenience of the bottled water. He admitted to Goertz that his business was now unforgettable in the minds of his customers.

This is a great example about what makes a promotion truly successful. In the carwashing industry, if we can learn why customers choose where they wash, we can learn how to promote our businesses differently and more effectively.

The difference between a successfully promoted business and a business that fails to promote successfully is that the well-promoted business is likely remembered by customers for what it has done for them. Far too many carwash businesses think that slashing prices and giving huge discounts will win over new customers.

Discounting only goes so far when you are trying to bring in new customers because discounting is temporary and long-term price cuts hurt your bottom line. A successful promotion will engage your customers and community in ways that will endear the business to them. Successfully promoted carwashes are not known as “the cheap wash” in their communities. Instead, customers think of those businesses as “the charity wash,” “the fundraiser wash,” “the wash that drives the funny car in the local parade,” “the fast wash,” “the convenient wash” or, at the very least, “the wash that gets my car clean.”

During the 2007 Minnesota Petroleum Marketers Association expo, there was an interesting discussion about a two-year study that examined the consumer decision-making factors that determine where people wash their vehicles. The study, conducted in the Midwest between 2004 and 2006, revealed that consumers choose their carwashes by convenience, speed, quality and price, in that order.

Convenience: In our consumer-driven economy, it should come as no surprise that the number one concern of a wash customer is convenience.

Consumers ask themselves many questions before they commit to their decision. Is it easy to get in and out of the facility? Will the wash accept my credit card? Will they give me a receipt if I use my credit card so I can get reimbursed by my company? Does the wash offer a fleet program for business customers? Are the wash packages easy to figure out? Is the location easy to get to?

Speed: Can you get in and out of the wash quickly? Does the wash have high-speed credit card payment? Is there any inefficient downtime where customers have to “hurry up and wait”?

Quality: Wash operators are frequently surprised that customers are more concerned about their personal needs than the quality of service. However, customers will always pay for quality service if it addresses their needs, particularly when it comes to convenience and speed.

Price: Consumers will always ask themselves whether the price for a service is reasonable or not based on comparisons between other washes they have used. Wash owners are beginning to figure out that pricing is often more art than science. What works for one wash location may not work for another.

I once had a very successful wash owner tell me, “With wash pricing you have to set the price to where you’re charging just enough to not insult the customer. If you charge too little, they will assume it’s a low price for reasons of low quality. If you charge too much, they will think you’re gouging them. It’s far easier to reduce a price than to raise it later on, so I say shoot high. At least if you’re losing some volume, the customers that do come in make up for the losses!”

If you can highlight how your wash benefits customers in ways other than price, you will be speaking directly to their subconscious, which maintains a list of priorities other than price. To devise a promotion that is memorable, first make sure that it is reasonable and speaks to the consumer in ways that make it attractive.

Make sure that customers do not have to jump through too many hoops to participate. If there are too many steps involved, the promotion will fail to be convenient. Customers will pay more for convenience if it means less waiting, faster payment processing and flexible means of payment, whether by cash, loyalty card, credit card options or automatic payment by proximity tag.

Becoming memorable may also mean involving your business in the community via school fundraisers, corporate team-building charity events, or even being visible in local parades. When building your brand name, it is important to remain visible in the community. The marketing payback of investing time in your community can come through positive coverage from local media, which in turn helps drive new customers to your location.

Another good strategy is to think outside of the box. Look to other businesses in your community for ideas on being memorable. Which businesses do you remember? Is there a way to replicate what they are doing that would benefit your business and make you more memorable to your customers?

If you are having difficulty coming up with new and creative ways to set yourself apart, then look to your peers to see how they are successful. Support your local carwash association by attending educational seminars and meeting with other carwash operators in situations similar to yours.

If you are running promotions that aren’t working, it’s time to mix things up and try something else to make your business unforgettable.