Carcooners

More of Your Customers Want to Make Every Day Purchases (Including Carwashes) Inside Their Vehicles

SiteWatch® From DRB Systems Can Help You Reach These "Car-Cooners."

    XPT User
    The SiteWatch Xpress Pay Terminal from DRB Systems.
  • The SiteWatch Xpress Pay Terminal® (XPT) – Our self-pay station makes it easy for customers to select and pay for their wash from their vehicles without depending on your employees. Customers control their own transactions with the XPT, which makes them more comfortable and more receptive to upgrades. Learn more.
  • FastPass® – A wireless acceptance system that uses radio technology to read windshield stickers, FastPass allows customers to complete their transactions without even stopping to lower their windows. Customers simply pull up to the XPT station with FastPass, have their stickers read automatically and drive to the tunnel entrance. Learn more.
  • The SiteWatch Automatic Recharge Module® (ARM) – Your customers will never even have to concern themselves with paying at your wash. ARM will renew their monthly passes by automatically recharging their credit cards every month. Learn more.
  • SiteWatch Website Connect™ – Car-Cooning customers can use this SiteWatch product to buy prepaid cards, FastPass tags and individual washes from their computers. They can even recharge monthly passes directly from their cars using iPhones, Blackberries or any web-enabled cell phone. Learn more.

What’s Important To Car-Cooning Customers?

  1. Privacy – They want to remain undisturbed in their own private space within their vehicles. The XPT allows them to maintain their privacy by completing transactions without having to interact with any employees. This privacy is further enhanced when they use FastPass and don’t even have to lower their windows.
  2. Comfort and Convenience – A trip in a comfortable vehicle with its climate controlled cabin, professional quality sound system and multitude of cup holders represents a welcome relief from the pressures of the outside world for car-cooners. They place a premium on self-pay transactions that are simple and easy to follow. The user-friendly menu and audio-visual features of the XPT help your car-cooning customers maintain a stress-free environment in their vehicles.
  3. Speed – Comfort and convenience aren’t the only reasons car-cooners want to complete transactions in their vehicles, they also value the time it saves them. SiteWatch FastPass, which clears transactions in less than 3 seconds, ARM and Website Connect all help car-cooners save valuable time at your carwash.

A Lesson From McDonald's

Reaching Car-Cooners Is Essential

McDonald's opened its first drive-thru window in 1975 in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Today about 65 cents of every dollar the company’s US operation takes in comes from its drive-thru windows. Such is the importance of drive-thrus that recently, when the city of San Luis Obispo, CA upheld its ban on them, McDonald's demolished its local restaurant rather than renovate it. “We can’t build a million dollar McDonald’s without a drive thru. We just can’t do it,” said a company spokesman. Many carwash operators take a similar view of their own businesses, which is why they include the SiteWatch Xpress Pay Terminal (XPT) self-pay station in their plans to build a new site or remodel an existing location.

Full Service Carwashes Can Also Market To Car-Cooners

So, you have a full-service wash, which by necessity means customers must get out of their cars. You can still make your site more appealing to car-cooners by minimizing the time customers must spend out of their cars, and reducing the level of dependency they have on your employees.

For example, you can have customers pay at an XPT, drive their car through your tunnel, and then turn it over at the exit for interior cleaning. This eliminates the time spent giving their order to a greeter and walking to a lobby to pay the cashier.

In this respect, full-service carwashes are similar to fast, casual restaurants like Applebee's and Outback Steakhouse. It isn’t practical for these restaurants to have drive thru windows like a McDonald's, but they have grown their businesses by adding curbside pick-up service, which allows customers to purchase carry out meals without leaving their vehicles. Consider the following:

In a 2009 survey by Fast Casual Magazine, 75% of the restaurants reported that they now offer curbside pick-up. A little over a decade ago this service was a rarity in the industry.

Outback increased its take out volume by over 165% over a five year period after it introduced curbside service.

Ruby Tuesdays, the 600-unit restaurant chain, saw sales jump 50% when they introduced curbside pickup at 60 of its locations.

Regardless of which kind of carwash you operate, car-cooners are a large and growing customer group that you can’t afford to ignore. By offering them the chance to buy a carwash without leaving the comfort of their vehicles, and employing technology to make this experience as quick and pleasant as possible, you can ensure that your business enjoys steady support from car-cooners — even if they never actually set foot in your wash.

Contact your DRB Systems representative
for more information on how you can reach car-cooners.
Email DRB Systems at info@drbsystems.com
or call toll-free: 1-800-336-6338.