Like all businesses, carwash operators need to keep up with the latest industry trends and innovations that will help them attract more customers, improve customer satisfaction and thus increase revenues.
The results of a survey on the use of soap washing in Estonia show the importance of customer satisfaction, its meaning and its benefits for the company:
- A satisfied customer is 3x more likely to remain a customer than a dissatisfied customer.
- 25% of customers will change laundrettes if they are not satisfied with the price or quality.
- It is 6 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one.
- 95% of dissatisfied customers remain loyal if the problem is solved within five days.
- 75% of customers turn to competitors because they are dissatisfied with the service.
Based on these facts, laundrette owners certainly have good reason to monitor whether their customers are satisfied with the quality of the service they provide.
Today, the self-service car wash market in Estonia is sufficiently saturated and the creation of new laundries is not as important as improving the quality of service in existing laundries. A good quality of service will ensure that your customers come back to your laundry. Therefore, it is very important to invest wisely in marketing and to think carefully before making any changes or improvements in order to increase revenue.
Washing quality is cited as the biggest problem. This includes both water pressure and detergent impact/strength.
Improving water pressure and detergents can increase customer satisfaction and thus loyalty.
The size of the car wash box, the clarity of the use of the washing equipment and the lighting of the car wash box are cited as slightly less important factors.
Maintaining a well-maintained and adequately illuminated car wash box can increase customer loyalty.
Understanding the meanings of washing programmes is highlighted. It can happen that instructions are poorly understood and therefore not all programmes may be used, which can be a cause of customer dissatisfaction. The instructions for self-service washing machines contain a lot of text and therefore do not attract the attention of customers.
Make sure that everyone understands how to use the washing programmes. Excessive information can confuse the customer and they may not do the laundry as a result.
How often is it washed?
The data collected during the survey show that the majority of car wash customers (36%) wash their car once a week. 25% of customers use self-service car wash no more than 2 times a month. 14% of customers wash their car 2 times a week and only 8% wash their car 3 times a week. A minority of respondents use the self-service car wash once a month (12%) or less often (5%).
How much will be spent?
The majority (31%) spend more than €5 on washing, 25% spend €4-5, 20% can wash a car for €3-4, 19% spend only €2-3 and a minority (5%) spend €1-2, given that the average price in Tallinn is €1=100sec.
