in the future. It is a win-win deal for
the carwash owner and consumer. The
owner can give very low prices to a wide
swath of his customer base, creating
something similar to an insurance pool.
some customers use the service more
than they pay in while others use the
service less.
But all the consumers win in the sense
that the transaction is easier (no need to
pull out a wallet on each visit); they know
what their carwash budget for the year
will beno surprises--and they feel they
can "beat the owner" by coming in more
often.
The operator likes it because it
smoothes their revenue flow. having $5
to $50,000 hit your checking account on
the first of the month (when the monthly
charge is put on the consumer's credit
cards) allows the operator to bring in
revenue regardless of the weather.
We use RFID (radio-frequency
identification) to identify the cars with
many of our aRM customers. We will be
shipping our 100,000th tag this month.
The implication is pretty cool; lots of
consumers are liking the offering and
the carwash operators are enjoying the
opportunity to sell it."
Dave Podrog, owner of two Maritime
Carwash operations in annapolis and
the severna Park-Millersville crossroads
fifteen miles north, is excited about aRM.
aRM automatically charges customers
on a monthly basis and is incorporated
into Maritime's vIP program. aRM, says
Podrog, is a program to build, track and
report on the vIP program. "It goes
along with our DRB site Watch, our Pos
and operating system from DRB. aRM
integrates into the system and enrolls our
customers into the aRM/vIP program,
tracks the customers and then bills the
customers once a month."
"We were the first to bring unlimited
washing to the mid-atlantic region," he
said. "It's taken all the burden off of us. We
used to go to an outside source to bill our
customers, and we had to create reports.
We had to have a separate database with
a lot of data entry and headaches. DRB
has streamlined the whole process. They
made what was extremely difficult to do
very easy to handle."
at both locations, with a starting fee of
$39.99 a month.
"aRM has been fantastic for us," said
Podrog. "It's so much easier to manage
than our previous program. We went
from two systems to one system."
"soon DRB will be doing everything
for us," he joked, adding: "The unlimited
wash program has always allowed us to
take the reasons people don't want to get
a carwash off the table. `It's going to rain
tomorrow.' `My car will get dirty camping.'
They don't care if it rains; they'll come
back again after the rains stops."
another big fan of aRM is Mark
McDowell, owner of Clean Freak Car
Wash in Phoenix, arizona. he says, "We
explains. "We can hedge against bad
weather. We know that every aRM
customer we obtain is one taken off the
street who won't go to any other carwash.
It's something we can track. We love the
monthly deposit it gives us. It rains in
Phoenix, too. We get great monsoons--
people sniff clouds and they're gone. It
can really hurt carwashing even though
we get 328 days of sunshine a year."
he adds, "We installed aRM on
May 29, 2009. It's been huge every
month. It's been skyrocketing with
excellent sales. We've been actively
pushing it. When people do the math
in their heads, they say: `It makes total
sense. sign me up.'"