Complete Smart Car Wash Site

Posted by Regi Flanagan on 6/7/2021

The Complete Smart Site

The title probably has you thinking of a robotic assembly line with no people involvement and automation that runs a carwash 24 hours a day.  We’re not there yet and I don’t think we’ll be there in my lifetime.  That is, unless autonomous vehicles become the norm and our cars are driving to the wash while we sleep.  As of today, we pride ourselves on speed of service and customer service.

Isn’t it interesting that most of America is happy with the service Amazon provides?  Yet, if we think about it, we rarely talk to a live human to place an order, to receive an order, to return an order and to reorder.  Amazon calls this approach “hands off the wheel.”  They use smart systems to automate work, putting people in positions to do more.

In the carwash industry, Smart Sites and the technology associated are designed to automate processes, to predict and alert potential issues, to do more with employees and best of all – to gather data and market more effectively!  This frees up your employees to focus on safety, maintenance, and customer service.  Let’s go on a journey together …

The Smart Site 

There are many times the customer journey starts well before the customer pulls into your wash.  With digital marketing, social media and ecommerce integration, we find many customers are already interacting with a wash prior to experiencing the service.  However, for purpose of this article, we’ll start this journey at the entrance lanes.

The entrance lanes are your first opportunity on-site to gather data. If you have License Plate Recognition (LPR), the first data entry point is the plate. There’s no action to take.  Data is gathered on visits and, of course, a seamless creation of a membership. The customer may not realize LPR is the first smart feature they encountered, but for the operator capturing license plates creates marketing opportunities.

Next is the digital menu. Another smart feature that makes it easy for you to communicate pricing and wash packages.  It’s a golden opportunity to up-sell, to display time-based promotions like happy hours, and to support the local customer base with messages that go along with community happenings.

Next up, the customer reaches the pay station.  Because of the initial LPR smart feature, you can greet the customer with a variety of messages specific to their wash habit.  If they are a repeat customer, you can upsell a wash based on visits, offer a surprise free wash or prompt to convert them into a member.

How smart is that?  You are guiding your customers to a purchase decision the moment they reach the pay station.  If done right, you’ve made the customer feel welcome, you’ve helped them reach a decision faster, and you’ve offered a service that they most likely want.  

As the operator, imagine creating a rainy day special or bounce backs from your cell phone that appears in real-time on the pay station screen. The ability to make changes on the fly from a mobile device allows the flexibility needed to be agile in such a competitive industry. 

Now it’s time for the customer to make a purchase.  At the pay station, you can request their phone number; I recommend including an offer for a free wash on the next visit or a discount.  Having an offer that a customer value increases the likelihood that they will provide you with their factual phone number.  With the phone number capture, you now have an actionable datapoint to establish ongoing communication with an audience that has experienced your wash.

While at the pay station, you want to think about security sensors.   Door sensors automatically alert you via text when the pay station door is open or closed.  It’s a low-cost security option that’s effective and essential to your site monitoring.

Next, the customer completes the transaction. A camera takes a picture of the vehicle and sends the image to a screen at the tunnel entrance.   This feature requires your loader to look at the vehicle entering the tunnel and cross-reference the screen.  If the vehicle entering the tunnel doesn’t match the vehicle on the screen, the loader can quickly rearrange vehicles using the touchscreen.  

The “smarter” smart sites automate vehicle reordering.  How?  With LPR cameras and specific controls software.  This smart technology option is a great addition to a site that has a strong possibility for vehicles to get out of order between the pay station and tunnel entrance. It also frees up the loader to focus on safety and not vehicle reordering.

The customer is now entering the tunnel…let the fun begin!

The Smart Tunnel

Technology to detect open truck beds and anti-collision devices isn’t new but I couldn’t leave it out when talking about a smart site. Tunnels are including more sensors to detect wrap inclines and necessary retracts, as well as vehicle heights to determine placement of top brushes. Anti-collision devices to track a vehicle’s location and take action to prevent an accident eliminating damages to property and potential personal injury.

Next is the equipment room with the Tunnel Controller and Motor Control Center – the area of the wash that, in my opinion, should be the most intelligent. 

With the Tunnel Controller, you can control your site’s lighting, sprinklers or anything you want on a timer with one device instead of multiple devices.  Although a tunnel controller may include the word “tunnel”, they are so much more.  It is worth the time to get to know your Tunnel Controller because chances are it has out-of-the-box uses and untapped smart capabilities you’re not aware of.

The Motor Control Center (MCC) is an extremely smart piece of equipment frequently overlooked. We expect and rely on it to deliver the basics, when in reality it’s there to absorb and report on just about everything happening in the wash.  MCCs distribute power, control motors and VFDs, and communicate with the Controller. They should also give you feedback about voltage, power consumption and motor current. We expect everything to be accessible anytime/anywhere so simple VFD changes should be configurable from anywhere.  Having to configure VFDs on-site is a thing of the past.

In addition to significantly reducing wiring — and, in turn, reducing install time — Smart MCCs provide data and diagnostic information for remote monitoring, analysis, and control.  My favorite part about the Smarter MCCs are the mobile alerts when failures happen.   As we say here in Florida, it’s all about managing your wash from a boat when you get that much needed time off.

The controls product behind this technology is key.  When doing an evaluation of how smart you want your site to be, ask yourself the right questions and consult your provider.  Work through scenarios, challenges and expectations prior to purchasing or upgrading.

• I want insights of my customer’s habits.
• I want visibility into my motor performance data.
• I want to provide speed of service along with great customer service.
• I want more automation to reduce the need for staff involvement.
• I want my controller to manage turning lights on/off, or maybe sprinklers.
• I want alerts if there are issue at my site that normally I wouldn’t know about until it’s too late.
• Can my provider give me the Smart Site my customers and I are looking for?

The Smart Site has introduced significant benefits to wash operators and customers.  You can call it whatever you want … hands off the wheel or foot on the gas … either way, it’s worth exploring with your POS provider, the technology available to improve your operation and your customer’s experience.