December 18, 2019
One of the best things about the express exterior car wash model is that it allows you to run as lean as possible. But even still, many washes are not getting the most out of their labor.
As labor costs continue to rise, it’s never been more important to reign in your costs and maximize the labor you have. But that doesn’t mean working your existing employees to the bone. Today’s technology enables your staff to work smarter, not harder.
Here are four ways to leverage technology to get more out of your most valuable resource.
1. Reduce Manual Tasks
There are some tasks that just have to be done. And there will always be cleaning and general maintenance tasks to be completed, at least until someone invents a robot to do so. However, you want to use technology to automate any tasks you can.
One great example is in-tunnel collision prevention. If you have an employee stationed at the tunnel entrance doing nothing but watching for potential collisions, you’re losing money.
Preventing collisions is important, but this is a situation that’s better handled by technology such as the NoPileups™ full-tunnel management system. For just $1.30 an hour, you have an “employee” who won’t get distracted and has a lightning-fast reaction time. And it frees your actual employee up to man a pay station and generate more sales.
2. Replicate Your Best Salespeople
There’s no replacement for a top-notch salesperson, but not every attendant is naturally good at selling. Having an advanced pay station can help you clone your #1 salesperson, outselling 80% of your average employees. While the average attendant may suggest an upsell or unlimited plan membership 60% of the time, a pay station asks EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. And we all know that sales is a numbers game: The more you ask, the more you sell.
3. Streamline Multi-Site Data Collection
Adding a second site dramatically changes things. You have to keep eye on two sites versus just the one, and each site you add compounds the difficulty.
Without technology, an operator has to contact each site for stats. This not only wastes the time of the operator but usually the time of their best employee, the site manager.
A robust point-of-sale system with cloud-based reporting eliminates this additional work. Moreover, it makes data available anywhere, anytime from a web browser.
Look for a system that makes it easy to report on single sites, groups of sites or all sites. It should give insight to sales, unlimited membership trends, peak times and much more.
4. Retain Your Best People
The more you invest in technology that helps your staff, the happier they will be at work and the more likely they will be to stay. Conversely, if they are bogged down by mundane, manual tasks or frustrated by inefficient systems, the more likely they will be to bail.
The stress that comes with in-tunnel collisions and the angry complaints that result from them can also take a toll on even the most loyal employee. Employing advanced technology to prevent such issues can go a long way to ensure employee retention.
Maximize Your Greatest Asset
Your people are truly your greatest asset. Help them by investing in the technology they need to be as effective and efficient as possible.
