In 1948, Crew Carwash’s founder Joe Dahm opened Mike’s Minit Man, Indiana’s first automated car wash and one of only 18 in the nation at the time. For over 70 years, the Dahm family has grown their business as Crew Carwash, named as such to honor the dedication and talent of their employees. Crew has been recognized by car wash operators worldwide for its quality product and dedication to exemplary service.

It's their constant pursuit of quality that led Crew to explore new and innovative technology to incorporate into each of their existing 31 sites.

“We are always looking to create more value for our customers, team members and the business,” said Crew Carwash President and COO Billy Schaming. “We choose to partner with industry leaders that have a track record of success.”

When Crew discovered NoPileups^™, the company recognized a unique opportunity to support one of their primary values: Safety.

“The safety of our customer’s vehicles is paramount,” said Crew’s Customer Support Director Courtney Cannady. “When we found out about [NoPileups], we immediately knew it had the potential to add a lot of value to our service by reducing the risk for error and ensuring our customers have an excellent experience every time they visit a Crew Carwash.”

However, the decision to install a service like NoPileups is not made overnight, especially for an organization such as Crew. One of Crew’s greatest strengths is its strict standardization of their product across all locations. While Cannady believed NoPileups could benefit Crew’s customers and the company’s bottom line, it was not enough to guarantee implementation company-wide. According to Schaming, Crew needed to know first-hand if NoPileups could actually deliver a better customer experience while reducing stress for their team members.

Objectives

Crew Carwash sought to evaluate NoPileups’ ability to improve customer and team member experience across each of its locations while also assessing its ability to provide greater value for the company. To do this, NoPileups would need to:

• Significantly lower opportunities for driver error, reducing potential vehicle damage and increasing customer and team member safety
• Improve the ability of Crew team members to deliver “clean, fast, friendly” service to their patrons
• Provide a positive return on investment company-wide

Solution

Starting in January of 2017, Crew elected to install NoPileups at trial sites in Indianapolis and Carmel, IN to evaluate the service.

NoPileups is a car wash enhancement service that uses advanced technology to detect and prevent accidents caused by hopped rollers, driver error, and other unexpected events inside an automated wash tunnel. NoPileups integrates into a car wash’s existing cameras and tunnel controller to quickly and reliably stop collisions and increase production. NoPileups’ dedicated service team analyzes every site to offer customers greater insight into operations and further reduce incidents.

Results

After installing and experiencing NoPileups in their own tunnels, a sense of both excitement and relief spread throughout Crew’s organization. According to Cannady, team members were set at ease knowing a safeguard was in place to back them up in case of an emergency. However, few reactions to NoPileups were as strong as Schaming’s.

“Simply stated, it was the happiest I have ever been when a conveyor stopped!”

The impact on Crew’s operation was quickly felt by team members onsite. According to Schaming, managers were able to commit more time to their team members and customers, as they no longer needed to focus on dealing with the fallout of driver error or other problems.

“...NoPileups has given our team peace of mind and allows them to better manage their business,” said Schaming.

It was projected NoPileups would save Crew annually in costs associated with customer error company-wide. However, in the mind of Cannady, the benefit to customers’ peace of mind and Crew's image was far more valuable than any dollar amount. By providing a safer, more efficient service to customers while greatly reducing opportunities for negative feedback on social media, NoPileups was impacting Crew’s bottom line in ways beyond simple damage costs.

In the minds of everyone at Crew Carwash, NoPileups proved itself an invaluable addition to the company’s product. The increased safety, improved customer experience, greater team member peace-of-mind and financial benefits met and exceeded the expectations of Schaming, Cannady, and others. After 14 months, the decision was made to partner with NoPileups to provide their enhancement service in every Crew location going forward.

“[NoPileups] allows us to maintain a safe environment for our customers and team members,” said Schaming, “and improves our ability to deliver upon our brand promise: ‘Clean, Fast, Friendly.’”