RETAIL
OPERATIONS
By DavidDougherty
Why loyalty is important to the success of your car wash
Winning Them Over
L
egendary movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn
once said, "I'll take 50 percent efficiency to get 100 percent loyalty." In
the car wash business, research data
suggests that not only is 100 percent
loyalty unrealistic, but that *retaining just 5
percent more of the customer base can mean as
much as a 50 percent gain in revenues for retailpetroleum or c-store site owners/operators who
offer a car wash.
So, why does loyalty pay so well and how can
an operator achieve a level of customer loyalty
that ensures success month-in and month-out? It
begins with understanding that attaining customer
loyalty is not easy—but, when achieved, it pays dividends far beyond any month-to-month retention
program or a one-time discount coupon offer.
18
September 2013
Truth be told, while Samuel Goldwyn may have
produced some of the classic film experiences of
his day, what he was really saying was that there
is no price too high to pay to truly attain loyalty.
Loyalty, for any business model, even a small percentage of it, can sustain impressive success over
very long periods of time.
So, how does a car care business get there? Why is
loyalty so important? Like most aspects of successful
businesses, it all comes down to the bottom line. Loyal
customers, that special breed that can be counted on
to return to a business time and again for a product
or service, often do it not to save money, but to feel
special, feel appreciated or to merely save time.
What a car wash loyalty program needs to do is
build and cement a strong, positive feeling about
a specific car wash. In fact, in their fast-paced,
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