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Car Wash Operation and Management

The benefits of having an employee or owner onsite at a car wash full time are many. For one your customers are far more likely to follow your signage directions and limitations if there is someone there watching over the operation. Another benefit is your car wash will, in general, be cleaner and better maintained with an employee onsite. Perhaps the biggest benefit is the opportunity to offer a high degree of customer service to your customers to build not only customer satisfaction but customer loyalty.

The ideal situation would be to have the owner onsite as no one will care more about your business, your profit, your customers or your equipment than you will. No question. However having the owner present full time at a car wash is sometimes not practical or possible. This is something to keep in mind as several car wash franchises do not allow absentee car wash owners!

A full time attendant must be someone that can handle the day to day operation of your car wash business. They should have a solid understanding of the operation of your system, be able to fix or address routine mechanical or customer related issues that come up, and just as importantly, be able to communicate and assist your customers in a friendly manner. They must be reliable, have a good work ethic, be able to follow your procedures and instructions, be task orientated and follow your daily schedule plan. At the same time an attendant must be able to deal with the sometimes boring repetitive nature of the position as well as deal with problem customers effectively.

Hiring quality personal is critically important in any business and this applies to the car wash business as well. Often your attendants will be entering customers cars when the opportunity for theft of personal items may present itself. If your attendant is going to be responsible for handling any cash or coin be sure there is a solid check and balance system in place. You also have your inventory of products, chemicals and solutions to be aware of.

Looking at a small and simple self service car wash with a few bays it may not seem important or be practical to have a full or part time attendant. In this case the owner, or a trusted associate, must be able to check on the car wash on a regular basis. If you check the business first thing in the morning and late in the evening, what happens when a wand, hose, change machine or timer breaks at 10 am? You have a broken bay for 8 hours, you have probably caused an inconvenience to your customers who may have paid for the service only to find the equipment not working, you have increased the chance that your business will receive complaint phone calls, and overall left a bad impression on everyone who happened to pull into that bay during that time.

The manned vs. not manned car wash decision is a big one and will have a lot to do with the style of car wash you choose to purchase or build. Just be aware of the potential positives and negatives and you’ll be ahead of the game. Good luck!

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