I had a friend that owned an automated drive-thru car wash near one of Arizona’s many retirement communities. He complained to me one day, “I just had to fire my best manager ever, even though sales were way up.”
“What happened?”
“Well, she did a great job building up the business from that huge retirement community nearby. She posted a bunch of flyers and postcards on the cars out there, but I think the biggest success factor was the word-of-mouth advertising she generated.”
“So what went wrong?”
“Let’s just say that she sold a lot of $12 car washes for $62, all to the gentlemen retirees. She would get in the car with them for the ride through the car wash, claiming these older guys needed help aligning their front wheel with the chain thing that pulls the cars through the wash.”
“So the extra $50 went towards…”
“Yeah, she got the fifty. That was the word-of mouth part. You’ve never seen customers leave the car wash so happy. It was great for repeat business, but I bet their old ladies were wondering why their cars were suddenly so clean. Sometimes two washes a day.”
“How did you find out about it?”
“I had a car detailer ask me why she was climbing into so many cars. We usually just point the way to help customers align with the chain track.”
“Sorry about that.”
“Yeah, me too. I never sold so many $12 washes.”