Car wash mobile app - how it can help your business

937 15-02-24 Read Time: 8 min

The success of a carwash business depends on many factors – convenient location, quality technological equipment, loyal pricing policy, effective advertising. Almost every modern car wash has these advantages, so it can be difficult to stand out from the competition and attract regular customers, especially when the business is just starting. A universal solution for car wash development is to create a branded mobile application with separate interfaces for administrators and customers.

How does the app help grow a carwash business?

Increase audience trust and loyalty

Washing your car is a routine task that you don’t want to spend a lot of energy and time on. That is why customers appreciate the benefits of mobile applications that simplify this routine. They can make an appointment in seconds – just open the application, select the desired date and time, and specify the payment method. Minimal effort – maximum benefit. Such simple steps create a loyal audience, respect for the business and a high regard for carwash services.

Turn one-time customers into repeat customers

How a smartphone app turns one-time carwash visitors into repeat customers:

• The program reminds you that it’s time to wash your car and suggests a car wash;
• You can sign up online in a few seconds without having to call the receptionist;
• The application is always on your smartphone and available 24/7;
• Wherever the driver is – the application will work out a convenient route to the nearest car wash;
• The exact time of admission is fixed, services are provided without waiting in line – this attracts customers;
• Bonuses, discounts and promotions encourage customers to return to the company’s services.

Helps build a customer base

The app’s functionality allows you to work with your customer base to improve service – targeting a loyal audience, personalizing offers, and bringing back past users. Access to order history helps to provide customers with the most convenient and efficient solutions. The program stores contact information so that the company can contact the user outside the application if necessary. The database is segmented by various parameters for better targeting of advertising campaigns.

Expands marketing opportunities

A mobile application is an excellent tool for implementing an effective loyalty program. Bonus programs, discounted services, holiday gifts, and an accumulation system contribute to increasing sales and strengthening customer loyalty. You can strengthen your marketing strategy by using the mobile product as a modern, trendy tool for business promotion – run contextual and targeted advertising with a link to the application, raise the program’s position in the App Store and Google Play, develop SMM to popularize it in social networks.

Helps maintain accountability

A car wash is a constant flow of customers, a large number of services, works, operations and payments. To keep records in such conditions, a mobile application becomes extremely useful, allowing you to

• Track and report on real-time metrics;
• Customize document forms;
• Sample statistical data;
• Select metrics for analysis;
• Perform many other useful tasks.

Quickly generate reports to keep your finger on the pulse of how your carwash is performing and whether your business is moving in the right direction.

Simplifies the work of administrators

A mobile application simplifies day-to-day operations – processing orders, responding to inquiries, checking payments, etc. By empowering employees with an app, a company increases team productivity and reduces labor costs to complete tasks. Administrators and managers work less, save time on tedious manual operations, but produce better results. The number of human errors decreases and the accuracy of control, accounting and data processing increases. More resources are freed up to improve the quality of customer service without queues and to properly organize the work of departments.

Customer Interface in a Car Wash Application

The carwash customer downloads the app to their smartphone, registers using standard methods and enjoys all the benefits of the functionality:

• Personal Cabinet. The customer tracks bonus accrual, receives personalized offers, views and corrects future entries. The cabinet stores order history, contact information, personal preferences, payment information, and a personal account to control expenses.
• Recording Form. The customer selects an available date and time, creates a request, and the carwash administrator receives it immediately. Recording is done online without communication with staff, booked hours are automatically closed in the calendar.
• Online payment. Payment is made separately for each service, or the customer fills an account in the application from which the necessary amounts are later debited. Payments are made through secure acquiring services, the user’s financial information is reliably protected.
• Order status tracking. The client can see when the queue is coming, at what stage of work performance, when the washing will be completed. They can track the workload of the service in real time to plan their visit.
• Store of related products. The client buys tools, materials, components directly in the smartphone – for this purpose the application creates a functionality similar to an online store, where you can select, pay and order goods.
• Chat and feedback form. If there is a question, the customer can contact the administrator in the chat or leave a message in a special form. The history of correspondence is stored in the personal cabinet.
• Price and service calculator. A price list is created for general familiarization with the prices of individual services. The cost of a complex order can be calculated using the online calculator.
• Push notifications. Instant messages inform the client about changes in order status, bonus accrual, special offers, reminders about the next wash.
• Interactive map. This option is useful when the customer needs help finding a carwash location and creating a route.
• Bonus account. Bonuses for paid services are accumulated in the account and points earned are automatically applied to future orders.

Interface for the company – car wash automation program

The carwash administration receives a separate interface with special functions for automating work processes:

• Receive and process orders. Created records are automatically added to the calendar so you can track and schedule carwash workload, eliminating double bookings and order confusion.
• Feedback. The administrator can leave a message in the chat, answer the customer’s questions, set up notifications in the application.
• Queue and order fulfillment status control. The carwash employee can see the progress of each order and can take measures to organize the service properly.
• Synchronization with cameras. A video camera is used to determine license plate numbers and the time of the customer’s arrival and departure. The data is transferred to the application for analysis.
• Statistics and reports. In the application you can customize the report format, select data for statistics. Reports are saved as documents with the possibility to print them.
• Payment tracking. This information can be used for accounting and creating financial documents.
• Customer database. The application stores a database of carwash customers with contact information, order history and car information. The list can be sorted, filtered and selected according to various parameters.
• Integration with services. The application can be integrated with the company’s website, CRM system, SMS and IP telephony services.
• Price setting. The administrator enters and edits prices for each service, adjusts the price, sets the percentage of discounts.
• Stock and cost control. The mobile application has the functionality to maintain a warehouse of related products and control the consumption of water, detergents, materials.

How to Develop an Effective Carwash App

If you own a carwash business and are interested in a branded app, here are some things to consider when developing an app:

1. Consider the specifics of the business. A mobile application for a car wash should be tailored to the specifics of a particular company’s business processes. If universal solutions are offered, carefully consider whether such a software product will suit your business, whether you will have to make adjustments and compromises when using it, whether all tasks can be completed with a universal mobile application. The best option is to develop a product specifically for your carwash’s needs.
2. Analyze your competition. Download and test applications from competing carwashes, evaluate the quality of the interface and the convenience of the functionality. Take note of unsuccessful solutions and avoid repeating their mistakes. Find out how you can differentiate yourself and become the number one choice for customers.
3. Formulate a detailed mission statement. Define a list of business tasks and select appropriate features to address them so that the application will be useful to both users and the business. At this stage, you can’t do without the help of specialists who are well versed in mobile development and will help you optimize the functionality for your tasks within the budget.
4. If you need low-cost development, start with MVP. To reduce the price of a mobile app, choose the MVP format – a minimum viable product with basic functionality. This approach allows you to launch a car wash app with a relatively small investment, test the functionality, and then gradually develop the product as your business scales.
5. Work with an experienced developer. The task of creating an app should be entrusted to experienced professionals who will support the project on a turnkey basis – concept development, technical specification development, programming and design, launch and release to stores, technical support and promotion – that’s how our studio works.

Interested in the idea? KitApp team is ready to answer your questions and propose a quality app idea for your business.