Depending on your marketing strategy, it's likely that your employees will have to learn and understand a variety of special offers that accompany direct mail pieces, newspaper ads or promotions. Depending on the offer and circumstance, dealing with these discounts may be as easy as a keypunch or as complicated as tracking down a manager or owner.

The first step to discounts is deciding which offers your wash will promote and accept. They can range from coupons to specials to employee benefits. The next step is making sure that your employees are ready to implement whichever programs you decide on.

At Benny's Car Wash, Baton Rouge, LA, we offer a wide assortment of ways for customers to earn discounts. Each involves a unique set of actions to ensure they are accounted for properly.

One long-standing and successful discount we offer is our Wednesday Special. As the name suggests, this special is available each Wednesday and the rules for it are simple: If a customer pays in cash, meaning no checks or charges, they are entitled to a significant discount off the basic full-service carwash or off our Turbo Wash.

The price for a full-service carwash on Wednesday is $7. For a Turbo Wash, the price is $15.95. These prices represent better than a 25 percent discount from the regular prices, and are constant for all types of vehicles -- cars, trucks and vans.

Because it's a regular special, we've made tracking it easy for our cashiers. To record a Wednesday Special on the register, we've designated two keys emblazoned with "Discount Wed" and "Discount Turbo" respectively.

The cashier needs only to depress them when appropriate after the customer comes to the register to pay their ticket and indicates that they are paying cash for the services. Ordinarily, there is no cash discount on other packages for the day.

Coupons

Benny's also chooses to coupon its services in periodicals or through the mail. We are fairly generous to customers with our coupon acceptance procedures, but insist that our employees follow the rules as outlined (see sidebar). Ordinarily these coupons are in denominations of $1, $2 or $3.

Again, to make things easy for our cashiers we have designated keys on the register. All cashiers have to do is press the appropriate key to provide the customer with their discount.

In rare cases, coupons will be presented that are in irregular denominations or discounts in excess of $3. For these transactions, cashiers enter the appropriate code, then indicate the amount of the customer's coupon so that it may be correctly subtracted from the total due.

New Car Deals

Another promotion we offer is to grant the owners of new vehicles "New Car Dealer" cards. They not only work as promotions, but are an attempt to gain the lion's share of the new car upkeep market.

With a card, the customer is entitled to as many regular full-service carwashes as they desire for a period of one month. These cards do not extend to such things as detail services, package specials or extra services.

We do allow customers to upgrade to a special, however. They simply must pay the difference in price between the service they desire and the price of a full-service wash.

We tell our cashiers to remain vigilant for customers trying to use the card on inappropriate cars. Unlike coupons, Benny's is very rigid about the expiration dates on the "New Car Dealer" cards.

When a customer presents a New Car Dealer card, cashiers have to remember to make sure the automobile license number on the card matches the temporary plate on the car itself. They also have to check that the make and model on the card matches the make and model of the car. Finally, they have to be sure that the vehicle is in the current model year and that the card is not expired.

Whenever the owner is using a New Car Dealer card, we insist that all of the above conditions be met. If any of them are not, the cashiers are instructed to notify a manager immediately.

Once confirmed, though, the recording of a New Car Dealer card special is keyed the same as any other -- by depressing the appropriate key on the register. But there is an added step. The customer also has to sign the sales ticket, adding the name of the dealership from which they bought the car and the expiration date on the card.

Senior Discounts

Some senior citizens -- those more concerned with their money than their years -- will ask about the senior citizen discount. The handling of this type of discount, worth $1, is easy. Again, applying is as easy as punching a key.

For the cashier to administer the citizen discount, the customer must ask for it. We think it's inappropriate -- and possibly embarassing -- to ask someone their age. We don't offer the discount unless the customer asks about it.

We do insist that the discount cannot be provided after a transaction is closed. The customer must ask for the discount prior to their paying their ticket.

Employee Freebies

At Benny's, the recipients of our most generous discounts are our employees. Employees receive 50 percent off any wash service on their own car. If they don't own a car, the discount applies to the car that is their primary mode of transportation to and from work.

The employee discount includes the entire spectrum of specials and detail services available to the customer. We do make an exception for our Quick Lubes. Employees receive this service at a lesser discount.

Furthermore we offer two ways for the employee to pay for their services. They can pay in the conventional way, common to all of our customers, or they can elect to have the amount automatically deducted from their paycheck.

Again, we have programmed appropriate keys on the register to handle these transactions.

Whatever the discount, it's important to ensure that you have policies in place to handle them. Whether it's preprogrammed register keys, training for employees or signs to instruct customers, written procedures are essential. Standards ensure that employees will be able to quickly and efficiently award appropriate discounts, so customers can be kept happy.

Paul Bourgeois is business manager of Benny's Car Wash and Oil Change, Baton Rouge, LA.