Summer's here and the car wash isn't as busy. Here are a few suggestions on how to increase traffic during the slow months of summer.

1. Hold a Customer Appreciation Day. This can be an annual event for your wash each summer. Things you can do to increase traffic on that day:
   1. Give out free hotdogs, chips and sodas to everyone that comes.
   2. Ask neighboring businesses, suppliers and vendors to join in and share the expense.
   3. Have a wheel to spin for free washes, vending items and promotional items. Be sure to ask any neighboring businesses, suppliers and vendors if there would be items or coupons they would like to contribute.
   4. Be sure to advertise the event. You can advertise in the local paper, put a sign in front of the wash promoting the date of the event and/or hand out flyers giving the day and time. Be sure to promote your event well in advance.
   5. Offer a special or discount for coming and getting a wash that day.

Testimonial: We offered a free basic full service wash to every customer who came in that day. We did over 1000 full service and detail cars and over 100 cars an hour several hours in a row. It was shocking how many customers up-graded their wash to the higher packages and also detail services. Our customers talked about this event for weeks prior to the event and months after. It built solid word of mouth advertising and loyalty of our customers.

2. Parades are great for local advertising during the summer months. Ideas for the parade:
   1. Decorate a float or a vehicle with the car wash logo and information on it.
   2. See about renting a fancy sports car or a type of vehicle that will really stand out.
   3. Hand out discounts or coupons for car washes.

Testimonial: We entered into a local parade. Dressed up a pickup truck with our logo and information and went through the parade route. The most fun part was, this parade was in the middle of summer and we hooked up a couple of 55 gallon drums of water to a mister to mist the crowd as we went by. This was a big hit, to keep everyone cool, and reinforce the car wash theme. We handed out free exterior washes to people lined up on the parade route. People appreciated this and returned them at a great pace. These were done as business card style marketing, keeping the production cost down and not overwhelming the potential customer with a large flyer.

These are just a couple of the ways to increase your traffic during the summer months.

From the Lustra Team – Keep Shining

For more information go to LustraBear.com.