While your convenience store is most likely already a fixture in town, a car wash further ingrains your site in the fabric of the community. Its success depends on the residents, so make sure you’re returning the love and maintaining an open dialogue. Here are two community engagement strategies to help you connect with your customers and your community.
Make a splash with a grand-opening event
Celebrate all the effort and planning that went into your car wash with a grand-opening event. This promotion will allow the community to join in the celebration. This not only applies to a new car wash, but also to a retrofit of equipment or just about any type of major site upgrade.
Leverage the grand opening leading up to the event by featuring a countdown on your facility. Either a digital display or large banner, the countdown will serve as a constant reminder to all who drive by about the all-new car wash. The countdown could also be part of your local media strategy should you choose to partner with a local outlet. Local radio and newspapers are cost-effective ways to reach potential customers. Both mediums can reinforce the countdown, offer on-air prizes and tease a grand prize.
A large draw could be a grand-prize raffle where one winner will receive free car washes for a year. A great way to create engagement leading up to your grand opening is by allowing individuals to enter online. Also, you should require all entrants to give you their email address so you can build your e-newsletter database and continue to share updates with them. Multiple entries can be earned by visiting the car wash in its first week of business. The grand-prize winner could be announced exactly one week after the grand-opening event.
Connect with your community
Are you involved with any nonprofits or community organizations in town? If so, start with those organizations as potential partners for a mutually beneficial relationship. One way to build relationships with these organizations is through a community “give back.”
Partner with a local charity or organization for a day and donate a fixed portion of the day’s total profit directly to the organization. This will generate positive publicity and will give a large group of people an incentive to promote your event. It’s a win-win for everyone involved. Try it out and gauge the response and its success. You may find yourself hosting a community give back once a week, once a month, or just a few times a year. This is an effective way to boost business and demonstrate commitment to the communities you serve, which can also be amplified through social media.
Today’s customers are very in tune with their social-media platforms, and a profile for your business offers a great way to engage digitally. In addition to engaging with the organizations that you’re supporting, you can serve digital ads to targeted audiences through social media. For example, feature a happy customer and their clean car on a Facebook ad targeted at people within a 10-mile radius of your location. When done effectively, social media can be a great way to establish your car wash as part of the community. And remember, not every post should be about your business. Take note of local happenings and engage with others in the community.
Once you begin to connect with your community, continue the conversation through a customer loyalty program. Look for more on that in our next article.
Do you have questions on how to increase your car-wash traffic? Feel free to reach out to us.
This post is sponsored by OPW Vehicle Wash Solutions