Car Wash Payment Methods in 2022

The success of your car wash hinges on your ability to make your services available to consumers. If your consumers can’t easily pay for your services, you’re not going to attract a consistent consumer audience.

Today’s payment methods are increasingly diversified, though. Trying to accommodate all these payment methods can seem like an impossible challenge if you don’t have the right resources on hand. That’s why Washify is here to help.

When you upgrade your car wash’s payment kiosks – ideally pairing them with a state-of-the-art POS system – you can accept all manner of payment methods for your washes. In turn, you’ll see more consumers come to take advantage of the options your lot has for them.

Up and Coming Payment Methods for Car Washes

The rate at which today’s technology is changing is difficult to keep up with. All around the world, economic transactions are becoming safer and more digitized. If you want to make your car wash competitive, you need to be prepared to accommodate these newer forms of payment.

This doesn’t mean you need to start accepting bitcoin for your services. Instead, you can upgrade your current car wash payment methods to make them more technologically friendly.

Contactless Payment

Contactless payments are, in many ways, still in development across the United States. At this point in time, consumers can engage in contactless payments by using their credit cards, their cellphones, or wearable devices.

Accommodating a technology that’s still in development is tricky. You don’t want to invest in a product that, come tomorrow, may be out of date. That said, contactless payment kiosks make self-service, express, and in-bay automatic car washes faster for all parties involved. You can work with professionals to determine what kind of touchpad might best suit your car wash.

EMV Chip Cards

EMV chip cards began appearing in Europe over a decade ago. Nowadays, the vast majority of the American public has a chipped credit card. These chips are designed to protect consumers’ transactions with additional encryptions. However, they require specialized technology to use.

If your car wash payment kiosks don’t have a chip reader, it may be time to invest in one. Chip readers are relatively inexpensive to install and often come with the strip reader that consumers need to participate in traditional credit card transactions. When you spend the money to upgrade your current payment kiosk, you’ll find that you rapidly start to make it back.

Apple Pay and Google Wallet

Digital wallets are also becoming increasingly popular, especially in businesses that want to keep their transactions moving. To accept payments from a digital wallet, you’ll need to have a business account set up on your Apple, Samsung, or Google device.

You can work within your settings to either automatically accept consumers’ payments or manually track your income. Alternatively, you can invest in an NFC-enabled terminal to let consumers swipe their phones, much as they used to swipe their credit cards.

Traditional Car Wash Payment Methods

Even though car washes around the nation are changing, there are some payment methods that (for the time being) seem as though they’re going to remain staples within the industry. Even as you upgrade your pay kiosks to contend with new forms of payment, you’ll want to make sure you leave behind options that allow for the more traditional means of payment.

Cash

Cash may be growing less prevalent in today’s economy, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t in play. You’ll want your payment kiosks to have a slot for dollar bills. You can even retain a slot for coins. 

While these slots may not see as much use as your contactless payment terminals, your customers will appreciate having these means through which they can pay for your services.

Credit and Debit Cards

Like cash, credit and debit cards are part of how today’s economy continues to work. If someone hasn’t gotten a chip or contactless form of payment, their only means of paying for your services may lie with their credit card.

Fortunately, even most of today’s touch-based systems still have a credit card reader for traditional card payments. Make sure your card reader is up to date and well-maintained to get the most use out of your pay kiosks.

How to Prepare Your Car Wash for Diverse Methods of Payment

If you’ve been relying on older payment kiosks to bring in consumers, you’ll need to consider replacements when upgrading your lot. You can install contactless car wash payment kiosks at the head of your lot, essentially allowing consumers to choose their own services and payment methods without interference from your staff.

Alternatively, you can use tablet-based payment kiosks to make money off of your staff’s smiling faces. Washify can equip you with the tablets and POS system accessories you need to make each customer interaction as smooth and efficient as possible.

When to Invest in an Integrated, Cloud-Based Car Wash POS System

If you’ve struggled to keep up with the demands of multiple lots, or if you’ve noticed a drop off in consumer attention due to an inability to pay, it may be time for you to upgrade your car wash’s POS system. Today’s POS systems can accommodate all of the above forms of payment, making it easier for locals to make the most out of your car wash.

More than that, though, car wash POS systems allow you to track the transactions your consumers make while on your lot. With this consumer data on hand, you can determine which of your services is the most popular and which may need better advertising. Car wash license plate recognition even helps you determine who in your community prefers your services.

Car wash POS systems’ automatic encryption protects your consumers’ data from hackers. Advertising these transactions as encrypted will also make more consumers feel comfortable doing business in your lot.

Washify Meets All Your Car Wash POS System Needs

If you’re ready to upgrade the way you accept payments for your car wash services, look no further than Washify. Washify lists among the best POS systems available not only to car washes but to gas stations and other roadside attractions.

You can get a demo of our services at any time. When you’re ready, we’ll let you see how our cloud-based POS system can transform your car wash into a more efficient, consumer-friendly organization.