Are you looking for more ways to enhance the customer experience? Do you know that SCENT can IMPACT your bottom line?  Studies show that scent is the strongest of the five senses and generates 75% of all daily emotions. Scent affects mood, concentration, memory recall and emotion. Paying attention to the role of scent in your car wash can give you the competitive edge.

So how does your car wash smell?  Noxious odors will create an unhealthy work environment and adversely affect employees.  Unhappy employees can lead to poor work performance, weak customer relations, unhappy customers, and potentially decreased sales.

Scent marketing is a growing trend utilized by all types of businesses.  Using the right scent will add value to your brand.  Customers experiencing pleasant fragrances throughout the wash will react positively and most likely return for another wash.  On the flip side, if the customer experience includes unpleasant reclaim odors or unpleasant scents, your customer will associate a negative memory with your car wash.  This negative memory may influence them to find another car wash.

Not only does scent produce return customers, it can also improve employee productivity.  Certain fragrances like lemon have shown a 54% increase in workplace productivity.  Now if you change to a lemon fragrance are we saying you will see a 54% increase in sales? Not exactly but you may notice employees having a little extra pep in their step or they may interact more positively with customers.  Customers will respond more favorably to upsell suggestions from an employee with a positive attitude.

HAPPY CUSTOMER, HAPPY EMPLOYEES, NOW WHAT? 

Does scent marketing stop there?  No.  When you arrive at the car wash in the morning you may notice the pleasing fragrance of your products. Fast forward to the end of the day, do you still smell those fragrances? How about by the end of the month?  Odds are you and your employees most likely do not notice the fragrances.  The pleasing scents are still there however you and your employees have a condition called nose blindness.

Could you and your employees be suffering from nose blindness?

Nose blindness is a naturally occurring adaptation of your body that leads to an inability to detect or distinguish common scents in your surroundings.  Nose blindness occurs with both pleasant and unpleasant odors.  By changing the scent profile of your car wash, you and your employees reap the benefits of new scents and have the opportunity to detect and correct sources if noxious odors.  At Ver-tech Labs we suggest changing out your fragrances each season (4x/year) or every 2 months (6x/year).

SCENT MARKETING

Now that you’re on board with developing a positive scent profile for your car wash, offer a SCENT EXPERIENCE. Using our BURST foaming detergent, you can target positive emotional responses like BOLD AND EXCITING, maybe calm and relaxing or a tropical getaway with our 6 standard fragrances.

Deliver a feeling of excitement with WILD CHERRY or EPIC BERRY.  Keep things relaxed and fresh with STAY CALM & CLEAN or CITRUS & SUNSHINE.  Offer an escape to a childhood memory with SUMMER DREAM or a mini staycation with VACA ALL DAY.

Don’t stop there.  Market FUN in your car wash and add a seasonal fragrance.  Can’t wait to splurge on that Pumpkin Spice Latte at the local coffee shop in the fall?  The same seasonal excitement can be built into our car wash.  Enhance the season with a fall favorite Pumpkin Spice or add holiday cheer with Balsam Frost.

Whatever the scent or season let fragrance enhance your customer’s experience, your brand and your car wash. Clean Better with Ver-tech.

 

Angie Elam | Marketing Specialist, Ver-tech Labs | aelam@ver-techlabs.com

References:

Scent Marketing Research | Retrieved January 26, 2020 from  Us.moodmedia.com/scent/scent-research/

10 Incredible Facts About Your Sense of Smell | Retrieved January 26, 2020 from Everydayhealth.com/news/incredible-facts-about-your-sense-smell/

What is Nose Blindness and How Can It Affect You?  | Retrieved January 28, 2020 from https://www.healthline.com/health/nose-blindness