How would you re-design the carwash?

Question

How would you re-design the carwash?

Asked at Google over a year ago

10.5k views

Product Design category

& 3 other companies

Asked at

& 3 other companies

10.5k views

How to answer Product Design questions

Interview Guide

Clarify

Who do we want to re-design the carwash for? Assume for private car owners
Why do you we want to re-design this? Is there an ulterior goal? No
Are we talking about manual or automated car washes? Both
What scale are we talking about? National carwash company
Timeline to complete this? ASAP

Customer Pain Points

Slow - car washes can take time, and people often can wait hours for it
Inefficient - many car washes are run by humans, with humans cleaning your car
Many different types of washes - choice paralysis
Inconvenience of location - not everyone has access to a car wash

Solutions

Bring the the carwash into the digital age, with applications on wait times and locators. A mobile application can help users more easily se how long the lines are and where they can wash their cars. This will also help them more easily understand what their options are.
Fully automated car wash location, wherein you do not need to interact with a human to have your car washed. From the point-of-sale to the actual washing, can we have customers only interact with a machine?
Improve the locality of car washes, such that they are located in places where people congregate and park. This includes mall parking lots, downtown areas, and any town center.
Simply the assembly line of a car wash, by making each person there a specialist in a specific car wash element. At scale, each person is only responsible for a certain piece, thus making the process much faster.

Prioritize Solutions

I'm going to take a big swing here and incorporate many of the above ideas. I would like to build a car wash, which is able to travel around a parking lot, and is able to almost fully automate the entire washing process. I envision this machine as a huge truck like car, with two arms that can surround a car. These arms are responsible for the wetting, washing, and drying of the car. With a fully mobile solution, large parking lots can rent this machine, and operate it in their parking lot. Lots can then have a section of the lot, with larger parking spots, where the automatic car washing machine can do its job. Customers then pay the lot for the wash, and designate their cars for the wash. This model is scalable, as the operations are franchised out, and is almost fully automatic.

One downside of this solution is that it may be too efficient, and will actually waste water with too many car washes. That's bad for the planet, so in this design process, we also must take into a account a water efficient method. Maybe we can try using sprayers to mist instead of spray the cars.
Another trade off is that this solution is likely years into the future. If we assume self-driving cars are going to reduce private car ownership, the value of a car wash will diminish for the private car market. But this solution can also be used for non-privately owned cars.

viaro29 · Answer 3 · 2019-03-30T06:31:55+0000

There is only so much one can do to improve a manual process, so I'd make the assumption that the desire is to improve the automatic car washes

Pain points:

1. Have to GO to a carwash

2. Have to WAIT at a carwash

3. Have to KEEP A TRACK of when my car needs a carwash

4. Have to PAY for a carwash

5. Lots of WASTE (water and electricity for dryer etc)

Possible solutions:

1. Implement water recycling at existing carwashes (improvement as it saves water for the environment)

2. Default option to wash and NOT use dryer. Or charge additional $0.50 or $1 for dryer to intentionally increase friction. Since in most cases cars tend to dry out just fine by driving them home this would end up saving a lot of electricity.

Both these are not necessarily benefitting the user, but are still improvements that hugely benefit the environment. Being a environmentally conscious PM, I would not underestimate the value of these improvements. By doing good, people feel good as well. So there is an emotional win win here

Now if we were to solely think from a user's perspective alone

1. Combining the refueling + car wash together. Why does in 2019 fueling and washing happen at different locations? The carwash should allow for fuel plug to be automatically plugged in while was (call out for safety risk assessment, but should be doable in 2019)

2. Car wash experience could be improved by working with big box retailers such as Walmart/Target etc where industrial grade car wash lines could be installed that washed the cars as the patrons shopped. This is a win-win - Stores get more customers and get them OFTEN and customers get a "free" carwash while they loosen their purse inside the store. (trade-off callout would be capital cost, however should be possible to build such a thing with today's tech at lower cost)

3. Have "Roomba-like" robots which go from car to car in parking garages and parking lots. They are super "shy" so if they see (thanks to their tons of sensors) any car movement they duck under cover so that their is no safety collision issues and only when all is clear they venture "out" and use a combination of cameras/robotics/ml/ai to clean the cars in the lots. Since we are talking about cameras - routing/prioritization can be based upon how dirty the cars are and what's closest to the current car being cleaned. Benefit to the user - they don't need to think and plan

4. Car companies or paint companies can create custom "non-stick" paints/coatings which don't let dirt stick

5. Self cleaning cars. If self driving cars is possible, could self cleaning cars be far from future?

Cheers!

sasha34j · Answer 4 · 2018-08-12T23:15:11+0000

We could start by asking what we are trying to achieve. Are we talking about manual car wash shops or automatic?
Since manual wash takes longer, but provide better results, let´s assume that this will be the case.
What are we trying to achieve?
Should the car wash:
– be faster?
– use less water?
– provide extra value added services to drivers? Waiting room with TV, internet, snacks, coffee?
Let´s assume we want to increase the user experience by minimizing lines and waiting times and providing extra services while the client waits to have her car washed.
Let´s also assume that the typical car wash client is women who work during the week and don´t have much time.
Possible solutions:

– App where the client could schedule a time for having her car washed. The app could offer loyalty and discounts to retain customers. For each appointment, the client would get a voucher for a free coffee in the lounge area. Payment would be integrated in the app. Partnerships with Food Delivery services could be established, so the client could order dinner to go and get it delivered during the time window when the car is being washed.
What we could do first:
1 – Implement the scheduling feature
2 – Integrate payment
3 – Implement discounts/vouchers
4 – Integrate with food delivery services

PM Team · Answer 5 · 2019-04-17T03:57:20+0000

Clarify Questions:

What car? Private? Public Bus? Rental car? Toy car?
Price range? Lux? Avg. consumer? F1 racing car?
What kinds of wash? Auto? Manual?
Where is it? Needs to driver over? Or the service will be delivered?
What city? Suburb? City? Doesn't matter
Car type? Auto? Electric? Gas? Doesn't matter
Where is the problem? Within the wash or before/after the wash?

Objective

Improve the carwash efficient before and after the car wash

Users

Private --> largest size, most frequently used user base
Public Bus
Rental car
Toy car

Pain points

As a private car owner, I need to find out where offers car wash.
As a private car owner, I want to know when is a good to time wash my car (weather issue)
As a private car owner, I don't want to get out of the car every time to select and pay before the car wash
As a private car owner, I want to customize the auto wash plan that is specific to my car type.

After listing out all possible pain points, we want to focus on solving the #3,4 today. Because:

#1 has been solved by Google Map, even though the experience isn't flawless
#2 could be predicted by the weather report.
#3, 4 will happen to every user who wants to get the car washed and it is an urgent issue to solve

Solutions

Camera to scan the license plate:
1. Install a camera on the top of the car wash house. Every time when there is a car coming, the camera can scan the license plate number and associates the car with a user account.
2. The product could recognize the car type and provide the wash plan accordingly
3. The charge will directly go to Google Pay
4. The receipts and car wash reports will be shared with the user.
A sensor on the car to identify when the car needs to be washed
1. The sensor can detect how dirty the car is
2. Notify the user when the user needs a wash both internally and externally.

Cut/Prio

	Cost to build	Achieve on the user goal
Camera to scan the license plate	L	H
A sensor on the car	H	H

Metrics

Avg. e2e carwash time reduced
Retention --> user satisfaction

Conclusion

The question is to re-design the carwash experience. After narrowing it down to a specific user segment, we were able to identify the goal of designing the product is to improve customer efficiency before and after start washing the car.

Among all the pain points that the user has, being able to save time and expedite the washing experience is the most urgent and common problem today. The solution we provide is to install a camera on the top of the car wash house and detect the car owner ID, car type, and other information in order to provide the most optimized wash plan.

Another benefit of this feature is that the user can pay the car wash via Google Pay so that the user doesn't need to pay separately. And the car wash report will be generated to the user as well.

We want to measure the avg. e2e car wash time as the north star metrics to understand whether the solution achieves our goal. In addition, we want to track the retention users within 60 days to learn the customer satisfication.

PM Team · Answer 6 · 2018-08-12T23:16:13+0000

I would ask by clarifying the objective of re-designing the car wash. is it increasing revenue or customer experience. Assuming the objective is to increase revenue. I will also clarify that we are talking about the car wash in the US that can service majority of the consumer cars. Having said that i want to think about few pain points that i see today while using the car wash, discuss few ways of mitigating those challenges, brainstorm the benefits and challenges of each and than make a recommendation on the design. I would assume that the car wash includes both automatic and manual car wash.

Major pain points for users are:
1) Wait time – Typically consumers arrive at car wash after work and usually have to wait for few minutes before the service. This has discouraged me with at times from using the car service.
2)Quality Concerns – In the automatic car wash, as a user i am always concern about if the robotic arms used in the car wash were properly calibrated and the mops they are using are clean so that their is no mark left on my car. This becomes more important as we talk about premium category of cars.

To address these consumer pain-points I have a couple of options:

1) Desktop website/application – This can let users reserve the car wash in advance so that their is more predictability in service time. i will also let consumers choose an option to have the car wash at a regular cadence. i will integrate the payment service in the application.

2)Install cameras – i will propose that we take close pictures of the car before and after the service so that consumers have peace of mind that their car is cleaned well and their are no damages to the car because of robotic controls in the car.

3) SMS service – Although smart phones are common in the city, many users are still using non-smart phones. In order to reach out to those customers, I will think of an SMS service where consumers can text and reserve a slot.

2) Promotion Programs – I will start a loyalty program where customers get a free car wash after X number of car washes. Offer discount to regular customers, invite customer for a car wash after a storm, offer different bundles of service such as monthly car wash for a reduce price, discount for 1st time customers etc.

I will choose launching an application as it addresses all pain points and images of the vehicle can be uploaded the the customer account itself. Although, developing an app will require capital investment for the service and the car wash service might have to outsource development to a 3rd party as they don’t have expertise in it.

Joe_riley · Answer 7 · 2021-04-17T04:57:59+0000

Understanding the situation

Is this a carwash for consumer vehicles or focused on corporations with fleets of vehicles like fedex, trucking companies etc? For the sake of this exercise, we'll just assume we're focused on standard pedestrian vehicles. Is it a manual or auto-mated carwash? Both.

What is our company, what do we do, and what is our motivation for this redesign? Are we trying to improve the customer experience or focus on monetization? Any additional constraints? Seeing as how this is a write up, we can't exactly get clarification here. With that said, let's just focus on engagement.

User Personas

Car Afficionado: Really into cars, likes to keep his looking brand new. Probably has a luxury vehicle, a two seater of some sort. Attention to detail is important.
Off Roaders: Often take their vehicle camping or on dirt roads in the mountain so their cars get seriously dirty.
Car wash small business owners: Owners of your stereotypical neighborhood mom and pop car wash. May have an auto shop attached to it.
Car Wash conglomerate: Chain business, may have been consolidated with PE backing. Want an improvement they can scale to several different markets.
Family Man, Joe: Middle aged, has kids. Gets car washed when it needs it / is visibly dirty. Sedan or something larger like a minivan or SUV.

Let's focus on the Family Man user segment. This sort of average Joe use case is what we can reasonably imagine to be the largest of the user segments we've listed above.

Pain Points / Needs

Washing the car is just another chore / thing they have to do. The more convenient the better.
Kids are often eating in the car, spilling stuff, muddy soccer cleats. Dirty interior.
May need a little urging to get it done, its not like a flat tire that needs to be replaced immediately
Don't know how often they should wash their car / what is normal

Solutions

Now that we have a better understanding of what some of the Family Man pain points and needs are let's go ahead and brainstorm some solutions to their problems with a focus on engagement:

Automated emails and notification reminders for the customer to get their carwashed. For example, if its Spring pollen has covered their car and we detect that they are 0.5 miles away from a car wash we can send them a mobile push notification to go get the carwashed.
Frequent Flier Card but for the carwash. Users accumulate points each time they get the car washed and with enough points they can get a free car detailing or waxing. Points will expire or decay over time.
On the exit of the carwash we can automatically snap a photo of how beautiful and clean their car is. Include this photo in our reminders or promotional material to them.
Offer a highly convenient carwash delivery service where we go to the customers house and was their car in their driveway instead of them coming to us

Out of the above solutions, I am going to suggest we focus on prioritizing solution #2 becuase our goal with this redesign is to increase customer engagement. This feature will directly entice users to come back again to spend their reward points and open up an avenue for us to have several more touch points with the customer. For example, in order to sign up for our User Loyalty program customers will need to create an account and give us their contact information. With their contact information we can send them coupons and monthly specials on different offerings we have as well notifications for when they are eligible to unlock free services with their reward points. We could take this a step further and either require users install our app to be eligible for reward points or offer them bonus points for downloading it. This would give us the ability to send push notifications to our customers instead of just the standard email or text notifications.

Additionally, we could offer customers additional reward points for completing various tasks. For example, if they share a picture of their freshly washed car to social media and tag us in it they could receive an additional 100 reward points.

Summary

In order to increase engagement amongst the Family Man user segment, we are going to offer a customer loyalty program where users can acquire points by engaging with us and then redeem them for services like a detailing or a waxing. This will address some of the Family Man's pain points such as needing some urging to get it done and hopefully provides them an additional little dopamine hit for getting a chore done so it seems like less of a pain in the butt next time.

hjc · Answer 8 · 2020-08-05T13:41:52+0000

Clarifications:

Where is the carwash, is it on earth? on the moon? or on Mars? If I can choose, I will choose Mars [Sure, go ahead]
Is the cars manned or unmanned? I would assum it's manned, otherwise we don't need to bother too much to wash them [Sounds Good]
Why would the user like to wash the car? If I take a guess, the user would like to wash the car everytime they would like to return to Mars base camp, to prevent unknown virus or germs from entering the base camp. [Exactly]
Are there any constraints? such as water availability? [Available, but precious], Power Availability? [Abundant] Cost? [Any new supply of material need to come from earth, so extremely expensive]

User

The direct users are the residents at the Mars colony, who need to pass through the car wash to remove all dirt, virus and germs before entering the base camp.
The mechanics are the indirect user, who need to be able to service the car wash, and repair hardward/software issues.
The government at the Mars colony is also the customer, they need to pay for the construction, maintenance and operation of the facility.

Here for the interest of time, I will focus on the residents.

User Needs

Residents need to stay inside the car to avoid exposure to hazodus virus and germs.
Residents need to avoid bringing any dirt, virus and germs into the base camp.
Residents need to be able to complete the car wash before the oxygen supply on the car run out.
Residents need to be able to safely exit the car wash in case of facility failure.

Prioritization

I would like to prioritize in the following way:

Safety: we definitely doesn't wanna bring any hazard back into the base camp, since it affects the whole population.
Reliability: we definitely doesn't wanna the facility to fail during wash as it endangers the user
Capacity: we wanna make sure we have enough concurrent capacity to deal with peak traffic, so that all involved residents can return within reasonable wait time.
Speed: we wanna mimize the duration of a single car wash.

Solution

P0: To ensure no hazard will be brought back to the base camp, the car wash will look like an air-tight box with 2 gates on both ends. The exterior gate can open to allow Mars car to get into the car wash, then it will close to maintain complete airtightness; The car wash will spray sanitizer fluid all over the car to soften dirts and kill germs, then the car wash will create strong air flow to blow off all residue, and recycle all material. The car wash can then heat up to dry the car and ensure all germs and virus are killed. Then the interior gate will open to allow the washed car to enter the base camp.
P0: For reliability, I can think of 2 designs in case of facility failure during car wash. Option 1 is to allow backup power from the base camp, and full mechanical redundancy in the car wash. Option 2 is to allow the resident to safely exit the car wash through a exit tube connecting to the car through standard interface. Then facility mechanic can enter the car wash wearing protection gear to repair it. I personally like the 2nd option, as it simplifies the individual design, and the chances of such failure is very low, hard to justify full redundancy.
P1: For capacity, I will design multiple independant car washes, to handle return traffic during peak hours.
P0: For cost, all water and gas will be carefully recycled to minimize cost.
P2: For speed, there are multiple ways to minimize the wash duration. Personally as long as this duration is well within the Oxygen Supply time of the car, this is a clear P2 rather than P1.

Summary

In short, the car wash I would like to design is an essential facility for the Mars colony base camp, which can ensure no virus, germs enters into the base camp, has high reliability, high capacity and cost efficient through 100% recycling of supplies.

Swati A · Answer 9 · 2020-04-12T13:56:59+0000

First let’s start by understanding what kind of car wash it is that we want to re-design? Few initial kinds of car wash that come to mind are:

· Manual car wash where someone from a car wash company washes the car for you

· Manual car wash where you wash your own car manually

· Automated car wash where you sit in the car and drive through for the car wash

· Car wash for Businesses (e.g. an in-house car wash for Audi in their service/sales center)

· Car wash for individuals (e.g. public car wash centers available to you and me)

Would you like to share any insights on what kind of car wash we are re-designing here? Let’s assume we want to re-design an automated public car wash center (drive through car wash) for individuals.

Would you like to share any insights on why we are looking to re-design a drive through car wash? Few reasons that come to mind are:

· Too many steps involved in the existing drive through car wash

· Process is not user friendly and difficult to understand

· Customer complaints

· Decline in customers coming to the car wash

· Overall time per car wash is too high

Let’s assume all of the above. Do we have any additional insights into what kind of customer complaints we have been getting or why we’ve seen decline in customers coming to the car wash or would you like me to make assumptions? Let’s assume, customers are complaining about the increasing wait times in queue, complicated process and long time to get through car wash end to end. Let’s assume these are also the reasons why we are seeing decline in the customers coming to the car wash.

Now, let’s look at the who are the users of this drive through car wash. Few users that come to mind are:

· Owner of the car

· Driver of the car (friends/someone driving a rental car)

· Young adult

· Aged adults

· Passenger in the passenger’s seat (indirect user)

· Kids and pets in the back of the car (indirect user)

· Handicapped drivers

Is there any specific user that you’d like me to focus on? The reasons we’ve identified above for the re-design are applicable for all these users above.

Now that we know why we are re-designing a drive through car wash and who its users are, let’s jot down the goal of a drive through car wash and some of the customer needs

The goal of a drive through car wash is helping users clean their cars without having to do anything themselves. At its core it aims at providing users convenience. All you have to do is bring your car and drive through to get it washed. Since the whole process is automated, it also helps businesses run a service without the need for personnel.

Customer needs are:

a) As a user, I want to not wait in long queues to wash my car, so that I can get to more important things quicker

b) As a user with kids/pet in my car, I want my kids/pet to have something to do while the car is being washed, so that they don’t get bored/throw tantrums

c) As a user, I want the car wash itself to take lesser time, so I can get out of there quicker

d) As a user, I want help understanding the car wash options and instructions, so that I can choose the correct option for me and go through the car wash myself without any help

In order to prioritize which customer need to tackle first, I’m going to make some assumptions, feel free to correct my assumptions if you feel the need to do so.

Let’s assume that a typical car wash:

· Takes ~20mins from getting into the queue to getting out of the car wash

· Average washing & drying of the car takes about 7 mins

· Average wait time in queue is ~13 mins

· Average time per user at the pay machine is 5 mins. When there is a queue, these 5 mins are part of the 13mins we accounted for earlier. When there is no queue, this is the time a user takes to even get started

For a 7mins car wash, 5mins to just pay and choose the right option seems like a lot. Similarly, the average wait time in a queue is almost double the time it takes for the actual wash. Based on these assumptions, I’d prioritize customer use case a) and d) above the other two. Solving these two will also reduce the need to solve for b).

We still need to identify which one of these to solve first. The time a user spends waiting in queues is the biggest time consumer at the car wash, but the time at the machine and time during car wash is core to the process of car washing. A user might not always encounter a wait but will always have to use the machine & follow instructions, in order to complete their car wash journey. It is also core to the goal of our car wash which is to offer convenience to the user. An easier to understand and use machine and instructions will help the user not feel frustrated with the process. Imagine waiting for 13mins in queue and then having to go through a machine and instructions that you don’t understand easily. Thus, I would prioritize improving the pay machine/instructions before addressing long wait times in queue.

Let’s breakdown the problem to see what kind of solutions we can come up with. Let’s look at the process of using the pay machine and process of going through the car wash:

· You choose a car wash option e.g. basic wash & dry (no tires), basic wash & dry (with tires), basic wash-dry-wax (no tires), wash-dry-wax (with tires)

· Then you choose your payment method e.g. wash code, card, cash for which you need to go inside the station, membership card

· Once payment is completed and there is no car in front of you, you follow instructions to enter the wash area, stop where the sign asks you to, put car in park, make sure all windows & moon roofs are closed and let the wash happen

· Then you drive slowly ahead little by little based on your judgement to allow the dryer to dry your whole car and for the waxing to take place

Possible solutions

a) The screen on which the options are presented are small and not too much detail is provided about each option. Add option to read description about each option and/or a comparison chart that details which parts of the car are cleaned in each option along with price. This way the user can make a more informed decision

o Pro: User is presented with more information upfront to make more informed decision. Little investment/effort to make the change

o Con: For an inexperienced washer text info might not be the best way to explain what tire cleaning means or the benefit of waxing

b) We could add videos for each option to better explain each option

o Pro: Higher cost/effort for content creation. Clearer understanding of options by the user

o Con: Time taken to view each video and take decision, might actually increase the decision-making time

c) Hire a rep to help users at the pay machine & explain the options

o Pro: Best help for customers, they can ask other questions as well

o Con: Defeats purpose of drive through car wash due to use of personnel. Personnel will not be fully utilized at all times. Cost and maintenance/training of personnel to the company

d) Note (not solution): Payment instructions are usually pretty standard across these kinds of machines, so no need to improve this piece of the process. At max, we could re-visit the instructions displayed for each to make sure it is clear customer knows what to do next

e) Once inside, have a digital display which changes and instructs the user based on which step the user is at during the car wash. E.g. msg for when user is still getting car in right position on the plates. Once user’s car is in place, ask user to put car in park, close all doors windows moon-roofs and lock doors and windows if kids in car, give the user a few seconds to follow then change message to something like “Sit tight, it might get a little noisy while we wash your car”. Once wash is done, change message to “now slowly move your car forward and align with the markings ahead”. Have another digital display near the dryer which instructs every ~10secs to keep moving the car a little bit so that the entire car is dried. If user has selected wax, then follow instructions for the waxing. Once all is done, instruct the user to slowly move out, not back up to avoid tire bursting and watch the road for pedestrians/cars etc.

o Pro: User has detailed instructions at every step of the car wash process removing any ambiguity. Especially helpful for inexperienced car washers

o Con: One-time investment and programming of water-resistant digital displays

f) Have more detailed instructions written in wash area and dry area

o Pro: If we are able to write all the necessary instructions then user has detailed instructions through-out the car wash process

o Con: Not lot of space to write detailed instructions. Continuous maintenance of the instructions due to exposure to water/soap through-out the day. Inflexibility if you need to re-word in future. Cannot customize messages based on user’s selected package

Let’s evaluate which of these solutions will be most effective in solving our problem. Based on the above pro and con list options a) and e) seem to be most effective in helping customers understand each option at the pay machine, make an informed decision quickly and go through the car wash process with step-by-step instructions and no ambiguity.

Now let’s keep in mind that we still need to solve for use case a) of long wait times in the queue, which could be a follow up to this.

scrambledboiled · Answer 10 · 2019-02-26T03:03:05+0000

Improving a carwash

What is a carwash?

It's a service where motorists pay for their vehicle to be washed.
Let's assume we're limiting this a drive-in carwash - i.e. one that anyone can accesss.
A carwash can be automated or manual. Let's assume this one is currently a mixture of both.

Who are the users?

Individuals
Businesses

What's the goal?

User satisfaction
User acquisition/retention
Visits per user
User spend per visit

To decide which of these to focus on I'd need to understand each of these in the context of industry benchmarks. I'd also need to understand the carwash's market share and the size of the total addressable market.

In the absence of data, my suspicion would be that the goal would be to increase user spend per visit since capacity is fairly limited in the short term.

What are we improving?

Users want to get their car cleaned for them for maintenance (i.e. avoid rust) or to make it look better.
There's a minimum standard to meet for maintenance so let's focus on making it look better. This can be divided into personal and business purposes.
A business (like a tradesman, taxi, company car) might see the risk of losing money if their vehicle is dirty. A private individual might fear looking bad in front of their peers.

I'd want to look at how much each group is spending per visit and look at how that's distributed. I'd assume businesses already spend more but that it's unevenly distributed. So i'd want to look into how to improve spend for the mid and low spenders within each category.

What would we build?

I'd assume that businesses that make less money per vehicle might be spending less money on washing it and go for the minimum. I would aim for lower end taxi companies (rather than black car/limousine services). I'd want to improve uptake of higher value services within that user group.

Without being able to speak to users, I would assume the following opportunities:

As a cab driver that picks up passengers frequently, I want to get a gloss/wax finish on my vehicle so that I'm selected by passengers on the street.
As an Uber/Lyft driver, I want the inside of my vehicle to be exceptionally clean so that I get a good rider rating.
As a busy driver I want to be able to buy other services for my vehicle (like accessories, repairs etc.) so that I'm able to maximise time on the road.

My assumption is that the product focusing on Uber/Lyft drivers wil be most effective since that's a growing segment (for now).

How do we implement and test?

Ways of increasing sales of internal cleaning/servicing:

Offer promotion to drivers for an internal clean (free/discounted)
Introduce new upsell services (like air freshners, bottles of water for riders, aux cables for riders to play music)
Extend product lines to higher margin, luxury products

Of these, the simplest to implement is the promotion, applied to this segment of drivers.

I'd look at what proportion of drivers re-order the service and cost that against the cost of labour for offering it.
If this proves effective, a similar technique can be applied to one-offs of new product lines, ranked by cost of implementing in the long term versus size of market.
Alternatively, it can be applied to other user groups. Or the approach can be refined by improving messaging/targeting/channels.
I would watch out for harm caused by increased wait time for other users

Summary

Focus on spend per visit
Target low-spending business customers
Specifically target Uber/Lyft drivers with an internal vehicle clean

PMhummingbird · Answer 11 · 2018-08-12T23:15:43+0000

Clarify the ask: Is this a industrial car wash or a regular car wash at gas stations? Is it fully automatic or partly automatic? Up-to what size car is it capable of washing?
Lets assume this is a regular car wash capable of washing cars up to Full-size SUVs.

Goal: Easily wash cars of all sizes up-to full size SUVs.

Customers / Users:
Private car owners: These can be segmented by age, profession, education, income levels
Enterprise car owners: Cab/Uber drivers, Rental car owners etc.

Use Cases:
Wash cars (Cant think of anything else)

Competition Pain points:
1. Most car washes use a lot of water
2. No way to check if all dirty spots are cleaned
3. Do not dry the car completely
4. Get water spots if windows are rolled down and up again

Features to solve / Tradeoffs:
1. Waterless car washes or low water use car washes / Complex and expensive to develop, hence raise price
2. Compare before and after pics using image processing / Complex and expensive to develop, hence raise price
3. Identify and air dry wet spots iteratively / Would increase cycle time
4. Same as above

Priority:
Based on customer benefit, complexity and cost to implement
#2, #4, #1, #3