Service
+44 1371 878 802
14a Oak Industrial Park
Chelmsford Road
Great Dunmow
Essex CM6 1XN
Phone: +44 1371 878 800
Tanya Balci is an extremely fun-loving, yet business-minded young woman who, with her cheerful nature, quickly instils customers at the petrol station and car wash with a good feeling. Her home is Neuss, a large city with many suburbs on the left bank of the Rhine with a view of the east bank of the river and hence of the metropolis of Düsseldorf. A spirited and determined woman, she signed a lease presented to her by the German market leader ARAL. If you ask how she got in touch with the petrol station and car wash business, the answer is: "My mother was the tenant of a petrol station. During my studies, I helped her at the station, also optimised business processes and, as a result, also contacted the responsible tax office. At some point, the tax advisor asked me if I would like to run a petrol station myself. The tax advisor knew the district manager responsible for the region and so everything went faster than expected." In June 2018, she actually took over a station, the ARAL petrol station Tanya Balci in the Neuss district of Grimlinghausen.
The service station's service offerings included a gantry car wash that had been washing and caring for vehicles since 2013 and which was made by WashTec, the world market leader in vehicle washing. Tanya Balci bought the gantry car wash from the previous tenant in the course of the petrol station takeover, came to WashTec without doing anything herself and stayed because "WashTec offered me everything I imagined from an efficient gantry car wash, washing chemicals and full service. Mainly because of this, we decided in September 2020: Hey, let's get a new car wash." We are talking about a SoftCare2 Pro in Silverlight design, which started regular operation as early as December 2020.
The SoftCare2 Pro model took into account all the wishes that Tanya Balci had in mind for her new car wash and all the demands she made – above all, a variable wash programme structure, the SofTecs Pur washing material, WheelFlash and WheelJet for perfect wheel and rim washing, the MultiFlex brush, to be able to meet as many, even demanding, customer requests as possible. The new gantry also brought WashTec's StarTrack guide rails into the bay, which make entry and positioning much easier for customers thanks to changing lighting patterns. LED rows mounted on the gantry entertain users with different coloured show effects during all stages of washing and care.
Perfect washing technology needs perfect chemicals for excellent results. That's why she opted for washing and care chemicals from WashTec subsidiary AUWA. Because she knows that the high-quality and high-performance products are the key to more sales and to totally satisfied customers. Since Tanya Balci serves almost exclusively regular customers – families, friends, acquaintances who live and work in Grimlinghausen and the surrounding area, as well as many corporate customers and two car dealerships from the nearby industrial estate, perfect washing and care of all vehicles is immensely important to her. She cannot and must not afford the car wash to stand still due to a lack of chemicals. "We order the cleaning and care products for all stages of the wash and care process from the AUWA online shop. The deliveries arrive on time. Irrespective of this, I pay attention to the worthwhile offers that AUWA regularly provides us with."
Perfect car washing also means precisely coordinating the use of chemicals in the respective products. "Our AUWA customer advisor lives just around the corner. He often comes by himself once in a while to check the settings on the dosing pumps, readjust them if necessary and check the water treatment system. Only in this way can our high-gloss programmes and also the convertible wash deliver the results that we expect and want to offer our customers."
Tanya Balci is also very committed to marketing in order to keep the number of washes high and, at best, to increase them further. Basically, she says that she participates in ARAL's SuperWash programme and therefore has to follow certain guidelines, customer cards for the car wash which get stamped at the checkout for every wash purchased, for example. Furthermore, "Tuesday is our washing day. For car wash customers, this means we give them a 30% discount on every wash programme." A campaign with consequences: "Our car wash day has become very popular. Many customers come to fill up and then say: Hey, today's Tuesday. We will use the car wash." Tuesdays were previously the slowest washing day during the week. "That's why we decided to declare it a wash day to attract customers to us on that day of the week as well."
As a rule, Tanya Balci gets a lot of feedback because of the large number of regular customers. "They have been washing with us for years now, so they know what they are getting from us. That's why it's our ambition to keep the standard of washing and care absolutely high." This is not the only reason why she personally takes care of the entire car wash business – car wash technology, chemicals, water treatment, installation and bay cleaning. "We decided on a quarterly cleaning interval. On these dates, the installation and bay are thoroughly cleaned. Twice a week, two employees trained by me carry out the routine cleaning. Also, a company comes twice a year to clean both the installation and the bay." Only those who clean both thoroughly and at short intervals will be able to achieve brilliant results with WashTec's SoftCare2 Pro for many years and keep the newly clad hall walls in this pristine condition. Only one interval is still unfinished, but Tanya Balci promises: "I no longer want to put off my studies in business administration at Heinrich Heine University and want to complete them successfully. Petrol station and car wash won't 'mind'."
Text/images: Bernd Fiehöfer
