We now know for a fact that memberships are one of the best ways by which car wash operators can offer value to their customers and get a stable revenue in return. That said, getting your first fifty to a hundred members signed up is the easy part. You get some flyers out, advertise using posters in the area and in your car wash, your attendants pitch some, and before you know it, numbers are going up. And then it all plateaus or, worse, starts going downhill. Sound familiar? Building a membership business is entirely different from getting members to sign up. Here’s what the operators who’ve figured out the difference are doing right.

1.    Your pricing must be on point

When a customer is about to pay $15 for a car wash, and your attendant can tell them that for $20 they can get a monthly membership that covers unlimited washes, you then have a closure right then and there. Keep the math of it uncomplicated and obvious at the time of payment, and a lot more people will say yes without needing too much convincing.

2.    Treat your attendants like salespeople, because they are

We cannot emphasize this enough. Your car wash attendants are the difference between a sign-up and a refusal. All the social media campaigns, promotions, and posters will come to naught if the person who makes eye contact with the customers and actually asks the question doesn’t do the job right. Operators who treat the CSAs (Customer Service Attendants) like they’re sales positions (we’re talking commissions) are the ones with the strongest membership numbers. Train your CSAs well, pay their commissions on time, and run friendly leaderboard competitions, and you’ll be surprised at the results.

3.    Avoid generic signage

You know the signs that say “Ask About Our Membership Plans?” No one’s going to read that and be in a tearing hurry to find out more. Be obvious about the math here, too. “$15 for a wash or $20 for unlimited washes? Our membership plan pays for itself.” Someone who reads that while waiting can run the numbers in their head and feel really good about themselves when they sign up.

4.    Your promotions should build habits, not just sign-ups

So now you’ve got people signing up, and that’s half the battle. The main intent behind offering an introductory discount isn’t just to get someone to sign up; it’s to get them to wash their cars often enough that the idea of canceling doesn’t cross their mind. Discounts of 50% off or more in the first few months give your new members enough time to build that habit. But keep a close eye when you step it up. If you jump from a 99-cent first month straight to a $40, expect sticker shock. The best way is to build a gentler price transition, or be upfront about the regular rate right from the start.

5.    Plan seasonal promotions all year round

Your calendar offers all the promotional opportunities you’ll ever need. You could do post-winter grime in spring, back to school in September, gift cards during the holidays, fresh-start memberships in January, and so on. These practically write themselves once you start planning ahead.

6.    Collect contact info from every customer

A surprising number of car wash operators don’t have any reliable way to follow up with customers who visit but don’t sign up. These people are most likely to become members. Getting their email and phone number at the point of sale means your next promotion reaches people who’ve already been to your wash and not complete strangers. This will improve your conversion rates. A good car wash CRM that handles all of this automatically is well worth investing in. Way’s car wash platform, for instance, handles contact capture, follow-ups, and campaigns in one place.

7.    Hold on to the members you worked so hard to get

Most operators put all their efforts into new sign-ups rather than retaining the customers they already have. The problem here is that even a handful of cancellations is revenue lost. For instance, if you lose 10 members a month at $30 each, that’s $3,600 lost in a year before you’ve even noticed. This is easy enough to fix if you have a CRM that tracks who’s coming in less and less each month. Reach out to them before they cancel. Also, make sure that failed credit card charges are being retried automatically. At least some of the churn might not be people canceling; it might be payments failing, and no one following up.

8.    Catch the drift before they cancel

Members don’t just up and disappear out of nowhere. As we mentioned earlier, there will be signs. They visit less, and to them the memberships start feeling like an unnecessary expense rather than a benefit, and eventually cancellation becomes the rational choice. Set up your CRM so it tracks visit frequency, and when visits start tapering off, send them a personalized nudge so you can catch them before they mentally check out.

9.    Make members feel valued

There’s a clear difference between someone who pays for a subscription and someone who thinks of themselves as a member. The second person is more likely to stick with you. Your job is to give them reasons to do so. Offer a members-only lane, or maybe a free vacuum on their membership’s one-year anniversary. These aren’t too expensive, but they build a sense of belonging and give them a reason to hold on to that membership.

10. Give them something to lose besides car washes

Your member has done the math, decides they’re not washing often enough to justify the cost, and they cancel. You can’t really argue with their rationale that if the only thing you’re offering is unlimited car washes. What if you upped the stakes? What if they were to lose more than car washes? Offer them a membership that bundles car washes, roadside assistance, parking discounts, repair perks, layoff protection, and just like that, the membership becomes a bit more valuable. When someone has to give up all of that, they’ll think twice before canceling.

That’s exactly what Way+ does. Interested in seeing how this could work for your car wash? Get in touch.