On a recent episode of Wash Talk: The Carwash Podcast, Mark Thomas, EVP of Marketing at Way, talked about how AI is changing car wash memberships, customer retention, and marketing.

The key takeaway is that the future of car wash memberships goes beyond unlimited washes. By adding benefits such as roadside assistance, gas discounts, and glass repair coverage, operators can give customers reasons to keep their membership even between visits. Way has seen operators using Way+ benefits reduce churn by nearly half compared with the industry average of about 7.5%.

AI also makes it possible to personalize experiences for lots of customers at once. By linking customer history, vehicle data, license plate recognition, and point-of-sale data, operators can give attendants useful details about each customer and automate marketing based on visits and purchases.

In the future, agentic AI could handle more tasks that marketing and operations teams usually do, like customer segmentation, running campaigns, and making operational decisions.

This doesn’t mean operators have to replace their current technology. AI can act as a smart layer on top of existing systems, helping operators get more out of what they already use.

Listen to the full conversation on Wash Talk: The Carwash Podcast.