By Michael Bates
Special to Car Wash Daily News
Let me be brutally honest. Hitting 10,000 plus memberships sold in a single year at one location was not magic. It was not luck. It was a relentless, system-driven obsession with value, conversion, and retention.
Forget fluffy theories. This is the gritty, real-world blueprint of how we did it.
It All Starts at the Pay Station
The pay station is your front line, and your frontline team is either your biggest asset or your biggest bottleneck. If you are serious about membership growth, you cannot just staff it. You have to sell it.
I started by standing out there myself. Talking to customers. Testing pitches. Tracking reactions. Then I hired a dedicated sales specialist. Not just an attendant, but someone who saw every customer as a conversation, not a transaction.
From there, I built a team around that role. And here is where we got strategic. We hired student athletes. Why? They are coachable. Competitive. Disciplined. They respond to goals, they handle pressure, and they want to win.
Other great hires came from:
- Gyms: Personal trainers and fitness sales staff are membership pros
- Roofing salespeople: Used to working outdoors, driven by performance, and trained to close
- Cell phone Sales reps: Comfortable with plans, pricing tiers, and face to face selling
These are not car wash people by default, but they are performance people. That is what matters.
The Offer: Irresistible, No Brainer, Risk Free
We launched a $1 trial. Thirty days of unlimited washes for just a buck. Cancel anytime. No fine print.
It worked because it crushed objections. Customers did not need to think. For $1, they could try the convenience of unlimited access. And once they experienced the difference, we found that over 65 percent converted to a full membership.
Try this tactic:Saturate your site with the offer. Banners, wind masters, staff pitches. Use digital ads targeted within a 5-mile radius. And most importantly, train your team to pitch it like it is the best deal in town because it is.
Structure Your Plans to Be Easy and Valuable
We kept the plans simple. Three tiers:
- Basic – $10 per wash / $20 per month
- Premium – $15 per wash / $30 per month
- Ultimate – $20 per wash / $40 per month
The pricing was designed to be a no brainer based on just two washes a month. That is all it took for customers to see savings, and we made sure they saw it.
Try this tactic:Display the math. Print it on receipts. Include it in the pitch. “You are paying 18 dollars today. For just 6 dollars more, you could have unlimited washes all month.” Customers understand value when you show it to them.
On Site Conversions Drive the Majority of Growth
We did not sit back and wait for customers to figure it out. We converted in the moment, right after they experienced a great wash.
We incentivized our team with $10/$15/$20 dollar bonuses per paid signup. We role played daily. We used tablets to show personalized savings based on customer visit history. And we kept the sign-up process under 90 seconds.
Tactic:
Make conversion part of your site’s rhythm. It is not about being pushy. It is about catching customers in the moment of satisfaction when they are most likely to say yes.
Fleet Opportunities: See It, Act On It
Every company vehicle that rolls through your wash is an opportunity. When I saw branded trucks or vans come through, I did not just watch them leave. I made the first move.
I reached out to those businesses directly and offered a customized fleet membership deal. I did not wait for them to come to us. I went to them with a solution that saved them time, cut down on employee expense claims, and kept their vehicles looking professional.
Try this tactic:Keep a log of company vehicles using your site. Assign a team member to track and follow up. Build a simple fleet offer, either tiered or unlimited, and present it in person or by phone. Show up with a plan. You will close more than you think.
Referrals: The Most Cost-Effective Channel You Will Ever Use
We built a member get member program with strong, clear rewards:
- Members received 1 free month for each referral
- Referrals got 50 percent off their first paid month
- Unique codes and links made sharing easy through the app, email, and text
Try this tactic: Use your app or POS to automate referral tracking and promotion. If it is easy to share, customers will do the legwork for you.
Retention is Where the Real Money Lives
Churn kills momentum. So we did not wait for members to cancel. We engaged before they disengaged.
- Missed a week? They got a reminder text: “Your washes are waiting.”
- Birthday? They got a bonus upgrade
- Canceled? They received a personal follow up with a 50 percent off win back offer
We also added just enough friction to cancellation to have a conversation. Often, that conversation led to retention, a pause option, or a fix to a solvable problem.
Try this tactic: Do not treat memberships like a gym contract. Treat them like a customer relationship. Listen, respond, and win them back personally.
Final Thoughts
Selling 10,000 plus memberships in one year was not about one trick. It was about relentless focus on people, process, and performance.
We did not just sell car washes. We sold time-saved, pride in your ride, and the freedom to stop thinking about when you will clean your car next. And we built a team and a system that backed that promise every single day.
If you want to grow your membership base, start at the pay station, hire the right people, give them the right offer, follow every lead, and never stop training.
That is the naked truth.
Mike Bates is the Sales Representative for Momentum Car Wash Specialists; Before he was Area Manager for ZIPS Car Wash, Fins Car Wash, and Whistle Express. During this time, he saw a lack of understanding with his teams on how to interact with customers effectively and provide a high-quality customer sales experience at scale. For more information: https://www.momentumcarwash.com.
