Hey guys! I’m Mike Berlin from Slam Car Wash Marketing and every few weeks I’m going to bring you some new ideas to consider when marketing your car wash operation. I call it the Slam Six.

This week’s topic is boosting your unlimited car wash memberships. There’s a great quote from Walt Disney that reads, “Do what you do so well that they’ll want to see it again and bring their friends.” Building a loyal car wash clientele is no different. It all starts with providing superior service and a competitive price. if you think you have these covered the next question should be: how do we incentivize your customers to keep coming back for the unlimited car wash package?

Here’s six ways to increase your monthly unlimited subscriptions.

1. Offer a Trial Period

Build the trust and create a loyal customer. Try the first three months for $10. Discounts create a sense of urgency, and that trial period allows them to get in the routine and enjoy that new habit.

2. Retarget

Retarget with texting. When someone comes to the wash for the first time, we like to capture their phone number so they can join our loyalty program. After they’ve come through the wash and experienced the great feeling of a clean car, we send them a text message to thank them for their business and offer them a way to save on our unlimited membership. Sonny’s Controls makes this super easy by integrating with SMS text marketing.

3. VIP Lane Customers

Really enjoy the exclusivity! The airlines industry has done this for years. I travel a lot with my older brother and business partner. He flies a bit more than I do and boy does he love to walk on that fancy side of the rope! Brand the lane as a VIP member fast lane so they can skip the line. Priority access to your wash makes members feel so special. Sonny’s License Plate Recognition (LPR) Controls makes this very easy to do.

4. Family Plans

Grouping subscriptions together is nothing new. Look at Netflix, Verizon, Hulu and Roku—all of these offer family plans. Give a discount to add a car to an existing plan. I’ve seen some customers do extra cars for $20 or 20% off. We can promote this via text and run a targeted ad campaign online.

5. Train Your Crew for Sales

Train your crew to educate customers of your unlimited packages and consider a commission program to motivate them. At Sonny’s CarWash College, we devote a whole section of class to arm your crew with a rack card and help them with a visual aid. Create a team scorecard for the back room and make a game out of it. Do some training and role playing with your teams to better prepare them for the most common objections they get. Building out a solid sales program at the pay station and training the crew is something you can do right now and quickly boost unlimited sales.

6. Automated Upsell

These days with COVID, some customers would rather not speak to a person. So, you can actually automate your Sonny’s Pay Station to remind customers with a welcome back message. Here’s an example of what an automated message could be:

“Welcome back! We’ve seen you twice this month. Did you know you could save money by joining our unlimited plan? Would you like to join today?”

Like Disney says, “do what you do so well that they’ll want to see it again and bring their friends.” That’s six tips to boost unlimited car wash memberships. I hope this gets you guys fired up to market your car wash. If you need some advice or want some help, email or call us at Slam.

Also shout out to my family at Sonny’s the Car Wash Factory! We have experts in every discipline standing by and excited to help you absolutely crush it in the car wash business.

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