The Unlimited Club: How to increase conversion rates for your Car Wash

To paraphrase David Begin’s The How of Carwashing Podcast, it used to be that not too long ago carwashes with unlimited club programs were thought of as losing money. Today, the trend has flipped and it’s common knowledge that unlimited clubs are an integral part of maximizing profitability.

Despite the rapid proliferation of the unlimited club, conversion rates from pay-as-you-go customers to unlimited have mostly remained low. From single sites to many of the largest chains, there has been a struggle to see more than 5–10% of total customers converting to unlimited memberships.

Perhaps this is due to the fact that marketing departments just aren’t armed with the necessary intel on their pay-as-you-go customers (beyond a credit card number). Or perhaps sales attendants who are pitching the wash club are undertrained or blasting the same boilerplate message to everyone — often times annoying customers. And while there has been a race to more accurately capture vehicle/member information for wash clubs (spurring the RFID vs LPR debate), the intel on pay-as-you-go customers has been minimal.

So what can be done differently to increase conversion rates?

Now, imagine walking into your favorite coffeeshop and seeing ads everywhere about their mobile app — would this be enough to get you to download it? Maybe. Or you’re on the line ready to order that morning cappuccino and an employee is walking to each customer in line telling them to download the app — how about now? You’re probably a little annoyed. But now imagine as the cashier greets you she says, “Morning — the usual? You know I see you here every day so I wanted to ask — did you know if you order on the app you can accrue points and get a free drink?” Would you be more inclined to try an offer that was tailored to your buying patterns?

In much the same way, we at omniX labs believe the key to higher conversion rates is smarter and more tailored messaging to the right customers, not just more output. Through real time notifications on repeat pay-as-you-go customers, knowing exactly how many times they’ve visited this month, you are arming your sales team with the confidence to upsell everyone that should be on unlimited. Take this a step further with more than just unlimited upsells, but also knowing who to give promotions for interior, lube, tire shine, and so on. But this all starts with knowing who your customers are… how well do you know your customers?

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If you’re interested in learning how omniX labs can help your business, reach out to learn more.