August 26, 2024

When owner John Pappas started the WASHGUYS brand, he
envisioned a car wash business that offered an exceptional
customer experience that included the highest quality
products and a personal touch with hand prepping and towel
drying. In 2022, WASHGUYS had seven total locations, all
acquisition sites that had been rebranded to WASHGUYS from
previous ownership.

Though Pappas knew the locations had immense potential,
WASHGUYS was experiencing slower membership growth than
they’d hoped. Across their seven sites, they had just over 3,600
members. Pappas knew that, based on the sites’ locations and
the quality of service his team was providing, these sites had
massive growth potential but needed a strategic marketing
approach to get there.

Optimizing Prices & Driving Membership 

The WASHGUYS team connected with Suds. They quickly got to work on a plan for an organization-wide price change and a campaign to drive awareness of the new WASHGUYS ownership.

Leveraging Suds proprietary machine-learning model, the price change was aimed at increasing volume for both retail and members, as well as maximizing the percentage of customers who were choosing higher-tier wash packages.
 

After the price change, WASHGUYS saw the percentage of customers choosing their top package skyrocket from 13% to 42% on retail and from 55% to 74% on memberships.

To increase traffic and boost membership sales, Suds introduced a campaign that offered a discount on the first month of memberships. The promotion was advertised through print and digital channels, while the WASHGUYS on-site team reinforced the offer, converting new members and providing an exceptional experience. Just two short months after launching the first campaign, WASHGUYS had added over 5,000 new members and average monthly churn was lower than ever at 3.5%.

Ongoing Marketing With Suds

The WASHGUYS team was ecstatic about the growth they saw from the price change and initial marketing campaigns. They were eager to see what they could accomplish with an ongoing marketing partnership with Suds. In addition to implementing the price change and campaigns, Suds worked with WASHGUYS on modernizing and upleveling their branding and signage, launching a new website and implementing other digital marketing strategies.

After just one year of working with Suds, WASHGUYS had nearly 9,000 members across their original seven sites – a nearly 150% increase from where they started. After two years of implementing the Suds approach to sustainable membership growth and retention, WASHGUYS had over 16,000 members at the original seven sites, and over 21,000 members overall. The growth of the WASHGUYS brand demonstrates the impact of a strong marketing strategy combined with a dedicated onsite team in achieving outstanding results