A multi-state subscription turnaround. Revenue up 257%. Members up 168%. Churn held at half the industry average over two and a half years.
| Metric | Start | End | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual revenue | $708K | $2.53M run rate | +257% in 30 mo. |
| Members | 2,860 | 7,662 | +168% |
| ARPU (monthly) | $20.64 | $27.51 | +33% |
| Churn (3-yr avg) | Industry avg 6–8% | 2.6% | ~half industry |
Revenue compounded at a 66% CAGR over two and a half years — up 103% in 2021, 59% in 2022, and still growing into 2023.
I inherited a five-site unlimited-membership division with no dedicated pricing administrator, no segmented pricing by market, no commercial fleet program, and no subscription discipline around churn. The Washify platform that ran every location was running at default settings. The business had been growing through sign-ups, not retention.
The mandate was to build the revenue engine, not just sell more memberships.
Became the sole administrator of pricing, promotions, and discount logic across all sites. Designed three separate market-specific pricing ecosystems for South Dakota, Wyoming, and Utah — each tuned to local competition and demand.
Built a family-plan structure from first principles after analyzing multi-vehicle usage patterns. The plan became a meaningful driver of both sign-ups and per-member revenue. ARPU moved from $20.64 to $27.51 over the tenure.
Sold and managed bespoke contracts with a state highway patrol, a state department of transportation (200+ vehicles under a custom program), a municipal fire department, and a regional beverage distributor. Added 22+ smaller fleet accounts and a bulk-buying channel with four auto-detailing operators.
A payroll-deduction benefit program where the employer's corporate vehicles joined the fleet program and every new hire was offered membership as part of onboarding benefits — with dues deducted automatically from payroll. The program expanded the account well beyond its corporate fleet and held near-zero churn on those members for the duration of their employment. The strongest retention cohort in the division.
Owned the full customer retention loop — every cancellation, billing dispute, and complaint routed directly to me. Used a customer-commitment approach: extending holds for seasonal travelers instead of canceling accounts, offering wash-time credits instead of cash refunds, running a "first month for a single wash price" trial that meaningfully improved first-90-day retention.
Result: 2.5% churn in 2021, 3.1% in 2022, 2.2% through mid-2023 — against an industry standard of 6–8%.
When the company launched a fuel-loyalty integration tying car wash membership tiers to per-gallon discounts, the reconciliation work became manual and untenable — up to three hours nightly across two disconnected systems.
I wrote Python scripts to pull reports from both platforms, identify all daily adjustments, and output a single reconciled change-set. Reduced the nightly work from three hours to thirty minutes while keeping human review in the loop.
Led operational rollouts in WY, UT, and a fourth South Dakota location. Each included full pricing setup, staff training, and sales manager development.
Subscription businesses are won on three levers: acquisition, ARPU, and retention. They compound when all three move together.
The turnaround wasn't built on a single program. It was pricing discipline plus a commercial sales motion plus a retention philosophy plus automation of the back-office work that would otherwise have capped scale.
Each alone would have moved the number. Together they tripled it.