Glossary
The car wash membership glossary
Plain-language definitions of the terms behind memberships, payments, and retention — no jargon for jargon's sake.
- Abandoned cart
- An online sign-up a customer started but didn't finish. A timely follow-up recovers a meaningful share of these otherwise-lost sales.Learn more
- ARPU (Average Revenue Per Member)
- Recurring revenue divided by active members — a quick read on how much value each membership generates, and whether your plan mix is working.Learn more
- Attach rate
- How often customers add or upgrade to something extra — a higher tier, a retail product — alongside their core purchase.Learn more
- Billing cycle
- The recurring period a member is charged for, usually monthly. Aligning communications and offers to the cycle is key to smooth recurring billing.
- Churn
- Members who stop paying in a given period. Usually split into voluntary and involuntary churn, which have very different causes and fixes.Learn more
- Churn rate
- The share of members who leave over a period (e.g. monthly). Watched alongside net membership growth to gauge the health of the base.Learn more
- Cohort
- A group of members who joined in the same period, tracked together over time. Comparing cohorts shows whether retention is improving as you change how you onboard and run memberships.Learn more
- Conversion rate
- The share of prospects who complete a desired action — a retail customer becoming a member, or a started checkout finishing. The number to watch when you change an offer or a flow.Learn more
- Downsell
- A lower-priced or paused plan offered to a member who's about to cancel, keeping revenue that would otherwise walk. In Happywash you describe the offer and it appears automatically in the cancel flow.Learn more
- Drive-up volume
- The flow of retail, non-member customers visiting the wash. A pool of warm prospects to capture and convert, especially during weather-driven demand spikes.
- Dunning
- The process of following up on failed payments to recover them — for example, prompting a member to update an expired card before the membership lapses.Learn more
- Exit survey
- A quick prompt at cancellation asking why a member is leaving. The signal that tells you whether you're losing people to price, frequency, service, or life changes.Learn more
- Fleet account
- A commercial customer with multiple vehicles — a dealership, rental company, or local business — billed as a single account. A higher-value segment for many washes.
- Grace period
- A short window after a failed payment before a membership is suspended, giving the member time to update their card. Used well, it prevents avoidable churn.Learn more
- Involuntary churn
- A membership lost not by choice but because a payment failed — usually an expired or declined card. Highly recoverable with timely outreach.Learn more
- Kiosk
- The self-service terminal where customers pay and enter the wash. A key moment to capture contact info and present the membership offer.
- Loyalty program
- A structured reward for repeat behavior (like a free wash after several visits) that builds the habit and bridges retail customers toward membership.Learn more
- LTV (Lifetime Value)
- The total revenue an average member generates before they leave. Driven by price and how long members stay — which is why retention compounds.Learn more
- Member onboarding
- The first experience a new member has after joining — the early washes and welcome that turn a fresh sign-up into a lasting habit. Often the most important window for retention.Learn more
- Membership CRM
- Software for acquiring, billing, and retaining recurring wash members — managing customers, payments, marketing, and reporting in one place, on top of (or alongside) your point of sale.
- Membership tier
- One level in a plan ladder (e.g. Basic, Express, Unlimited). Clear, well-differentiated tiers make the upgrade obvious and lift revenue per member.Learn more
- MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)
- The total recurring revenue your active memberships generate in a month. The headline number a membership business runs on.Learn more
- Net revenue retention
- How much recurring revenue from an existing group of members you keep over time, after cancellations and any plan changes. Above 100% means upgrades outweigh losses.Learn more
- NPS (Net Promoter Score)
- A common measure of member satisfaction and loyalty, based on how likely members are to recommend your wash. A directional read on whether the experience is keeping people happy.
- Pause
- Letting a member temporarily suspend their plan instead of canceling. A paused member almost always returns, so offering pause in the cancel flow saves memberships.Learn more
- Payment recovery
- Catching failing and expiring cards early and winning the member back before they churn. Happywash detects them and sends AI-written, well-timed update prompts that sync the new card to your POS.Learn more
- PCI compliance
- Adherence to the payment-card industry's security standard. Most of it is inherited by processing payments through PCI-compliant providers rather than handling card data yourself.Learn more
- POS (Point of Sale)
- The system that runs transactions at the wash — the source of truth for members and revenue. Happywash plugs into the POS you already run, starting with Sonny's, rather than replacing it.
- Reactivation
- Bringing a former member back to an active plan, typically through a timed win-back. Cheaper than acquiring someone new, since the relationship already exists.
- Recovery rate
- The share of failed payments you successfully recover. Turning this invisible leak into a tracked metric is one of the highest-ROI retention moves.Learn more
- Recurring revenue
- Predictable income that repeats each billing cycle — the core of a membership business, as opposed to one-time retail washes.Learn more
- Retail customer
- Someone who pays for a single wash rather than a membership. Capturing their contact and converting them is one of the biggest growth levers a wash has.Learn more
- Retention rate
- The share of members who stay over a period — the inverse of churn. A retention curve shows what fraction remain active after 3, 6, or 12 months.Learn more
- Self-serve portal
- A secure, password-free place for members to update payments, switch plans, pause, or cancel themselves — cutting support load and friction.Learn more
- Tokenization
- Storing a secure reference to a card instead of the actual number, so sensitive card data is never held in your systems — the safest way to manage recurring payments.Learn more
- Trial
- A limited free or discounted period that lets a prospective member experience the value before committing — often a first wash on the house at sign-up.
- Unlimited plan
- A membership that allows as many washes as a member wants for a flat monthly price. The most common car wash membership model, and usually the one to make the obvious upgrade.Learn more
- Upsell
- Moving an existing member to a higher-value plan — for example, from a basic plan to unlimited. A core way to grow revenue per member without new acquisition.Learn more
- Voluntary churn
- A member who actively cancels — because of price, frequency, the experience, or a life change. Reduced with downsells, pauses, and a better wash.Learn more
- White-label app
- A member app published to the App Store under your own car wash's name, logo, and colors, rather than a generic one — putting your brand in every member's pocket.Learn more
- Win-back
- A campaign to re-engage members who have lapsed or abandoned a checkout, inviting them back — often automated and timed for when they're most likely to act.Learn more
See it in action
From the glossary to your dashboard
Happywash turns these concepts into automated, AI-run workflows on top of the POS you already use.