Why service memberships work
In the US, Pep Boys, Jiffy Lube, and Mavis Tire quietly built billion-dollar service chains on a subscription model: $19-$39/month gets the customer one or two scheduled services per year, a discount on other work, and priority booking. The customer never thinks about servicing again. The workshop has predictable cash flow.
The AU market hasn't fully picked this up — which means the first independent workshops to offer it differentiate cleanly. The Service Membership Plans app ships three pre-configured plan tiers and the Stripe Connect plumbing to run them.
Prerequisites
- Stripe Connect must be configured on your tenant (Settings → Integrations → Stripe). The recurring billing rides on Stripe Connect's subscription product — without it, this app can't bill customers.
- The Bookings module enabled (every plan benefit is a free or discounted booking)
Install the app
- Open Apps → App Marketplace
- Find Service Membership / Subscription Plans under Automotive ($29/month)
- Click Install — 14-day free trial
Three plans ship pre-configured
The app installs three plans you can clone, rename, and reprice for your shop. The defaults reflect the market median for AU independents:
Workshop Care Essential — $19/month
- One basic service per year (oil + filter + 27-point check)
- 5% off other workshop services
- Free tyre rotation
- Same-day booking when bays are available
Workshop Care Standard — $29/month
- One basic service + one safety inspection per year
- 10% off other workshop services
- Free tyre rotation + alignment check
- Priority booking (jump the queue)
- Free roadside loan car (subject to availability) for warranty / comeback work
Workshop Care Premium — $49/month
- Two services per year (basic + logbook timing)
- 15% off other workshop services + 10% off parts
- Free tyre rotation + alignment + brake fluid test
- Priority booking + Saturday availability
- $100 credit toward next-tier service plan upgrade
- Annual rego renewal handled by us (for an admin fee)
Reprice based on your shop's margin profile. Workshops with high parts margins lean cheaper to acquire — workshops with strong labour margins lean higher.
Step 1 — Set up your plans
- Open Settings → Service Membership Plans
- Click Edit on each pre-configured plan
- Adjust price, benefits, and tier names
- Set the eligibility — most workshops restrict each plan tier to specific vehicle types (no Premium for fleet vehicles over 3500kg GVM, for example)
You can also create a custom plan tier for fleet customers — typically negotiated, not advertised.
Step 2 — Onboard a customer onto a plan
From the customer's contact record:
- Open the contact
- Click Add membership plan
- Pick the plan, the start date, and (optionally) the vehicle(s) the plan covers
- The customer gets a Stripe checkout link via email — they enter their card, the plan activates
Step 3 — How the discounts work
When you create an invoice for a plan member:
- Service discounts (5-15%) auto-apply to labour line items for in-scope services
- Parts discounts (10%) auto-apply to parts line items where set
- Included services show as a zero-dollar line item with the plan name as the description — easy for the customer to see what they got
- Benefit usage ticks up — when the customer has used their included service for the year, the next service is at the discounted rate, not free
The Plan revenue dashboard tile shows MRR, churn, and per-plan revenue.
Step 4 — Renewal reminders
The app auto-emails plan members 30 / 14 days before renewal so they can cancel or upgrade. No surprise charges — that's the fastest way to lose a plan customer.
Customers can also cancel or pause from the customer portal (/m/[token]) — they don't have to call to cancel, which feels like a feature loss but is actually a retention win (cancellation friction destroys trust).
Pricing math
A workshop running 50 plan members at $29/month nets ~$17,400/year in pure-margin recurring revenue. Most of those members would have come in for one annual service anyway — the plan just pulls forward their decision and locks in the relationship. Realistic upsell on plan members runs 25-35% higher per visit than non-members.
Target 5-8% of your active customer base on plans within the first year. Workshops with a tight loyal base hit 15-20% within 18 months.