Cleaning glass

J

Josiah

New member
How do you all accept payment? Do you ever have a contract signed before you do any work?



I am planning on using services invoices and just write down my serices with costs. I also don't plan on giving any final estimates until I see the car... too big of a chance of the customer saying it is in good condition and it actually is a pig sty.



How many of you have ever had a need to accept credit cards?



Josiah
 
are you using the inspection sheet from autoint.com? I have that sheet and am thinking of modifying it for my use.



I was not aware banks offered credit card services. I will check that out next time I am near one of my branches.
 
As Detailing is not my full time job, cash is king. All of my customers are referals so I accept payment after the job is done to their satifaction. I usually have a seasonal special on a flyer and that becomes the basis for the verbal estimate before the job begins. After 3 yrs. I seldom make a mistake in estimating any additional work required outside of the 6hr. estimate for a full detail.

The worst mistake I ever made was 5 mths ago on a 1993 F150 mettalic green extended cab with a cap.The vehicle was used daily by a construction superintendant. The truck was an absolute mess inside and out scratches,etching,scuffs,and numerous nicks he wanted touched up.The interior was full of ground in mud and coffee stains allover. I estimated $300 based on 12 hours, by the time I finished it took me 15 hrs. As I was doing the job at the gentlemen's house he was able to see the work in progress. When I finally finished he was so happy with the job he insisted on paying me the $75 extra and gave me a $50 tip.$425 cash CHA CHING.
 
I usually know most of my customers pretty well. The ones I don't know personally usually come referred from good customers. Cash is the preffered payment but I've never been screwed with a check yet. I don't give people credit anymore since I have been screwed with that. One thing that helped the longer term people is accepting Paypal payments. People can use their Visa or Mastercard to pay and it costs me very little to accept it. They even have a Mastercard debit card you can get so you have easy access to your account. Not many of my customers use it but I wouldn't have the customers that do unless I had set it up. :)
 
I take cash or check. In about 9 years (almost 8 full time), I have received only 4 bad checks, and had no problem collecting on 3 of them, but the last one
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I tried to collect, but she had already been evicted by the bank from her house, and I haven't been able to find her. I turned over the check to the proper authorities, so if she ever gets stopped by the cops, there is a bench warrant.

I would say I get about 40% cash and 60% check, and since 94% of my customers are repeat or referral, taking a check is pretty safe-considering I am out of luck on just one after taking about 4000 checks. Obviously, it would be nice to get 100% cash, but since this is my only source of income, I do need to show enough income to justify what I spend each your to prevent the IRS full body cavity search. Besides, I hope to buy a house in the next year or two, and mortgage companies like to see that you have an income.

I rarely get asked about credit cards, and since the last time I checked, the equipment for a mobile set up costs about $50 a week, plus they get 2-3% of the payment, it just isn't cost effective. Why pay $200 a month if no one is even asking for the option?
 
If there was an actual demand from my customers for me to take credit or debit cards, I would-but like I said, I hardly ever get asked-in fact, I don't even remember the last time. In my case, it is an unecessary expense. Probably if I was starting out now, I would have the option, but I am sure when people refer me to their friends, they let them know I accept cash or check, so the question just doesn't come up.
 
When do a through glass cleaning, I like to use a terry cloth applicator.

The theory is that the terry cloth will break up the softened (by the glass cleaner) crap better than just a microfiber since microfiber does not have much bite. If you use a polishin pal, you can really give the glass a good scrubbing. For drying, I follow up with a low nap microfiber towel.


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I use terry cloth when dealing with smokers film, dog slobber, windows that haven't ever once been cleaned, etc. It definitely works better than MF in those cases.
 
I use a lint free towel, which I find to be something with more bite than a microfiber as well

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I let the cleaner dwell and the towel passes over the glass leaving nothing behind, then I use less product on the glass followed by a susequent pass with a microfiber which removes any residual cleaner/debris.
 
For me, I use Stoners IGlass. Use newspaper for the initial wipe, then finish it off with those old time thin 100% cotton dish towels.

Bill
 
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