Don't Need the Extras

D

DT08

New member
How's it going people? The Memorial Day weekend is approaching so to attract more customers I decided to offer a hand wash, vac, and dress the tries for $25. I was doing a car yesterday and this guy said he heard of me, but he felt I was too expensive so he never bothered to call me. He told me he didn't care for swirl removal or the extra stuff. As long as his car was clean and it shined. Just today, one of my regular's called and said the same thing. She mentioned that her and her husband come to me b/c they know they will get the quality they are looking for compared to others places they have gone.

I'm in the beginning stages of learning paint correction, b/c it is something I want to learn. Most of my regular customer's and the newbies I'm scheduling appointments for don't care for all that.

Should I continue with the $25 deal? I just don't want to dumb down what I've built up.
 
There is nothing wrong with offering what you are doing, and I like your approach to detailing waiting until you have a good grasp on paint correction before offering as a service. As for the $25 that depends on how long it takes you and how many you are looking to do a day.


There used to be a poster on here who could do all of that in 5 minutes...:D
 
Stephan said:
There is nothing wrong with offering what you are doing, and I like your approach to detailing waiting until you have a good grasp on paint correction before offering as a service. As for the $25 that depends on how long it takes you and how many you are looking to do a day.


There used to be a poster on here who could do all of that in 5 minutes...:D
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:lol2::rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl
 
It all depends on what you want to do, not us or them. There are different markets in any geographical location. There are high end folks with expensive cars and there are the folks who don't have much money and there are those who just don't care. What thought have you given as to which market to target or both and how to target these specific markets? I suppose some detailers also fall into the I don't care catagory too.

I hate to answer a question with a question, but I was just wondering what your thoughts or visions are as a detailer. As for what I think, I preffer to target the higher end cars because that is where the money is, but "I" still have to sell them on the Idea of a mirror finish and interior/exterior protection.

I believe there is a demand for the wash and wax guys wherever there are cars being driven. I also believe that this can be a stigma to negatively impact my long term goal which is to be an established high end "true detailer". This doesn't mean that I send potential earnings down the road. To me a $25 wash and wax is a total loss because I want the reputation as a high quality choice in car care. I can not possibly offer the quality that I provide and cover my operating expenses at that price.

My wash and wax starts at $75 and I have no problem selling that service when I choose to market it. In my oppinion at least where I am from, the $25 wash and wax "screams" mediocrity or run of the mill. But that is only because I am focused on a particular set of principles. Those principles being that I want to position myself so far ahead of the local competition that I have no local competition.

When I succesfully educate a perspective client as to the type and quality of the service that I offer, I can and do get paid for what my work is worth and not have to care about what Joe the detailer up the street is charging. But this takes work and patience to achieve.

I sometimes think I should only do production work to make more money now but that is against what my vision is for my future. I offer discounts to my higher end clientele to bring more full details my way and as for the wash and wax jobs I just do the work, collect my $75 and keep my mouth shut about any specials.

I am only writing all of this to illustrate what "I" vision for "my" business. Only you can answer your question, so what is your vision?
 
Congratulations. Sounds like you have a hold on one of the best marketing tools available, word of mouth.

If you can make money at the "Express Wash" package, and that is what your customers want, then by all means continue with it. JMO, but you should work to market this package as a maintenance package after a detail package, even if that detail package only consists of a more thorough interior detail and at minimum a wax or sealant application. For the guy who stresses shine, try the upsell by applying wax or sealant to a front fender or half of the hood (ask permission first). Hopefully, he will decide to add that service with his next visit.

As far as the swirl removal, if he doesn't want I wouldn't press it. Build his confidence in you and after a period he may decide to let you take that extra step.
 
Seriously - if you can knock out two of these an hour at $25 per, you're looking at $50 an hour, which is not bad (at least for my area). I'd say go for it - most people aren't looking at it like we do. Shiny = detailed to them. Why not cater to the 90%+ of the market that feels that way. The number of people who examine their finish with halogens and a jeweler's loop are very small, and I tend to think we forget that on the detailing boards sometimes. Don't let a few high-and-mighties looking down their nose at you bother you about this. If the niche is there, take advantage.
 
JaredPointer said:
Seriously - if you can knock out two of these an hour at $25 per, you're looking at $50 an hour, which is not bad (at least for my area). I'd say go for it - most people aren't looking at it like we do. Shiny = detailed to them. Why not cater to the 90%+ of the market that feels that way. The number of people who examine their finish with halogens and a jeweler's loop are very small, and I tend to think we forget that on the detailing boards sometimes. Don't let a few high-and-mighties looking down their nose at you bother you about this. If the niche is there, take advantage.
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AHhh the voice of reason. :bigups
 
Most of the wash and wax places around here are getting anywhere from $29.99 for a hand wash to $59.99 for a wash and wax and they leave a lot of dirt and wax residue behind and don't even do the door jams. If you give a little extra you should be flooded with customers. As for the word of mouth that is great. I have had folks pass on my services earlier on because they thought I wasn't charging enough money. A lot of folks subscribe to the addage that you get what you pay for but more folks are probably looking for the cheapest deal so either way you go there is money in it.
 
I personally try to always upsell the full detail packages. Being mobile it's a hassle to break out all the equipment just for a basic wash. If I had a fixed location I wouldn't have a problem with doing them.

Provide them a demonstration of what paint correction looks like on their car. Most just don't know the difference and some don't care. I like to do the hood of cars as an example to upsell those that just don't understand the difference.

I love the word of mouth customers because they already know what the cost is!
 
At $25, you are basically competing with the drive through car wash. The money may be easy but the work is going to be hard unless you can knock them out at least 2 per hour. This is impossible if you are mobile (including travel time/cost, setup, packup).

You should always be willing to get more than a car wash and if you educate them on what a car wash does, what you do, etc. then you can command a price. People will pay nothing for a detailing yet they will pay a hair stylist more for less time. You will not change people over night but some will appreciate it at the higher price and come back. This is what you need to cultivate (contact, educate, then impress).
 
I'm not a 'professional' detailer, but it just hurts me to think about a $25.00 wash/wax. I guess I'm not one of those kind of people.:lmfao

Even to just wash my car myself I take well over 1/2 an hour by the time I properly wash it, dry it, and then nit-pickily dry/detail every inch of it. And then to spray it down with a QD afterwards and vacuum it all out...I'm near an hour.

It just makes me cringe to think of anyone just quickly washing their car and waxing it without doing anything to the paint before waxing it. But there are a lot of people out there who think that's just fine, so if you can find those people, by all means go for it.

I guess if "I" was going into the detailing business, I'd be looking to charge a bit more because I know I would put way more time into each car than necessary. I could not stand to just wash a car and wax it and not go through and detail it more thoroughly. But that's just me...I'm too picky I guess.:crazy2:
 
I offer a wash n wax for my detail customers for those that have had the complete detail before..I can get the car back up to speed quickly...mine are $60 to $70
 
Bunky said:
At $25, you are basically competing with the drive through car wash. The money may be easy but the work is going to be hard unless you can knock them out at least 2 per hour. This is impossible if you are mobile (including travel time/cost, setup, packup).

You should always be willing to get more than a car wash and if you educate them on what a car wash does, what you do, etc. then you can command a price. People will pay nothing for a detailing yet they will pay a hair stylist more for less time. You will not change people over night but some will appreciate it at the higher price and come back. This is what you need to cultivate (contact, educate, then impress).
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Last I checked, that is almost twice what the typical drive through car wash charges here.


YNOT said:
I'm not a 'professional' detailer, but it just hurts me to think about a $25.00 wash/wax. I guess I'm not one of those kind of people.:lmfao

Even to just wash my car myself I take well over 1/2 an hour by the time I properly wash it, dry it, and then nit-pickily dry/detail every inch of it. And then to spray it down with a QD afterwards and vacuum it all out...I'm near an hour.

It just makes me cringe to think of anyone just quickly washing their car and waxing it without doing anything to the paint before waxing it. But there are a lot of people out there who think that's just fine, so if you can find those people, by all means go for it.

I guess if "I" was going into the detailing business, I'd be looking to charge a bit more because I know I would put way more time into each car than necessary. I could not stand to just wash a car and wax it and not go through and detail it more thoroughly. But that's just me...I'm too picky I guess.:crazy2:
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Note, the OP is not doing a wash/wax, just a wash.

I don't know how long it takes the OP to perform this service, but in your case that would equate to $25/hr not all that bad (depending on market conditions) considering there is no correction service which sometimes draws a higher hourly charge.

Almost forgot to ask...how did the campaign work out this weekend?
 
@Mr Clean: It worked out great!!!! From Saturday to early Monday morning I did 18 cars. It brought many new customers and some of my regulars took advantage of it too. With many of the new customers I was able to schedule appointments for this weekend doing a shampoo or a hand wax. I was thinking about doing a carpet shampoo special, but I would be attracting the wrong type of crowd and don't want that headache.

I just did this to attract new customers and this is not an everyday thing.
 
Glad it worked out. Sounds like you have a good start to your business. Provide great customer service and quality detailing and I'm sure you'll continue to grow.
 
@Mr. Clean: Thanks for the support!

Thank you to everyone for your support. I just don't want to be some fly by night detailer. There are many where I live. They are up on craigslist one day and gone tomorrow. I make it a point to let the customers know what auto detailing is. Those who take pride in their car seem to know, but those who just want it to be clean really don't know. Once they are informed they seem to take better care of their cars.

Just this experience has forced me to reconsider how to market my services. I'm still going to continue to learn paint correction and pretty soon I will be learning headlight restoration. Just want to continue to be the best I can at this trade.
 
I'm right there with you DT08. It takes time to figure out ur niche but the most importan thing is to figure out what you want to do. Early on, you're going to have to deal with low-end clientele but you have to start somewhere and build from there. Build your word of mouth, and move up your quality/completeness of service as you go.

A good example I do when I meet a potential client is I push my mid package the most to get the appointment ($50-$80 range). Once I've finished that part of the detail, I then have the client come out and look at their car and I'll have waxed one panel (other than the hood!) like a fender. Show them the difference, have them feel and inspect it, nd at least 75% of the time at that point I've sold them on a full detail on the spot. Save the hood for your final "presentation" you could call it because it's a lot of real estate for one, and for two, it will show your wax package as a neccessity for the car to look great everytime you come out.

Never be to pushy of course, but once you're out there working on their car, build the trust and rapport, and you can easily get yourself that better detail package and paycheck. It's all part of the game. It's all about how good you can manipulate the client without being rude or too noticable.
 
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