POLL: To Coat or Not to Coat????

To Coat or Not to Coat?

  • Heck yeah

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Heck no

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Maybe

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • I ain't telling

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
You knew the answer is yes. Posted for the attention right. If you are in business your job is to give the customer what THEY want as long as you making what you consider fair money. And I believe you will be based on your facts.
 
As far as your name going on your work:



Example: You do a full concours car detail to the highest level right before a show. Because you can't always babysit your client's cars, the night before and/or the day of the show he wipes the car down with bad towels and marrs the hell out of your perfect work. He has a stack of your cards layed out next to the car in an effort to show your work.



Example: You do a perfection job on a client's car and a few months down the road it starts to look swirled up again and he tells all his friends how great you are as they look at his car.





If you insist on polishing these swirled up cars (with a 1 step process) for the $350/car, you still aren't making the finish worthy of pefection anyways, so it's not like the end result is worthy of it's full capacity anyways, yet you feel more comfortable that your reputation is at ease?



If you insist on polishing these swirled up cars and they keep bringing them through the scratch n wash, there is still the exposure of your name being asociated with it when the swirls come back?



As far as the scenario goes as it relates to the original topic: These are company cars that go through the scratch and wash. They aren't going to be taking special care of them. They want clean and protected paint as requested and agreed upon. None of the people driving these cars will even know your name, so how can this affect your reputation? Unless you have a client that keeps his car's paint finish as pristine as you would, you're always taking a risk of exposing your name to scenarios that can not have an optimal outcome.
 
You asked a question, I answered it. I didn't know I'd be getting free psychoanalysis or that you'd be bringing in more and more variables that are obviously beyond anyone's control. Now I do.



So, I'll answer your question again, the way I should have in the first place.
 
I agree with David on this one.



I feel that if this opportunity was present for any detailer than the detailer in question must already have a very good reputation. Why else would the company be willing to spend $10,000 for the detailer to perform the work? The people who know your work and what your capable of wont care that you coated a fleet of swirled vehicles and they will still pass on good words about you to other people who appreciate an "autopian" detail.
 
David Fermani said:
As far as your name going on your work:



Example: You do a full concours car detail to the highest level right before a show. Because you can't always babysit your client's cars, the night before and/or the day of the show he wipes the car down with bad towels and marrs the hell out of your perfect work. He has a stack of your cards layed out next to the car in an effort to show your work.



I help all my clients understand proper care of their vehicle and I even sell them products at a discounted rate to help them maintain their investment with me. While the chances of the above could potentially still happen, it's not very likely.



Example: You do a perfection job on a client's car and a few months down the road it starts to look swirled up again and he tells all his friends how great you are as they look at his car.



Same as above





If you insist on polishing these swirled up cars (with a 1 step process) for the $350/car, you still aren't making the finish worthy of pefection anyways, so it's not like the end result is worthy of it's full capacity anyways, yet you feel more comfortable that your reputation is at ease?



I never said that I wouldn't do those cars, I simply said I don't agree with sealing in swirls with a permanent coating. The beauty of me doing this as a hobby is that it's not something I HAVE to do. I have a full time career that pays the bills, detailing is simply where my passion is at and I enjoy doing it. So is me turning a job like this down leaving money on the table? Maybe, but my unavailability from taking it on could also potentially be turning away the jobs I really want to do.



If you insist on polishing these swirled up cars and they keep bringing them through the scratch n wash, there is still the exposure of your name being asociated with it when the swirls come back?



The comments I made about my work were in reference to flying over the car with a rotary and twisted wool pad, not coating a car with washed induced marring. However, 95% of my clients are car enthusiasts, the type of client who want their cars to look the best it can. This is the only client of mine that I can think of who still insists on going through tunnel washes even after explaining to him the effects it will have. The rest all wash by hand or only use touch-less washes now.



As far as the scenario goes as it relates to the original topic: These are company cars that go through the scratch and wash. They aren't going to be taking special care of them. They want clean and protected paint as requested and agreed upon. None of the people driving these cars will even know your name, so how can this affect your reputation? Unless you have a client that keeps his car's paint finish as pristine as you would, you're always taking a risk of exposing your name to scenarios that can not have an optimal outcome.
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Again, my comments on the reputation were in reference to the rotary polisher and wool pad scenario I threw out there. We do need to listen to our clients but the client is NOT always right and we need to educate them and correct them when they are wrong. I may not like the idea of coating a swirled up car, but if I had your scenario presented to me, needed the money, and I actually had the time to do it between all the other work, I would take it on. BUT, I would also explain to the client some of the excellent points that Charlie listed above in hope that they would change their mind.
 
Question for the people who answered no...



Would you wash and wax/seal a fleet of cars without polishing first?



The clients desired results are the same (clean, protected paint) but the solution is less permanent. At least with Opti-coat the paint will be protected beyond the 3 - 6 months a coat of wax or sealant will offer.
 
JPostal said:
Question for the people who answered no...



Would you wash and wax/seal a fleet of cars without polishing first?



The clients desired results are the same (clean, protected paint) but the solution is less permanent. At least with Opti-coat the paint will be protected beyond the 3 - 6 months a coat of wax or sealant will offer.
Click to expand...



Nobody has answered no yet and I was the only maybe. :D





I would have a lot less of an issue applying a wax or sealant, but I would still want to at least fly over the paint with a pre-wax cleaner. It's also a service I currently do not offer, though if I did the cost to the client would be far less that $350 a car. ;)
 
WhyteWizard said:
You asked a question, I answered it. I didn't know I'd be getting free psychoanalysis or that you'd be bringing in more and more variables that are obviously beyond anyone's control. Now I do.



So, I'll answer your question again, the way I should have in the first place.
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Well thanks for your insight and answers then Robert, but if you read the 1st sentence of this tread, its intent was to stimulate good discussion which from the responses it did. Nothing wrong with adding momentum to things? Heck, even Chad took the opportunity to roll with it



RaskyR1 said:
I knew what you meant with your post Mike....just putting a different spin on the whole thing and giving others something more to think about. ;)
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Again, thanks for everyone's comments. Especially Charlie's about going touchless, which I think is excellent idea. Instead of the investment of several $10's of thousands along with regular maintenance of the unit, they could also be able to run their fleet through the local $6 touchiness instead w/o harming the coating. Especially if the drivers didn't go into the office regularly.
 
Deep Gloss Auto Salon said:
I don't see the question here?
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BadCompanyVPWS6 said:
Do as the client says and just perform a wash, decon, and opti-coat. (with existing swirls in the paint)



OR



Inform the client the appropriate thing to do is to correct the paint, THEN apply the coating. Which would in turn net a higher return but more work. OR less work and still a ton of money.
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Looks like my witty charm (sarcasm) went unnoticed so I will clarify (although I am not as wordy as some when on line).



I would never let a customer tell me HOW to do something. If you want me to do the work I do it may way, if that's not acceptable then I would have to ask the customer why they are coming to me in the 1st place.



I will however allow the customer to get the service that they see value in. I am here to make my customers happy. If a customer can't realistically maintain a full correction I will not even try to sell that. Part of my process of accepting a new customer is finding out what kind of maintenance their lifestyle can realistically support. I would be doing my customers a disservice if I were to do anything else.



There are challenges in a single step correct (trying to get the most correction, with the best clarity) as well as full correction details (chasing every defect).
 
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