Can someone help in giving me advise as to when a detailing job stops and actually turns into a restoration job. How to advise the customer of this, billing rates and justifying them. At times I feel customers take advantage of the term "Detailing" and expect way too much work under its terminology and average price frame, am I right or wrong?
Any tips appreciated.
Regardless of the definition of "restoration", what your looking for is help with explaining to a potential customer the various stages/process' etc. and how to help the customer justify the cost of correction work, correct? I mean polishing out swirls is "restoring" the paint to a swirl-free finish, but whatever... semantics.
One thing you could do is get a body panel from a junk yard, one that has in-tact paint but with a ton of swirls. Polish out one third of it to perfection, polish the center third with a one step (not removing
too much of the swirls), and leave the last third unpolished with no wax (even clay half of this section if you'd like). Let the customer see the differences and explain about the difficulty/time/skill involved. Or just do a 50/50 of Perfection vs untouched to simplify things.
If you offer detail packages like 1-step, 2-step, full-correction, or whatever you offer. Explain that the heavy correction step is an arduous process requiring patience and precision to be done "properly", and then you have to do the whole car again to refine the finish. Then go over the car again for final polish... then pre-wax cleaner, sealant, wax... Not to mention the prepwork
before polishing. From start to finish you go over every inch of paint several times with multiple "high-end" professional products. Even show them the arsenal if need be. When they truly understand the amount of work and the level of dedication you have it should be easier to sell. Just be sure that your truthful and genuine about it all.
Of course you don't want to say, "Oh that's easy" or "I can do that no problem" if the job might be over your head. Nothing is worse than worrying about how your going to live up to the quote you gave. Although, I've never had a "customer" detailing wise, so take my advice as you will.
Also tell them about the
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...s-horrendous-horror-story-hack-detailers.html and how they give the vehicle a quick once over with a rotary then apply a glaze (explain about a true-glaze being a temp. filler to hide light swirls/holograms) and how the vehicle will look in a couple weeks after going to a "hack".
Hope I provided some helpful insight to the question. :xyxthumbs:
