tdekany
SELF BANNED
- May 5, 2009
- 1,052
- 0
I feel like I'm in the twilight zone-as far as I know, every customer who pays for a detail, does it to have a shiny finish. As detailiers, our job is to deliver a shiny finish. Part of detailing is to polish the paint. That is not a step you should ever skip. PREP is the key. Unless someone just wants a wash: all your packages should include a polishing step. You don't try to "sell" polishing anymore than trying to convince a customer a jiffy lube to also replace the oil filter. That would be silly. It is part of an oil change. The only difference is that most of your customers are clueless about detailing while those same people know that the oil filter needs to be also replaced. Have you ever been asked if you wanted the filter also replaced at the time of an oil change? That is in fact what you are trying to do here - don't you think it is silly? Btw, if your customer runs his/her car through car washes, and that is your reason not to polish his/her car, why do you even wax that finish? You know that the protection will be stripped in no time. Right?
As far as your justification for your standards by pointing out how cars look at car shows? I think that is the issue here. You provide a service that you charge for. You are comparing yourself to a DIY person.
As far as your justification for your standards by pointing out how cars look at car shows? I think that is the issue here. You provide a service that you charge for. You are comparing yourself to a DIY person.
That is the problem right there. This is a service industry and it has EVERYTHING to do with the customer. It is absolutely 100% about the customer's perception of value added. You can't force what we see and our standards onto them. This stance reminds me of some gun forums. Someone wants a cheap plinker rifle and the gungho guys will blast anyone for Non-operator grade choices.
Its nice that you get all customers willing to spend the coin on a full correction and coating. Most of us don't work in that niche. My customers are not compliant about what I think they should pay me to do with THEIR car. If I had the stance of "I must polish or I won't put a lsp on your car." They would go down the road and I wouldn't get paid. Most of what I've seen is where I am the only time their car gets attention, and again they don't want to spend the money for a polish. Why? I'm honest. I'll straight up tell them it is pointless to pay the money and a waste of my time if they are going to drive through a car wash. Then you have the people that live on land and their vehicle gets driven around it and scratched by branches. I don't blame them. I did a sealant without polishing on a 6mo old car. I talked to her about the process and products. I even had my car right there and showed her the difference between a polished car and one that wasn't. In the end she knew she would let the dealership drive her car through their wash and opted not to spend the money. She also wanted the longer protection of a sealant compared to a wax so, thats what I used. I did another customer without polish. This was a high milage vehicle. I used BFMS on it. First thing out of her mouth, "It looks better than new." Her husband stood staring at it for 15 min and was amazed at how well it cleaned up. Its going on 5 mo, and I heard that her daughter drove it and wanted whatever I put on her mom's tahoe on her car. I made my customers happy and I know it exceeded their expectations from what has been said. If that makes me a hack in your eyes then so be it. You aren't a customer so your opinion means nothing in my transactions.
20 min to polish? I've done this enough to know that you aren't doing much if any correction at that rate, especially on the larger vehicles like I tend to see. Wouldn't a 20min polish be a rushed job? What about your obligation to do it right? Is a "quick once over" really doing it right in your eyes, or are you cutting corners there?
And yes, you can make a vehicle shine without polish. Most lsp's impart a shine of their own. Will it shine more polished? Yup, but is the customer paying for it, will they actually see the difference, and more importantly do they want it?
Do you go to local car shows? I frequent them. About 2/3 of the cars being shown have swirls. Going by the way you are carrying on they wouldn't shine, but they do. They also win! So what we see and want has little bearing on the vast majority of even car enthusiasts.
I even see cars going up for auction on Mecum with holograms.