Costly detailing

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Abram86

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A potential customer contacted me this morning asking for the pricing of an interior detail.
This person says they paid for a full interior detail at my local competitors and she wasn't satisfied with their job. They left the dashboard dirty.
Now they are having to pay for another detail just to correct the errors of the first.
That's why Im trying to teach people that the other guys $40 detail cost more in the long run.

Xtreme Auto
 
"The bitter taste of poor quality lingers long after the sweet taste of low price is forgotten"
 
I always say you get what you pay for but then I explain all the benefits they can get with my services. I build them up and make them feel good about what I can do for their interior.
 
Abram86 said:
A potential customer contacted me this morning asking for the pricing of an interior detail.
This person says they paid for a full interior detail at my local competitors and she wasn't satisfied with their job. They left the dashboard dirty.
Now they are having to pay for another detail just to correct the errors of the first.
That's why Im trying to teach people that the other guys $40 detail cost more in the long run.

Xtreme Auto
Click to expand...

Most people are aware of this, but their inner cheapness usually wins out

I hope you are able to land the job. If you don't hear from her in a few days give her a follow up call
 
Abram86 said:
A potential customer contacted me this morning asking for the pricing of an interior detail.
This person says they paid for a full interior detail at my local competitors and she wasn't satisfied with their job. They left the dashboard dirty.
Click to expand...

I'm curious to know if she expressed her concerns to that detailer and had him attempt to correct the problems, or if she just walked away dissatisfied.
 
This local competition sounds like a
"production detailing" facility:

-Speed
-Price
-Quality

Why does it always seem true, that this "type" of a
service provider cannot offer but 2 of the 3?

Bob
 
The fact is, short of AGO (or similar realms) that the "buying public" TOTALLY believes that a "detail" is what the local car wash or dealership is doing for $29.95.

Case in point: A while back I pulled into a local GMC - Buick -Mazda dealership and saw 2 signs... "Car Wash $9.95" & "Full Detail $29.95". (The same dealership where the Body Shop Manager sends me detailing & coating work.) ;)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk
 
FUNX725 said:
This local competition sounds like a
"production detailing" facility:

-Speed
-Price
-Quality

Why does it always seem true, that this "type" of a
service provider cannot offer but 2 of the 3?

Bob
Click to expand...

Most of my business is production detailing, it is where most start to build a client base because the target market is alot bigger. That being said there is a difference between someone doing premium production detail work and some guy cleaning cars and calling it detailing. As much as I absolutely love detailing classic cars and the odd exotic, my bread and butter are soccer moms and guys with trucks. It's just what my local market dictates.

The reason you can't have speed price and quality is because quality takes more time than someone rushing. I would rather take my time and charge a little more so that people get Value, Price and Quality. It's easy to charge more if the value of the work is there.
 
dirtdestroyer said:
Most of my business is production detailing

The reason you can't have speed price and quality is because quality takes more time than someone rushing. I would rather take my time and charge a little more so that people get Value, Price and Quality. It's easy to charge more if the value of the work is there.
Click to expand...
It would be nice to:
rather take ones time, and charge a little more...

But in true "production detailing" terminology:
That ain't gonna happen too often.

And when a 'value surcharge' appears to have been added...
"Production-Detailing-Customers", invariably, move on to next lowest-costing facility.


Bob
 
FUNX725 said:
It would be nice to:
rather take ones time, and charge a little more...

But in true "production detailing" terminology:
That ain't gonna happen too often.

And when a 'value surcharge' appears to have been added...
"Production-Detailing-Customers", invariably, move on to next lowest-costing facility.


Bob
Click to expand...

I think we are using 2 different definitions of production detailing to be honest. When I say production detailing what I mean is services preformed on a DD. a package along the lines of Wash, clay, AIO, tire dressing, windows, vac and dash/console clean and protectant added. Maybe upsell to polish and wax, possibly upsell engine detailing, headlight resurfacing or a full interior detail depending on the client. The other end of the spectrum being show car detailing where paint must be corrected perfectly and everything restored to a level most can't appreciate.

What some of these guys do I call car cleaning, they don't do much that the average person couldn't do themselves.
 
dirtdestroyer said:
I think we are using 2 different definitions of production detailing to be honest.

When I say production detailing what I mean is services preformed on a DD.

a package
Click to expand...
Two different definitions? Maybe so.

The time it takes to perform those services/packages, figures greatly in my definition of "production detailing"...
To the same degree, as time figures at any "production" job.

Note:
Just me being the engineer, of my own train-of-thought.
YTOTTMV (Your train-of-thought-tracks may vary).

Bob
 
dirtdestroyer said:
When I say production detailing what I mean is services preformed on a DD. a package along the lines of Wash, clay, AIO, tire dressing, windows, vac and dash/console clean and protectant added. Maybe upsell to polish and wax, possibly upsell engine detailing, headlight resurfacing or a full interior detail depending on the client.
Click to expand...

I just got a Groupon offer in my e-mail for a full detail. $75 for a coupe, $87 for a sedan, $100 for an SUV, and $125 for a minivan. They claim that includes compounding and polishing on the exterior, and shampooing with an extractor inside, in addition to the things you would expect. On their site it says:
We are not a bulk detailer

By keep our volume low so we can keep our quality high. We only take few vehicles a day, so we can give yours all the care it needs.

I don't know how anyone can do so much work for so little money!
 
trekkeruss said:
I just got a Groupon offer in my e-mail for a full detail. $75 for a coupe, $87 for a sedan, $100 for an SUV, and $125 for a minivan. They claim that includes compounding and polishing on the exterior, and shampooing with an extractor inside, in addition to the things you would expect. On their site it says:
We are not a bulk detailer

By keep our volume low so we can keep our quality high. We only take few vehicles a day, so we can give yours all the care it needs.

I don't know how anyone can do so much work for so little money!
Click to expand...

I'm willing to bet they are full of it. Remember the discount is usually 50-70% and groupon takes about 50% of the profit. It makes no sense to use groupon as anyone but a hotel trying to fill empty rooms or similar service. For me to compound and polish with all of the other package expectancies you are looking at a lot of time, it can take 3-4 hours just to compound bad paint work let alone wash, taping off, polish, wax, interior, trim work and so on. Heck a typical AIO package can take 3 or 4 depending on variables. The labour costs alone make this "deal" more likely to be a lie which takes advantage of customers that don't know any better.

To make a profit given the 20% income per job on average of a groupon deal seems impossible, we all know at $75 you are not getting swirl free paint work let alone overall correction.
 
She just told me that they promised high quality work and when she picked it up it was still dirty and not as clean as she expected. She googled for other detailers and mine popped up first and she visited my facebook page and liked what she saw.
Im going to follow up with her on Sunday and see what she decides.


Xtreme Auto
 
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