I have a different mindset now...

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WRAPT C5Z06

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I've been detailing for about a little over a year now. When I first started, I was obsessed with everything being perfect! I became really frustrated that ever single car I polished(daily drivers or garage queens) had to end up 100% marr free. Even if the car looked much better, I felt like I failed if there was the least bit of marring. Now, I've "turned the corner" and come to realize that daily drivers don't have to be PERFECT. As long as the car looks much improved, that's what counts. Now, a show car, that's a different story, but I don't work on show cars for a living. So, I'm now still trying to get as close to perfect on every detail, but if it's not realistic, I'm satisfied if the car looks much better than it did before. Anyone else feel this way??
 
Glad you woke up to reality grasshopper. We've all gone through it....you have to reach a point in your mind where it is "good enough" for the amount you are charging. Most of us want to do a little extra but you have to draw the line somewhere..........that will change with each individual customer.
 
:iagree:

Confidence my friend.

Us detailers always want to get every little thing on the car pristine. Unless you are working on a show car or somebody that knows a lot of potential clients, The reality is this... The minute a detailed car is driven, it begins to get dirty again. I find myself taking more time on the things that change the appearance of the car in the long run such as polishing, deep interior cleaning, and cleaning the wheels back to the factory new shine.
 
I'm thinking of using a tunnel wash instead of my usual regimen because of your post, J/K:poke:
 
07 z-oh-6 said:
I've been detailing for about a little over a year now. When I first started, I was obsessed with everything being perfect! I became really frustrated that ever single car I polished(daily drivers or garage queens) had to end up 100% marr free. Even if the car looked much better, I felt like I failed if there was the least bit of marring. Now, I've "turned the corner" and come to realize that daily drivers don't have to be PERFECT. As long as the car looks much improved, that's what counts. Now, a show car, that's a different story, but I don't work on show cars for a living. So, I'm now still trying to get as close to perfect on every detail, but if it's not realistic, I'm satisfied if the car looks much better than it did before. Anyone else feel this way??
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Your desire for perfection is to be admired. Your new found sense of reality is, I'm sure far less nerve wracking.
 
artofdetailing said:
Confidence my friend.

Us detailers always want to get every little thing on the car pristine. Unless you are working on a show car or somebody that knows a lot of potential clients, The reality is this... The minute a detailed car is driven, it begins to get dirty again. I find myself taking more time on the things that change the appearance of the car in the long run such as polishing, deep interior cleaning, and cleaning the wheels back to the factory new shine.
Click to expand...

Absolutely agreed! I'd say that on the majority of daily driver details I do, I spend about 60% of my time on the interior and 40% on the exterior. Since these customers spend a ton of time basically "living out of their cars," the inside is far more important to them and much more noticeable when deeply cleaned than the exteriors.

Of course every time I talk to a potential client and am designing a detail package to suit them, the first thing I ask is "do you have any specific concerns that you'd like me to focus on?" -- that seems to be the single best way to find out what a customer's mentality about their car is, which allows me to adjust my own mentality to cater to what will make them the most satisfied.
 
Perfection by definition is impossible.

Welcome back Mark!! :laughing:

PS..... We've all been there...:props:
 
07 z-oh-6 said:
I've been detailing for about a little over a year now. When I first started, I was obsessed with everything being perfect! I became really frustrated that ever single car I polished(daily drivers or garage queens) had to end up 100% marr free. Even if the car looked much better, I felt like I failed if there was the least bit of marring. Now, I've "turned the corner" and come to realize that daily drivers don't have to be PERFECT. As long as the car looks much improved, that's what counts. Now, a show car, that's a different story, but I don't work on show cars for a living. So, I'm now still trying to get as close to perfect on every detail, but if it's not realistic, I'm satisfied if the car looks much better than it did before. Anyone else feel this way??
Click to expand...

I don't think that any of us really like seeing residual scratches after all our hard work. We all take pride in our ability to make our rides look beautiful, but daily drivers are not show cars.

I keep reminding myself that I can't put paint back on the car when detailing. I can remove a "certain amount" of it to remove swirls and scratches without damaging the paint but I'm detailing not painting. It helps to keep me sane!
 
Shiny Lil Detlr said:
Of course every time I talk to a potential client and am designing a detail package to suit them, the first thing I ask is "do you have any specific concerns that you'd like me to focus on?" -- that seems to be the single best way to find out what a customer's mentality about their car is, which allows me to adjust my own mentality to cater to what will make them the most satisfied.
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This is the best kept secret of customer service. Address their concerns and everything else is icing on the cake. When you go through the car with them on delivery make sure you point out each concern you addressed and then tell them what else you did.

This doesn't just go for detailing.

Tim
 
Agreed. Don't major in the minors. Make impact that the customer feels.
 
Shiny Lil Detlr said:
Absolutely agreed! I'd say that on the majority of daily driver details I do, I spend about 60% of my time on the interior and 40% on the exterior. Since these customers spend a ton of time basically "living out of their cars," the inside is far more important to them and much more noticeable when deeply cleaned than the exteriors.

Of course every time I talk to a potential client and am designing a detail package to suit them, the first thing I ask is "do you have any specific concerns that you'd like me to focus on?" -- that seems to be the single best way to find out what a customer's mentality about their car is, which allows me to adjust my own mentality to cater to what will make them the most satisfied.
Click to expand...


You hit the nail on the head right there! Couldnt have been said better...not perfect :xyxthumbs:

*Perfection is a personal goal*
 
artofdetailing said:
You hit the nail on the head right there! Couldnt have been said better...not perfect :xyxthumbs:

*Perfection is a personal goal*
Click to expand...

Thanks! I think that's true for any industry you're in.

Perfection is a personal goal as an enthusiast, customer satisfaction is a personal goal as a professional. :props:
 
Please dont tell me you were trying to get work trucks from the 90s perfect.
 
Yeah, I'm kind of getting that mindset as well. I want all of our cars to be 100% perfect, but I also know that our cars look tons better than most other people's cars running around here (gosh that sounds so Suthern - yes, that is a deliberate misspell ;) ). And that's good enough for me. :props:
 
Umm I've been detailing for 12 years now....and your telling me not every car I detail should be perfect?! Dang my wifes been trying to tell me the same thing for years but I just don't listen :( I guess its time for me to wake up aswell :( Lol j/k but for the longest I did try to make them all perfect but after spending 12 hours a car you soon realize this person doesn't care about the smallest swirl I'm finding with a microscope even though it mattered to me, it didn't to them :(
 
My goal is always to make the car look as good as it can reasonably look with the time, tools, and skill level available to me.

As you get more practice, you get better and faster at recognizing what needs to be done, as well as recognizing that certain things that will not be able to be removed/fixed completely.
 
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