Need to vent a little

Calendyr

Calendyr

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All right, so after almost 2 full months the phone is finally starting to ring for me. Got 3 calls this week, my first 3 since I put my website online and started advertising.

So the first guy says: Hello, I found your website and I had been looking for 3 days for someone doing the work you do!". Great start....

"I just purchased an Alpha Romeo and the sealant is coming off"...

So after a few questions what he was describing sounded a lot like cleacoat faillure. I asked him to send me some picture so I can see what he is talking about but I warned him there was a really good chance he would have to have the car repainted because sealant doesn't come off in flakes and leave a very dull area behind...

So that was number one ;(

Second call, "Hi, I saw you were mobile and want you to come over to work on my car's paint". Great!

"So I have rust forming all around the licence plate..."

CRAP! An other paint job...

Finally 3rd call. "HI, I have a scratch I want fixed on my car".

I had decided not to do paint chip repair because I find it tedious work. I love detailing, cleaning, correcting and all that but paint chips I really hate. Anyway at this point I am not gonna be turning down work I can do. So I ask him to purchase the paint for the repair explaining how get the paint coat and all..

I get there... his scratch is actually the bottom part of the driver's side door that had rubbed against a curb and the paint had about 10 scratches half an inch wide by 2 inches long along with plenty of smaller scratches...

So I get to work and and realise after about 3 hours of work that this will take like 12 hours to fix and it just makes no sense. So I explained that to him and suggested I patch it up and seal it. It will be protected against rust but will be visible. If you look closelly. I suggested he gets the pannel repainted. I ended up giving him a 50% discount because I was stupid to accept that job. He was really happy with that and thanked me. He said he would call me to do a sealant job on his car soon. So in the end I did not make any money but I think I might have found a client. Hopefully it's will lead to other work.

So not a great week for me. Needed to talk about it ;)

Do you guys get lots of call for stuff that is body shop work? Do you have a referral program in place with a body shop so you can make some money sending them client? I intend to contact the body shops in my area to do that. Went to one already yesterday but the owner wasn't there and they won't call me during the weekend I guess.
 
Keep your head up bro. How are you advertising? If you're doing google adwords or other online advertising, i'd check your keywords. You might be attracting the wrong type of viewer, or not being clear about what you offer.

Also, setup a Yelp account.. Yelp drives so much business for me even though they are a bunch of goons!
 
The AGO app is still not working. I had this 1 page writing for you. To keep your head up and keep it up. But it deleted??? Lol

Well keep it up, glad to hear that you are getting calls.
 
I have a body shop I work with and I get call for this kind of stuff all the time. If you don't want this kind of business just add negative key words to your add.
 
Well. Kinda, I dont run a full time business, just work on friends cars. My friend scraped his car against a support piece. He comes over and says can you fix it, I look at it, paint chipped off from the body and alot of the other stuff looks not great. I da the side to get rid of the poor stuff, but then see that the other stuff is too deep.

I work and tell him to get a dr colorchip kit to protect against rust. I fix up and said, you should come buy and Ill detail the thing. Never has called.
 
It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Build a relationship with these people. Call them in a week and see how their progress is going and if they found a solution.
 
I once lost two in one day.
Both cars CC was gone, no shot, they asked me to drive over, about an hour for both, I said it doesn't pay because your cars clear is beyond anything I could do.

Sometimes you get these calls which makes you think,well lost money ,again.
Glad I do it part time because I'd starve.
I do get some though that I love, complete turn around and the customer is always happy.
Keep working at it, word of mouth works, I did about six cars all in the same family once.
 
Give these people your business cards, they are either going to repaint or buy a new car and probably sometime soon. They most likely wont want this to happen to their new ride so sell them on being preventative and the $$$ it saves in the long run.
 
I dont get too much body shop stuff because on my website it says very clearly what I do NOT offer. People know that I am pure detail related work only. What sort of advertising are you doing right now? Might be time for some guerilla marketing.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using AG Online
 
Folks don't know any better and you really can't slap them around for it. I get at least one call/email per week about work that clearly needs to go to a body shop. I refer them to my friend down the road who runs a body/paint shop and let it go. I do the customer, my friend, and myself a favor.
 
Wouldn't get discouraged, easier said than done sometimes I'm sure...

I've had cars come to our shop that I wouldn't have bothered to want detailed if I was the owner - but hey, it made me quickly learn the need to address each car / client individually. Not every soccer Mom van will want, or care, to hear a word about paint correction.

The best advice I can give is be knowledgeable about your industry, and be honest with them. If there's a problem you know isn't worth their time or yours? Tell em'. You don't want to turn away jobs but you also CANNOT afford to lose money doing this for a living. I've found people will respect you every bit as much for knowing when to refer them to a different solution than they anticipated, as much as they might for a job well done.

I was able to slip my foot in the door with a large body shop in our more 'metro' area where they keep my cards / contact info available for their clients, and in turn I know where to send my body shop needs...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using AG Online
 
jrs1418 said:
Keep your head up bro. How are you advertising? If you're doing google adwords or other online advertising, i'd check your keywords. You might be attracting the wrong type of viewer, or not being clear about what you offer.

Also, setup a Yelp account.. Yelp drives so much business for me even though they are a bunch of goons!
Click to expand...

My website is pretty clear about what I offer ;) Nowhere does it say I do paintjobs LOL

I am working on a new website, the new one will have services listed specifically instead of having packages. So that should resolve this issue.

For advertising: Email campaigs to people selling their cars, the website of course, dropping business cards where I think there might be clients, meet with local auto clubs, ads on local kijiji and craiglist boards.

I plan on starting an adword campaign when the new site is up. Will also push the non Google ads and listings.
 
HateSwirls said:
I once lost two in one day.
Both cars CC was gone, no shot, they asked me to drive over, about an hour for both, I said it doesn't pay because your cars clear is beyond anything I could do.

Sometimes you get these calls which makes you think,well lost money ,again.
Glad I do it part time because I'd starve.
I do get some though that I love, complete turn around and the customer is always happy.
Keep working at it, word of mouth works, I did about six cars all in the same family once.
Click to expand...

Ya that is what I want to avoid LOL

I think I will always take the time on the phone to understand exactly what the client needs. I really don't want to drive somewhere just to find out that I can't help him/her.

What is you phone process? What do you ask the client and how do you Schedule your work? I made a call sheet that I fill out when the client calls. Ask basic things like name, phone number, détails about the car's make, model, year, color, etc. Also ask what service they need and take note about issues they need fixed. That's how I found out about the CC failure and the rust for that other guy. Of course it's not perfect, because that 3rd client was pretty vague about his scratch he wanted fixed. On the phone it sounded like a single scratch to the primer. In reality it was several scratches to the primer, several scratches to the base coat and several more deep scratches in the clear coat and a bunch of yellow paint transfer from the curb that was hit... not exactly what he described ROFL!
 
BradsDetailing said:
Give these people your business cards, they are either going to repaint or buy a new car and probably sometime soon. They most likely wont want this to happen to their new ride so sell them on being preventative and the $$$ it saves in the long run.
Click to expand...

Hum... these are people calling in. Not sure how I can give them my business card. But yes you are right, they will very likelly need my services in the future. I am not sure how I can go about keeping in contact with them. Maybe if I asked their email address when I first talk with them I could make some kind of newsletter (was planning to anyhow) and mail it from time to time (say once a month or something).
 
VP Mark said:
I dont get too much body shop stuff because on my website it says very clearly what I do NOT offer. People know that I am pure detail related work only. What sort of advertising are you doing right now? Might be time for some guerilla marketing.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using AG Online
Click to expand...

What kind of guerilla marketing are you suggesting? Doing car washes for charities and things like that? I was planning to do that next year. It's getting pretty cold here in Montréal, not many warm days left and the idea of doing at car wash when it's 50 degrees outside doesn't appeal to me much LOL
 
TundraPower said:
Folks don't know any better and you really can't slap them around for it. I get at least one call/email per week about work that clearly needs to go to a body shop. I refer them to my friend down the road who runs a body/paint shop and let it go. I do the customer, my friend, and myself a favor.
Click to expand...

I know, and I am not slapping them for it. It's just frustrating not to get calls for 2 months and then when it finally starts to go it's stuff I don't do. That's why I was thinking having a Relationship with a bodyshop might be interesting. I am just not sure if bodyshops are interested in that sort of things. I can see myself sending a lot of people their way but can't think of situations where they would send me clients. That's why I was asking if any of you guys had programs in place with bodyshops for a finder's fee for referral or a comission of some sort.
 
Russell Detail said:
Wouldn't get discouraged, easier said than done sometimes I'm sure...

I've had cars come to our shop that I wouldn't have bothered to want detailed if I was the owner - but hey, it made me quickly learn the need to address each car / client individually. Not every soccer Mom van will want, or care, to hear a word about paint correction.

The best advice I can give is be knowledgeable about your industry, and be honest with them. If there's a problem you know isn't worth their time or yours? Tell em'. You don't want to turn away jobs but you also CANNOT afford to lose money doing this for a living. I've found people will respect you every bit as much for knowing when to refer them to a different solution than they anticipated, as much as they might for a job well done.

I was able to slip my foot in the door with a large body shop in our more 'metro' area where they keep my cards / contact info available for their clients, and in turn I know where to send my body shop needs...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using AG Online
Click to expand...

I know.

Are you getting a lot of business from them?
 
Thanks guys btw. I am not depressed or anything, was just a frustrating week. Next week I am starting to try to push the headlight restoration project. I decided to the following:

1. Have new business cards printed where the back of the card will say: I can fix your headlights.

2. Go to shopping malls and put a card on the driver's side window of every car I see that needs headlight repair unless the car is a total piece of Junk LOL

3. Schedule one or 2 days a week to do this exclusivelly. Driving to client's place is not ideal for such a small job but I will see this as a marketing plan, not a revenue one.

I think this is a very good way to get new clients. Headlight repairs are inexpensive and people will see a great benefit once it's done. It's will give me an opportunity to upsell to paint polishing/correction and inform them about the need to protect the car so maybe some wash/sealant packages.
 
Calendyr said:
What kind of guerilla marketing are you suggesting? Doing car washes for charities and things like that? I was planning to do that next year. It's getting pretty cold here in Montréal, not many warm days left and the idea of doing at car wash when it's 50 degrees outside doesn't appeal to me much LOL
Click to expand...

Negative. Guerilla marketing is a series of low cost marketing techniques that work in your overall marketing plan.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using AG Online
 
Ok my bad. I thought guerilla marketing was doing stunts or special things to promote your business. Like, I don't know, painting around a sewer blowhole so that it looks like a streaming cup of coffee. I will research the subject. Thanks.
 
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