Very inconsistent

sudsmobile said:
We use AdWords. It works great. I spend about what you spent per month. Surprising it's not working for you. I ran one of those facebook boost your post things. I spent $30 on it, got about 1000 likes on Instagram because it cross posted my facebook post to instagram. I got zero business from it, best as I can tell. I did manage to get a guy that left me a negative FB review during that same timeframe because he was extremely hard to deal with and then texted my son with some nasty text the next day, which got me involved, which led to him "reporting me" which was leaving me a negative FB review. Oh, and I got a contact from a lady that worked for a local business. Same BS. She wanted me to wash 4-7 cars once a week. I gave her a price. Too much. Then she decided the boss wanted to try me out with a full detail on his Expedition. I gave her a price and made her an appointment. She called back and wanted to move her appointment to another day that I already told her was fully booked. She said "OK, cancel that appointment. Thanks" and hung up on me. So my opinion of FB is I wish it would burn in hell because honestly those are the two rudest customers I've ever had by a pretty wide margin. I use the word customers very loosely, as neither one actually bought anything from me.
Click to expand...

Ya, you need to select where the ads are shown in facebook. I de-select everything except the news feed. I don't want to pay for ads on Twitter or Instagram or Messenger. People using those services will not even look at the ad. In the newsfeed, people are activelly reading and if you title as a good hook or a good picture, there is a good chance they will stop to look at it.
 
RiverCityAutoSpa said:
Not really “cursing” google I’d be happy to share my adwords results with you. I’ve gotten tons of views just nothing amounted to an appointment. Yes I’m moaning in a way because I love what I do and I want everyone to experience my work.

The lady who called today wasn’t in my group of people I’d say are “preferred” customers. Don’t call me ask how much a “full detail” is when you think $80 is too hi. Idk if the conversation would of went hey what’s ur full detail I explain she says awesome I’d like to make an appointment we could proceed but the whole oh no no no no that’s really expensive leads me to believe she’s a one time client, she will be looking for more than I provide for that package and isn’t willing to fork over more money for more services. She was selling the car “today” and needed it cleaned.
I was at Home Depot in the middle of shopping for today’s yard work job, If I don’t wake up with a detail that day chances are very good I won’t be doing a detail that day, excludes neighbors.

Since 4pm I’ve booked 4 more cars for this week. It seems like they come out of thin air instead of being booked for a few days. No complaints. I have no merit to complain on, in my eyes my business is working it’s just taking some time to get out there.

Thursday will come around and people start calling for the weekend just to be told Monday’s my earliest.
It comes and goes in waves I wish my wave was a steady long ride.

Thanks for ur help and ur responses I see you on a lot of threads providing great info.
Click to expand...

Yes sometimes it works that way. Last week I was fully booked. Then the week-end came and I had no appointment scheduled for this week. In a way i was happy because I would allow me to catch up on paperwork, do some work on the website that needs to be done (I want to change my packages), re-organize the truck, etc... So monday morning comes, I wake up and start working on my new ad for facebook. Phones ring I start to talk to a person about doing a coating, in the middle of the call someone else calls I ask him if I can call him back since I was already on the phone with a client, he says ok. I go back to the first call and book a paint coating with paint correction for his car. Call back the other person and book a paint correction for him. So that's like 1500$ right there for 2 days work. And I was expecting a slow week ;)

As for your caller who thinks 80$ is too much for a full detail, I will disagree with Sudsmobile there. I don't want those clients. They are the ones who make problems. Someone who thinks 80$ for 8 hours of wok is too much will be the same person who will ##### about every single little detail and leave you bad reviews. For me, when someone calls and the first thing they ask is "how much to do X", I already know that will be a hard sell. And those are the people who rarelly book with me because I am way too expensive for them. People like that are seeking car wash prices, so it's a waste of both our times even talking. I usually just go directly to pricing with them and the usual answer is "Ok, I will look into it and call you back" and they never do ;) And that is quite all right with me.

The way conversation starts with people who do hire me is usually like this: "Hello, I was looking at your website and I want to have X service done on my Y vehicle." or "Hello. I have a x vehicule and I need to do y service for it. Do you have any availability to do that". People who don't mention price in the opening question are usually serious buyers, people who do ask for price right away are what I call tire kickers. So you have to learn to stop wasting time with tire kickers... learned that the hard way the first 2 years ;)
 
LSNAutoDetailing said:
A successful business takes 5 to 7 years before you're taking a draw. If you're not turning profit now, I wouldn't take on a shop... Rent, utilities, insurance, security, security cameras, parking spots (yup, you'll pay for those too..) and any renovations that has to be done.

My suggestion is to listen to some of the advice given previously, which seems sound. Another thing to do is use a CRM (customer relation database). I use Zoho CRM, the free version. Every customer gets loaded into the CRM. You can create events, etc..

Every customer you have, including new ones, MUST go on a maintenance plan starting today. You have to set that up front, then you determine what your maintenance packages and frequency will be. Set a reminder and then email or call them to schedule their maintenance. Residual business is key! If you have a customer who trades a lease you say "I will transfer your existing maintenance plan to the new lease".

What about referrals??? Always ask the customer that if they appreciated the service they got, can they please provide two names that you can contact. When someone receives good service, they usually like to tell other people.
Click to expand...

I never thought about asking for potential contacts Paul. I’ll keep this in mind.

Anyone else do this?


Dan Tran
High Quality Car Detailing at the Comfort of Your Own Home
 
LSNAutoDetailing said:
A successful business takes 5 to 7 years before you're taking a draw. If you're not turning profit now, I wouldn't take on a shop... Rent, utilities, insurance, security, security cameras, parking spots (yup, you'll pay for those too..) and any renovations that has to be done.

My suggestion is to listen to some of the advice given previously, which seems sound. Another thing to do is use a CRM (customer relation database). I use Zoho CRM, the free version. Every customer gets loaded into the CRM. You can create events, etc..

Every customer you have, including new ones, MUST go on a maintenance plan starting today. You have to set that up front, then you determine what your maintenance packages and frequency will be. Set a reminder and then email or call them to schedule their maintenance. Residual business is key! If you have a customer who trades a lease you say "I will transfer your existing maintenance plan to the new lease".

What about referrals??? Always ask the customer that if they appreciated the service they got, can they please provide two names that you can contact. When someone receives good service, they usually like to tell other people.
Click to expand...

Yes, i think you are right. Jimbo Bailam (sp?) is pushing maintenance plans in his mentoring program. I am not part of it but he made a video about it yesterday. His math is that you can make 100K per year if you have 83 people on a 110$ per month plan. That is a lot of people to service, 6 per day in fact. But it does create good money flow.

How are you doing your maintenance plan? Can you explain your packages and how you sell them? This is the next thing i need to work on. I was thinking about dedicating 1 or 2 days a week for maintenance plans and the rest of the week for regular details.

Regarding CRMs, I have tried a few over the years and hated every single one of them. The one I am using right now I like a lot. It's Bitrix 24. What I like about it is that you can do mass mailing with it without having to purchase anything. So I plan to do email blasts onces in a while. I enter every client I have into it and it can track messages so that can be very useful too if someone asks me something in the future I have a history of emails with them.
 
We do all my regular maintenance early Saturday and Tuesday and we tend to group them by location so we go to one area and knock out a few jobs. I have a couple stragglers that are once a month on the 5th or the 15th or whatever that I can push around to whenever I need to, they don't care as long as it's done somewhere around there. We don't have a ton of maintenance yet, maybe $1000/month. We're shooting for $2000/month. I've considered trying to add a second rig and have them do nothing but maintenance but that's a ways off.
 
Lots of good advice here, I'll hopefully add to it.

When I detailed for a living I learned quickly that the maintenance angle was the way to go. I racked my brain trying to come up with a group that would want the service and could afford it. I came up with teachers and real estate agents. The teachers (and college professors) wanted a clean car but had little time. The realtors HAD TO HAVE a clean car and even less time.

The teachers spread the word among their peers as did the realtors. Customers went from haphazard to steady in short order. I was not mobile, all work was done in my garage.

For the doubting Thomas my guarantee was "If my work does not exceed your expectations then it's free". I never once had to give a freebie. This was accomplished in the most impoverished city in the entire USA at that time. That was Brownsville, Tx.....very tough crowd. It worked for me in spite of the odds against me.

I did offer a small discount or minor extra service at no charge for referrals. Keep plugging away at it, you will succeed.
 
I market on adwords either with that radius circle or within like 17 miles of my house. When i can use the radius circle I only advertise in the wealthy area. I just googled xxx city median income and it came up with $156k I dont know how accurate this is but it seems all the houses in this part of town are easily 400k+.

Is a maintenance plan the same as your lowest priced package???

Or do you bump up the lowest price package and throw in a "maintenance plan" for existing customers package?
 
Our "maintenance plan" is whatever the customer wants to do. We've got a lady that washes four cars once a month. We've got one that does a wash one month and wash & wax the next. One that does two cars wash & wax a month. We've got a lady that does every two weeks, one wash, one wash & wax. It's usually at our discretion though. If I tell them they need to do something, they do it. Most of these jobs started with a full detail.
 
RiverCityAutoSpa said:
I market on adwords either with that radius circle or within like 17 miles of my house. When i can use the radius circle I only advertise in the wealthy area. I just googled xxx city median income and it came up with $156k I dont know how accurate this is but it seems all the houses in this part of town are easily 400k+.

Is a maintenance plan the same as your lowest priced package???

Or do you bump up the lowest price package and throw in a "maintenance plan" for existing customers package?
Click to expand...

Are you sure those numbers are accurate? They don't really add up. First, $156k is a pretty high median household income. Second, those house prices are pretty low for a family with that much income. One of the wealthiest suburb areas of Orange County, Rancho Santa Margarita, the median household income is around $105k and the average 3bd home price is $675k.
 
According to google the average household income is 153k median household income $102918 average household net worth $728k the median home value is 683k. I’m just relaying what google is giving me.

Basically all I do is maintenance washes I guess. Rarely will I sell my higher end packages and I won’t hand wax a car on my smallest package if it’s full of Decon I’ll show them and recommend a clay bar. I will however wax one that has had a full detail in the past or a newer vehicle.
 
RTexasF said:
Lots of good advice here, I'll hopefully add to it.

When I detailed for a living I learned quickly that the maintenance angle was the way to go. I racked my brain trying to come up with a group that would want the service and could afford it. I came up with teachers and real estate agents. The teachers (and college professors) wanted a clean car but had little time. The realtors HAD TO HAVE a clean car and even less time.
Click to expand...

Very good idea finding a specific market. Plus once you build up enough customers you don't even need to advertise. I think another profession to go after is Doctors and Nurses. The real estate agents is a guarantee for business.
 
LEDetailing said:
Very good idea finding a specific market. Plus once you build up enough customers you don't even need to advertise. I think another profession to go after is Doctors and Nurses. The real estate agents is a guarantee for business.
Click to expand...

We do two different hospitals, one on Friday of the first week and one the following Monday. It falls on their payday and the Monday after payday. One hospital closer to Orange County is very good. We'll go there and do 4 cars and make $300. The other is closer to our house and the money is not quite as good because people here don't spend quite as much money on things. But, all in all, it's been very good and provides a steady weekly income. Plus, we've managed to score some really good jobs outside the hospital from it.
 
RiverCityAutoSpa said:
According to google the average household income is 153k median household income $102918 average household net worth $728k the median home value is 683k. I’m just relaying what google is giving me.

Basically all I do is maintenance washes I guess. Rarely will I sell my higher end packages and I won’t hand wax a car on my smallest package if it’s full of Decon I’ll show them and recommend a clay bar. I will however wax one that has had a full detail in the past or a newer vehicle.
Click to expand...

Hey, you also have 3 registered sex offenders. LOL

I'm not the paint police. I'll do what people want me to do even if it's against my recommendation. You're never going to hurt a car giving it a good wash and a good coat of wax. Plus, you get people used to spending a little bit more. Next time it's a little bit more than that.
 
I will say, the median income is very high but the population is very low. Sometimes you have to overwhelm yourself with sheer numbers.
 
Everyone ideas are great. You need to research your areas and know where and where not to market. Most of our details are $375 to $800 per car and coatings are $1800 to $4500 per vehicle but that’s based on what area where we’re working. In our area marine customers are golden those are the big spenders. Google AdWords express is great if you don’t know how to work the standard AdWords. We have a working total budget of $1300 month but I would say start with $350/400 and work a small area then build from there most of our customers are word of mouth. We have some New York buddies that charge in the upper $1500 for details only. You may not have customers like that in your area so what I tell most people go to your local bmw,Lexus, Porsche dealers and try to get them to sale your coating and cut them a small portion.


Sent from my iPhone using Autogeekonline mobile app
 
It was more of Im not putting a paste wax over all that decon bc it’s going to be a itch to get it off.

I’m learning my area, lots of hidden money out here most don’t want to spend it.

I did a gls today absolutely disgusting. They don’t care for anything more than simple wash and interior. $80 act like I just told them I kidnapped their only child.

I need to find the ones who want to pay for quality work. I used to clean the vents on my basic package not anymore that starts the next package up. But then I don’t want them to feel like they wasted their money.

Any ideas how to get out of constant maintenance washes and on more full details?
 
Jesus lol 4500 for a coating? I know some people in my area charge 1000-1500 maybe the top guy charges 1800.

Guess dc has that political cash. I grew up in olney/ Montgomery county. Potomac is where it’s at and Chevy Chase old money.
 
I did raise my prices earlier this year to 80/100 for the basic and so on about 50+ for each package. Got a lot of people saying no I’m too expensive And business took a hit. I think my main problem is all the cars are leases they just throw them away in 2 years.
 
I’m going to give adwords another shot, after looking at my targeted area I have it selected by zip code. Only the places I WANT to work will see my ad.
 
RiverCityAutoSpa said:
Jesus lol 4500 for a coating? I know some people in my area charge 1000-1500 maybe the top guy charges 1800.

Guess dc has that political cash. I grew up in olney/ Montgomery county. Potomac is where it’s at and Chevy Chase old money.
Click to expand...

Mo county you can always get top dollar you just have to know where the find them. $1800 is base paint correction with level 2 coating.


Sent from my iPhone using Autogeekonline mobile app
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top