Mike Phillips VIF or Vehicle Inspection Form

[Kenny94]

Please sent me a Vehicle Inspection Form:
diamonddetailingplus@gmail.com

Thank you for your help!

[C7mb]

Would love a copy! Thanks Mike!

ephexautodetailing@gmail.com

[Mike Phillips]

Please sent me a Vehicle Inspection Form:
diamonddetailingplus@gmail.com

Thank you for your help!

Would love a copy! Thanks Mike!

ephexautodetailing@gmail.com

Sent guys...

[steph_curly]

Hi Mike,

I just started my detailing business and VIF from you would be a great reference. Kindly send the form to inquiry.stephds@gmail.com .

Thanks a lot Mike...
Cheers

[mills3]

Mike,
I would also like copies of these forms. Can you please email them to me?

justinmiller930@gmail.com

Thanks! Keep up the good work!

[Romad]

I'd appreciate a copy too.

tigertacp@gmail.com

Wish I was closer so I could watch a master in person.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using AG Online

[ZappBrannigan]

Thanks for taking the time to write this up and make it available, I would like a copy too please.

thomasgurrola@gmail.com

Thank you

[jonn127]

Has there been an interior version made?

[Mike Phillips]

Mike Phillips - Vehicle Inspection Form - Version 2

Changes to Version 1.7


All the crucial information has been moved to page 1. Here's a screen shot.








Remember, this forum is designed for you to customize to fit your business.

Keep in mind, while you may not use each line of information some people do, for example the line for Fuel Level, some operations do use this information when working for dealerships, rental cars agencies etc.

You can customize this form to fit your needs by simply deleting sections you don't want or need.

The margins for this form in MS Word are set at

Top = .4"
Bottom = .4"
Left side = .5"
Right side = .5"

That was the only way I could fit everything on one page using the Arial Font as size 12. I'd recommend doing a Test Print of one copy before printing multiple copies to make sure your printer can accommodate these page margins.





Pages 2 and 3 are for you to customize or delete. The idea being to have a package for everyone's budget and needs. If you haven't read my article about matching your services to your customer, click the link below and read it now.

A few tips on starting a part-time detailing business
Match your services to your customer


After you evaluate your customer you should then evaluate their car and then match one of your packages to their needs and their car, not just one of these things.

This is where the lines,

Service Recommended ______________ Service Accepted _______

Come into play. For example if your customer has a swirled-out black Porsche and wants all the swirls removed but only wants to pay for your package #1 then you fill in these blanks with,

Service Recommended: Package #3

Service Accepted: Package #1

Then when they pick up their car they cannot complain there are still swirls in the paint because they did not choose the appropriate package even after your recommendation.

Make sense?

This is called protecting yourself, educating your customer and being honest.




Packages Page
You should have a package for every customer, every car and every budget. Don't spend your customers money for them, let them decide the level of perfection they want for their car. I highly recommend doing your best to educate your customer on the paint on their car and what you can do for it but also, don't oversell customers. By this I mean, don't put a show car finish on a daily driver commuter car. While this might be your passion it's a disservice to both you and your customer. I've included a link to an article I wrote on this topic down the page a ways, if you have not read it yet, take a moment to do so.

On this page you can edit the words Package 1, Package 2 and Package 3 with whatever terms you prefer, for example, Bronze, Silver, Gold. etc. You can and should also insert the hourly charge for what you currently charge in your business.

Products, Pads, Tools and Coatings Tables - Optional
The two tables for information on products, pads, and tools you use can simply be deleted if you don't want to get that deep with your customers. I included this as an option for the purposes of educating your customer to earn their trust, show that you're knowledgeable about your craft and to help you increase your hourly prices. By education your customers you demonstrate you're knowledgeable about your trade while at the same time by default you show-up any competitors that don't want to share what products, pads and tools they use.

Using this type of information is completely up to you.
Quality products, pads and tools all have a cost associated with them that you have to build into your hourly rate. The higher the quality product you use the more you need to charge or the less profit you will make. Most of your customers won't know that a quality foam pad cost more than a cheap, worn out wool pad and here's a way to to educate them. People ask me how I get my prices so high and there's a number of things a person has to do but one of them is to educate your customer how and why the work you do is different than the detailing business down the road that charges $39.99

The third table on this page is to up-sell your customer to a coating. Coatings not only have a higher "cost" price but they also take more and special prep work in order to apply them plus the skill, knowledge and talent to apply them correctly. You need to make sure you're charing for the application of a coating. In the table below you can custom edit it to showcase which coating or coatings you offer and this opens this section of this form opens the door for you to present your customer with this option.

Again, since this is a Microsoft Word Document, you can simply modify or delete the second and third tables and when you do this the "Terms" information will move up under your "packages table".






Terms and Authorization for work
The below is the section that spells out the agreement for services rendered and the customer's signature of approval to do the work. Do not "touch" anyone's car until the above inspection form is filled out with the customer and the customer signs and dates the form.


Referral Request
At the very bottom of this page is a call-out box asking for referrals to grow your business. I find most people tend to be shy about asking their customers for referrals, so this call-out box is to both remind you and to help you to ask for referrals.


















The other major change is the last or back half of the form has been turned into it's own dedicated print out that you can either use or choose not to use. It's purely an educational set of pages that first asks for referrals and second educates your customer on what I call

The Nutshell Version of Car Detailing


With a recommendation to the customer to ask you to put them on your Maintenance Plan.

So when you receive the e-mail there will be 2 forms attached, not just a single form.



Reply to this thread to get the new form that includes both interior and exterior detailing. Reply to this thread and I will e-mail you the form.

No need to post your e-mail address in your reply I'll use the e-mail you registered with for your account on this forum.

[Mike Phillips]

Has there been an interior version made?

I'm releasing a brand new version on Friday at 4:00pm Eastern Time


See this thread...

Mike Phillips - Vehicle Inspection Form - Version 2


Plus a check-off sheet that you or your employees can go over to make sure nothing is ever missed.