Some questions about customers...

[bambo2888]

Well, as I am gaining experience and my friends are now gaining trust in me, how do you all confront customers with the cost of a detail? Generally speaking, most expect to pay $20 or so for a wash and maybe another $20 for a wax, but in reality we all know this is worth MUCH more, especially for a thorough job. Also, what should I do about quoting prices for various services like paint correction, protection, or a simple wash/wax?

I am basically looking for a few business tips and techniques that will aid in building clientel and not scaring people away from the get-go.

Thanks guys, and gals.

[ltoman]

Well, as I am gaining experience and my friends are now gaining trust in me, how do you all confront customers with the cost of a detail? Generally speaking, most expect to pay $20 or so for a wash and maybe another $20 for a wax, but in reality we all know this is worth MUCH more, especially for a thorough job. Also, what should I do about quoting prices for various services like paint correction, protection, or a simple wash/wax?

I am basically looking for a few business tips and techniques that will aid in building clientel and not scaring people away from the get-go.

Thanks guys, and gals.

Post before and afters of some you have done - what is needed product and timewise, so they get the idea a wax won't make a car look polished.
Then they can pick what they want to spend.
If they won't give it to you they will end up getting the poor $15 wax job elsewhere and it won't look nearly like your examples.(Put them in a book maybe ...plus your own car!!)
Hope this helps.

[ScottB]

you need to get one or two high paying clients, and use as references. Friends and family expect more for less. You need them to offer referrals but NEVER discuss pricing, especially what they paid. If someone cannot meet your price, offer them the nearest carwash.

[bambo2888]

how do i initially bring up the price? like, when they ask "how much?" what do i say before i tell them $100+? likewise, what are some going rates for various tasks ie. swirl removal, simple wash/wax, interior, etc etc?

[ltoman]

how do i initially bring up the price? like, when they ask "how much?" what do i say before i tell them $100+? likewise, what are some going rates for various tasks ie. swirl removal, simple wash/wax, interior, etc etc?
ask justin!

[Whitethunder46]

Lay out a plan on Excel or word for things you would do to a car. Then go and price how much you think each individual thing you could charge. Group everything toegether and see if you can't work out a bundle price.

I'm chargin $35 for a wash, towel dry, windows cleaned, tires shined, vacuumed, and dust free on interior for cars. $45 for large vehicles.

For a full detail I'm doing $125 for cars with a wax and $150 with a 6 month sealant. Price according to the polishing since it takes the longest and labor intensive.

I feel my prices are a little on the low side, but then again, this will be my first year. I hope to gain trust on customers and many referalls.

I already have lined up a few cars. One person said he would of paid $300 for his wife's PT Cruiser after I mentioned everything that is included with the full detail.

Also, you have to talk the customer into thinking they need a full detail and they need to have it washed on a bi-weekly basis.

[Nuke33]

I am by no means a pro detailer nor have i dont it for money yet, but maybe u can make up some pahplits with some before and afters, pricing packages... ect and give it to them to poner over with your card along with it..... Something like that

[Surfer]

Find a way to make them realize that the washes here in Boca are not all that lol, you have Fox's Car Wash and then those two off Glades that are on each side of Federal Highway, all 3 are constantly packed no matter what time of the day it is. My mother used to always take her vehicles to Fox's, oh my god did they swirls the crap out of the paint, the Lexus was easy to coorect, the Lincoln pshhh friggen hard as clear, got maybe 50% of the swirls out before I gave up. Their nothing but fast high volume get em in and get em out shops. Sad, you always see Lambo's, Bentley's etc going through, I could just imagine what their paint must look like.

[justin_murphy]

First of all, you're gonna have to test your market and what you can charge. I did this and was not even meaning too. I started out low and was taking some pretty tough jobs. I would work 6+ hours for a 150.00 bill. Killed myself but I was new at this. I also was just charging 30.00 for a wash/vac. My wakeup call? A customer told me that my 30.00 wash/vac was a better job than my competitor's 150.00 job.........that he had been going to!

You will have to take some crap jobs to get your name out. I would go after business owners. They talk to other owners and their employees listen to them as well. They also have more money. Give THEM the discounted rates and the word of mouth they give you will be priceless.

After that my attitude and prices changed. All washes/vacs were now 50.00. and I was going to 50.00 per hour no matter what. And I was not going to be ashamed of asking for it! My services were the best around and I was coming to the customer!

[Grimm]

Maybe you should call around to see what the competitors prices are, and actually take a car to a couple of them to get a feel for how they operate. Then when you tell potential customers that you charge $50 for a wash when the other guy charges $20, you can tell them what the competition's procedure is, using dirty towels, dirty water, maybe they don't vaccum, etc. Then tell them what you do, and how your process takes 2 hours compared to the competition taking 45 minutes. Just the time difference alone along with the comparison of what you do over the other guys should give them a clear idea of why your charging so much more. Then they can decide if it's worth it. Obviously some people don't care and will opt for the cheap wash, while others will want the best for their $20,000 investment and go with you.

[Surfer]

Maybe you should call around to see what the competitors prices are, and actually take a car to a couple of them to get a feel for how they operate. Then when you tell potential customers that you charge $50 for a wash when the other guy charges $20, you can tell them what the competition's procedure is, using dirty towels, dirty water, maybe they don't vaccum, etc. Then tell them what you do, and how your process takes 2 hours compared to the competition taking 45 minutes. Just the time difference alone along with the comparison of what you do over the other guys should give them a clear idea of why your charging so much more. Then they can decide if it's worth it. Obviously some people don't care and will opt for the cheap wash, while others will want the best for their $20,000 investment and go with you.He lives in my city, problem is we have 3 large detailing places that are cheap as hell that people flock to. Along with some small private detailers but they suck. My friend had a detialing business and actually got busy except his prices were so low he quit, he had a hard time competing with the 3 big Detail places here, one of them, Foxes is advertised all over in the news.

That's what the hardest part will be, trying to show customers why your "value/cost" is better then theirs since they are high volume places that are packed morning - night and cheap as heck. Sad part is Boca is an extremely wealthy area, you'll still see people in their exotics taking the cars to those places, talk about swirl city :( .

Bamboo, maybe hang out at one of them and watch like down the street, when you see an exotic come out, follow him and at a light tell him you'll fix all the swirls they caused....they pry won't even know what your talking about lol :D . Maybe even do a freebie for some people so they can see your work and why your "worth" more then the high volume detail shops here. Belive me there will be a noticeable difference.

[PhaRO]

Figure out how much an hour you would like to make.
Decide what services you want to do and or capable of doing.
Get a general idea of what other services in the area are charging.

With any luck hourly rate x hours spent < competition price

When starting out especially if competition is high in your area you will be getting a lot of leftovers. Anyone that uses a detail service will have someone. Your client base will be the new people to the area, those that haven't use or rarely use a detailer and those that are unhappy with their current detailer. Those that are unhappy are like gold to me. One of my best customers ever came from a detailer that dropped the ball. Guy was nice and did good work. Fortunately for me he wouldn't show up all the time. $6,000-$10,000 a year for past 5 years have come from that customer and their office. They also are all just great folk and I'm happy to know them. Here are a few fun things other detailers have done to loose customers that I ended up with.

Don't use the customers car radio for your personal entertainment.
Don't clean your personal car at the customers house using their water and electricity.
Don't eat your lunch in the customers car.
Don't ask the customer where your holiday bonus is.
Don't ask your customer to make you a sandwich.

Some thing to consider on what services you will be doing. Your price and quality will shape a lot of the work you are doing. You may need to modify your prices to help shape things. For instance I really liked doing light details. My prices while not the cheapest in town were cheaper than most. My quality though was exceptional. When I had extra time between appointments I just spent it on whatever car I was working on. Over time were more and more people wanted their cars washed on a weekly or biweekly basis. I kept adding regular customers eventually filling my schedule completely with them. I don't take on new customers now and washing is about the only thing I do now with ocassional detailing. I like to detail though so generally I detail a little on each vehicle when I wash it. Customers are thrilled and I get my detail fix in. Downside is I am locked in this pattern. If I had it to do all over again as my business grew I'd have raised my wash price much higher to limit the potential client pool.

[Grimm]

Also are you doing this as a mobile business, or having customers come to you? As I'm sure someone like Justin could attest, the wealthier people that you want to attract as higher paying customers, are very likely to lead very busy lives with work. If you are mobile, this alone will probably be a great opportunity to get new customers. Then I would try going to an affluent area and just banging on doors. Maybe you could get some nice flyers printed up with some nice sized closeups of paint. One would be how the paint looks after going to the other local Swirl-it wash, and the other would show how the paint looks after you detail it. I'm sure you can attract some of these wealthier people, they just need an education on how the other places are detrimental to their car's finish. Networking is huge, especially with the white color type of people; so as was mentioned earlier, if you can get a couple good customers going I'm sure they will give you a great head start by word of mouth.

[Surfer]

Then I would try going to an affluent area and just banging on doors. Boca = lots of privatley gated homes and gated communities that won't let you near w/o an appointment etc. Plus some of the gated homes are electrified with warning signs, I wouldn't want to touch the gate LOL.

Bamboo obviously you know how Boca is, I would hang out at Mizner park, you know all the exotic and high end cars that go in there. You could chat with some owners. Or scope out people leaving the big 3 Detailing Places here and try to maybe chat with the people who are leaving (just not on the detailing premises).

I think what people don't realize is we have a couple large high volume detail shops here that are constantly packed and people don't see to care if their car is swriled, friends dad took his Escalade to Foxes, one day I pointed out to him how swirled up his paint was...his reply.."ehhh oh well, I don't care" lol. Like my friend who used to detail kinda gave up as he couldn't compete on pricing with those shops, if your doing this part time then it could be a nice source of income if you if you can figure out how to convince people here to use you and not those volume detail shops.

[Grimm]

If you can get a customer that hangs out at this park that could be a good way to get your foot in the door so to speak. If you can get someone's car looking superb and puts the rest of the cars to shame, maybe others will talk to him/her about how good it looks and get the ball rolling on referals.