how do you handle customers like this?

[miad]

did this car today for a new client. this is an 05 Mustang V6 Convertible, right at 100k miles. it is a repo that they purchased for cheap and it sat outside with the top down for a while so the interior was really bad, carpet and seats. Exterior was too and needed corrected but I couldn't convince them to spend an extra $40 for me to wash and AIO it, no kidding. they said they were going to get it repainted after they came back from Arizona where they spend the winters (clearly not struggling for cash). I kept telling them I could work miracles on the paint but they wouldn't spend the cash. they wanted a full interior, waited until I gave them a stupid low price and then asked if I would clean the engine too. I said, that's no big deal, I wont charge you for that (I just spray with cleaner, rinse, dry, dress, 10-15 minutes total). I always go out of my way to impress people

long story short, spent nearly 4 hours on this job. I sort of have a policy that no car leaves without getting washed and the tires dressed, so on the way back to her house, I stopped and spent $3 to spray it off (didn't feel like doing a hand wash), dry it, and dress tires. it looked a lot better now. also, she had bad white paint transfer on the fender. she actually called me back this morning and asked how much I would charge to "buff it off". I said nothing, I have a chemical that removes it easily and I had already done it. that's now 3 freebies I gave her.

I was relatively satisfied with how the seats turned out, carpet looked great, interior overall looked so much better than it did. here's what she said when she opened the door...."yeah, I didn't really think those stains were going to come out. I told my husband we should just have the interior redone". I told her I washed it for free, showed her the paint transfer was gone, and she proceeded to ask how much the price was again? I said $60 <<---- no, I am not kidding, please laugh at me if you would like. she pulls out $70 and asks if I have change. I said no (I had given some of it to the car wash), so she went back in the house and spent several minutes coming up with some old wadded up $1 bills and $4 in quarters. I am not kidding.

its people like this that make me want to get out of the detailing business ,which I have worked in since I was 12 years old washing my parents co-workers cars. I am now 31. how do you people deal with these types? I know none of you would have done this job for that cheap, keep in mind I work at home with no overhead or shop costs (still doesn't matter, I know) but going out of your way doesn't always work. Karma is rarely positive.
http://i.imgur.com/Ur01zPL.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/g8FB8eR.jpg

[Dereksdtail]

That's tough bud, I've had sort of the same experiences, but I've also had some good tippers so I just see it as you win some and loose some just hoping they could bring some future business

[Dereksdtail]

Seats look awesome btw

[frankprozzoly]

Seats look good. That's impressive. What did you use to clean all that crap.

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[miad]

yeah future business is why I try to keep prices so low. my customers always tell me what a great job I do, but I rarely get more than a $5 tip. make matter worse, my wife is a hairstylist and gets $20 tips all the time even after making $40 an hour for something that doesn't make her back hurt the way mine does, lol. its not right.

[miad]

Megs APC+ (going to run out soon and cant get any more) and also the aerosol Meguiars carpet and fabric cleaner, in a black can. I used the Bissell Little Green on these too. I heat the water up a lot first and the machine keeps it hot. I get really good results from such a small/cheap machine, only use it on seats.

[mswerb]

The Little Green Machine works great on carpets too. The only problem I have, is that the clean solution tank is a bit too small.

[HD.Detailing]

make a note in the customers file and charge more next time

[Alek@DeepClean]

No bull: Raise your prices. Charge what you're worth. You encounter less and less of these type of people as you raise your prices. I transitioned from one of the cheapest guys in town to now probably the most expensive in several towns, and the quality of my customer base has improved infinitely. There's no sense working yourself to death for pennies, and then dealing with bottom feeder customers.

But at the same time, you can't toss your customer a freebie and then get mad when they don't pay you extra for it. You said $60, don't be upset when she hands you 60. If you want your policy to be "No car leaves without being washed", then factor the wash into all of your packages. Raise your prices by the amount you would charge for the wash, then add a "Courtesy Hand Wash" to the description. I do the same thing with my exterior packages. All of my exteriors get a "Courtesy Vacuum and Interior Wipe". Makes the customer feel like they're getting something for free.

[MarkD51]

Where you living at, New Mexico?!

Hell, I've seen jokers like this for 10 straight years here.

One example was a fairly rich well to do man, who supposedly called himself "My Friend". LOL

Just had himself a $270K house built on 40 acres of land right up against the mountains here, a shop-garage, astro observatory, water well dug, the whole 9 yards.

Went to El Paso for Laproscopy back surgery, was hurting for some help apparently, asked me to help him, bring him a gallon of milk from wally world ($3), and come out, pour 12 gallons of gas into his pickup from Jerry Cans, then pack up-wrap-box some special parts to a plater business in Albuturkey.

Then take those parts to a shipping store back here in town.
A total of about 60 miles driven, and 2 hours spent running hill and dale.

He pulled out 3 miserable $1 bills, that you'd swear were stashed in some crack babe's filthy undies for 4 solid months (that was for the Milk), then gave me a whopping $10 "gratuity" in rolls of nickels, and pennies, totaling $13.

You have to wonder, what planet are these types of people from?

[miad]

this makes sense. sometimes I let my personality get too involved in my decision making. I'm the person that always yields the right of way, the guy that always holds the door, the person that goes to an all inclusive resort and ends up spending $200 that week in tips when nobody else in line gives a penny. I have been known to buy complete strangers a drink at the bar just because, I constantly donate to causes that mean nothing to me, and I have given the person running the drive thru window an extra $20 to pay for the next few orders on multiple occasions. I have never done these to things to get paid back, but I have always believed in Karma. I have always believed that someday I would get treated the same way. I haven't, and its getting old. and then, customers like this.

[Evan.J]

Customers like that will make you broke. In my opinion you should not have given the customer anything for free once the customer hears something for free they expect more and more for less and less. You should raise your prices, document before and after's, and talk to the customer as to what they would like done and give them an estimate on price. If they would like something addressed like the paint transfer then you need to explain to them that you can do it but it will cost X amount of dollars for that service. While you would like to impress your customers you still need to realize that you need to make money and doing work for free is not going to help you make any money.

Give your customers a realistic expectation on what you think the outcome will be or what you know the outcome will be with certain situations this will help address the customers needs along with your ability to meet those needs. If you go above and beyond what the customer needs then great but make sure not to go to fat over those as you can be making more money on those.

Think of it this way when you go to Wendy's and order a hamburger you don't get the cheese. They will ask you if you would like the cheese and if you say yes they will charge you for that piece of cheese.

The same roles will apply for detailing. If the customer would like their engine detailed it is just a simple add on service that you can continue to make money on.

It's always great to under promise and over deliver to a certain extent.

Do yourself a favor and pick up Renny Doyle's book on how to run a part-time detailing business out of your home. In this book he goes into great detail about how to enhance the amount of money you can make while delivering the right results to the right customers.

[WAXOFF]

I give them a price. If they don't like it I say "get away from me" I do this part time. I don't need Bull crap customers like that. My motto is "you pay or you go away".

[miad]

I have the book. have read it twice. a lot of the points in there apply to higher end areas where you can get $200+ for details. around here, not going to happen. I appreciate the help, I need to stop being so nice. but its going to be hard.

[VP Mark]

This is why it is important to discuss not only the service you are providing but tell them also what they are NOT paying for.

Best thing to do with these types of people is to price yourself above them or decline doing the service for them. People wanting caviar on a tuna fish budget will cause you nothing but trouble and you won't make anything off of it.

The cheapest people are almost always the pickiest. Sad but true.

Edit and translation: what Evan said.

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