Detailing not needed

[jagfan73]

Guys, gals, and everyone in between,
been lurking for quite some time and wanted to pose a question to you. You should note I am not a detailer , just have purchased a few products for personal use on my vehicles. Here is the situation, local guy comes to office 5 days a week and washes daily drivers, this is not a detail. Washes exterior, vacuums interior, wipes down dash and windows. He does not wax, coat any tires, nor uses any products to speak of in the interior. He will use an ionizer if the car has a smell, but without truly cleaning, probably not doing anything. In my office he has 80 customers on a weekly basis and basically charges on average 20 for each car- its actually 15 for just a wash and 25 for interior, with a 10 up charge for SUV. In addition he does a rental car "cleaning" when someone returns a car with tint on the windows, smoked in the car or has stains on the seat, he charges 75 for this he gets about 3 cars a week from this national chain. I am looking to potentially create a business model/franchise for his operation. I will not bore you with the details of the cost but am more interested in the viability of operation. He currently carries all the needed insurance, licenses and requirements for the property management office. The property manager has reached out and asked for him to expand his services to other office parks that they manage. The property managing company liked this "added benefit", will reserve two parking spots in the back of their office parks to run this type of service, he needs capital and a system to keep up with the offer. The customers just wants a washed car, period, they are not looking for detailing, wash- dry- vacuum that’s it.
If I put up the capital, I want to create an easily repeatable system, where we can have multiple vans running in multiple office parks and while I see so much about swirl marks, scratches, etc, the best methods to reduce the potential for these issues. The issue is obviously employees, and QA but as we see with all franchise models, there is always a solution.
If I came to you and asked, MR. or MS./MRS. Detailer, create me a process to wash a car, that reduces the chance of swirl marks/scratches but you HAVE to have it done in 30 minutes, and volume/fleet method should be observed, what is your process. Here is what I have – tell me where my process is wrong:
1) Rinse with Pressure washer
2) Clean tires and rims (dedicated mits and Daytona speed brush, etc)
3) Use Foam Cannon on body
4) Wash mit with bucket/grit guard
5) Rinse – any additives?
6) Dry ---towel or metro vac and blo
7) Interior (vacuum, Black Tornador)
Services can increase with time and personnel, think McDonalds menu board, oh you want tire treatment, X dollars more, etc. You want a full car detail, sorry Mr. Customer I do not do car detailing, please let me refer you to one of my close professional friends that I obviously have met online on this forum and lives in Tampa Bay, Florida area, send me contact info please. What I am trying to get at, not wanting to get into detailing business, I want a high volume car washing services, that reduces the chance of scratches, that can be easily repeatable in all markets, but I need the fundamental process to wash these daily drivers. The next question is what products should I use and do they offer it in bulk? Remember this is a quick wash, high volume, almost like a fleet wash. Please note that I am looking for the PROCESS, and suggestions on PRODUCTS, how would you do this?
Feed back please

[glisten]

What your looking for is an operating procedure.

You want a list of specified steps that are to be repeated in their correct order. This allows for a consistent product that is easily teachable.

Totally doable.

What city is this all being done in?

[TFTADetail]

You could apply a $5 increase per car and maybe $7 for larger vehicles if you included a "wax".
I use the quotation marks as it isn't a typical wax application. The wax is applied during the drying process. Nothing expensive. Just something that will work and is offered for sale in bulk. Preferably a concentrate.

When I had accounts, as you've stated you are expecting to have, I also offered the same services, HOWEVER I also offered full interior details, full exterior clay bar details and wax details. This is where the good money came in. I don't do it anymore mainly because I don't want to hire anyone or expand as a mobile detail company. I will eventually open a couple of shops over the course of the next 2 years. I digress ........

Ok, trying to remember pricing with the accounts I had.

Minimize swirls by not washing in a circular motion. Wash & dry in a back and forth motion using only as much pressure as needed. If you're using a foam cannon then this should be a very easy process. Always fold your drying towel at least twice over so as to minimize the pressure between your hand and the vehicle surface when wiping down the paint.

2 bucket method for washing with the grit guard. I use a grit guard in both buckets, but it may not be necessary and it's more of a cautionary stance on my part. One bucket for soapy water and one to rinse.
Using a cannon the need for two buckets may not be necessary for every wash.

$25 - $35 per wash.
The wash included a "spritz" of a spray on wax during the drying process. This gave a great shine to virtually any surface even if the vehicle needed polishing. This ALWAYS made the customer feel better about spending the little extra money as they knew a wash from the typical car wash wouldn't yield the same results.
Always dressed the tires and a typical wipe down for the interior as well as a "light" vacuum. All glass cleaned.

Interior detail varied upon condition and size of vehicle. Typically $75 - $95.
Included everything with regard to interior cleaning. Did not include anything with regard to the exterior.
Fabric protectant offered at additional cost. Leather cleaning and conditioning offered at additional cost.
Leather $20 per row.
Fabric protectant $20 per vehicle.

Wash & wax $60 - $80. Add clay bar service for additional $35.
Typically a machine wax. Hand wax for the vehicles that were regularly maintained by the owner and in overall good condition.

There were times where the customer would want a scratch removed or some light polishing (spot polishing). Pricing was given on a case by case basis. Typically $35 + per scratch or problem area.

I had hired 2 crews and purchased 2 rigs. Services were offered on a bi-daily basis. Eventually services were offered on a weekly basis due to more accounts being brought on. The number of vehicles were also limited dependent upon the services that were requested.

The front desk of each company would have a signup sheet and price list for employees to reserve a spot and then list the service they wanted. The cutoff time to reserve a spot on this list was by 5pm the day before the services were to take place. The day of service, the customer would leave the keys with the front desk. Each crew had a copy of the list and would initial next to each car when the vehicle was finished. 2 vehicles would be detailed at the same time. Keys would be returned to the front desk upon completion and the front desk would notify the customer that their vehicle was finished. The customer would retrieve their keys and come down to inspect and pick up their vehicle and make payment for their services. We would always finish 2 vehicles and then upon returning keys to the front desk pick up 2 more. Customers were asked to park their vehicles in the general vicinity of our detail location. Once the vehicle services were finished the crews would park the customer's vehicle in an area close to the detail area.

The number of customers we would accept were limited no matter the service they wanted. We typically allowed time for worst case scenario. If we found we had time for a couple of additional cars then we would notify the front desk and customers who were unable to reserve a spot on the list were then offered their service. A typical day would allow for 10 - 12 vehicles with a 3 man crew. Crews were paid $10 per hour and given a 15% commission for any up sell they made. The percentage was split amongst the crew which created more incentive to up sell additional services.
Profit after employees were paid averaged $400 - $475 daily.

Another account serviced employee and company vehicles, not fleet vehicles. Set pricing was $35 per vehicle as the cars were all the same make and model. We also offered other services to the same employees to include their personal vehicles. Usually consisting of wash and wax services. We had canopies set up when working in a parking lot and other accounts would typically be within parking structures.

Again, some accounts were bi-daily or bi weekly offerings. Poor weather was the only time we would see a decline. Employees always had the weekends off.

Probably more information than you were looking for, but I figured with where you're wanting this business to head that you might like some insight from someone who has been there.

[TFTADetail]

By the way, with regard to products to use it would depend upon what quality of service you're going to offer as to what cost you want to incur for product and what you want to keep your profit line at.

Zep products are decent and cheap. These are products usually used by the higher volume shops and car washes.

If you're looking for more quality products and are going to offer premium washes then just about anything offered on an online store such as here or Chemical Guys will suffice and yield slightly better results than the typical wash.

With the foam cannon you described you're going to need an air compressor if going the Tornador route. Not a bad route since then you could blow the water from the crevices of the vehicles being washed and offer a better service to your customer.

Volume wash services are all about keeping profit high, but then again QUALITY services will bring more return customers and "word of mouth" advertising is what keep the customers and brings in additional customers.

[Ccrew]

Then there's the $5 per car licensing fee owed to TFTADetail for telling you how to do it :)

[TFTADetail]

Then there's the $5 per car licensing fee owed to TFTADetail for telling you how to do it :)

:dblthumb2:

[custmsprty]

Then there's the $5 per car licensing fee owed to TFTADetail for telling you how to do it :)

For sure!

[jagfan73]

TFTADetail - I really appreciate your input, that is all great information and is even a lot more than I expected. The pricing model really helped as well, the overall profit is higher than I expected, especially with the 3 men crew, which is great news. Again I really appreciate your input, and custmsprty you are correct which in itself is another dilemma. Thanks again to both of you for reading and replying................

[TFTADetail]

You're very welcome.
I hope everything works out for you.

With regard to the dilemma ..... I'll give you a pass. :dblthumb2: