When to upsell and when to do the right thing?

[DETAILROOKIE]

Hello all!

I detailed this Lexus for my mechanic and biggest referral source. He told me to do what ever it needed and to make it look as nice as possible, even paint correction.

I asked him how he cleaned the car, car wash, and if it slept outside, it does. I told him the car can use a polish, but since it is constantly in a car wash and sleeps outside, I would just wax to protect the clearcoat it has versus removing clearcoat to only be scratched again. He said he wants to keep it long term so he said he trusted my advice and loved the final result, 845 with high gloss on top.

I know I had the opportunity to upsell him and do a full blown paint correction, the car was swirled out, but did I do the right thing for the client? I always struggle with upselling customers that I know take their cars through tunnel washes, to me it is a waste of product and time, what do yall think?

Thank you in advance!

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[Coatingsarecrack]

My motto it’s always try to do what’s right and the rest will fall into place. I guarantee not correcting his car will get you even more business from him. You built trust which builds your business.

Next time though you could tell him bout process of paint correction, benefits and what’s needed to take care of and give him an option


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[DETAILROOKIE]

Good idea, thank you!

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[Goonie75]

Hello all!

I detailed this Lexus for my mechanic and biggest referral source. He told me to do what ever it needed and to make it look as nice as possible, even paint correction.

I asked him how he cleaned the car, car wash, and if it slept outside, it does. I told him the car can use a polish, but since it is constantly in a car wash and sleeps outside, I would just wax to protect the clearcoat it has versus removing clearcoat to only be scratched again. He said he wants to keep it long term so he said he trusted my advice and loved the final result, 845 with high gloss on top.

I know I had the opportunity to upsell him and do a full blown paint correction, the car was swirled out, but did I do the right thing for the client? I always struggle with upselling customers that I know take their cars through tunnel washes, to me it is a waste of product and time, what do yall think?

Thank you in advance!

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Good work. IMO it's the customer that decides despite ones best advice or intentions.

If they are going to continue to take it through washes that touch the paint and not just spray stuff, then it sounds like it makes no sense to fully go after it. Perhaps he will return for a yearly light polish. That or change how he washes it.

Sounds like you made the right call. And it's good Karma!

Ryan

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[rlmccarty2000]

Sometimes it depends on the cost to the customer. You could have done a one step with an AOI and got good results. I don’t know how much you charge for a one step so it’s difficult to say if you did him right or not. I have a hard time putting wax over swirls and calling it a detail.

This guy is your biggest source of referrals? I would have made it shine like a diamond in a goats butt for half price. If he is throwing business your way give up a little. He could show his car as proof of how good you are and maybe you would have gotten more referrals for an hours more work.

[DETAILROOKIE]

Thank you for you response.

I agree, I hated throwing wax on a swirled out car, but it is going to rain here Friday and it would be in the car wash getting swirled out again on Saturday, he owns a tunnel wash attached to his mechanic shop, so it is in there everytime it gets dirty unfortunately. I typically use HD speed for jobs like this, but do you think the fillers would have been washed away with the first wash? Would the amount of clear coat removed by the AIO made a big impact on the clear coats longevity? I'm not sure how much clear it removes and how much of the correction is just plain filler.

I am doing his Ram truck in a couple weeks and that truck is constantly parked at the shop, but is also maintained by tunnel washes. I was thinking about using HD Speed on that.

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[bfielder32087]

I feel like you did the right thing. Could you have made more money? Of course, but you approached the situation by using your head and thinking of the customer needs.

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[SWETM]

If you do an AIO polish with a polishing pad or finishing pad you don't abrade that much of the clearcoat if done twice or once a year. And if the clearcoat is very soft a finishing pad and adjust with less passes per sections and it's good also. The benefit with doing this is that you abrade of the edges of the swirls and scratches so they gets less visible. And gets the gloss up too. Also you clean the paint so the contaminants that the decon wash and claying don't remove gets polished off. Which also is a benefit when you polishing the paint. You can use a finishing polish too if you want as it's gets you there also.

But as of now you did the right thing vs a heavy cutting the paint. You can not be doing a lot of those without be thinning the clearcoat. If his car wash is not scratching it deep. Then you can be abrading the clearcoat down just a little and get great results. So much depending on the aggressiveness of the car wash too. And how easy it's to remove the damage it does.

Maybe get him to invest in a touchless wash instead LOL.

[TTQ B4U]

You did the right thing. No sense in doing a full paint correction if he is just going through car washes again afterwards.

In my offering it's called a basic clean and protect in which I hit the vehicle with an all-in-one on a light polishing pad to knock down the appearance of imperfections but it is not a paint correction.

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[DETAILROOKIE]

Thank you for the responses!

TTQ, that's a great idea, just to offer a basic wash and protect option.

SWETM, I keep telling him to go touchless and his reply is always "this wash helps keep you in business." Lol no argument there.

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