Don't Need the Extras

[Mr. Clean]

Originally Posted by Bunky

At $25, you are basically competing with the drive through car wash. The money may be easy but the work is going to be hard unless you can knock them out at least 2 per hour. This is impossible if you are mobile (including travel time/cost, setup, packup).

You should always be willing to get more than a car wash and if you educate them on what a car wash does, what you do, etc. then you can command a price. People will pay nothing for a detailing yet they will pay a hair stylist more for less time. You will not change people over night but some will appreciate it at the higher price and come back. This is what you need to cultivate (contact, educate, then impress).

Last I checked, that is almost twice what the typical drive through car wash charges here.

Originally Posted by YNOT

I'm not a 'professional' detailer, but it just hurts me to think about a $25.00 wash/wax. I guess I'm not one of those kind of people.

Even to just wash my car myself I take well over 1/2 an hour by the time I properly wash it, dry it, and then nit-pickily dry/detail every inch of it. And then to spray it down with a QD afterwards and vacuum it all out...I'm near an hour.

It just makes me cringe to think of anyone just quickly washing their car and waxing it without doing anything to the paint before waxing it. But there are a lot of people out there who think that's just fine, so if you can find those people, by all means go for it.

I guess if "I" was going into the detailing business, I'd be looking to charge a bit more because I know I would put way more time into each car than necessary. I could not stand to just wash a car and wax it and not go through and detail it more thoroughly. But that's just me...I'm too picky I guess.

Note, the OP is not doing a wash/wax, just a wash.

I don't know how long it takes the OP to perform this service, but in your case that would equate to $25/hr not all that bad (depending on market conditions) considering there is no correction service which sometimes draws a higher hourly charge.

Almost forgot to ask...how did the campaign work out this weekend?

[DT08]

@Mr Clean: It worked out great!!!! From Saturday to early Monday morning I did 18 cars. It brought many new customers and some of my regulars took advantage of it too. With many of the new customers I was able to schedule appointments for this weekend doing a shampoo or a hand wax. I was thinking about doing a carpet shampoo special, but I would be attracting the wrong type of crowd and don't want that headache.

I just did this to attract new customers and this is not an everyday thing.

[Mr. Clean]

Glad it worked out. Sounds like you have a good start to your business. Provide great customer service and quality detailing and I'm sure you'll continue to grow.

[DT08]

@Mr. Clean: Thanks for the support!

Thank you to everyone for your support. I just don't want to be some fly by night detailer. There are many where I live. They are up on craigslist one day and gone tomorrow. I make it a point to let the customers know what auto detailing is. Those who take pride in their car seem to know, but those who just want it to be clean really don't know. Once they are informed they seem to take better care of their cars.

Just this experience has forced me to reconsider how to market my services. I'm still going to continue to learn paint correction and pretty soon I will be learning headlight restoration. Just want to continue to be the best I can at this trade.

[DJsDetails]

I'm right there with you DT08. It takes time to figure out ur niche but the most importan thing is to figure out what you want to do. Early on, you're going to have to deal with low-end clientele but you have to start somewhere and build from there. Build your word of mouth, and move up your quality/completeness of service as you go.

A good example I do when I meet a potential client is I push my mid package the most to get the appointment ($50-$80 range). Once I've finished that part of the detail, I then have the client come out and look at their car and I'll have waxed one panel (other than the hood!) like a fender. Show them the difference, have them feel and inspect it, nd at least 75% of the time at that point I've sold them on a full detail on the spot. Save the hood for your final "presentation" you could call it because it's a lot of real estate for one, and for two, it will show your wax package as a neccessity for the car to look great everytime you come out.

Never be to pushy of course, but once you're out there working on their car, build the trust and rapport, and you can easily get yourself that better detail package and paycheck. It's all part of the game. It's all about how good you can manipulate the client without being rude or too noticable.