Steps to detailing a car

[Genie47]

See this post in Web-cars detailing forum.

 

Brandon is an amateur. Ron Ketcham is a pro running a business. Ditto with Bud Abraham.

 

http://www.web-cars.com/detail/phorum/read...i=27008&t=27008

Edited October 10, 2005 by Genie47

[Gen2]

Great posting , some real good information there .

[Genie47]

Bud Abraham is the owner of Detailing Plus Systems. I went to his website www.detailplus.com and the amount of stuff is astounding. The last time I visited was in 2003 but now, he got more stuff. That quick detailing cart is very attractive. Not to mention all those air driven tools. Man! Very tempting to start a quick detailing service employing uncles in some big shop with turnaround time of 30min or less.

 

BTW, it was Ron Ketcham that I learned from that product cost is not the greatest expense in detailing. It is labor cost. This was when I first started in 2003.

 

He is right. 6hrs on my car yesterday.

Edited October 10, 2005 by Genie47

[Genie47]

Some quotes from Ron:

 

Labor is the biggest expense in detailing, not product.

 

That said, one must consider the "perception or expectations" of your customer.

 

If they are one that understands, is willing to pay for "perfection", then the detailer can take as many hours as is required to produce "perfection".

 

However, even though there is a small percentage of the market that wishes this, it is not high enough to support all the detailers, and the marjority of customers are not truly aware of that "perfection", nor do they wish to pay for such.

 

So, "how long does it take to do a complete detail" is a question that is a moving target.

 

Over all, based on my many years in this business, I find that the "average" time required, for an "average, quality" detail will vary from as little as 2.5 hours to 4 hours.

 

A real dirt bag, and large SUV, conversion van, etc may go as high as 6 hours.

 

Keep in mind, I stated "Average quality detail", not a "perfection detail".

 

This "labor thing" is mentioned by him and he keeps harping on it to the newbies.

 

Here again, "perception" comes into play.

 

A normal "carwash" detail, to most, is actually being referred to today as "express detailing".

 

Not a "reconditioning" service.

 

When we move on to discuss "reconditioning detailing", over the years this has developed several "perceptions" by customers.

 

There would be very few "detailers" in the business if all of them would only accept work that is "perfection detailing" customers.

 

By that I mean, customers that are willing to pay for 8 hours of detailing labor at $40 to $60 an hour.

 

Not the NORMAL market or detailer that can pull $320.00 to $480.00 USF for every detail they perform.

 

When a detailer does get one of these, that is great, however, most, even those who have been operating for years, find that these are few and far between.

 

Just because a few, say 500 detailers around the nation have built over a 10 year or longer time, this sort of client base, does not mean that the other 15,000 detail operations in the nation, with 10 years or longer have such potential customers.

 

One of the reasons that there are so many hackers, taking business away from true detailers is the lack of public information regarding what a "detail" is.

 

I have never been in favor, since I first heard the phase, "Express Detailing", of the term.

 

Yet, carwashes are spending money to promote this and true detailers are not spend squat, as an industry, to educate the public, of what a true detailing service really is.

 

So, the customers are mis-informed, confused and a "perfection detail", a "quality reconditioning detail", a "detail", and an "express detail", to them is all the same.

 

 

This public education should have been untaken by ICA when they absorbed the old PDA, but it was not then or now, on their true agenda, in my opinion.

 

PDTA is young and needs more members, more business men, in the organization and develope a budget, and agenda to educate the public.

 

This takes money, BIG money.

 

Yet, those who often bitch the loudest about how hard it is to sell a detail, etc , have no idea of what it takes, how they must fork over some cash and support to make this happen.

 

It will take years for the public to learn, and all the TV ads, magazine ads, the weekly color pull out in Sunday's paper for Pep Boys, Auto Zone, etc, of "miracle do it your self" products don't make it any easier.

[Gen2]

Wow... couldn't have said it better .