Kleen Car Auto Detailing Blogs

- by Kevin Farrell

Last week I saw in article in the local newspaper and also the New York Daily News that stated that a town about 4 miles from where I live is the wealthiest zip code to live in according to Forbes.com. The median price of a home in Alpine NJ is 4.1 million dollars. That’s the “median” price. There are home son the market and recently sold for about 10-15 million. I enjoy riding through this small town on my way home on my bike. Its proximity to NYC without actually being in NYC is what attracts athletes, movie stars and celebrities. You can get to the city from Alpine in about 10 minutes with no traffic and have the luxury of privacy, tons of property and outlandish houses. Of course many parts of NJ and Manhattan are on that list and probably some neighborhoods close to you as well in different areas of the country. There are wealthy neighborhoods everywhere and expensive cars in all of them.

But it’s funny what you see when you can go through wealthy neighborhoods, especially on a bicycle, so I know it very well. I regularly see Bentleys, Ferraris, Maseratis, Maybachs, and all sorts of expensive stuff. The cool thing is that many of these people use some of these cars as everyday drivers. But even though everyone is beyond wealthy in this town, it’s still not easy to get them to detail their vehicles. Many people will not bring these cars to a shop unless they absolutely trust the person working on the car. Many people will not allow somebody else to drive the vehicle either to bring it to their shop. The only way to market to these people in this town is through direct mail and until recently the town was so exclusive and private that there were no house numbers assigned to the homes. The mail carriers just knew the peoples names and what street they lived on, and that’s how mail got delivered, or many people just had PO boxes. So it was impossible to market to these homes and advertising was treated as junk mail and never got delivered. It’s not easy getting to these very wealthy people to tell them about your services. But I love the town (who wouldn’t) and I need to get back home, so I always ride through various streets to just check the neighborhood out, and check out the nice cars, and sometimes stop and chat to people.

Take for example a Maybach I see almost every day on my bike ride. It’s always parked outside. Sometimes there is a cover on it but most times it’s just out there on display in the front of the property. I always wondered why this car was always outside. It could be raining, snowing, etc but the car was always there. I never saw anybody outside when I passed by and I swore if I ever saw somebody I would ask about this car and of course who, if anybody, does the detailing. One day I was riding by and I saw a guy close enough to the edge of the property where I could ask him this question without him thinking I was stalking the place. I told him what a beautiful car it was but wondered why with a 4 car garage in the back that a $400,000 vehicle was sitting outside all the time. He told him the dealer, the local Mercedes dealer who I know very well, had applied a special “coating” that would last for 5 years. He didn’t remember what they charged him, but on a car this price what’s the difference. I told him who I was and what I did and told him that this “coating” really wasn’t a bulletproof shield and that this car really should be detailed. He said he takes it to be washed at a hand car wash in a neighboring town, but would never let them “detail” it because he didn’t think it needed it because of the special “coating” and because the guys and the place did not look top notch. So he asked me a few questions such as where I was located, how long I have been doing this, but didn’t really interrogate me. He asked if he could stop by one day to see my place before he committed to me doing his car. He stopped by a few days later and I happily showed him some stuff (but he didn’t understand most of what I was talking about). But he did know that I was professional and that he thought he could trust me. He only asked about how much it would cost at the very end of the conversation and did not blink and eye when told the price.

So I lucked out by actually seeing this guy one day and getting to talk to him. The car had typical light webbing and scratches consistent with every day use. And the car was used almost every day. It was a pretty easy detail and fun to work on. It was certainly profitable also and the customer clearly could see a huge difference when it was completed.

So, jobs like these are pretty rewarding and hopefully profitable but not to the point where you are just ripping somebody off because they have a very expensive car and live in a multi million dollar house. But not every detailer is going to get these cars. You have to work for them. They don’t land in your lap as wealthy people are very guarded in who they will deal with. Now my initial visit with this guy was on my road bike. I was in a bike outfit and certainly did not look like a car detailer. However as soon as I started speaking with him, I had him interested. I guess I was playing a salesman, but I really wasn’t looking and hoping to get this car. I was just curious as to why it was always outside and what his reason for that was. I also have a customer in this same town that has 2 Maseratis. He drives one and his wife drives one…..every single day, no matter what the weather. And yes, these cars are also kept outside most of the time. I just love it! He found me one day searching the web. Most of my high end customers however I had to direct market to. This costs more money, but it’s hard to get these people any other way, especially if they are really not into their cars. Many people simply bring these very high end cars back to the dealer for detailing when they get the car serviced because they trust the place and it’s kind of a one stop shopping experience. And many of these people simply will not let the car go to a place they do not trust or that looks kind of shady.

So many detailers, including me, and some top end guys in many other wealthy areas of the country, never get these cars. But the dealers do and many times the customers are not nearly satisfied with the level of work. Now when I receive a call from this town, I don’t name drop (that’s so tacky!) but I street drop!! I will tell a potential customer that yes, I have a client (always use the word client, it sounds more high end) on Rio Vista, and a client on Hoover, and we do many clients on Timberline and Margo, off of 9W. And some of these people are a pain to deal with and some are a pleasure. Some will let you drive a $300,000 car and some won’t. Some want the car done the same day and other tell you to keep it until it’s done perfectly. Some are very picky and some are not. Some will still bust balls on the price and some wont. You have to get to know them and what they want. But working with cars like this and people like this should be profitable. We all want to be high end. That’s always what people coming to my classes tell me. But it’s not as easy as it sounds.

So that’s my story of a very wealthy neighborhood and a very high end car. Unfortunately, every car will not be a Maybach or a Bentley, and every job won’t be highly profitable. I will also have a story of a piece of crap SUV I recently had to do because my buddy thought he was doing me a “favor”. I still made some money but I had ZERO fun and cursed my way through the entire job. So be aware of friends and relatives. Stay tuned.

If you happened to glance at a recent entry I made here, I was talking about detailing some really nice, really high end cars, that are really easy to do, and really profitable. But as with everything, there is always a flip side and the opposite of anything. Sometimes you have to eat some crap to keep the peace. This is a tale of doing a friend a favor but hating every minute of it.

In any profession you will always end of doing “favors” for friends and relatives. If you possess a certain skill, you will always have to work on something for very little, or no money, because it’s your friend, brother, cousin, neighbor, co-worker, in-law, etc. Be honest, you know you have to do it but don’t you hate it?? I HATE working on these people vehicles because you have to do your best job for the lowest amount of money…and sometimes possibly for free.

Its sucks more when the car is a piece of crap that should have been traded in on the cash for clunkers program. My buddy who is my printer and who I have known for 30 years, tried to do me a “favor”. His friend has a daughter who was getting her drivers license and wanted a family vehicle cleaned up so he could give it to her. My buddy took it upon himself to get me the job instead of just passing my phone number along. He tried to broker the deal and do me a “favor”. He though I would be happy to do this car. Now I have known him for 30 years and he knows what I do, but he doesn’t really know the detailing business. We don’t discuss detailing at length because he really isn’t a car guy so to speak. He would be a typical customer that thinks every car is the same and the work involved is equal and every car can be detailed for about $150 or less He took it upon himself to tell his friend how good I am and that his car could not possibly be in better hands. So my buddy thinks he is helping me by setting the job up himself. His friend wants to know “how much do I charge” for this type of work. Of course I have not talked to this other guy or have seen the car, or for that matter know what kind of vehicle it is and all the other vital stuff we all need to know before accepting a job and giving a price. My buddy decides to tell him a “ballpark” price of about $150……Now I know nothing about nothing at this point until my buddy calls me up and asks me to do him a “favor”. He tells me this sob story about how the vehicle has been in the family for years and they want to keep the car in the family and the girl really loves this thing and so on and so on. My buddy tells me that he wants me to do the car as soon as possible and has convinced his friend that I am the guy for the job. I still don’t know what kind of vehicle it is and what it looks like, etc. But he has already brokered the job for me

So I am kind of annoyed as I was kind of on vacation for a few days and was doing some fun stuff but now I have to do this job because she gets her license in a few days and she wants a clean vehicle to drive. My buddy just casually asks me what I usually get for a detail….any detail. He says he told the guy about $150 RIGHT????? I almost hit the roof when I hear a price like that on neither a vehicle that I know nothing about nor a customer I know nothing about. I said what planet are you on? Why would you tell a guy some random price when I need to know what it is first of all and second I want to see it. Then, I will give the price or possibly choose not even to do the job if it’s a piece of crap. So just like any other customer, my buddy says the car isn’t too bad. It’s a light colored SUV and is pretty clean. I ask what kind of SUV? What color is it? What year is this thing? Has it been sitting around waiting for her? What kind of job is this guy looking for? And you told him $150???? ARE YOU CRAZY!!!! I have no idea what I am getting into here

So he knows I am pissed and I really just want to give him the number to the cheapo detail guys around here. I tell my buddy that I am busy and I need a day and a half to even consider working on this so I can do other stuff and work on this thing when I want to. So after I calmed down a little, I figured I would just use this thing as a test car. We are working on some new optimum products and I am always testing samples, so I figured I could test samples on this vehicle and at least be productive and get some data on the samples. So I told him I would do it. I figured how bad can it be if it’s not too old, light colored and in good shape like he said it was. So I figured I would put 4-5 hours into it if I had to, get some testing done and make some quick cash. Yes, it far less than what I would charge, but now I am roped into doing my buddy a favor……I wouldn’t have even minded if it was HIS car, and for HIS daughter. But this was a third party who I never met. But a favor is a favor and I am technically doing this for my buddy. So we all have to do favors.

Now my buddy is the guy who is getting the prime SPRINGSTEEN tickets for next months shows. So I have to kind of work with him here. We have seen over 50 shows together over the years and he gets great seats. We have sat next to Bruce’s relatives in the family section. We have been in the first row in front of the stage many times, so favors do get repaid!!! He knows the ticket head of tickets at the Meadowlands in Jersey where Bruce is playing Giants Stadium this month and she also gets us tickets to Madison Square Garden, and basically any other east coast venue that we want to travel to. These are VIP tickets. So a favor is a favor. I just had to remember that

But……this SUV was the biggest piece of carp I have ever seen. It had been sitting under a tree for months so washing it was a pain. The wheels were horrible, the door jambs were horrible. It was 14 years old. All the trim was faded. There were scratches all over it. There was some tree sap also, lost of bugs and tar……You name hard stuff to clean, this truck had it. That’s the outside. The inside was of course horrible as well. The seats were filthy, the carpets, floor mats, etc. all horrible. I found receipts from 1999 under seats and in the glove box. It’s the type of vehicle you curse your way through from start to finish and you never get any kind of satisfaction because the vehicle just had no potential to look good.

So this thing took me a while to get it to look decent. It could never be really good again and forget like new. It was a difficult job that was no fun, for very little money and no satisfaction. These are the jobs that you should pass on. These are the jobs that you let the cheapo, discount detailer work on and let him lose his shirt….and his will to live for that matter. In this case, it was a third party referral, that if I would have talked to the actual customer and had seen the vehicle, I still would have passed on it even if he was willing to pay 3 times the amount. We all have worked on jobs like this and have all had the same experiences with hopeless vehicles. The key thing is to either limit them as much as you can, or eliminate them if you really want to make money.

Even if you say, well I have employees that will do these jobs and I don’t pay them too much money so I will still take on work like this. It’s still not a good idea. Do you think anybody wants to work on a piece of crap vehicle that is a low paying job and will eat time and eat at an employees morale? I generally will never touch a vehicle like this, even if I had an employee working on it.

I know we all have to do jobs like this every once in a while for various reasons. They are never fun, never profitable, and both you and the customer will never get the true satisfaction of a great detail out of these hopeless vehicles. So try to limit these if you can, and let your friends and relatives know that there are only so many favors you can do for them! Unless of course……Bruce Springsteen adds some more shows, and you just have to be there in the best seats!

I was in Las Vegas at the beginning of November to attend the SEMA and NACE shows. It was nice to be there and a bonus was that my brother, who is in the military, is stationed at Nellis Air Force base. He is one of the big wigs and “in charge” as he is a Colonel and that rank comes with a bunch of people always saluting you and calling you “sir”. I thought it was pretty cool that my younger brother (by a year and a half) is in charge of all kinds of stuff and responsible for hundreds of troops and he takes his duties very seriously. I got the grand tour of the base and it’s impressive to see such organization and the precision of which things are run. The place is clean and orderly and well taken care of, and huge! So after seeing countless people calling him “sir” and saluting him…..and sometimes even me…. as we were leaving, I got into his car. After I moved a pile of papers, a GPS, a cell phone charger, a few empty coffee cups and wrappers, I could sit down. This 2 year old car was a complete mess! His wife’s mini van that carts the kids around is even worse. Years ago before he had kids and a much higher rank in the air force, I had given him a “car care kit”. An orbital buffer, some pads, polish, and wax etc. so he could keep up on his cars. I used to give him pointers and he would watch me work on a car and sometimes I would do his car, so he wanted to be able to do this himself. I think he did the car maybe once. And now with kids and more responsibility and all the people calling the “Colonel” and needing something of military importance from him, he doesn’t even fool himself anymore.

His house is beautiful and clean…. but the cars….forget about it! He always plans to get it cleaned but then something comes up and the garbage just piles up even more. Just like a typical NON detailing customer.

So he came back here last week was in town for about 10 days. Since he had a bunch of things to take care of while he was here he rented a car. He came by to see me the day after he got into town and in the one day he had managed to have stuff piled on the seats and the floor and there was garbage in the car already. He gets a hair cut weekly but he can’t keep a car clean for 10 minutes. Go figure. But that’s a typical car owner. Even an organized military car owner. My high ranking brother who is extremely organized and is on top of every detail, but he is one messy dude and treats his cars like crap. His military uniform is spotless, all the creases are perfect, the badges and medals are placed perfectly and the shoes look like a mirror, but the cars are a mess.

Go after this type of customer
He is more than willing to get his car detailed. But when you look at the type of person he is, you see why you don’t get too many of them to actually do it. He is a busy professional. He works long hours. He doesn’t really search out where to get his car detailed and it’s not at the top of his list most of the time. He honestly doesn’t really know what a good detail is worth. He asks me what I would charge and when I tell him he is not at all surprised or put off by a high price. Customers (or right now a NON detail customer) like him need to be found by we, the detailers. He absolutely knows his car is in dire need of detailing. He knows what the service is and what it will do for the vehicle, so he doesn’t need to be sold on the benefits. But he is not actively searching as he doesn’t have the time. He, and non detail customers like him, need to be found. He is probably not going to find you

I am not an expert at marketing by any means. I have made tons of mistakes in advertising over the years. But in dealing with the types of people I deal with now, and working with a wealthier clientele, you have to go after them and recruit them so to speak. When you have a person like my brother who will get his car done if you find him, you won’t really have competition. As I said, he is not shopping for the cheapest price. He isn’t shopping for detailing at all! So if you find him and market to him and make it easy for him to use you (being mobile, pick up and delivery, loaner car, etc) chances are you will get the job. Then, once you have him as a customer he is easy to keep. Just do a good job, keep reminding him when its time to do it again. With my brother, he will probably have the car messy a week later so a couple of months is a good time frame.

I have seen this with the people I deal with in Alpine NJ 07620. These people are extremely wealthy but time is the key. They are always busy. They want to keep their very expensive and ultra luxury cars clean, but they need a detailer to kind of pamper them a little. I know we are now in December and the holidays are here and people are not really thinking about doing their cars. But it’s still a good time to try instead of complaining about how slow it is and how “nobody” wants to get their cars detailed and “nobody” wants to spend any money. I know there are people out there who will be grateful that you found them. Sure you may have to spend a bit of money to go after them, but when you “go after” a person who currently is a NON detail customer, you aren’t competing against the guy down the street or the cheapo guy, or the car wash express detail. YOU are the only one looking for the business buy “going after” a specific customer.

There are many more people like my brother who want to get their cars detailed but either don’t know anybody to do it, or don’t have the time. When you present yourself as the solution, chances are they will stay loyal to you and you will never have to compete with the cheapo guys. Every town, every city, every state has busy professionals that have dirty cars and would love to get it professionally detailed.

I will steal or borrow this last line from Dan Ekenberg who has said this many times to me in conversations. Since its holiday time and many of us may be going shopping a bit more and spending some time at a mall, be perceptive. Dan has done this many times. Check out all the cars in the parking lot. Look to see how many of those cars look perfectly clean and detailed. Probably less than 5% if that, will not be in need of some kind of detailing. So out of the 95% that need to be detailed, “Go after” the ones who may be good customers. I am sure you will see the BMW’s, Mercedes, Lexus, and other high end cars. Why aren’t these cars being detailed? Is it because the customer can’t afford it? Not likely. Now just figure out the best way to make them your customer.

So even though it’s slow for everybody in December and as the weather gets worse in some areas of the country, we can try to figure out how to get the 95% of the cars and NON detailing customers into our shops in some of the down time we will all have.

So thanks to Colonel Tim Farrell for being such a messy car owner in helping me develop this article. And thanks to all the military personnel in all branches of service who bravely serve and protect our country.

About a week ago my neighbor got a new car. Of course he was very pleased about it and wanted to show everybody. So myself and another neighbor were chatting about cars and how nice this one looked. As we were talking, I always tend to rub my hand over the paint surface on a new car. I like to “feel” a new car, especially on the showroom floor of a dealership. This tells me how well a car was prepped. Most new cars are prepped rather quickly for delivery and certainly not “detailed”. Many dealers do not wax a new car for various reasons. One is that they don’t get paid any extra time from the manufacturer to do this. They get paid a prep time which involves checking the fluid levels, air pressure in tires, making sure all accessories work, a short test ride, and other mechanicals, along with the “detail” of removing any film on the car, plastic covering inside on carpets and seats, washing the vehicle, quickly cleaning windows, dressing tires, and ensuring the new car looks like a new car. By waxing it, they will not get paid the extra time so many dealers just wash the car and maybe give it a quick spray wax. Most of the time this prep is acceptable to a customer. If the car looks new and has no blemishes, they take the car and are on their way. But it leaves the dealership with basically no wax on the paint surface.

 My neighbors’ new car, which is a major Japanese manufacturer, looked good…..not great. It was clean, the interior was clean, and the tires were shiny. However, the windows were very streaky which is common on a new car prep and the paint felt horrible. It was very gritty and felt like sandpaper, which my neighbor did not notice, and it felt very dry, so I knew it was not waxed at all. But he wasn’t complaining and I did not want to break his very happy bubble, so I said nothing about the prep job. My other neighbor was also there, and he had bought a new car last year as well. He brought up the point about what I told him last year when he first got the car. He said that I told him to get some wax on that car right away and I took care of it within the first week that he had it. My neighbor with the brand new car only days old said to me……”but the dealer told me not to wax the car for a year”

 I am sure many of you have heard this before. “Don’t wax a new car for at least one year” This is as false of a statement as I have ever heard. Dealers say many untruthful things to customers as we all know, but in a case like this, it hurts the detailing business. Here’s why

 The first thing that is done at the factory is the car gets painted. It’s a bare body car at this point with no drive train, interior, glass, trim, etc. Its painted first and then put together. I have seen it in person with the robotic sprayers spraying a bare body and seeing the car almost come to life as it’s painted. What needs to happen before the rest of the car can be put together is that the paint (clear coat) needs to dry and cure. Workers cannot assemble a car with wet paint or paint that will show fingerprints if touched. It needs to be fully cured “before” it moves along the line to be built. The way to dry and cure the paint is two fold. Sometimes an activator or hardener is mixed in with the clear coat to start the curing process. The other thing that happens on all cars is that they are “baked” in a curing oven to further accelerate the process. After the vehicles exit the curing oven, they cool for a couple of hours and then on to assembly. All cars are about 97% cured and dry by the time the car leaves the assembly line. By the time that car reaches a dealers lot, it’s almost 100%. In fact at the end of the paint line after the cars have been cured, they run by a line of workers who are looking for imperfections in the clear such as dirt nibs and small runs. They are corrected at that time by sanding out the imperfections and then by buffing the sanding marks that are left. They can do this because the clear coat is almost fully cured just hours after painting.

 So why would a dealer tell a customer to NOT wax a car for a year. This is old school thinking in that the older single stage paints of 30-40 years ago would dry from the outside –in. The thinking was that although a car was dry and seemed fully cured, it was still a bit “wet” underneath. In theory, if wax was applied while the paint was still in a drying process…meaning that the solvents still had to escape, the wax would seal the surface thereby NOT allowing the solvents to escape. In turn, the solvents would finally force their way up and through the paint causing little solvent pops or dimples in the paint surface. So a dealer would tell a new car customer 40 years ago not to wax a car for a full year. It may have been true back then, but it certainly is not true today. OK back to where this screws the detailing business

 Let’s say a car was built a few months ago on 4/30/2009, three months previous from today

 Let’s assume it arrives at a dealer’s lot about a week later. It will arrive maybe a week or 2 after that if it’s coming from overseas

 Let’s assume the vehicle is NOT pre sold and is for stock, so it may sit for a while. We all know how the car industry is at this point and that cars are not flying off the lots. Let’s assume that this vehicle will be outside on a dealer’s lot exposed to the atmospheric pollutants. Some cars will have the protective plastic on the top surfaces, but there is time limit where it needs to be removed after a certain date. Some vehicles have no protective wrap at all, so this is not good for the paint surface.

 Let’s say the vehicle finally gets sold about 3 months later. Things are slow. Cars are not selling. Maybe it has poor options, a funky color, it’s a gas guzzling SUV, or whatever keeps a new car from selling rather quickly. It sells today on 7/30/2009 

 This is Day 1 for the customer but the car is already 3 months old. This is conservative also. Some cars sitting on lots are there for more than 3 months. You can check the build date on the inside sticker on the left front door of most cars to prove when it was built. Let’s also assume that this is a dealer who does not “wax” a new car. They wash it and dress tires, etc but there is no wax on the car and it certainly was not buffed. I see new cars where the line of glue from the plastic wrap is still there. I feel new cars and many need to be clayed. Some new cars have light scratches that need to be buffed out. But many go out the door in whatever condition they happen to be in. So the car is sold on 7/30/2009 with NO wax on it

 The customer also was told by the dealer NOT to wax it for 1 year. But it’s strange that many dealers still try to sell a paint sealant or weather package…or whatever they cal it in particular area of the country. They try to sell these packages from $600 and up. Many dealers try to get around $1,000 for this. If they could have sold the paint sealant package, they would have basically “waxed” the car and took the money, but if a customer says no to this, they let the car go with NO wax and tell them not to wax it for 1 year. VERY strange!

 So because a customer is told NOT to wax a new car for 1 year, they will not even think about it. Now pity the poor detailer who suggests a wax job or light buff to this customer within that 1 year time frame. Now the customer thinks that the detailer is trying to rip him off because of what the dealer said!!! Imagine that? A customer that thinks a dealer is telling the truth on a subject they generally know nothing about, and they think the detailer is lying!!

 So 1 year passes, with no thought in the customers’ mind of detailing or waxing. Let’s fast forward to 7/30/2010. The car is 1 year old. But in reality with the 3 months that it sat on the lot, it’s now 15 months old. It may not look so great either. Maybe they are thinking of getting it detailed, but hey its summer time, kids are out of school, you need the car, you go on vacation. Things are just busy. This customer will wait until the kids go back to school. Hell, they may as well wait until just before winter to get it done.

 Fast forward again to 10/30/2010 It’s finally time to get the car “waxed” (well in the customers mind anyway). In the customers mind, they still have a “brand new car”. In reality this pig could be in horrible shape and it’s really 18 months old, a year and a half. But when the customer price shops this “wax job” they will tell a detailer that they have a new car that is “about” a year old. Oh but how wrong they are in many ways. This 18 year old car could be black. It never had any wax on it. It’s probably going to need some degree of “detailing”.  So when you see the car and price it out, it’s far different than what the customer thinks it needs. Now you look like a bad guy for giving them such a high price on a “brand new car”

 Look at how much money was lost in this time because a dealer told an old myth to the customer. This is the way it can be handled from the beginning and see how much business can be gained.

 I have customers (because they are properly educated and trained) that call me 2 days “before” they pick up a new car. They say they are picking up the new car on Thursday, can we get some wax on it in the next few days after that. So, I get the brand new car that still has a temporary tag on it and still dressing on the tires to set up from day1. I will clay it, give it a light polish and wax it for a very fair price. If I put 2 hours into it, that about all it will need at most, I can still get a nice price which is far less than a dealer who wanted to sell him a paint sealant package. Now if you guys want to sell them something like that, go ahead, but be fair and don’t over-estimate how long stuff lasts. Remember we want repeat business.

 I then tell them it’s a good idea to bring it back after about 3-4 months. I am realistic in that most people will not bring it in every month or 2. So if you can get them almost from day one for what really amounts at that time as a “wax job” and even every 4 months after that, at whatever your average “easy” detail price is. You will have seen that vehicle at day 1 or thereabouts, 4 months after that, then another 4 months, then another 4 months. So in the first year you have seen the car 3-4 times, and maybe a time or 2 in the next 6 months to equal the 18 month mark. Sure the customer will have spent more money in total for all those visits compared to a one time “full” detail at 18 months. But the car will always look brand new and you won’t have to fight as much for your price on that initial detail at 18 months

 Of course you won’t convince everybody to do this but to get a few customers like this will make your life much easier and add a lot of revenue to the bottom line and keep customers extremely happy with how great the vehicle looks all the time.

Even if they spend a total of $500-600 for a bunch of “easy” details in that 18 month time frame, its still far less than the 1 time fee of the super fantastic, supposedly 5 year guaranteed, almost bulletproof shielding, paint sealant package that the dealer wanted to sell then upfront. There are so many ways to do this and make it easy for the customer to have a detailed looking car all year round and to keep you busy and profitable. It’s again all about educating and training the customer AT ALL TIMES! It never stops and it never should stop.