OMG, sold 580 detail!

Holy Cow!

So, our most expensive detail is around $360 for large SUV with complete interior, clay-compound-polish-wax, engine clean and etc. When we were making the menu, we thought we have some fun and came up with this detail called "580 Detail" with no description whatsoever. It just has the price $580. I never expected that someone will buy it, or even ask about it. I just thought it was cool to have super expensive detail on the menu.

But today, in this wretched rainy day, a customer comes in and purchases a gift card for 580 detail. I acted as cool and calm as I can. One of those yeah-we-sell-it-all-the-time composure and expression so as not to loose the sale. And it happens. wow~

Customer will be back after Christmas to use it. Maybe even next year. But they WILL come. Now, I'm trying to figure out, what the heck we gonna do for it.

Man~ I never imagined that someone would spend that much money to detail that car. And no, we're not Beverley Hills. We're little town tucked away north of Atlanta. I'm happy, but kind of scared. Somebody, please, give me some seriously high-end detail lesson!!!!!

Thank you.

-tom

Tom,

Are you for real? Seriously?

WTF! hopefully your $580customer doens't get a hold of this post! or any at that matter! maybe ask allen to delete this post as an early xmas present!!!

Dead serious. I think it was mother and son couple. She bought $360 detail which has clay-compound-polish and whole nine yards. So that is pretty ligit high-end. Then she bought 580 detail for her son. In all, she spent over $900 on 2 cars. Now, we do have 20% off Christmas Gift card special, so she did get 20% off. But I'm pretty sure that she would have bought it even without the discount.

Get ready for some serious detailing!

Tom,

My sarcasm was directed at you and your menu, not the customer. The customer is an idiot and your "having fun with your menu" is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard in this business. Good luck with that.

Ah, I see. I wouldn't quite say the customer is idiot though.

On occasion we do big details around $300 that include clay, compound, polish, engine, fabric proetantant, paint sealant, headline touch up, acid rain correction on winshields, headlight restoration, chrome polishing, and etc. If you break all that down and price individually, they do rack up pretty high.

My frustration on big details or even on say your typcial 3 step exterior details, customers seem to have higher expectation on their interior as well. In other words, if we sell 3 step at cheap price but only do basic inside like vacuum and windows, they still have a bit higher level of expection for inside because they simply paid lots of money. Does that make sense?

Anyways, we could go on and on to explain in more detail, but suffice to say that in general, people expect more if they pay more.

So, I used to get frustrated when we do 3 step job and customer expected lot more inside. Or, if we do Express Wax, some people will huff and puff that their insdie job wasn't good for $50. It's like inside we did as we would normally do for a say $20 wash but the premium he paid was for the "wax" part, you know? Anyways, that's hard to explain to the customers.

That's why we did the 580 detail. For those who want absolutely the best. I've always wanted to comb through every crack and crevices. I wanted to take the darn wheels off at our lube shop and clean the whole thing. I wanted to use Q-tips to wipe down every single dust in the car. But to do that takes so much time.

Put it this way, it takes two guys to do 3 step with complete interior doing seats and carpets about 3 hours on decent car. Now, I want them to really get picky and do complete makeover with just about every service we can offer as mentioned above. That's easily another 3 hour. Then I want them to go back and really fine comb through everything. To do it right, it'll take 2 guys all day going hard. If you figure $10/hr(that's including payroll tax, worker's comp, and etc - basically the true cost per hour) for 2 guys at 10 hour day, that's $200 on labor. Now, I give commission on details too. $100 for 580 detail(usually about 10% commission, but on 580 detail I promised $100 since they have to give up the whole day with a possibility of getting no tip) Now i'm down to $300 in labor cost. Our greeters are on commission system and they will soak up $26. With chemical cost and labor cost, I walk away with maybe $200 at best. That's not bad, but if you think of the opportunity cost, it's not that big either. Same 2 guys working 10 hour can easily bring $900 with me paying less commission and them making more tips. So, I think math-wise, it all kind of become even.

Bottom line, I do believe we provide the service that's definitely exceeding the price. Now, would I do it? No, because I can't afford $580 detail on a car. But does that make a customer an idiot? Not if they can afford it and if that's what they want, than I think it's completely ligit.

Now, I got all excited and happy, because I never knew that someone would buy such expensive detail service. It's not because the service was a hoax or that I got somebody suckered in. Oh, as for the money part, after the 20% off on gift card, that shaves off another $120 out of my pocket, so I make about $100. I'm happy still that I get this opportunity to really go full throttle on our detail service. I'm looking forward to it!

Just as a backdrop. I've only been in this biz for little over an year. We came at worst time economy-wise and weather-wise. Despite that we have held our numbers from last year thanks to our growing detail biz. Previous owner was content and didn't do much on detail side. Maybe $6K a month. I on the other hand didn't have such luxury as we had to squeeze everthing we got. So, we focused on our detail biz and it does more like $30K a month now with little displacement in wash side. Now, it took lots of changes and risks to make it happen. It has been about an year since we started the detail campaign and now looking back I'm really happy. And that's expecially why I'm so excited about 580 detail. Somone with zilch knowledge on detail is now about to sell high end detail AND deliver. How cool is that?

The "FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT" philosophy works for people who are confident they know what they're doing (or at least know what & how to do it) to meet or exceed a customer's expectation.

Hopefully I'm wrong but it sounds like you are bragging out loud about screwing a customer, and that's just wrong. And if you're conversation with your staff is anything like your dialog on this post, you may also be screwing yourself!

You see, the rest of the "fake it till you make it" credo is... keep your mouth shut, and carry on like business as usual. Show a little class!

While $500-$800 details are not very common outside of major metro areas with upscale clientele, the laundry list of tasks you promised provides plenty of room for justification... as long as you are up to the task. However, what rolls out the door upon completion will set a standard that you better remember... or you'll find yourself tripping over this job with future detail pricing.

You can easily justify $300-$350 or more on the engine compartment alone, but the results must be conspicuous when you're done.

Just look at this as a newbie character builder. Don't wilt in the face of it. And quietly pat yourself on the back for creating the opportunity... because you deserve it! Save the noisy back-flips for the privacy of your own home, alone.

If you need any tips, contact me directly for some discreet advice.

Enough said?

-Steve

Tom,

I realize my comments were a bit harsh, maybe I should have said the customer was a moron or uninformed because if I'm spending $580 on a detail I sure as hell want to know what I'm getting, AND I'm in the Detail business. I don't get your crowing about collecting $580 from a customer not knowing, what your going to do for that amount of money. To me it sounds like your gonna do the same thing you do for $350, but charge them $200 more. To me that's just bad business. Most markets would be ecstatic to get $350 for a detail, let alone $580, if you can do it more power to you, but you better deliver something pretty special for that kind of money or that might be the last one you ever do at that price.

Man, I must have sounded like a prick or something. I'm sorry. I didn't mean any Ill. And I understand ya'lls message. Actually well said. I always mean respect, especially to customers. And don't worry, we gonna make that detail awesome. We'll make sure that customer leaves thinking that the money was well spent.

As for me sounding lime bragging or bad in anyways, I'm sorry. I was just excited. My bank account still don't look pretty and it's still raining here on Friday. But that 580 detail made our day and gave us a faint hope that we still have customers, even the ones with deep pocket. And I just wanted to share the joy with y'all. After all I learned lot from here so I owe to it.

All in all thank you always for good advice.

-still learning grasshopper, Tom. :)

As long as the customer is happy when they get their car back and you did your best, you're a genius...

The most unpleasant experience is a customer who receives a respectable, competent detail job, buys it at a deep discount and complains...

It's all about managing expectations...even at $580, if you underpromise and overdeliver both you and the customer will be long time friends!