How to overcome this...

[Street5927]

I was wondering if this has happened to any of you (I am sure it has) and how you deal with it. I had a client who wanted his 2004 Black VW bug cleaned. Upon initial inspection, it had a tun of swirls and very few scratches. He wanted the interior shampood and detailed and just wanted the exterior waxed.



I tried to explain to him that there should be some type of correction done to remove the swirls and rids, but he did not want that done..I thought it was due to cost, so I gave him a killer price and he said that he did not think it was bad enough to have it done. I also explained that wax will not really make it look any better, just add protection to it and he was alright with that.



That said, I washed and waxed it and detailed the interior, however, when it was all said and done, it still looked like...well, to be quite frank..."crap". Anyway, he was happy with the job, and I wasn`t.



Now to my problem, knowing that I couldn`t convince him the outcome of some paint correction (even after showing some before and after pics of another black VW I did a few years ago), I am afraid that he is going to go tell his friends that he had his vehicle detailed, and when they look at it, I am sure they are going to say that it still looks like "crap" and when asked who did it, he will tell them and slightly "tarnish" my reputation (provided he doesn`t tell them the whole story)...and unfortunately, if they think it was a crappy job (which it wasn`t, but it still looked like crap) that they would never come to me and I would never get to explain to them why it still looks like crap after a "detail".



I am a perfectionist and try to get things as close to perfect as I can, knowing that you can never get it back to 100%. With this in mind, Would you guys for the sake of this (even at the expense of loosing a few dollars and a few hours) go ahead and do a quick correction anyway to make it look a little better, or would you just let it go and drive you nuts but do what was asked of you by the owner?



Here is an idea what the swirls looked like before anything was done....the hood, roof and sides were even worse, but I didn`t get any good pics of them.



http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww98/street5927/DETAILING%20SUPPLIES/DSCN1199.jpg

[Twista616]

Simple Answer: For most: Time=Money



I`ve been you situation slightly different, but same idea: I went out to a consultation quoted a price, the guy agreed, and when i finished the work, which was very well done, the guy had a fit about the price. mind you the price never went up, it actually went down from the price i quoted. He said it was way too much but he paid. I kindly said to him, sir, this price was actually lower than the price that i quoted you. If you didnt agree with it, you should have said something or not went ahead with my services.



So i ran the risk of this guy spreading bad rumors, in all reality, it was his mistake, not mine.



Take it with a grain of salt, and move on, the old saying, "there are plenty of fish in the sea" instead of fish, its cars!



ALWAYS DO WHAT THE CUSTOMER WANTS...unless you add alittle extra which they sometimes appreciate...just my .02 Goodluck

[AppliedColors]

You`ll meet many more customers like him. Many customers don`t value paint correction. They just want their car CLEAN in and out.



Give them what they pay for.

[Accumulator]

Give them what they pay for.



Yeah, or tell them you can`t take the job.



I would *NOT* do correction without the owner`s consent no matter what.

[Altered-Image]

if giving the customer what they want means doing a crappy job then send them away. When my customers ask me to skip a step I simply tell them "we only do them one way"

[imported_Jakerooni]

Yep. You offered and he still said no. Part of the business I`m afraid.

[Scottwax]

You`ll meet many more customers like him. Many customers don`t value paint correction. They just want their car CLEAN in and out.



Give them what they pay for.



Agreed. There is a lot of money to be made doing basic details (full interior cleaning and protection, wash, clay, 1 polishing step and wax). For 80% of my customers, that is what they want. For the other 20%, I am more than happy to spend a lot more time on their cars since they are willing to pay for a higher level of detailing.

[rwisejr]

Usually How I handle that situation is I do test spot Like half the hood and 9 times out of 10 they will go for the corrections as I have found that pictures do not convince most folks that don`t know what they are looking at in the first place. But if you show them a side by side on thier car where they tuely see the difference. But you do and always will have those that just like it clean and shiny no matter what.

[akimel]

I am not a professional detailer nor a businessman, but it sounds, Ryan, that you really regret taking this guy`s business. Unless you have already established yourself as an elite detailer, this sure sounds short-sighted to me. Business is business. Can you really afford not to do the simple basic details? If not, then you need to look at your customers` cars through their eyes, not through your perfectionist Autopian eyes.



What does your basic customer want? He wants a clean, shiny car! You may think that the VW you did still looked like crap after you washed and waxed it, but I guarantee you that your customer did not. He was no doubt thrilled to get back a shiny vehicle, despite all the swirls that you could see but he could not. Was he happy? If he was, then that is all that is important. Hopefully he will come back to you the next time he wants his car washed and waxed, and hopefully he will recommend you to his friends. This is what building up a business like yours is all about.



So instead of bemoaning the fact that you could not persuade the individual to pay for a full paint correction, rejoice that he gave you his business and focus on building up your relations with him. Now that he has seen what a great job you did on the wash & wax, perhaps next time he will allow you to do a full paint correction; but first you have to win his confidence and trust.



Question: For basic exterior details like the one you just did, what are the best and most economical products to use? I would think that a product like Megs` D150 or DuraGloss 501 might be ideal, but no doubt there are even better products. The goal is to return the car to the customer looking as good as it can look, given time and monetary restraints.



We are heading into and indeed are already in a major economic depression. People are going to become increasingly frugal. Paint correction is a luxury that most people can and will easily forego. How are you going to keep their business? How are you going to win their business?



Cheers,

Al