getting new customers

[Detailing NY]

I own a detail shop and i am looking for new ways to get the customers. I trying to expand my business but need to find that little edge. Anyone got an idea?

[imported_Intel486]

Betta to stick this in the professional detailing area.

[imported_Snowman]

I`m sure you have tried flyers and stuff like that. There is a detail shop that I know of that puts flyers on cars in Mall parking lots and stuff. I thought it was a pretty dumb idea untill I tried to schedule a time to get my truck done. They had to schedule me 3 days out. I guess it worked.

[drmcetta]

I don`t know if you`ve done these before..but anyway, couple suggestions:



1. work with car dealers (some of them may not have time to wax the cars themselves)

2. give referral discount to your old customers to attract more new customers (I still believe personal recommendation is the best advertising for detailers)

3. pick up and delivery of customers` cars to be detailed and returned later



:)

[riprath]

this is a great question. i have been trying to think of new ideas lately also. it seems like my shop is in a rut too as far as bringing in new customers. my shop is in a smaller town pop. 15,000 or so. im on the second busiest road in town but not the main road. it just seems like lately that all my customers come from people driveing by. sure i get rfuralls but that only goes for so long when alot of your customers are the same. you still need new customers to get more new business. not that all my customers are repeat customers but its defanently not like it used to be geting new customers everyday. i do the flyer thing also and it seems to work pretty well but being in il right now its cold. that to me poses 2 problems.

1-who wants to go pass out flyers when its 25 degrees out side?

it can quite cold after an hour of passing out .

2- who wants to take the time to stop and take a flyer off there car when its 25 degrees out. but yet they have to when it right on the windsheild. now you have to ask yourself if its going to make the potential customer mad or not by doing this.

i have always offered free pick up and delivery.

there are only 2 major car dealers (2 worth doing work for) and they both pay there detailers by commision so its hard geting anything out of them.

so, i would be realy interested also in hearing so different ideas you guys have or do to keep customer flow up.



thanks,sean

[Jngrbrdman]

I get most of my business from word of mouth. I`ve never tried the flyer thing, but I`m also not set up to handle the type of volume that can create. I went to www.vistaprint.com and had some business cards made and I hand those out everywhere I go. I leave one in each car that I detail as well. I have also sold limited numbers of gift certificates. I don`t like doing that as much because it is promising to clean a car that you can`t inspect first. I have to put stipulations on the certificate and I don`t like restrictions on gifts so I don`t use them very often.

I wouldn`t know what it is like to detail in 25 degree weather. That must suck. I fold up in November and don`t start up again till March. Too cold and sloppy durring the winter to spend much time out there. I want to still be able to [i]use[/u] my hands when I`m 60. ;) Freezing them over and over doesn`t seem like the best idea. :) Props to you cold weather detailers though. You are the elite!

[drmcetta]

I don` know, I`m not a prof detailer..so I might be wrong..

but IMO:



1. The market for detailers remain small - not that many people really care to make their cars look good..so detailers need to fully exploit the small market..



2. The business is a little cyclical IMO..winter time: people care less about how good they car looks...



3. Low entry barrier - Although good and expert detailers is hard to copy, but new detailers can certainly learn the basic skill fairly quickly....

in addition, although may not achive the same result as good professional detailers, many people can detail their own cars with the right equipment, patience, and practice..they may not have the rotary buffers to cut deep oxidation..but they may create a fairly good looking cars sparkle..



I`d be interested in hearing the solutions...but one possible solution is to do other `auxillary` business like dent repair, oil change, glass repair, tire and wheel shop, etc. in addition to detailing cars..this way detailers can avoid the cyclical effect of the business...while finding extra income (although may need some additional cost)..as well as providing customers with one stop shopping type of business..





just my .02 :)

[Detailing NY]

What i have been using to keep my customers coming back is what i call the quick detail system

after i do a complete detail, i offer the customer a quick detail contract which in return they get the vehicle cleaned every two weeks to keep the vehicle looking new. and about every 3 months we do another complete detail on it. It seems to be working, the best part about it is that i do the quick detail at the home of the customer and the neighboors always come to get my card and i get more jobs out of it.

[riprath]

its not 25 degrees in my shop. i couldnt detail a car outside right now if i wanted to. must be nice to close up shop like that. what do you do in your off time?



sean

[Jngrbrdman]

<blockquote class=`ipsBlockquote` >

<em class=`bbc`>Originally posted by NY detailer [/i]
<strong class=`bbc`>What i have been using to keep my customers coming back is what i call the quick detail system
after i do a complete detail, i offer the customer a quick detail contract which in return they get the vehicle cleaned every two weeks to keep the vehicle looking new. and about every 3 months we do another complete detail on it. It seems to be working, the best part about it is that i do the quick detail at the home of the customer and the neighboors always come to get my card and i get more jobs out of it. [/b]</blockquote>
I use that exact same tool. Great minds must think alike. :xyxthumbs

I work for a living in the off seasons. I`m sort of a Jack-of-all-trades kind of guy. I work with a guy that buys houses and has em fixed up before he sells em for a profit. I run a crew that does the work. Durring the winter it is fine but during the summer I split that with detailing. I figure that I am young and might as well work while I can. :)

I`m saving up money to open a franchise business. I`ve got some excellent leads and everything is all squared away so all I need is the money to get started. I`ll be in business by this time next year. :up It is going to be beyond the regular detail work that I do now. I am going to expand to paintless dent removal and things like that and work out of dealerships. It`ll be nice. Gotta move to Dallas first though. Salt Lake people couldn`t care less about their cars on average. I`m tired of doing cars for people that don`t even care about what I use to detail it.

[riprath]

well for not being a pro you hit that one right on. the market does remain small and people do not care about there cars near as much in the winter as the summer months. i just cant help but think there has to be a way to keep things a little more busy in the winter. we go from booking 2 weeks ahead in the summer months to day by day in the winter. im not expecting to be booked year round. im just looking for that happy medium.



thats what keeps me in business is all the other services we offer. car audio and alarms/remote starts made my winter this year. now if i could just stay busy all year with both life would be great.



i think location has a lot to do i dont mean location of shop. i mean the people around your place of business and how they spend there money. that and population plays a big role in it too.



thanks, sean

[Detailing NY]

I detail car`s every change i get, whether it is cold or hot. I make my appointments with my customers. They come to me or i go to them. I need to make the appointments as i own the detail shop part time. I am a full time auto adjuster for an insurance company.

I also sell my own products.

The detail business is very competitive, it`s not always about getting the new business, but keeping the customers you already have. It takes time but word of mouth is quicker then a flyer going on someone`s car.

[Detailing NY]

what do you guys think of this idea?

My local pizza shop is extremly busy and we are good friends. I made 500 flyers and he is placing them on every pizza box when they go out for delivery. (hope this works).

I also have a flyer in his store that gets the customers attention. I offer one large free pizza, with every complete detail. The owner of the pizza shop cut the price down for me at $5.00 a pie and he will deliver it for me.

Don`t know if this will work as today is the first day the flyer is in the pizza shop.

We all know our customers and they all want something for nothing. this cost me only $5, and i still make a great profit.

I even have an account with him so people can just order the pies. They must show the receipt from me to get the free pie.

Anyone else have any idea`s that i can use?

[Lowejackson]

I think you need to decide how and in what way you wish to expand your business. Do you want to increase the volume of business or look at maximising your current business. Going for volume is a lot harder, for example if your customer base increased by 200% do you have the resources to service this volume?



If you are looking to maximise profit, this takes you on another path completely and ranges from looking at minimising costs, finding ways to add value or increase the return rate of existing customers. It is well known but often overlooked that your best source of advertising is your existing customers.



Forgive me if I am pointing out the obvious to you. I used to help small businesses a few years ago, some of the time people forget the basics and spend time and money in ineffective ways.



Steven

[riprath]

I think you need to decide how and in what way you wish to expand your business. Do you want to increase the volume of business or look at maximising your current business.





i want both. because i dont think either is going to happen to extent that you are syaing. that would be wonderful to increase my business by 200% but given the town i live in i dont know if that is possible. on the other hand the town i live in is "cheap". by that i mean its hard enough to get a $145.00 complete detail out of them once a year let alone more. dont get me wrong i have the select few customers that come in once every couple weeks/months. but that volume isnt enough. i need to find the happy medium between the two solutions. i need to grow the overall volume of new customers as well as grow the amount of visits and spending with my current clientel. i do know the power of word of mouth. its got me this far. i get customers comeing in from up to 30-40 miles away because of my reputation. i know the obvious solution is move. i need a bigger town with not so prctical spending habits. thats just not possable at the current time though. that and i know this town has a lot of potential in the comeing years. i also know there is something when you provide as many services as i do in a town of 15-20000 and geting customers all the time that say they didnt even know i was here. i have been open now for 2 years and 6 months in the same location. thats a problem. i can stand in front of my shop any day of the week and pick out every other car that drives by and we have done some type of service to it. but then again i can go 3 miles away to the other side of town and not see one car that iv even done a hand wash on. i am the only "detail shop" in this town. there are 4 self serve car washes, and one car wash with express detail services. it kills me to see how busy the express detail shop stays. the cost of there express detailing services arent that much cheeper than mine. but the quality of work, (its a joke) you cant even compare. the time we put into each car and quality of products are 10x that of the "express detail". people around here dont care that some 17 year old kid just drove there car into a non touchless car wash tunnel scratching there $45,000 car and then pulled into a detail bay where he is going to be useing some wax with less standards than turtle wax and puting it on with an orbital all over the entire car(not bothering to cut in by hand) then takeing it off the same and sending it out the door in 35 min. for the same $35.00 that i wash there car by hand with clean water non harmfull non abrasive car wash soap with a wool mit and use meg. gold class paste wax by hand with mf towel spending 1 1/2 hours on it and it being right.

thats the other problem i need to figure out a way around. i could go on forever and i almost did, sorry. i know this turned into me venting and got a little out of hand but i wanted you guys to knw just what im dealing with in hope that one of you might have found a way to overcome the same problems im going through.

sorry for the long post and thanks, for the help, sean