new pricing

[Gus-Gus]

this thread is making me hungry

[bigron62]

John Henry i see what you are doing too . its like me and my wife when we go out to eat nowadays we cant really do the fifty dollar dinners but thirty is do able and thats what im going to do . give people what they can afford ..or ill find something else to do that people can afford ..

[jdmser]

So Ron, really your not lowering your price your adding an option. Remember that it is infinitely harder to up sell than down sell. My standard detail starts at $100. If my customer isn`t comfortable with that I feel them out by finding what their areas of concern are. I can then make suggestions until we find something they`re happy with. Be it interior, exterior, wash-n-wax, or hand wash. Also, be careful with reducing pricing now because when the economy turns around people won`t be so receptive to a price increase.

[GothamAuto]

I have never been a fan of lowering prices. I was told once that the quickest way to go out of business is to lower your prices to compete with other people in your area, and I believe it to be true. There will always be SOMEONE who will be willing to go $5 cheaper just to get the business.
What I would do rather than lower your prices is come up with a different package that states that less work will be done, but your car will still end up looking great in the end. I tried as hard as I could to stay away from the word "Express Detail" for a long time, but finally I accepted it and use it now to explain my lower priced services. People now understand that it`s just not going to be a complete detail. I tell people it`s not really meant to repair any damage like swirl marks and scratches, but the one step polish/wax will certainly clean up the paint a bit and provide a level of wax.
What I also did was research products until I found ones that were able to give me a maximum final product with minimal effort. Will the end result of a 2 hour Express Detail be the same as a 6-8 hour complete detail, absolutely not, but it may be what people are looking for at a price they are willing to pay. I agree with what JDMSer said about raising your prices vs. lowering them. If you lower them, it is going to be very hard to raise them back up should you start to see you are loosing money.

Of course adding a BBQ to your service would make me choose the service that offered me a pulled pork sandwich above a service that didn`t offer me a sandwich no matter what the price

[bigron62]

im not lowering my price on full detail just putting a package together that most people will go for .. it will be the biggest item on my brouchure .. if they want more of course ill do it but im not gonna get real pushy on the upsell thing ..options will be on the brouchure fot extra services ..if it doesnt work ill come up with a new side biz ..

[Ronkh]

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do .. but please rename it "Big Ron`s"

people like big

[Dtrick.22]

I`ve had tons of success with one-steps....I haven`t gotten rid of any of my correction services, but just added a one-step option which I never used to have, and everyone is going for it...$100- One-step, extract the interior, glass, shine the dash and doors, shine the tires....They love it, I`ve come to think thats all people are really looking for unless it`s a higher end car

[bigron62]

bingo ..the high end customers will pay for the multi step work but there are very few of those any more ..going after the regular joe who needs his car cleaned/ waxed ..