Acceptable Rates

**RogueM3** · 05-30-2007, 07:27 PM

As a background: Ive been detailing my own cars for in excess of 4 years, and have been taking on clients over the course of the past 1.5 years. I believe my work is excellent, substantiated by the fact that many of my clients refer their friends to me, and the fact that I have never had a disappointed client.

Ive been doing details for a relatively flat rate of $150 to include total swirl removal and everything else one comes to expect from a full detail (including CD2 engine dressing). Ive never been terribly upset when a job takes in excess of 6 or 7 hours, as others take 3 and Ive always felt I tend to balance it all out in the end.

My question is, that more and more often now I read about you all charging by the hour for your work. Is that a generally acceptable method of billing and do your clients mind the difference between your estimate and the actually amount billed?

Id like to charge in the vicinity of $40/hr this summer as I get back into the swing of things, though dont know if I would be better off simply upping my detail rate to $175 or $200 as opposed to switching to an hourly rate.

If anyone can throw me some advice, I would very much appreciate it.

Thanks.

Richard

**01bluecls** · 05-30-2007, 07:32 PM

I have been charging an hourly rate for a few years. I think it is a "easy" way to determine charge. Just know how long certain things take and qoute a rough estimate to customer saying "it will probably take 8 hours give or take an hour, the charge will be about --- or ---"

**joshtpa** · 05-30-2007, 07:37 PM

I do for the most part charge by the hour, but I do cap it for them, and give them an estimate of what my goals are so that they do not feel I am working slow.

**brwill2005** · 05-30-2007, 08:08 PM

I only charge per hour for paint restoration type details. For my detail packages, I already know aproximately how long it will take me for a given size vehicle. I list the prices of my packages as starting at X amount of dollars. If the car is in below average condition, the price of the package goes up from there.

**todd@bsaw** · 05-30-2007, 09:22 PM

Originally Posted by brwill2005

I only charge per hour for paint restoration type details. For my detail packages, I already know aproximately how long it will take me for a given size vehicle. I list the prices of my packages as starting at X amount of dollars. If the car is in below average condition, the price of the package goes up from there.

This is pretty much the same way that I do pricing as well.

As long as you know how to explain to the client that their car will cost more than the packaged pricing states because of condition and the extra time involved, people understand that "time = money".

Edit: Awesome gallery of recent details, btw. You`re works is excellent! :goodjob

**RogueM3** · 05-30-2007, 11:36 PM

Thanks for the advice, guys. Im definitely going to be using some of it as I dont think $150 is fair for some of the cars I am tackling.

Originally Posted by todd@bsaw

Edit: Awesome gallery of recent details, btw. You`re works is excellent! :goodjob

Thanks! Ive purchased a website with my company name, etc but have been WAY too busy to set it up with a full gallery..hopefully soon. :heelclick

**clnfrk** · 05-31-2007, 12:44 AM

Originally Posted by RogueM3

Thanks for the advice, guys. Im definitely going to be using some of it as I dont think $150 is fair for some of the cars I am tackling.

Thanks! Ive purchased a website with my company name, etc but have been WAY too busy to set it up with a full gallery..hopefully soon. :heelclick

That is an impressive gallery of cars you got there! Do you detail full time? Those are the types of cars that I strive to build my business upon. Do you mind me asking how you attract owners of those types of cars? I`m sure alot of it has to do with the quality of work that you do that I`m assuming results in repeat clients, but I`m just curious how you go about selling them on the initial detail and are most, if not all of those details involving paint correction work? Thanks.

Oh yeah... I think you definitely need to be charging significantlymore than $150 for the amount of time and the results achieved with your details, especially if you are dealing with high end cars like those.

**RogueM3** · 05-31-2007, 06:25 PM

Originally Posted by clnfrk

That is an impressive gallery of cars you got there! Do you detail full time? Those are the types of cars that I strive to build my business upon. Do you mind me asking how you attract owners of those types of cars? I`m sure alot of it has to do with the quality of work that you do that I`m assuming results in repeat clients, but I`m just curious how you go about selling them on the initial detail and are most, if not all of those details involving paint correction work? Thanks.

You assumed correctly that most of those are through referrals. I work for a BMW performance shop and most all of the BMW details are generated by customers asking for a good detailer. The Porsche details started as a result of doing the 993 C4S which was posted on a few Porsche boards leading to a number of other Porsche and Mercedes details. The owner of the 993 C2 Vert is a member of an exotic car club with most owners driving ferraris and lambos, and I have already started to book a bunch of high-end exotic details for the coming month.

My main selling point is the gallery I email them. I think my passion for detailing kinda oozes out of me when Im walking around the car and talking about the corrective process and generally its only a a matter of time before they ask, "well, what do you think it would cost to make it perfect like you describe?"

I also go above and beyond to please my clients. The owner of the Z06 in the gallery was a super-busy guy working in downtown Manhattan with no time to bring me the car for a detailing. I offerred to come to him (something I dont love to do, but have before) and that wasnt going to happen as it was parked in a downtown commercial garage with no way for me to take up a bunch of space and use my equipment. Never one to lose a customer, when he offerred for me to drive the car out of Manhattan to my shop in Northern NJ (35 miles), I hesitated and finally agreed. Yes, part of this was the car-nut in me wanting to drive a new Z06, but I was also thinking about what kind of business detailing his car might generate.

I think I`ll make the new rate $200 for a full detail. (Over that and only those who NEED to have their car perfect will come. At $200 I feel some will still justify that for wanting to have a clean car, though it will still end up perfect)

**Charisma** · 06-01-2007, 11:28 PM

Personally, I think you should go by an hourly rate, it just seems like it makes more sense.

**twentyone** · 06-03-2007, 02:57 PM

Originally Posted by clnfrk

That is an impressive gallery of cars you got there! Do you detail full time? Those are the types of cars that I strive to build my business upon. Do you mind me asking how you attract owners of those types of cars? I`m sure alot of it has to do with the quality of work that you do that I`m assuming results in repeat clients, but I`m just curious how you go about selling them on the initial detail and are most, if not all of those details involving paint correction work? Thanks.

Oh yeah... I think you definitely need to be charging significantlymore than $150 for the amount of time and the results achieved with your details, especially if you are dealing with high end cars like those.

gotta second that. pretty impressive work that you`re doing.

**RogueM3** · 06-03-2007, 07:45 PM

Originally Posted by twentyone

gotta second that. pretty impressive work that you`re doing.

Thanks...I do what I can.

**RogueM3** · 06-17-2007, 12:07 PM

Alright,

Well Im home now and have started up my detailing business again. Ive started to schedule a few details ranging from an A4 to a Lambo Diablo and am pretty confused/torn as to what I need to be charging.

In the past Ive charged $150 and usually received some sort of tip on top of that, though not always. I just received an email from one of my better customers; Ive only done 1 of his cars, but am set to do 3 more this week and have received atleast 3 referals as a result of him.

That said, he emailed me and said: "Let me know what your pricing break down will be and we can work from there". So he is talking about: Audi A4, Audi A8, Lexus GX470, and Porsche 993 `vert.

Im thinking my new rate will be $200 for cars and $220 for SUVs for a complete detail (paint correction, etc).

Should I charge the above loyal customer this rate, or should I charge him something like $170/vehicle that would mean the 4 vehicles would bring me $680?? Im almost thinking maybe a flat $650 would be a nice round number, especially considering he said the Audi (difficult clear as you guys know) needed some serious loving.

Let me know what you guys think, as I just dont know how comfortable I am with charging an hourly rate as none of the detailers in my area charge by the hour. I understand the idea behind it, but believe my customers would better appreciate me giving them a flat rate to swallow instead of a guesstimate.

Thanks again.

**imported_Jakerooni** · 06-17-2007, 12:31 PM

Ahh I don`t know about the whole hourly rate thing myself. It would seriously take a lot of convincing to a customer that especially on a high bill you just didn`t sit there and milk the job. I charge anywhere from $80 - $150 for complete details including paint restoration and personally in my area I might be on the high side. I`ve yet to get anyone to book a $150 detail. Although I`ve gotten pleanty of details booked on the lesser packages. Sometimes you get gravy boats that clean up real quick. Other times you get hosed and have to spend way above and beyond on it for the same price. It`s just the nature of the biz. Shouldn`t take you anymore than 4-5 hours for a complete detail on any size vechile really. That`s also how I pay my detailers. They get a flat rate no matter how long it takes them. Trying to change up how to charge on a detail is risky business I think. If your customers are used to you charging a certian price and next time the repeat customer comes in and you charge almost double because it took longer your going to end up loosing alot of your repeat business. People like knowing what to expect in life. It lets them budget things. If your a private detailer you might have better luck experimenting with your pricing. I`d say if your a business entity you need to stick with set pricing and take the lumps that come.