Car Detailing Survey: Results

**602rwtq** · 11-28-2011, 04:38 PM

Got about 100 replies from BMW enthusiasts about their detailing habits in these threads:

Survey: What do you pay for car detailing? - Page 2 - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

Survey: What do you pay for car detailing? - BMW 3-Series (E90 E92) Forum - E90Post.com

The full survey results: Car Detailing Survey

Graph of the results:

**Jngrbrdman** · 11-28-2011, 04:58 PM

Wow... Quite a few contradictions in there actually. That is interesting. They place results above all else, but they base their choice on price and not reviews (by majority). And they expect them to have a websites, but again... they don`t rely on reviews or examples of their work when the decision is made. That is just really interesting to me. Probably very true too. Consumers are weird ducks. I lump myself in that category too. lol I guess most people aren`t very logical when shopping for services like this.

**C. Charles Hahn** · 11-28-2011, 05:27 PM

I think you hit it on the head, Anthony.... "I guess most people aren`t very logical...."

**Ben@3D** · 11-28-2011, 05:53 PM

Average customer: "Even though I could probably do it myself, I want to pay a mobile detailing professional under $150 who has a fancy website with "fake" reviews so I can have shiny wheels and paint quickly when I go to sell my car."

**Nth Degree** · 11-28-2011, 07:07 PM

Agreed. Some contradiction, but noticing the trends gives a good idea of what to focus on when talking to potential customers. Most of my business comes through referrals, but even then I often have to educate them about expectations and time. What I find most useful (and not surprising) is the price point people expect to pay and where they choose to take it to have it done. Unfortunately time and $$$ are the two factors that limit quality, so the majority of potential customers (according to this survey) are focused on $$$ first, time second, and quality results last.

**MirrorDetailing** · 11-28-2011, 09:06 PM

Not only are most of the questions contradicting...but its an bias community. Basing these results off one select small small small........small group of consumers does not give you an idea of anything. Just more so proves the fact that most BMW owners are morons...or at least 75% of the ones I have met are. As people already stated these owners want great work for next to nothing, by people with fancy fake websites that can come do the a long job in short time. Hell even on the page one of your links goes to...someone states the very obvious of.. "Detailing means different things to different people." That statement breaks your results.

**Grimm** · 11-29-2011, 01:01 PM

I think the question on what would you pay was flawed. You should not include people that do detailing themselves. I would think a big portion of that lowest dollar value are actually the ones that detail the car themselves. If you are doing it yourself, a big reason is because you don`t want to pay someone else to do it. So naturally, you wouldn`t be willing to pay the higher cost.

**602rwtq** · 11-30-2011, 11:52 AM

Originally Posted by Grimm

I think the question on what would you pay was flawed. You should not include people that do detailing themselves. I would think a big portion of that lowest dollar value are actually the ones that detail the car themselves. If you are doing it yourself, a big reason is because you don`t want to pay someone else to do it. So naturally, you wouldn`t be willing to pay the higher cost.

Surveys are not simple or cheap. I looked into getting this outsourced, but got quotes in the $1000s so I did the best I could.

Do-it-yourselfers skew the numbers, but I did want to "get the whole picture." One of the goals of the survey was to find out what % of enthusiasts are do-it-yourselfers (48%). I actually expected this to be around 75%.

Those who marked that they only willing to pay $75 - $125 for a detail are clearly the do-it-yourselfers. That`s just not a retail price anyone offers.

The pricing contradictions are common in every survey. If we surveyed Autopians what they`d be willing to pay for: massage, interior decorating, party planning, limo services...any of these "luxury services" we`d likely see a prices that didn`t match the expectations of companies offering those services.

Some important conclusions to draw from this admittedly small, but useful survey:

1. 52% of these enthusiasts pay for pro detailing. The general population: about 5%. Thus they are 10 TIMES more likely to buy your service...so SEEK THEM OUT.

2. Word-of-mouth, apparently, is not as strong as word-of-website. Customers expect websites, and they expect reviews.

3. Enthusiasts apparently prefer fixed location detailers. Your marketing should persuade them that you can meet or exceed fixed-location service. Many perceive your mobile status as a shortcoming.

4. 60% would consider buying a gift certificate at a price of $200. Let every current and potential customer know about your gift certificates.

**Nth Degree** · 11-30-2011, 01:55 PM

Originally Posted by 602rwtq

Do-it-yourselfers skew the numbers, but I did want to "get the whole picture." One of the goals of the survey was to find out what % of enthusiasts are do-it-yourselfers (48%). I actually expected this to be around 75%.

Those who marked that they only willing to pay $75 - $125 for a detail are clearly the do-it-yourselfers. That`s just not a retail price anyone offers.

If this were done on a larger scale it would be helpful to filter out those who are DIYers. That way the rest of the numbers can be better understood. As it is, we cannot be sure what the non DIYers expectations are.

**Dan** · 11-30-2011, 03:41 PM

Robert,

I think you did a great job with the questions. It really highlights the mentality of most customers, most importantly, price is a huge factor. I would love to see some questions about loyalty to a particular detailer vs price, eg:

How likely are you to retain the services of a previously used detailer if a competing detailer offers a discount of X%.

**602rwtq** · 11-30-2011, 06:11 PM

This was my first survey. Had to offer a gift cert to autogeek to get the responses, but it went well.

I may do another survey of the old "bread and butter" soccer moms (minivans, tahoes, suburbans, etc.). If anyone has some suggestions for questions, post them here.

**Richard Grasa** · 12-01-2011, 10:04 AM

Nice job with the survey. I think you should maybe add "low volume detailing garage" to the "who are you most likely to hire to detail your car?" section if you do another one. I`m not mobile and I`m not high volume, along with alot of other shops I know of.

**MirrorDetailing** · 12-01-2011, 12:58 PM

Originally Posted by ExplicitDetails

Nice job with the survey. I think you should maybe add "low volume detailing garage" to the "who are you most likely to hire to detail your car?" section if you do another one. I`m not mobile and I`m not high volume, along with alot of other shops I know of.

Same. I am very limited mobile and not high volume.