Cutting Corners?

Beemerboy

Beemerboy

Just One More Coat
Saturdays detail was a 740iL BMW.....a big sedan to say the least....The car was real dirty, in and out. I quoted the guy $250 for a bumper to bumper detail as he was going to sell the car as soon as I was done....he asked if I could do it for $200 and then he would also give me his truck at a later date...I really don't like cutting my price but since he was a referral from one of mt best customers I did it...I also told him that was the only reason..

The car was light silver so I knew that I could get away with not doing all the steps on the paint that I would have had to do on a darker color...So after I clayed the car I used the PC with P-w-S and stopped there...to save time...I really felt guilty about it but the car looked great was smooth and shined up real nice, the customer was real happy with the finish.

Now my question, is this cutting corners and cheating the customer or still delivering back a quality product?

My normal detail is wash, clay, SWR, polish, glaze and seal or wax
 
If you told him that your detail includes all those steps and you didn't do them, then yes you're cheating the customer. If you agreed to give him a good detail without talking about the steps then you did what was necessary to satisfy the customer and stay within the time frame that he was willing to pay for. If that's the case, then you did not cheat him in any way.

The customer must understand that when they lock you in on a price there is a possiblity that you will need to cut a corner or two to make it worth your time. You know better than I what your time is worth to you. Discounting to friends and family is common with me and I don't mind making less per hour to work for them. Any other discounting must pay off for you in some way (like advertising or getting your foot in the door with lots of potential work) or, in my opinion, it is considered bad business.
 
For me, it's about what the customer wants. I find customers never bring "the other car," so I offer $10 off their second car in the same week.
So for flips & sales, I will offer to take steps out or focus on certain areas, but I don't ever sacrifice my hourly rate.
 
Beemerboy said:
Saturdays detail was a 740iL BMW.....a big sedan to say the least....The car was real dirty, in and out. I quoted the guy $250 for a bumper to bumper detail as he was going to sell the car as soon as I was done....he asked if I could do it for $200 and then he would also give me his truck at a later date...I really don't like cutting my price but since he was a referral from one of mt best customers I did it...I also told him that was the only reason..

The car was light silver so I knew that I could get away with not doing all the steps on the paint that I would have had to do on a darker color...So after I clayed the car I used the PC with P-w-S and stopped there...to save time...I really felt guilty about it but the car looked great was smooth and shined up real nice, the customer was real happy with the finish.

Now my question, is this cutting corners and cheating the customer or still delivering back a quality product?

My normal detail is wash, clay, SWR, polish, glaze and seal or wax
Click to expand...
Like Troy said, It depends on what you told your customer you would do.
If you just told him you would deliver a good looking product and you feel you did, you did your part without a doubt.
Just personal opinion, but your SMR, polish and sealant were all taken care of by the PwS. The glaze is something I consider an unnecessary step anyway.
The PwS will do the swirl removal and paint polishing quite well. It also is said to have some durability as a sealant so I think you covered all the bases.
 
Troy@DetailCity said:
If you told him that your detail includes all those steps and you didn't do them, then yes you're cheating the customer. If you agreed to give him a good detail without talking about the steps then you did what was necessary to satisfy the customer and stay within the time frame that he was willing to pay for. If that's the case, then you did not cheat him in any way.

The customer must understand that when they lock you in on a price there is a possiblity that you will need to cut a corner or two to make it worth your time. You know better than I what your time is worth to you. Discounting to friends and family is common with me and I don't mind making less per hour to work for them. Any other discounting must pay off for you in some way (like advertising or getting your foot in the door with lots of potential work) or, in my opinion, it is considered bad business.
Click to expand...

Thanks Troy, I was very up front with this guy...he knew that I wasn't going to go threw all the steps that I follow on my regular detail...I told him that since he was selling the car that 90% of the people that buy a car really don't see the marring...as long as the car was clean and shiny it would sell just as well as if I had gone threw all the steps.
 
As long as you did what you stated you were going to do and the customer was happy with the service performed. Then you have nothing to feel bad about.

"J"
 
I guess what I meant about guilty was that I knew that I could have got the car to look better, but that would have caused another hour plus on top of what was a 7 hour detail already....Its more about me being anal about the finish than anything....but it also leads me to think that I could and I mean could do less work on the paint and still have happy customers
 
this is actually a really common problem for me, customers always ask can you do it for ______ .
the best thing to do is to be honest, i just tell customers i can do it for less but i am going to have to do less work, ...... if you would like a discount i can give you a discount on your second detail (this way you eliminate low ballers and bad customers), discounting your price doesn't attract good customers, however i will almost always give a discount for a loyal customer...
 
BLACKWRX said:
this is actually a really common problem for me, customers always ask can you do it for ______ .
the best thing to do is to be honest, i just tell customers i can do it for less but i am going to have to do less work, ...... if you would like a discount i can give you a discount on your second detail (this way you eliminate low ballers and bad customers), discounting your price doesn't attract good customers, however i will almost always give a discount for a loyal customer...
Click to expand...

That was the only reason that I gave him the price that I did...the referral is a very good customer
 
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