In Perspective

[Accumulator]

.. their chauffeur drives their black Mercedes S500 sedan with blacked out windows....You know what's great about them - my grandmother died 3 weeks ago - She was an avid painter late in her life. They took one of her paintings and had it framed in one of those ornate, golden wood frames with her name, year of birth and year of death tag on the bottom... So you see famous artists and then my grandma's flower painting!

Cool that they have the Benz, yeah, you'll have it ship-shape in no time. Also cool that they put your Grandmother's picture up with their collectibles.



Oh, and condolences on her passing.

 

[stilez]

I agree JBM. I know exactly where your coming from. I'm a plumber. Building a Picaso out of pipe wont make you rich nor does anyone notice or care. Doing decent quality work at a reasonable pace will work. But acquireing customers that are willing to pay for other variables like : cleanliness, being on time, curtious and pleasant will get you that extra money and make you more valuable than your competition. I'm going back to service work where I'm worth more to the people who need me! The big jobs sound great, but its always rush, rush , rush, and your bidding against others who will under-cut all day long.

I totally agree. I think it goes a lot with detailing too. Being Autopians, we finish cars and most of the time say "the wheel wells could have used a little more TLC" or "Maybe I should've gone with AIO under OCW". In the end, I have noticed 95%+ of my customers care about cleanliness in the truest sense of the word (IE: clean carpets, no tar down the side, no bugs on the front, etc). I also think customer service plays a large role in the business too. Many who come to me, have come from larger operation detailers. They complain about being pushed around, shoddy work, etc. In the end, I think if you give it a nice personal touch (speaking small business wise), you are going to have a lot of repeats.

 

[Scottwax]

In the end, I have noticed 95%+ of my customers care about cleanliness in the truest sense of the word (IE: clean carpets, no tar down the side, no bugs on the front, etc).

Same here. I was detailing a 740 a few weeks ago and it took some buffing to get rid of some scratches and halo swirls. The owner comes out and tells me I don't need to go nuts trying to get the paint perfect. He said "you don't have to make it good enough for your eyes, just good enough for my eyes...and my eyes ain't that great!"

 

[Accumulator]

The owner ...said "you don't have to make it good enough for your eyes, just good enough for my eyes...

I imagine this gets to be sorta a tough call, huh? You want to turn out a certain level of work, for all sorts of reasons, but sometimes that level is transparent to your customer. They shouldn't have to pay for more than they can appreciate but then you aren't gonna turn out shoddy work either.



Do you do it to the customer's standards, do it to yours, or find some middle ground?

 

[Bill D]

It can be tough finding some middle ground;especially if you are naturally hard on yourself. I just came in from looking over a friend's beater '91 500SL and I know how besides myself I would be if it were my car in the condition that it's in. But yes, in the eye of the overwhelming majority of the population, it would be considered in need of a marginal but not eye brow raising amount of improvement and I know how carried away I would get trying to correct it to how I'd like it if if it were mine. If I'm approached to do work on it, I should keep that in mind.