Please critique my menu & pricing

OK, I've done some updates to my menu. I got rid of the vehicle groupings and just listed where each package starts as far as pricing is concerned. Also, I have a note at the bottom regarding other ala carte services but I don't have any of those listed yet. I'm still working on that portion. What do you think now?



Weekly Wash *Starting at $30

 Hand-wash w/soft water & pH-balanced shampoo

 All bugs & road tar removed

 Forced-air & hand dry

 Tires & wheel wells cleaned & dressed

 Wheels cleaned

 All exterior trim dressed & UV protected

 All exterior & interior glass cleaned

 All interior plastics wiped down

 All interior carpets, floor mats, upholstery, & trunk area vacuumed

 All leather or vinyl wiped down

 All exterior body panels, including glass, wiped down w/gloss enhancing, protective quick detail spray



Wash, Wax, & Vac *Starting at $80

 Weekly Wash plus:

 2-Step paint care & protection

1. Machine-applied paint cleaner

2. Machine-applied Carnauba wax

 Carnauba wax applied to all wheels by hand

 Door jambs cleaned

 Interior plastics cleaned to a matte finish

 Interior headliner wiped down w/light cleaning solution

 All leather or vinyl cleaned & conditioned



Ultimate Restore & Protect *Starting at $150

 Wash, Wax, & Vac plus:

 4-step paint care to restore & protect

1. Clay Bar – Removes airborne contaminants that have settled onto paint

2. Polish – Removes oxidized paint along with light swirls and scratches

3. Sealant – Provides superior long lasting protection to paint

4. Carnauba Wax – Provides another layer of protection and also adds a very warm, deep, wet look to paint

 All wheels sealed

 All exterior light lenses protected

 UV protection applied to interior dash

 All carpets & upholstery cleaned & protected





*All prices shown are starting prices for a small sedan. Prices increase for larger vehicles. Also, prices can increase due to the condition of the vehicle.

**Services can be packaged ala carte style where you determine what exact services you would like performed on your vehicle.
 
victory said:
speaking from a consumer persepctive, i like having an a-la-carte selection. then offer a slight discount off of certain pairings of services (packages). This covers people who know exactly what they want and those who don't.



Avoid grouping, just note at the bottom that there may be a surcharge for larger vehicles or those requiring extensive work (heavily oxidized paint, terrible interior condition, etc).



You don't need a lot of detail, if people are interested in what products or methods you are using they'll ask, otherwise you'll just overwhelm them. For instance, the list above would have made my head explode if i wasn't into detailing. All you have to do is write "We use premium Zaino Bros products" (or whatever you use) somewhere visible and left all that stuff out.
Click to expand...

LOL, that's nice to know. I want some exploding heads!
 
Fix vehicle type pricing doesn't seem to be the most popular method of detailers. For me it's worked well for 16 years. As a consumer I'm always a little uneasy about the range quotes or per hour. I figure you tell me $50-$80, I"m going to pay $80. If you quote me by the hour and I see you not working, I feel jaded. Until this year I had three levels (now only two). Simple easy. Tell me what you drive, I'll tell you how much it'll cost. Detailed descriptions of what you will be doing may be of interest to customers that are getting their cars cleaned as they have more of a reason to read it. Potential customers may not read that far. I don't advertise right now and am not taking on any new customers for a while. When I did advertise I tried to keep it as simple as I could. I had half page flyers / menus that listed 4 packages (Wash, Exterior Detail, Interior Detail, Complete). Prices listed were for cars and other vehicles were higher. When listing what a package included, I broke it down as simple as I could. Wash, windows, vacuum, wheels, tires, fenderwells, door jambs, wax exterior, shampoo interior, condition interior and such. My logic was if I mentioned windows that most would understand I would be cleaning both the interior and exterior. If I were to vacuum it would be the interior. Although I didn't use it, a general blurb about what they could expect overall would work. I toyed with lengthy descriptions and details. Always felt few were going to take time to read it. Those that did wouldn't even know what half the stuff meant. "he's going to make my car out of clay? what is clay the car". Now some folks ask for more information and I'm happy to go into detail exactly what I'll be doing. A web page would be a nice place for detailed information. Also nothing is set in stone. There are times when I work at a set hourly rate. There are vehicles that don't fall into my two categories and get a custom price (like a hummer). There are times when I've walked away from a job (very few), others when I've spent insane amounts of time for very little money (many more). My prices are based on an average amount of time that a given package will take. Some go over, some go under but the average stays pretty much the same.
 
PhaRO,



A lot of great points in there. I'm going to re-work my whole menu. I don't know if it came across that I was just going to charge $30/hr. but that isn't the case. I'm just using $30/hr. in my head to estimate the costs. I definitely won't quote a car w/o seeing it in person so that I can see the condition. And you're right, I need to simplify it like you were talking about just having wash, vac, glass, etc.



Thanks for all those great points. I will definitely keep those in mind!
 
Pricing should not be done on what you "consider" fair or good. What do you need to make money? What is your market? What will your market hold for pricing? How much do you need to gross per hour to make money? A lot of guys think that a $35 wash means they are making about that per hour...what about chemical costs, taxes, advertising, etc.? Try to figure out what it costs YOU to detail a car, not what it costs the customer. Then you can price better.

A lot of guys start out making money and think they are doing very well. After a few months and a lot of expensives, they realize that detailing costs THEM money--things break and there is always something cool and new to buy.



Plan, plan, plan! Anthony and Joe at Superior are not doing well just because they know how to detail. They are good businessmen. At least figure out what it will cost for each service and then add what you want to take home. This and your market should determine your costs.



Heck, I'm moving from an area where the avg. sq. ft. is around $3.00 per month to an area where it is around half of that. If I had a shop, I would reduce my prices if the market could not sustain what I charged here, but I would probably make more money (net) due to the less expensive commercial costs...shoot, I could probably afford to buy the shop!!!



Rob
 
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