Thoughts on this added service?

[Ric]

I don't want to get into full blown express detailing but I am considering a "quickie" service consisting of a cart we can wheel out and offer the following at our 5/1:

Towel dry (widows, mirrors, chrome)
Tire Shine
Interior towel (dampened)
Air freshener
$3.95

We can throw in a token to be used anywhere on the property (vacs, vendors, bays, etc.) as a "special" occasionally.

Thoughts?

 

[Waxman]

please elaborate.

is this a service you would perform or are you planning to sell the 'stuff' and let the customer do it themselves?

 

[Ric]

please elaborate.

is this a service you would perform or are you planning to sell the 'stuff' and let the customer do it themselves?

This would be a service we perform. It would allow my attendant to make a few extra bucks as long as he is already there.

 

[briteauto]

Hi Ric.

A couple of questions - what type of wash do you have? IBA, friction/touchless, mini tunnel?

A couple of things to consider. Towels to dry windows, mirrors and chrome - must be laundered. You may also want to use an extractor type machine so have them slightly damp. So now you have some machines/detergents to buy and a few more chores for your attendant to keep up with.

Tire shine - if you have an IBA or even a tunnel that is only spraying the tires, you will have a brown/black sludge on your applicators and customers tires. Tires getting tire shine need to be very clean before they receive this service, or they look terrible and your applicators become a mess.

Also as an aside - I hate to see tires with tire shine unless the wheels are clean too. So if your wash process is not one that does a decent job on brake dust, it is kinda like wearing a new suit with old, dirty scuffed shoes.

Interior towel (damp) - This will work for some of your customers, but there are dash boards, interior trims, jambs etc, that are caked with dirt. Unless you are using some type of cleaner, you will just be turning this to a wet mess. Also - where will your attendant draw the line - will he/she do steering columns, the foot areas, jambs. Dash boards only? What will the expectation be?

You will have to have quite a few more tools at your disposal to do this effectively. I know you would only charge $4 for the service, but if it isn't feasible do a quality job, you won't have many takers anyway, and the whole thing is a moot point.

I certainly do not mean to tell you this is not a good idea - please do not misunderstand - I just know (from personal experience) that there is always a lot more to things like this than I initially realize.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Mike

 

[BayWatch]

$3.95 seems inexpensive to me. What does the employee make per hour. How long would it take to do this service? What is the cost of the tire shine chemical and fragrance? If you pay someone $8 an hour and it takes him 20 minutes per sevice most of the cost is taken up in labor. Then there is overhead and product walking off the site. Towels are a big factor in effective cleaning as pointed out above. I have tried this and issues such as the door jambs, etc came into play and created huge problems for the customers. If you want to do this, charge appropriately. $6-$7 for what you are proposing. Why not include vac? I think this is what most customers would want.

 

[DavidM]

I think it is an idea that has some merit but will require tweaking for a few months. The main factors to be addressed are time it takes to complete and where to draw the line (how clean will you get the really dirty cars, the cared for vehicles are easy). We have been cleaning interiors at our full service for many years. Basically you are adding some of those headaches.
How fast is your automatic? I would think it would be good to be able to complete an interior in less time than it takes to wash so that if a couple customers in a row want the interior cleaning the attendant can keep up. You can go an hour without doing any then suddenly have 5 or 6 in a row.

I would probably start at around $10 for this service.

 

[termn8tr]

Unless you are going to make a huge profit, to compensate for those HEADACHES, don't waste your time. At $3.95, there is zero profit. What's the price of Tylenol ?
Customers always expect the works to be done on the interior.