Customer's who take advantage

[PaintPolisher]

Re: Customer's who take advantage

That client would be OFF my Christmas list

[mirrorfinishman]

Re: Customer's who take advantage

That client would be OFF my Christmas list

And they would be on my list of clients to a-void.

[buda]

Re: Customer's who take advantage

First, never quote prices over the phone or until you have seen the vehicle.

Second, base all prices on an hourly rate that your accountant can help you determine.

Third, price is your hourly rate times the hours to do the work.

It is as simple as that. If they want prices over the phone tell them "Our hourly rate is $00.00 and I will need to see the car to determine how long it will take. If they press ask what they think the car needs. If they say a wax and carpet shampoo tell them it will take about 2 hours. or whatever.

Prices on the phone are shoppers. If you are not the lowest you won't get the business anyway.

Ask them, when they ask for a price, "Are you looking for price or quality?"

That sets them back. Then say you can get cheaper prices from a number of detailers who do dealer work which is short cut work. We only do high quality work that can take from 1 to 5 hours, depending on the needs of the car and what you want done."

That puts you in another catagory. Do not chase the price shopping customers, only go after the ones who want quality and service. They will stay with you for the long haul.

Regards
Bud Abraham
DETIAL PLUS SYSTEMS

[Scottwax]

Re: Customer's who take advantage

Prices on the phone are shoppers. If you are not the lowest you won't get the business anyway.

Do not chase the price shopping customers, only go after the ones who want quality and service. They will stay with you for the long haul.

Regards
Bud Abraham
DETIAL PLUS SYSTEMS

I think those two points are among the most intelligent and insightful comments ever made on this board.

You couldn't be more right on both points, Bud.

[buda]

Re: Customer's who take advantage

Thank you very much for the kind comments on my statements. I do not know if they are inciteful, but they are fact.

In my 10 years of operating our company owned DETAIL PLUS Centres I found that people via phone ask for price because they are looking for the cheapest price. If they have not already called another shop and you give a price, they will call another shop to get a comparative price. If they have gotten a price before calling you they will compare that to the one they got.

What detailers have to do is get out of the price game and educate the customer. If you have a serious buyer they will respond positively to your professional presentation. If they are price shoppers they will hang up and go to the other shop or find a lower price than yours. So if you are not the lowest price you will not get the job anyway.

The best line I used when a customer called for price was: "Sir/Ms, are you looking for price or quality?"

This would disarm them, you could feel it on the phone. Then quickly you say: "Sorry, I did not mean to sound haughty or rude, but you know there are a lot of wholesale detail shops out there who do work for dealers and because dealers do not pay much, they do cheap, short-cut work. We are a retail shop and we do not short cut in our work. For example where they might just use a cheap one step process and product on your car like a Turtle Wax, we do a three step process on your paint -- correction; polishing and swirl removing and finallly a quality protection. With our carpet cleaning they might just vacuum and wipe the surface down with a damp towel. We, on the other hand vacuum up all of the dry soil, then remove any specific stains; we pre-spray just like professional residential carpet cleaners and then agitate with a brush and finally use a heated soil extractor to take out all the shampoo and dirt residue. Do not know of any wholesale detail shop that does that kind of work."

When you educate like that the serious customer will respond, the price shopper will be uneffected by your pitch. Let them go.

Bud Abraham
DETAIL PLUS SYSTEMS

[bboarder711]

Re: Customer's who take advantage

take her $100 she paid you buy her car and push it off a cliff

[Hemin8r]

Re: Customer's who take advantage

This was pretty informative. Thanks.

[sportyconnie]

Re: Customer's who take advantage

When I get a call over the phone asking me prices I tell them anywhere from 100.00 to wash and up to 400.00 for full detail. I tell them that i can not give them a quote over the phone so i will have to come out and look at the car. On my perposal sheet i put the tag # of the car on it with the yr, make, model, color. The quote is only good for 10 day from day of written. Before starting the car we do a walk around pointing out dents scratches etc. My forms are like a body shop with a picture of all side of the car. In written i tell them what will be done, the products i use are only Meguiars. I have them sign it and away we go. I have only had one complant with my work and that was that it took me too long. I told them that taking the carpets out of a car took time to remove and clean and dry and replace. I was 2 hrs. off quote. It still got me a 100.00 tip above charge.
Hope this helped

[yakky]

Re: Customer's who take advantage

Way back when I used to detail for $$$, the customers that were getting a detail to sell their cars were the worst. They always wanted the car to be perfect, expected miracles after years of neglect and didn't want to pay and almost never tipped. I should have had a car sale package that was 2x normal price.

[Chex]

Re: Customer's who take advantage

In this case you own the business, but I also did (and hope to keep doing) detailings to a car wash near my house and one time the car wash owner made a deal with a woman who just wanted the seats to be cleaned. they were in awful conditions and he charged her even less than expected, and included a wash with the service.

when she came, she started complaining about almost everything (that we didn't clean the visors, dash, etc) so he had to charge her even lesser!

so what can you do? don't service them. That's the good thing of owning your business: you can offer your services to who you want. and BTW, if you kept servicing this customer, you would hav lots of trouble (starting by bad comments about your service).

so next time just make the customer be the one that backs off

It's better to remove any potential unprofitable customers that won't change their habits, than keeping them in your customer list and cause cancer (big damage).

[Dragpakmach]

Re: Customer's who take advantage

Ive been in business for a few years,Started out mobile.Alot of customers would play games like,your using my water I want a deal after a detail,or think because you are working on their property that you should give a discount.Even though convience brought you to their home.(Mobile Detail).Or I only have a credit card for payment after you agree on cash.Or the worst is bring the price down after you agree on a price, because the think they can.I now have a store front so I pick and choose my detail prices.Ive turned people away if I felt like they were BARGIN HUNTING.For the most part people looking for a deal dont care about their vehicle so the car wash down the street with the hot Wax is fine for $20.00.Like Mike Philips said evaluate the customer first.Rant over.

[johnyB]

Re: Customer's who take advantage

Its tuff out there thts for sure and yes an upset customer dosnt feal nice but if what you did was what you said you were going to do then who cares what they think or say. Im sure we all have a friend or 2 tht ***** about everything. who takes there advice hehehe. Anyways remember it takes a little understanding on your part most people are very new to these services so expect tht theres going to be a few tht complain and expect the world for nothing.

I guess it comes down to the money. Sure we all would like to clean 2007 cars tht need a wash wax and vacume for 200$ but lets be real most customers expect the car to look like new its up to u to let them know what they need done. If you say offer set prices expect the worse dont even ask about my interior special that seemed to get free distributing among mothers with over 4 kids and a caravan.(im still scard) Damnit and of course no covetts or lambos hehehe.

Personaly i like to offer the customer when they call a reasonable price to get them in so i can take a look if it needs more then ill let them know what needs to be done or offer a cheaper job at a time thts slow for me.This way you make some money have a happy customer which im sure if there tht bitchy have a big mouth (great for advertising imo heheh) but hey theres a guy who charges almost 7000$ has a year long waiting list for his magic so what the hell do i know.

[BlackTop]

Re: Customer's who take advantage

You know how they say "The customer is always right"? At my shop, it's "The customer don't know squat", and we tell them that. We have been doing this for years. We know how much time and effort it takes to get these cars looking great. It's not just a washmit and a spray on wax.
Sorry...kinda goin on a rant.
The worst is when they tell you "the guy" up the road will do it for 25 bucks cheaper. I always tell them to get back over there before "the guy" changes his mind.