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I think Joe of Superior Shine says it best in his line, "I am the paint whisperer."
There are so many ways of expressing what it takes to take car paint with fine scratches, swirls, holograms or other fine marks and potentially make it rival showroom quality even before even applying a final coat of wax or sealant on it.
The term "polish" is the word a customer might best relate to the idea of smoothing out defects and making the paint shiny, like you polish your silverware, but it isn't something you associate with near perfection of the paint. I think if you used that word people would picture something like the old Turtle Wax cleaner waxes.
And of course, the customer would be confused if we told them we would apply a coat of polish in the sense that we use the word, to mean something like M07.
If we used the 5-stage terminology and said we would "wash and prep" and "clean" the paint, then wax it, well they would picture a clean car with wax on it.
So if we said we would buff the paint, they would probably picture applying wax and removing it with an orbital buffer, because that is the buffer they are probably familiar with in terms of caring for a car's paint.
Then if we said we would use a compound, well they don't know what that is.
If we say we will remove the swirls, many of them don't know what those are either. Scratches are the only thing they can undoubtedly relate to, but unfortunately, there are some scratches we can remove and some we can't.
If we started throwing in words like dual action polisher or high-speed rotary polisher, well you get the idea. The term paint correction might get close to the mark, but they might not really envision what this would mean in their case, assuming their cosmetic problems weren't obvious.
Then there is also the approach, give me $300 and let me surprise you. Which if you could get them to agree to that, you undoubtedly would make them happy, but how are they going to know that beforehand?
It is one of those things where a picture is worth a thousand words. That is what brought me, an owner of a 13-year-old white car whose paint does not look "that bad" into a member of this forum: Meguiar's Youtube videos, and demonstrations of what Ultimate Compound would do, with side-by-side before and after shots.
I kind of like the word "paint rejuvenation." I have brought that up on this forum before. The term rejuvenation means returning to a younger or newer state but doesn't necessarily guarantee perfection. It is used a lot in the cosmetic world and the world of plastic surgery and anti-aging chemicals like Botox or collagen injections, dermabrasions, laser treatments or chemical peels.
And this is kind of what we do to paint when we do that "thing" between washing and waxing. We're performing plastic surgery, giving it a nice microdermabrasion to reveal its younger self, the difference being that we can normally come a lot closer to perfection than a plastic surgeon can.
The communication is important when you are trying to market to potential customers who might want your service if they knew what it was. If they are seeking you out and find you because they googled "detailing" and the name of your city, there is a good chance they already know what detailing might do. In the Kansas City area, I think you can pretty much count on the fact that most people don't know what detailing is, and of the few that do, most don't know that a professional detailer might be able to remove the imperfections in their paint.
So I am thinking of using the term "Paint rejuvenation and detailing." To some people, that may seem redundant. To people who don't know what detailing is, maybe it would perk their interest to where they would look at the brochure and not just throw it right in the trash.
Sometimes I think it would be easier to live where there were 100s of detailers to compete with than where the competition consists of mainly the "automatic wash and detailing" establishments.
There are so many ways of expressing what it takes to take car paint with fine scratches, swirls, holograms or other fine marks and potentially make it rival showroom quality even before even applying a final coat of wax or sealant on it.
The term "polish" is the word a customer might best relate to the idea of smoothing out defects and making the paint shiny, like you polish your silverware, but it isn't something you associate with near perfection of the paint. I think if you used that word people would picture something like the old Turtle Wax cleaner waxes.
And of course, the customer would be confused if we told them we would apply a coat of polish in the sense that we use the word, to mean something like M07.
If we used the 5-stage terminology and said we would "wash and prep" and "clean" the paint, then wax it, well they would picture a clean car with wax on it.
So if we said we would buff the paint, they would probably picture applying wax and removing it with an orbital buffer, because that is the buffer they are probably familiar with in terms of caring for a car's paint.
Then if we said we would use a compound, well they don't know what that is.
If we say we will remove the swirls, many of them don't know what those are either. Scratches are the only thing they can undoubtedly relate to, but unfortunately, there are some scratches we can remove and some we can't.
If we started throwing in words like dual action polisher or high-speed rotary polisher, well you get the idea. The term paint correction might get close to the mark, but they might not really envision what this would mean in their case, assuming their cosmetic problems weren't obvious.
Then there is also the approach, give me $300 and let me surprise you. Which if you could get them to agree to that, you undoubtedly would make them happy, but how are they going to know that beforehand?
It is one of those things where a picture is worth a thousand words. That is what brought me, an owner of a 13-year-old white car whose paint does not look "that bad" into a member of this forum: Meguiar's Youtube videos, and demonstrations of what Ultimate Compound would do, with side-by-side before and after shots.
I kind of like the word "paint rejuvenation." I have brought that up on this forum before. The term rejuvenation means returning to a younger or newer state but doesn't necessarily guarantee perfection. It is used a lot in the cosmetic world and the world of plastic surgery and anti-aging chemicals like Botox or collagen injections, dermabrasions, laser treatments or chemical peels.
And this is kind of what we do to paint when we do that "thing" between washing and waxing. We're performing plastic surgery, giving it a nice microdermabrasion to reveal its younger self, the difference being that we can normally come a lot closer to perfection than a plastic surgeon can.
The communication is important when you are trying to market to potential customers who might want your service if they knew what it was. If they are seeking you out and find you because they googled "detailing" and the name of your city, there is a good chance they already know what detailing might do. In the Kansas City area, I think you can pretty much count on the fact that most people don't know what detailing is, and of the few that do, most don't know that a professional detailer might be able to remove the imperfections in their paint.
So I am thinking of using the term "Paint rejuvenation and detailing." To some people, that may seem redundant. To people who don't know what detailing is, maybe it would perk their interest to where they would look at the brochure and not just throw it right in the trash.
Sometimes I think it would be easier to live where there were 100s of detailers to compete with than where the competition consists of mainly the "automatic wash and detailing" establishments.
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