When asked by Mobileworks to be a contributor to a blog type format I began to reflect on my last 30 years in the industry and my head started to swirl (pardon the pun) with ideas about what I might say about the detailing industry over these past three decades. Maybe a lot of this history might not be of interest to many of you detailers who were not even alive or, were at best, not much more than infants when I started in the industry, but that is what history is all about. So the following is some of my recollections about the industry then and where it is today and where it is going.

 

Finally, I end with some ideas on how today’s detailer might want to consider marketing their business to enjoy greater revenues.

 

My first experience detailing goes back to 1960 when I purchased a 1956 Ford Victoria hardtop. My cousin was sales manager of the largest used car operation in Portland and told me to bring it by and he would have his people detail it out for me. At that time I really had no idea what a “detail” was but he explained they would clean and shampoo the interior and polish and wax the exterior. When I got the car back I was elated at how good it looked and it only cost me $25.00.

 

Then in 1967 another cousin and I purchased brand new matching 1967 Chevrolet Impalas, mine metallic blue and his black.

 

As luck would have it the dealer agreed to give us a free polish and wax on the cars and as a result we met Pat the detailer for the largest Chevrolet dealer in our city.

 

After picking up our cars from Pat, he tells us to come by anytime we need a detail or wax job and “he would take care of us.” Which, it turns out to be, him doing work for us and our paying him under-the-table. And on occasion he would slip us a can a paste wax to apply to our vehicles in between details by Pat.

 

Some things never change.

 

What Pat did back forty years ago are things being done today in dealership detailing departments and anywhere a detail operation is not run by the owner.

 

That is, side work being done on the owner’s time and the cash-money being pocketed by the detailer. The work being done using the owner’s chemicals, supplies and utilities. And the owner’s chemicals being passed on to the customer as a fringe-benefit for doing business directly with the detailer.

 

Getting married in 1968 there were no more details being purchased as a newlywed who had to save money for a down payment on a house.

 

It was not until a few years later after going to work with Hanna Carwash that I came across detailing again. Some ambitious and creative carwash operators out of LA come up with the WAXCO program for carwash operators where WAXCOA sold a sixteen pound GEM orbital polisher; cans of Simonize cleaner wax and a case of one-step cleaner glaze and a canopy that carwash operators could put up on the lot at the exit of the carwash and sell $14.95 waxes. With a paint brush you put some of the Simonize cleaner wax on the bonnet and then put a few lines of the liquid cleaner glaze over that and put it to the car.

 

Needless to say that if the car were in good condition you had no problem, but if there was oxidation or scratches, etc. it did not work.

 

Impressed with this concept a friend and myself decided to set up a mobile detail business and purchased a WAXCOA package. This mobile waxing business was a once a week venture operating in a parking garage on Sunday’s. The promoter conducted a Sunday Auto Market at which owners would bring their cars and park in a covered parking lot and wait for buyers to show up to buy.

 

We wheeled our grocery shopping cart from floor to floor asking the car owners if they wanted a Simonize Wax Job for only $10.00. Our best day in that ill-fated venture grossed us $90.00 for five hours work.

 

After about a thirteen year hiatus in 1981, after leaving the Hanna Company I got involved with another company in Phoenix, Arizona that was manufacturing carwash equipment and, as well had this idea for a retail oriented detail concept, developing state-of-the-art retail detailing centers.

 

Jud Smith initially created the concept for the dispensing work stations which are similar to what our company builds today with some improvements, over the years. Together we developed the operational program for DETAIL PLUS Car Appearance Centers.

 

The problem was that the consumer was not ready for retail detailing and detailers too were not ready, they were geared to do work for the auto dealers.

 

Marketing Facts in the Late 70’s and Early 80’s

  

 

• The average length of ownership of a car in the USA was 3.2 years – people did not need detailing, they did not own their cars long enough
• The average price of a new car was not quite $8,000.00
• The average price of a used car was under $5,000.00
• The number of detail shops listed in the Yellow Pages was less than 4,000
• At least 85% to 90% of these operations did almost all dealer work
• Of the 15,000 carwashes in the US only about 10% did detailing and most of that was dealer work
• Less than 10% of the motoring public knew what auto detailing was, and probably less than 5% had ever purchased the service

What Changed?

 

 

Some major changes occurred in the US economy and the US society, multiple causes, that had a huge impact on the detailing industry, the effects which are still today in 2009 driving the industry.

 

The price of automobiles started to increase from around $8,000.00 to prices today that exceed $30,000 and $40,000 for non-luxury vehicles. As well, the price of used cars is close to $20,000 today.

 

As a result the financing terms begin to increase. From the 12 month and 14 month terms of the 70’s to 48, 60, 72 and even 84 month terms today.

 

With the increase in financing terms came an increase in vehicle ownership from the 3.2 years in 1978 to the almost 9 years today.

 

As well as these economic changes there were some socio-changes that occurred that had a positive impact on the detailing business.

 

One big one was what you might call the “liberation of women” which can be defined and discussed in many ways but from a socio-economic point of reference it means that women were now pursuing their own, well-paying careers. If married, they were working and not spending all their time in the home.

 

As a result you had people with more disposable income, whether single or married who did not have much leisure time and were looking for all types of things to protect leisure time and spend disposable income on. The market was moving from a “do-it-yourself” (DIY) market to a “do-it-for me” (DIFM) market.

 

Plus, these consumers were aware that their vehicle cost more, was more sophisticated, and that it needed cosmetic car care might be too much for them to even try to work on, if they had the time or desire. For some they feared they might damage the vehicle and for others while recognizing the need for cosmetic car care, they simply did not want to do it.

 

The Industry Had Blinders On

  

 

What is interesting that even though this huge market potential for retail auto detailing services existed way back in the early 80’s the detailers and even the detail supply companies, which were, and still are today, the chemical companies, did not recognize it. They all kept doing what they had always done. For the detailer it was to do wholesale work for the dealer at very low prices. For the chemical suppliers, it was to sell chemicals to those doing detailing. What they missed out on, and still miss today, is that the detail industry has changed from a service done for or by the auto dealer to a legitimate retail auto service.

 

As a result they have not, and still today, do not provide the detailer, a great deal of business information.

 

Many other auto service industries such as auto repair and collision repair, to name a couple, find their industry suppliers providing unbelievable amounts of management information to assist their technician customers be successful in operating a business as well as doing the technical work.

 

Because of these blinders with regard to the detail industry potential the existing detail operations did not initially capture the consumer demand for detailing. And, there were other auto service industries that should have, but did not capture this opportunity either.

 

The consumer looking for cosmetic car care went to auto dealers for the service; they went to body shops for the service some even to auto mechanics and most said we do not do this service. The one industry that did respond was the carwash industry. The carwash operator was already providing cosmetic car care services to the motorist. So they were perfectly poised to capture the potential. They had an established reputation; a customer base; a facility, they had money so it was natural for them to take advantage of this demand and they did aggressively, but not necessarily correctly for about ten years.

 

However, being carwash operators first, and not really understanding the detail business, many moved to fast maintenance services such as waxes and carpet shampoos that could be completed on new cars or cars in good condition in 15 to 20 minutes after the wash. This was easier for them and satisfied the need of the carwash customer when they were at the wash, and wanted to get in and get out.

 

As you can see it has been a very slow journey for the detail industry to grow into the potential that the many socio-economic changes have presented.

 

Where Does the Detail Industry Go From Here?

  

 

Since the early 90’s and into the 21^st century the detail industry has undergone a major change. Going from a service done by or for the auto detailer to an in-demand retail auto service. More and more entrepreneurs are entering the business. As well, carwash operations are offering both express maintenance detailing services and full service restoration detailing services. Auto dealers are selling detailing to the public; body shops are getting into the retail picture and even quick lube centers offer some forms of auto detailing.

 

There has been a growth in the number of retail oriented fixed location shops as well as a great increase in the number of mobile detailing and washing services. The problem with the mobile operations is that they are not charging enough money for the custom service they provide their customers at their home or office. But that is the subject for another blog.

 

If today’s detail business owner is going to make a good living in the detail business, as many are, they are going to have to set up their business as a legitimate business. They need to have the skills or pay for the skills needed to operate a business that offers detailing services.

 

Once a detail business owner addresses the challenges of operating a business they can focus on how to get the customers to “beat a path” to their door or have them “beat a path to the customer’s door.” (mobile operations).

 

The Need for a Marketing Plan

  

 

Of any one thing that is critical for a detailer to understand and master is marketing, which is nothing more than a plan that is their guideline of how to deliver their detailing service to the market.

 

To keep it simple, because so few detailers understand the term and panic when told they have to develop a marketing plan, let me use a simple example.

 

Say you wanted to sell detailing services to auto dealers only, what would you do? How would you get their business?

 

Most likely you would figure out which dealers might need your service and which of those would offer you the most volume and best price. Then you would find out the person’s name that is in charge of outsourcing detail services and make a personal sales call to the dealership.

 

This is a simplification of what marketing is all about. Identifying a market; determining why they would buy your service; where they are and how to reach them.

 

However, marketing to the retail customer is not so simple because there a lot of questions you have to answer before you can determine the best market for your service. Not everyone who drives a car is your customer. You would like them to be, but unfortunately they are not. So you have to figure out what market you are after.

 

For example, WalMart is after the masses whereas Neiman-Marcus is after the classes so their marketing efforts reflect these goals.

 

To Begin

 

What you have to do is ask and answer these questions, and when you have the answers you will have your roadmap to more business. More revenues come from how good a salesperson you are when the “right customers” come into your shop or call your telephone (if you are mobile).

 

 

1. What are you selling?

 

 You might answer that you are selling auto detailing, but are you? To some markets you might be selling protection of investment. To others, protection of leisure time. Others ego gratification. And finally you might be selling a service to people selling their cars to get more money. You see there are really different markets and they have different reasons for wanting the service, and not one of them mentions price does it? So once you determine what you are selling you must answer the next obvious question:

 

2. Who will buy what you have to sell?

 

 Now you are getting specific. You are focusing on those markets or that market which will get you the most business with the least amount of time, money and effort expended on your part. That is not being lazy, that is smart business. In the area of your shop do you have people that want to protect their investment or those who want to protect their leisure time or those who want to show off their clean, fancy car, for example? You can choose more than one market and some may even overlap. Those wanting to protect their investment may also want to gratify their ego.

 

3. Where are they?

 

 The answer to this question identifies where these people are located. Depending on where your shop is located or if you are mobile where you could best get to them you need to know either where they live or where they work because this will have an impact on how your reach them with your message.

 

4. How do you reach them?

 

 This tells you what form of advertising you will need to use to reach your target customer. This is a critical step because you might have the right target market, but you use the wrong media and not reach the market you are targeting and that is wasted advertising dollars which few detail business owners can afford to lose. For example, if your shop is located in an area where these target customers live them you might want to do a direct mailing to all of the residences within a two mile radius of your shop. On the other hand if your shop is located in the downtown business district it will be hard to direct mail to them so you might want to advertise in a newspaper that has a primarily downtown distribution or a business paper. Almost every major city has a publication called “The Business Journal” and this is read by most of the movers and shakers in any business district. This is not always easy because sometimes you cannot afford the media that you need to use to reach your target market. The key is that once you have identified the right target market(s) you MUST choose the media that will reach them.

 

5. What do you say?

 

 This step is as critical as which media you choose and it this means is that you need to be sure that you have the right message for this target market. If this market is geared to protection of investment and your advertisement stresses ego gratification you have delivered the wrong message to the right market. Or if you are targeting people who are selling their cars you would not want to run an advertisement that focused on protection of investment. You have got to have the right message for the right market to get results.

 

If you can answer these five questions then you are well on your way to getting your target market to come to your business or at least call to ask questions and hopefully make an appointment.

 

Sales Presentation

 

 

As mentioned earlier, the right marketing research (answering the five questions) and development of the right advertisement for the right market will get the customer to come in or call. What happens next is the sales presentation you make to close the sale.

 

Because this is more involved than can be covered in a paragraph or two we will cover the sales presentation in the next article. What you might do in the meantime is do some thinking about how you would present yourself to that target market. What do you think they would be looking for in a detail business they were going to leave their valuable vehicle with? Would it be the cleanliness of you, your employees and your shop or mobile rig? Would it be how knowledgeable you are about their car, its paint, leather, etc? Try to think like your customer. If he is a rich stockbroker he is not going to be worried about price it will be more on your ability to perform the services on his vehicle without creating any damage, etc. How reliable will you be? How dependable?

 

If you have some questions on marketing or on sales before the next story is published feel free to contact me at buda@detailplus.com