Growing your detail business depends on several factors: 

1. Your staff, including the number, knowledge, and skills of employees throughout the shop.
2. The commitment of employees to maintain the highest level of customer satisfaction resulting in higher levels of customer retention.
3. The effectiveness of your marketing and advertising efforts in generating new business.
4. The ability of facilities and equipment to support any desired sales growth.
5. A written marketing plan that is targeted at growing your business not just surviving.
6. Effective goals and action plans for implementing the changes necessary to grow.

To help you understand these factors read on.

EMPLOYEES

Experience indicates that most detail businesses are understaffed relative to the potential that exists. This appears to be a result of the owner’s lack of knowledge about how a detail business operates. They look at their business and look only at surviving so they do not know how to grow it and they attempt to control costs by reducing employees. This has a negative effect on sales because shorthanded businesses cannot answer phones promptly, they cannot take the time needed to sell advantages and benefits to prospective customers, and they do not have the time to follow up with customers. Understaffed detail businesses find themselves on a never-ending cycle of either too much work to handle or too little work to cover the bills.

COMMITMENT

You have to get the commitment of your personnel to satisfy customers if you are going to be successful. The most dangerous employee you can have is the one who quit working for you three months ago and still shows up every day to draw a paycheck. 

There are many of these types of people in the detail business. They are frustrated by the lack of support they receive from owners, the low pay, and they have simply given up before they start. Unfortunately, they continue to show up and draw a paycheck as long as you let them. 

As the owner, you must manage both employee skills and morale. You need to make sure that all of  your employees have the training and skills necessary to provide a high level of customer satisfaction and you also need to make sure that every employee utilizes these skills to ensure that every customer is provided with a great experience. And remember, a skilled employee deserves good pay.

EFFECTIVE MERCHANDISING AND MARKETING EFFORTS

You must understand that the majority of the customers who contact you are ready to purchase detail services for their vehicle. The only decision they have to make is whether or not your detail operation is right for them. Your marketing and merchandising efforts must be designed to convince customers that your detail business is the only place in the whole world who can detail their vehicle properly. Your advertising needs to mention “Satisfaction Guaranteed” and “State of the Art Equipment”. Your merchandising needs to show the quality of work you have done for others. You need letters of commendations, training certificates, and certification forms. Your facility or detail rig is like a picture, it sends every customer a 1000 word description of who you are and how you operate. You must make sure that the marketing and merchandising messages you are sending out are positive pictures.

EQUIPMENT

Any business should purchase equipment if it will increase productivity and/or reduce labor. To not purchase means you are paying for it without having it. The ability of your detail business to support desired growth is a huge factor in lost revenue. Your customers want you to deliver a superior job but you have inferior equipment. Everywhere I go I see primitive equipment in detail operations. Cheap shop vacuums, no soil extractors, old ratty buffing pads, dirty wash mitts. You cannot provide a superior quality job when you are working with inferior outdated equipment. You must have adequate equipment if you plan to be in the detail business for the long term. Many detailers take the position “If I can’t afford it, I don’t need it”. 

MARKETING

A marketing plan is essential to the long-term survivability of your business. No business can survive if their market share is diminishing. This is especially critical because detail business growth has been flat for the past two years. Flat industry growth means that in order to succeed you must gain market share by taking it away from your competitors!

You must be growing your business at least 10% yearly in order to afford to keep your business, your equipment, and your personnel up to date with current trends in the business. This means that you must proactively seek out new customers. You need to be hustling business all the time, not detailing cars. In addition, you need to follow-up with existing customers. You lose them because some other detailer contacts them.

GOALS

Effective goals and action plans are what you need to implement the above items already discussed. Successful owners are those who have the ability to visualize success and to sell their employees on that vision.

Establishing individual goals for yourself and each employee tells the employees how much work you expect from each of them and how and when you expect that work to be accomplished.