I am someone that has fielded calls from clients who shared with me their negative experiences about other detailers.  I have also helped people online find a detailer who was on the path to making a questionable decision.  I will give you an example of one of those questionable decisions.  There was someone online asking for feedback about 4 detailing business options, looking for a paint correction and ceramic coating service.  I could see he was asking the wrong questions.  I offered to help narrow this down for him.  I went online to search for and learn about these four businesses.  It took me a total of about 2 to 4 minutes to eliminate 2 of those businesses from his inquiry.  One took less than a minute.  After narrowing it down to 2 options, I gave my recommendations for what I would look for in a consultation.  He later told me who he went with and kept in contact with me.  He showed me how proud he was of the work the detailer did.  He messaged me a year later about how great the car still looks and to tell me that the coating is performing as expected.  This was a product of shifting from focusing on the wrong to the positive signs of a reputable operation.

The following I see are red flags in customers’ approach that prevent them from finding a quality auto detailing provider.

Having A Low Perception Of What Goes Into The Business And Process Of Detailing

Let go of your perception of detailers and detailing businesses.  By this I mean marginalizing the people involved and making the service into an overly simplistic task of cleaning a car that anyone can easily do.  Let us imagine this topic was hypothetically about your health and not a car that you want detailed.  You are vetting a medical professional, think about how you would go about making a decision.  Especially if you were looking for a specialist!  This shift in your mindset would eliminate over 90% of the problems people have finding a good detailer or at the very least there would be a better understanding of the mantra ‘you pay for what you get.’  For those that scoff at this comparison it is more about your frustration finding the right detailer than my need to elevate the value of what detailers do.  I am not shy about telling people who do not value my services, we are not the right fit.  Which leads me to the following point.

I can speak for a majority of long-term detailing business owners in regard to the following.  A message or a phone conversation that starts with the inquiry of “how much for a detail?, how much for wax? ceramic? interior?”, is the equivalent of going to a nice restaurant and asking how much does food cost.  As detailing business owners, we know and completely understand you may not be knowledgeable about what goes into detailing.   The frustration comes from not being open to our need to gather more information that may not make sense to YOU.  Initial convenience will lead to future headaches.  Some customers have vented about not getting a price immediately over the phone and complained about the hurdles needed to get pricing and scheduling done.  As someone who has followed other businesses, I can tell you the extra work and time a service provider requires prior to booking a detail is one of the most significant positive signs that you are going to have your expectations met or exceeded.  Think about a person that says yes and responds with immediate answers, who also isn’t hesitant to book with you.  He or she is probably not thinking about the unique challenges of polishing certain paints, what products are needed to remove specific stains, what can permanently set stains, your unique fabric and leather seats that require specialty products, how much dog hair is embedded in your carpets, what coating best fits your needs, what level of paint correction you need based upon the DETAILERS superior view of your paint, pre-existing damage that may require a unique approach, the degree of chemical staining from bugs, and many other things.  A person who cares about accessing those things is not going to have a broad or passive aggressive approach to detailing a car that likely will disappoint people.

Also, another uncomfortable reality that needs to be stated.  When you have been in business long enough, you inevitably put in measures to protect yourself from people who are trying to exploit you.  If you have been in a detailing business long enough you have heard “it’s not that bad” over the phone hundreds of times, to see an interior that requires three times the labor to meet customers’ expectations that will perhaps put your health at risk.  As business owners we have also had that person that says they are not looking for perfection to complain about the paint correction package they selected that did not remove all of the water-spot damage mentioned or scratches the customer was not completely transparent about.  We also unfortunately deal with customers who specifically inquire about our services due to marketing claims from OTHER companies about certain products that vary from misleading to completely false.  Which leads me to the following point.

Focus On The Business Not The Bottle Or The Brand Or Tool

Prioritizing your choice over what coating, what brand, and even the years is a mistake.  Consumers have been more recently approaching this process with a healthier mindset.  But I also see on message boards questions comparing coating brand X with coating brand Y, while making no mention of anything about the businesses that person is deciding between.  Even looking at the years is an error in judgement.  Ask yourself how does a detailer or the coating company come up with that durability rating?  It would take me less than five minutes to change the numbers on my website (to whatever).  Enough said!  Chose the most reputable business based upon your thoughtful research.  The same applies to your interior or exterior detailing needs.  I have never seen a single extractor or steam cleaner be the difference either way in whether or not a business provides a good service.

Be Objective

Not every business and customer are a perfect fit.  There are detailing businesses that are not going to be what you want or need.  That is not an indictment of you or the detailing business.  There are some restaurants people love that I am not the biggest fan of.  That is okay.  You have to find what is right for you.  There are people who are not a fit for my business, even those that are recommended passionately by my clients.