Detailers Should Embrace Mechanization

The most common complaints you hear from detailers seem to be about either having too much business or not enough. Not having enough business can usually be traced to problems with marketing, advertising, sales and quality of service. However, not being able to handle all the vehicles that come to you is a cardinal sin.

In the carwash business, if volume increases, operators will either hire more people or purchase more and better equipment. Sometimes the solution is a combination of both. In the detail business, you cannot be stagnant; you must always improve your ability to serve the customer and still make a profit.

If you want to grow, you must make changes, you must improve, and you must mechanize your business.

When you look at the equipment in a typical detail shop, mechanization is the last word you would use to describe detailing technology.

Squeeze and spray bottles, five-gallon buckets, shop vacuums and the occasional portable carpet/upholstery extractor, don’t conjure up an image of mechanization. Similarly, extension cords, electric buffers, towels and rags don’t paint a picture of a professionally equipped business. Most detail shops are a scene of chaos and disorganization.

Is there any wonder why work does not get done in an efficient, timely manner? Even if operators do manage to keep their shops organized using this primitive technology, it often costs them in labor and lost production.

I recently spoke to a detail business owner who told me, in one breath, that he could not afford to purchase equipment and, in the next breath, admitted he had one employee who filled squeeze and spray bottles and kept them organized so the detailers wouldn’t be distracted.

At $5.85 an hour (federal minimum wage), plus taxes, he is paying about $1,200 a month for a “bottle filler.” The operator could use this money to purchase equipment to aid the efficiency of his shop operation but, instead, says, “I can’t afford the equipment.”

If a detailing business is going to grow and become more professional, it will need to incorporate technological growth, as well. The problem is that everyone assumes you can be in the detailing business with bottles, buckets, towels, an electric buffer and a few chemicals. The reality is, of course, that you can! But this is exactly the reason the industry is where it is.

No one involved in the detail business, including professional carwash operators, auto dealers and independent detailers, is making much of a commitment to being in the business in a way that requires major capital investment. The watchword is to get by with as little as possible.

However, if you were a carwash operator, and I told you I was going into the carwash business with a hose, buckets, a few mitts and a wire scrub brush, you would laugh in my face. Similarly, if you were a quick lube and oil change operator and I told you I was going to dig a pit in the ground, get a portable oil catcher and hand grease gun and get into the business, you would also laugh at me.

Yet, comparably speaking, this is the way most people go into the detail business. Is it any wonder the industry is no further developed than it is? Is it any wonder motorists still do not view the industry as much more than a shoeshine stand for cars? Is it any wonder competitors continually pop up, working out of their home garages or from the trunks of their cars?

Businesses do not have the luxury of operating with an “I can’t afford it” mentality. If you can’t afford it, you shouldn’t be in business. There are some things any business simply can’t afford not to have.

Every astute business person knows that you should purchase equipment to increase productivity, reduce labor and improve quality. If equipment cannot do this, do not purchase it. The problem in the detailing business is equipment and technology typically do not increase productivity nor reduce labor. If you think a squeeze and spray bottle is “high-tech” or conveys professionalism to a motorist driving a Mercedes Benz or BMW, think again.

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