Pricing is a very difficult challenge in high-end car detailing services. If you charge too little, people will think you must not be good enough to get a higher price, but if you charge too much, most people cannot afford it, therefore you are competing for the top 1% of the market. Well, so does everyone else, and therein lies the problem, which I guess opens the door to “quick detail” services at the car wash or from a mobile car wash that comes to someone’s office or home. Now, let’s discuss this further.
You see, there was an interesting article in Robert Keppel’s Detailer’s Digest in the September-October issue titled; “Survey of American Detailing Shops: Retail Detailing Prices,” which indicated price ranges for a full detail were $100 to $399 with an average of $215.00 for a retail detail on a 4-door sedan midsize car. The author was also very wise in reminding all auto retailers to return every phone call, email, or contact.
Everyone wants to get a good deal, so sometimes it’s better to charge a high price up front and explain exactly how you’re going to clean your car, what it’s going to do, and what it will look like when it’s finished. As long as it does what it says it will do, you will find plenty of referrals, even if it has one of the highest prices. This is not to say that you should forget about your customer or deny that we are in a recession. It is also not a carte blanche comment telling you that it is favorable to only go for the top 1% of the market and leave the rest.
The reality is that “if you want to live with the classes, you must sell to the masses”, or someone once said, which I agree with and agree with, is also relevant advice here. While it’s important to keep your team busy and everyone on your auto detailing team gainfully employed, you shouldn’t sell your services too short and you should demand what it’s worth. Every consumer, customer, and customer will be looking for a good deal, if you can cut the price by 10 or 20% and fully explain what you’re doing, you could easily start at the top end of the pricing table, and just work your way back a bit to make the sale.
In fact, I wish you much success in your auto detailing business, and I sincerely hope you will consider all of this and think about it.